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Zootopia may be a box office hit here in the States, but the Chinese military apparently thinks the ambitious bunny and cheeky fox are agents of U.S. propaganda.
Zootopia had a great opening weekend in the U.S. earlier this month, pulling in $73.7 million, and recently overtook Kung Fu Panda as the highest grossing cartoon movie in China.
Chinese military publication The People's Liberation Army Daily, however, called the animated film U.S. propaganda. The accuser, Nanjing Institute of Politics professor Wang Chuanboa, wrote that Hollywood "has long been an effective propaganda machine" with a "deep understanding of the U.S.'s [political] strategies," the L.A. Times reports.
Zootopia follows a rabbit who becomes the very first bunny on the force in Zootopia—a city populated by anthropomorphic animals that talk and wear clothes—but who is shuffled down to the lowly parking department and passed over for the big 'missing predator' cases. The rabbit eventually teams up with a fox to prove herself on a big case and—spoiler alert—ultimately succeeds after a series of twists and turns.
Chuanboa wrote:
If one thinks carefully about it, if a rabbit can strike back, are there any 'American Dreams' ordinary people cannot realize? In cruel reality, it is always wolves that eat lambs, not lambs that eat wolves.... Hollywood easily reversed a thing so simple that even kids know it, and thus attracted a huge audience.
He also took objection to the role a sheep had in the story.
Previously, the People's Liberation Army Daily lambasted videos games Call of Duty 8 and Battlefield 4 as propaganda, saying that the action games made the American military seem more sophisticated than those of Cuba, Russia and China. Or, as the paper called it, "countries America would like to contain."
The commentary has been met with some scorn by some, including many Chinese residents who said they'll continue to watch Hollywood films until China starts releasing better blockbusters.
Here in the States, the predominant Zootopia secret seems to be that Disney may be marketing the film to Furries.
Here's the trailer, in which the bunny says, "No matter what kind of animal you are, change starts with you":
