Movie Reviews: Zootopia, or How I Learned to Embrace my Inner Furry

Hello everyone! As promised in my Lolita movie recommendations post, here's a full review of Zootopia! I will admit, I have watched this movie entirely too many times and could probably quote a few dozen lines verbatim... With that being said, let's get to the review!


 Zootopia is the story of a rabbit named Judy Hopps that lives in a world where animals have evolved to a human-like state. They have complex emotions, walk on their hind legs, have towns and cities, and generally all get along and have limitless possibilities available to them. Judy as a young rabbit decides she wants to change the world by becoming a bunny police officer in the great big city of Zootopia where anyone can be anything, as the tag-line goes. Despite the doubts of others surrounding her, Judy follows her dream as a young adult and joins the police academy where she studies and trains hard to be able to graduate as the very first rabbit police officer and gets stationed right in the center of Zootopia. Thinking her childhood fantasy will now be complete, Judy's hit headlong with reality when she doesn't get to do "real cop" work, which for her is catching bad guys and making the world a better place by doing so. However, due to an interesting turn of events, she soon gets to take on the case of a missing otter, enlists the help of a sly fox named Nick Wilde, the closest to a witness she can find, and soon uncovers a much deeper secret than she or anyone else ever expected.


I really enjoyed Zootopia. The story was very engaging and has a lot of moments that hit me really hard emotionally, such as when Judy leaves her family to start her new job and the ending (no spoilers, I promise!). The world of Zootopia was very rich and had so many small details to it that I had to watch the movie (erm, chose to watch the movie?) more than just once to catch more of them. The world of Zootopia is so rich in character and scenery as well as background characters who bring life and depth to the world around the main characters. It feels like a real city with people going about their daily business and jobs all throughout the story. In addition to the world, the graphics were amazing. As someone who grew up with two graphics designers, I've really come to be a bit of a stickler for aesthetic as well as details in computer generated graphics. (I'm going to be going into a bit of geek speak here, so if you aren't familiar with computer graphic terms, you may get a bit lost here.) The algorithms for making fur act realistically have definitely come a long way since Monster's Inc. and that combined with the texturing and shading tools made the fur look absolutely amazing. I also was really happy with how they skinned and boned the models, they both looked and moved pretty realistically. The particle effects for the snow and water looked really nice too! Now to the layman's translation of what I just said: Everything looked really detailed and realistic in the movie! I can tell the graphics department put a lot of work into everything. In addition to the visuals, the music and sounds for Zootopia were very interesting and definitely added a nice ambiance to each of the scenes. It was interesting seeing the sound and music department's creativity with making some of the sounds when I watched the special features. I definitely loved just about everything in this movie from the story to character design to small details (though the mice didn't look nearly as cute as I would have liked them to be). I would highly recommend Zootopia to my friends (the ones who haven't watched it 200 times already like me, at least) as well as anyone looking for a cute and fun movie to watch.


Now, you're probably wondering "Didn't the title say something about furries? Did she forget about that?" And the answer to that is no, no I didn't forget. So, as part of Zootopia's promotion, it appears that word was spread to Furries or Fursuiters, people who enjoy dressing up as anthropomorphic animals, asking them to spread the word by dressing up in their fursuits and sharing pictures promoting the new movie. There's been questions as to whether this is accurate or not, but the fact of the matter is, a movie portraying anthropomorphic animals appealed to the furries and I've jumped on the bandwagon. As of now, I am not in possession of a fursuit of my own though I am highly considering making one off of a character I made years ago or potentially a new character. I have several friends who themselves wear fursuits to conventions and occasionally for fun and they've given me a different perspective on the furry subject than when I was younger. Like many non-fursuiters, when I first learned about furries, I was under the impression that fursuiting was all about adult stuff due to misconceptions about the community as well as certain aspects of the community. (Granted the first time I SAW fursuiters I thought they were pretty cool and kinda got interested in them, but later backed away due to misinformation.) In truth, there are adult aspects to the furry community involving fetishes and such, just like there is with many communities, but that isn't everything that the community is about. While there are also separate communities that use items such as animal ears, tails, and accessories in their fetishes that are completely unrelated to fursuiting, fursuiting in-and-of itself can be a completely innocent hobby, albeit misunderstood by many onlookers. As an example, in Lolita, it's commonly advised to avoid mentioning the name of the fashion first  as many associate the name "Lolita" with the book by Vladimir Nabokov and automatically assume the fashion is based around some kind of fetish when in reality the two are completely unrelated outside of sharing a name. Fursuiting is similar in the fact that it is often assumed to be revolving completely around fetishes involving animals and bestiality when this isn't 100% true. While I admit that there are fursuiters who are involved in fetishes, not everyone in the community is. With that being said, my personal stance is that fursuits are adorable and fluffy and I want to hug all the cute fursuiters in the world and maybe make my own fursuit so I can look cute and hug people too. :3


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What's a Living Doll?

Hey everyone! So, today I want to talk about a style that I've been interested in as well as imitating for several years now: The Living Doll style.


 So, what is a Living Doll? What defines them? To explain simply, Living Dolls are those who choose to imitate the look of a certain style of doll both with their makeup and hair as well as clothing. Many Living Dolls choose to try and modify their figure to be more doll-like through methods such as diet and exercise, corseting, or surgery. The type of doll imitated varies widely, but typical inspirations are Barbie dolls, Asian ball-jointed dolls, porcelain dolls, or anime. Barbies are known for their dramatic proportions, glamorous features, and somewhat flashy clothing. A few well known Barbie inspired Living Dolls are Valeria Lukyanova and Angelica Kenova. Asian ball-jointed dolls tend to have slender figures, large, but still realistic looking eyes, and a somewhat natural, yet still elegant look to them. By far, Asian Ball-jointed dolls seem to be one of the more popular inspirations amongst the group I'm in (an online community on Facebook). A popular Living Doll that has this sort of style is Dakota Rose or Kotakoti. Unfortunately, Kotakoti is known for achieving her look partly through image manipulation, but not all Living Dolls choose to do this. Porcelain dolls are well known for their child-like features, extravagant clothing, and perfect skin. Many Living Dolls also draw inspiration from porcelain dolls. Venus Palermo or Venus Angelic is a popular YouTuber that is known for her porcelain complexion and doll-like features. When she was younger, she used to dress more extravagantly like a porcelain doll, but more recently her style has become more natural like an Asian ball-jointed doll. Anime is well known for its long legs, huge eyes, and slender figures (actually more typical to Shojo anime, aimed at girls 12-16, but still common in other styles of anime). Anime Living Dolls tend to exaggerate their eyes greatly through use of false eyelashes, circle lenses, and white eye makeup. A very popular anime Living Doll is Anastasiya Shpagina on YouTube. There are some other doll styles that Living Dolls choose to imitate such as Pulips or French dolls, but these are the main inspiration for many Living Dolls. Now, let me answer some frequent questions that arise when Living Dolls are brought up.


 So, are Living Dolls trying to actually be dolls?
 In most cases, no. Living Dolls just like the look of dolls and choose to imitate it with their style and make themselves into what they consider to be an ideal look, similar how many people choose to dress like runway models or popular icons. While there are some dolls that choose to imitate their preferred style of doll very closely through use of plastic surgery, I find that most of us choose to stick to makeup, diet and exercise, and corseting (also known as waist training) to achieve our look.


Why do you want to look like a doll? Why not Kim Kardashian or Taylor Swift?
 Most Living Dolls choose to look like dolls just because we like how they look and we aren't as interested in trying to achieve the look of some famous actor, star, or model. In some cases, a Living Doll might have features or a build that resemble a doll and just choose to run with it and start making their looks even more doll-like (similar to Venus Angelic). They may also just be interested more in anime and Japanese fashion than typical European styles and looks, like me.


Are you obsessed with looking like a doll?
 In many cases, Living Dolls are just as obsessed with our looks as any typical teenaged girl or fashionista. We typically aren't so into our fashion as to spend every living minute focusing on looking like a doll, but we make changes to our lifestyles to accommodate our style such as planning a wardrobe, makeup, or redecorating our surroundings. Just like anyone else interested in something, we surround ourselves with our interests and develop them. Much like someone into video games might collect games and systems or someone into runway fashion might surround themselves with model inspiration pictures and the trendiest clothing, Living Dolls tend to surround themselves with items they deem "dolly." For some this might just be the clothing and makeup required to look the way they like, or it might mean completely redecorating their surroundings to reflect their style.


I hope you all enjoyed this post. If you have any questions about Living Dolls, feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer. I'll be doing a post later talking about the Living Doll community, so please look forward to that.


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