Disney hosts a Zootopia Themed… Presidential Debate Viewing Party? [With editorial]

Well, this happened.

Last night, Disney hosted a party in Hollywood where celebrities, reporters, and potential Oscar nominees (though no actual filmmakers…) all gathered for a private viewing of the first Presidential Debate.  The theme?  Zootopia.  Which is actually rather fitting, considering how on-the-nose Zootopia is when it comes to all sorts of messy socio-political issues.

Several news sources covered this event, including Yahoo! Movies and Deadline.com.  The most interesting in my opinion is GoldDerby.com’s coverage of the “Top 5 outbursts and reactions” at the party.  Mostly because it mentions they had Campaign stickers that said “Vote Zootopia”.

I really want one of those stickers…

I may do another article here or there about the election, but this blog is about Zootopia and it’s going to stay that way.  Maybe a “top 5 things Zootopia teaches us about politics” or some other editorial like that.

But since this opens up the conversation, I have included my own personal views on the 2016 election below.  It is a completely opinion-based editorial, and does not reflect the views of ZNN as a whole.  I just felt that I needed to speak, and you’ve all proven to be a wonderfully civil and non-aggressive audience.  Hopefully I don’t ruin that with this.  Unless Disney does something else election-related, this is the last time ZNN does anything political.

You can find that after the break.  Don’t worry, I do tie Zootopia into it.


—- Personal Opinion Begins Here —-

I do not support either major political party in this current election.  I believe that right now, it is a choice between two evils.  One may be a lesser evil, depending on your viewpoint, but evil is still evil.  I will not be voting for either of the two candidates presented.

Instead, I would just like to remind you that there are other options.  The Johnson/Weld campaign, while definitely the underdog in this race, is still on the ballot in all 50 states, so it may still have a shot.  After all, the last time America chose a third-party president, it was this lawyer from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln.  You might have heard of him.  Turned out to be a really great choice.

But if voting Johnson is not your style (which is entirely your prerogative), there are other candidates in the running.  Or you can choose to write in the name of whoever you feel would be better, even if they are fictional.  If you really don’t like any politicians, that’s the route I’d recommend you take.  After all…

But if there’s one takeaway I would like to stress, it is this: VOTE.  Doing so gives you a voice in the decision, even if it is a small one.  If you do not, you forfeit all right to complain that your voice is not being heard in the halls of government, for when presented the chance to speak, you stayed silent.  And that is exactly what the Bellwethers of the world are counting on.

We are Zootopians.  We are better than that.

We will follow the example of Judy Hopps.  We won’t just sit there and complain about how the world is a mess.


We’re going to make the world a better place.


We’re going to try everything.

Stand for what you believe to be right.  Not for what you believe to be “not as bad”.

-Andy Lagopus

19 Comments

  1. Personally, I view Hilary as an okay candidate. Even though many bad things have been said about her, much of those rumors and claims were debunked and proven hoax. As for the unsolved ones, well I have no comment. Trump on the other hand, dear lord, he shouldn't be anywhere near this race. I mean he's racist, he lies and completely speaks total BS (sorry for that), and most of all, he is just unqualified to lead our country. God knows how he managed to get this far!

    • Going further, there is a moderate chance (maybe to optimistic) for either of the presidents to be impeached. Between their vice presidents,

      Mike Pence has no business experience, after several failed runs for congress took a break to talk on radio, and returning to congress has a history of, homophobia, comparing welfare to 9/11, saying no to government spending, demanding more money from the government for himself, and praising super pacs being allowed as "bringing us one step closer to freedom of speech as our founding fathers intended it"
      -Pros, has minimal scandals, has tried to apology for some of his slanderous statements instead of lie about them like Trump
      -cons, has few accomplishments, besides pushing for anti-gay legislation, has spent the majority of his time saying no to any government spending outside pushing for receiving more funds for himself.

      Tim Kaine as a senator, maintained Virginia's status as one of the best states for business with a focus on pushing plans for unused areas (achieving the top state for business during the recession in 2009 according to Forbes) made some legislation to promote education, and despite showing anti-gun support, handled the Virginia Tech shooting very reasonably (formed a investigation crew of fields related to the shooting, which concluded current psychiatric care was lacking, so he put money in improving mental health programs)
      -Pros, had very successfully managed Virginia (which admittedly was doing well before him) has maintained a more moderate approach to politics, and during one of his blunders (using public funds to pay for buses for a national group protesting gun violence) he admitted his mistake and corrected it by reimbursing the state from his own pocket
      -Cons, at 15 years in politics, he's not necessarily the most experienced, many are concerned by him being willing to cut education spending during the recession and by him being anti gun violence, but many in business attribute his budget cuts to Virginia's success in 2009 and his personal legislation regarding gun violence have been to increase punishments for illegal sales, and promoting psychiatric care to reduce nut jobs starting shootings. Debatably has been lucky, as Virginia was already doing well before he came into office

  2. I saw this story on my phone's newsfeed. Very happy to see Zootopia getting some pub. Not surprised about this either. Zootopia DOES have a strong political undercurrent to it.

  3. First off I want to address a historical misconception in your post. You list Abraham Lincoln as a third party candidate, which is inaccurate. He may have been the first Republican president, but when he was elected the Republicans had already thoroughly supplanted the Whigs as the second major party in the American Party System (the Third Party System — don't be confused by the name, it refers to when the major parties became the Democrats and the Republicans — is generally thought of as starting 4 years before Lincoln was elected).

    As far as voting Johnson goes, this is my own personal opinion of course, but a man who didn't recognize the name of the city of Aleppo should not be Commander-in-Chief, nor should they be the person that appoints our head diplomat. In a world as chaotic as ours, foreign policy is of the utmost importance and if someone fails as basic a test as "Do you recognize the names of major cities in the Syrian War", they should not be president.

  4. Speaking as a Canadian, I don't envy you guys. Of course our current Prime Minister is a vapid man-child who really shouldn't be trusted to drive, let alone run a country.

    Hillary belongs in a federal prison, not the Whitehouse. She would be an unmitigated disaster for the USA in every respect. She basically hates everything the USA stands for.

    Trump is hardly better, although the left leaning media have no doubt done everything in their power to try and twist everything he says and discredit him at every turn. For example, I understand he takes a hard line against illegal immigration and Islamic terrorism, which I suspect is the source of most if not all the accusations of racism against him. If that's the case, it's patently absurd. I'm no fan of him, but I would probably call him the lesser of the two evils.

    Sadly, the US is a two party system, and voting for anyone else is essentially just a political statement that won't amount to anything. I've often reflected that the US would be better off to have multiple parties like we do, but to keep the presidential model.

  5. The funniest parody artwork (thoguh I'm not surprised they went with an elephant – 'Trump'et, after all) is "Donald Trumpster". Sadly doesn't get allowed as a feature on this site because there's no context beyond the idea that it was drawn for a contest where participants were supposed to draw Trump as a Zootopia character.

    http://www.deviantart.com/art/Trumpster-596991164

  6. Poor Bernie Sanders, nobody remembers him… Many will be voting Stein instead. Anyway, wether the Democrats loose or wim they will be in a bad situation since their party is now divided between anti-stablishment and pro-stablishment supporters, and that isn't an easy problem to solve

  7. Andy, looks like you and I are on about the same page (though given the opportunity I would totally vote Hopps/Wilde if they were around). I am thoroughly displeased about the "stuck in two parties" situation this country has placed itself in and, while the other candidates may also have issues (there is not a politician in existence who doesn't though) at least they do provide a more beneficial outlet. I have disagreements with Johnson, and a few with Stein, but far less with either of them than I do with Clinton or Trump….
    Well, political debate over, I look forward to the next fully Zootopia-focused post!

Comments are closed.