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


Go like and follow me on Facebook: facebook.com/CelesteChoCho
Subscribe to me on Youtube: WatashiWaChoCho
Peruse my wares: animelolitacouture.storenvy.com

Lolita 52 Challenge: 5 Movies for Lolitas

Hello everyone! I'm back again with another Lolita 52 challenge topic: 5 movies for Lolitas. There's a few movies on here I'm sure many of us are familiar with and I hope you all enjoy my suggestions. To be honest, this list was rather difficult for me since a lot of the movies I watch are action flicks and Vin Diesel isn't exactly Lolita material...


#1: Kamikaze Girl
 Who'da guessed, right? Kamikaze girl has become synonymous with the Lolita fashion in a lot of ways due to its popularity and wacky cast of characters. For those who have yet to see it, Kamikaze Girl is a Japanese movie about a strange girl named Momoko who falls in love with the Lolita style and decided to wear it all the time. In order to afford all her Brand though, she has to be creative with how she makes money which eventually leads to her attempting to sell some boot-leg apparel her father has left over from years prior. In response to her ads, a biker girl named Ichigo comes to buy some of the merchandise and in the end the two of them become friends. To read my full review of Kamikaze Girl, click here!


#2: Mister Rococo
 Mr. Rococo is a cute indie film about a girl named Yuri who grew up surrounded by cute things and wanting to be a princess. Her life is changed when she meets and begins to date a man named Neko Hiroshi, a comedian and former companion for a wrestler. One day though things go terribly wrong for Yuri when Hiroshi confesses to her that he prefers big, muscular women and breaks up with her. Wrought with grief, Yuri makes a life changing choice in order to extract her revenge on Hiroshi and try to get him back.


#3: Zootopia
 While less Lolita themed than my previous two suggestions, Zootopia is an adorable movie that shouldn't be overlooked. Zootopia is the story of Judy Hopps, a bunny, who decides when she grows up she wants to be a police officer, which with hard work and dedication she achieves. Sorta. Due to her being a bunny, many other animals don't take her seriously and as such she's on her own when she manages to get a tough case that no one else has been able to crack over the course of two weeks. With the help of a street-savvy fox named Nick Wilde, she's able to uncover the truth behind the case and saves the day. I'll be writing a full review of Zootopia soon since it is kinda one of my favorite movies right now. (I totally didn't accidentally buy the disk the day it came out then proceed to watch it five times over the following week. Not at all.)


#4: My Fair Lady
 I might be biased since I watched this movie many a time while growing up (It was my mom's favorite), I feel this is a very lovely movie for not only the story, but the music, the acting, and the costumes. My Fair Lady is the story of a young, uncultured lady, Miss Eliza Doolittle, who is taken in by a phonetics professor after he makes a wager with one of his colleagues. The wager: Take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society. The story follows Eliza as she goes through an intensive course designed by the professor to correct her speech, posture, and demeanor so that he can eventually present her to the high class world and try to pass her off as more than just the humble flower girl she is. The costumes in this movie are simply lovely and the talent of the actors in the musical numbers.


#5: 13 Going on 30
 Since I ran out of Lolita-esque movies I know of very quickly, I decided to put one of my favorite chick flicks as my last suggestion. 13 Going on 30 is the story of a 13 year old girl named Jenna Rink who is obsessed with fashion and a magazine targeted at 30-something women. The movie begins with Jenna's 13th birthday party, to which she's invited the "cool kids" from school and her childhood best friend, Matt Flamhaff. Matt gives Jenna a personalized dream house with wishing dust, which she quickly stows in a closet she later ends up in to play "7 minutes of heaven" with her cool kid crush. However, it turns out the cool kids ditched her party and it's instead Matt, which she's really upset about. She ends up crying by herself in the closet saying "I wish I was 30, flirty, and thriving" as some of the wishing dust drifts down on her. When Jenna wakes up, she finds that she IS 30 now, she has a hot boyfriend, an amazing wardrobe, and, best of all, a job at her favorite magazine! However, life isn't as amazing as Jenna thinks at first and she quickly comes to realize just what sort of person 30 year old her had become. 13 Going on 30 is a really cute and fun movie and I enjoyed it a lot when I watched it.


So that's it, my five movie recommendations for Lolitas. Which movies have you guys seen? Would you recommend any different ones? Let me know!


Go Like and follow me on Facebook: facebook.com/CelesteChoCho
Subscribe to me on Youtube: ButterflyChan
Peruse my wares: animelolitacouture.storenvy.com

Movie Reviews: Kamikaze Girls

So, after having been into the Lolita style for several years and what with my renewed interest in it, I decided it was high time to finally watch Kamikaze Girls, which has been recommended to me ever since I learned about Lolita fashion.

 Kamikaze Girls is a story about two very different girls: Momoko, a strange young girl who dresses in frilly, Rococo style clothing, the Lolita style, and Ichigo, a Yanki or biker gang girl with a tough exterior. The story is mostly about Momoko and the effect Ichigo has on her life. The movie begins with Momoko lamenting the fact that she wasn't born in 18th century France and then going over both her parent's lives leading up to her birth and her life up until the present time.Besides being obsessed with 18th centurey France, Momoko is in love with the brand Baby the Stars Shine Bright and takes various measures to ensure she keeps her wardrobe updated with their clothing. In an attempt to make more money to keep up with her expensive brand clothing, Momoko decides to try selling fake name brand clothing left over from her father's earlier years. In responce to an ad she placed, Momoko becomes aquanted with Ichiko, a Yanki biker girl. Despite Momoko's best attempts to stay distant, Ichiko, or Ichigo, befriends Momoko and the two eventually form a strong friendship. In order to avoid giving away the story, I'm leaving my summary at that.

 Kamikaze Girls was an amusing movie with a lot of what would be considered 'wacky Japanese' elements. I enjoyed the fact that what little animation there was in the movie was very much not the typical anime style that's prevalent nowadays.While the story had many very odd points, the overall story was very enjoyable with a great ending. One of the things I liked the most about the movie was that all of the characters had very strong, distinct personalities. I highly recommend Kamikaze Girls to anyone who enjoys Japanese movies, anime, Lolita, or is just looking for a fun story to watch.

I'm on Twitter! @animlolicouture
Check out my fanpage (maintained by yours truly): www.facebook.com/CelesteChoCho