Zootopia Is The Anti-Trump Movie Your Kids Need To See
Today I took my son and a group of rowdy 3rd graders to see Zootopia, Disney's hit movie about a community filled with animals of all types, coexisting in a modern day melting pot. I walked in, popcorn in hand, expecting your typical kids cartoon movie - cute animals, predictable plot lines, a villain or two, the good guy (or girl), funny jokes, action and a smattering of adult one liners. What I didn't expect was a movie filled with undertones of racism, classism, sexism and hints of police sexism and government conspiracies.
Driving home, I thought to myself "this is THE anti-Trump movie for kids." It is the movie that kids should see to counteract all the negative, nasty, vile, horrible things they are seeing or hearing about related to this election cycle, 99% of it coming from Trump and his supporters.
No matter how much we try to shield our kids from the news, the fact is they will hear about it. Either from their friends at school, at the grocery store or when you forget to turn the volume down on the late night news and their little ears overhear snippets of anchors talking about "violence at a rally tonight" or people getting arrested. It is so hard, even when you are being honest about the evil in the world, to teach your kids that deep down, we are all just human beings who deserve respect.