Officer Judy Hopps of the Zootopia Police Department

I am a very strong believer that someone’s relationship status has literally ZERO to do with their independence as a person.

Oh I love Snow.  She’s such a wonderfully complicated and complex character and some of my favorite parts about her are her flaws.  But let’s stick to strength.

Can you imagine the incredible strength of personal character this woman had.  She had her entire world ripped from her.  She was tossed out literally into the wilds which nothing of her previous life prepared her for.  The time between when she has the encounter with the huntsman and when Red finds her in the barn looks like it’s half a year.  Could you, living in your comfortable life, suddenly survive on your own with nothing?  

I also think it’s really important as much as we talk about how Snow can be self absorbed and selfish (and she can be) she’s also a character who engages in some serious critical self examination.

You can question the conclusions she reaches that she has responsibility for what happened to Regina, but Regina and Snow reach very similar conclusions..  Which goes back to the thing I love most about Snow’s faults and her strength.  She may be selfish and self absorbed but she doesn’t want to be.  She fights it.  She strives to be a better person constantly.  Some people read that as arrogance but really I think that’s a kind of fake it until you make it.  The point is that she is not pure as snow like her parents intended but that she fights for that goodness.  And that kind of self examination.  The thing that says you can be better than your instincts feeds into one of the things I love most about her.

Snow’s desire to help others be their best possible self is amazing.  It happens with David, it happens with Emma, and it happens with Regina.  Her mistakes become teaching tools.  I love Snow White the teacher.  I love that she sees doing the right thing as hard and that their is value in the struggle.  That’s a kind of strength that comes from having failed.  It comes from being someone who has failed yourself and learned from that failure.  The show talks a lot about the strength of her faith but I love her for her ability to have that faith after the world has failed her after people (Regina, and her mother Eva) have failed her.

And can we take a moment to appreciate what a world class actress Ginnifer Goodwin is?  Snow is one of the hardest parts on the show.  She doesn’t get to chew the scenery (nothing wrong with scenery chewing).  Her performance is all in subtle shades.  And the woman is ALWAYS on.  I challenge anyone to look at the back of any group scene where Ginny has little or no dialogue and you always know what Snow is thinking because Ginny is always there in the moment being a pro.

Ginny is a badass.  Snow is a badass.  There should be so much love in the fandom for this complicated woman and her awesome portrayal.

“Depression Movies”

Around two years ago, I had to have my 13 year old dog put down. I was heart broken; she was my first dog and I loved her to death. I spent the whole day crying, and when night came, I couldn’t sleep at all. At 2am I dragged myself to the TV and turned on Netflix, but still upset out of my mind, I didn’t know what to watch. Netflix suggested the new Disney movie they had just added: Zootopia. I clicked it because, why not? I needed something fun and light hearted to maybe make me feel a little bit better. I sat there and watched the whole thing. I loved it! But when Zootopia ended, the magic was broken and I didn’t know what to watch. 

So, I hit replay. 

And when I was feeling down again the next night? I watched Zootopia again. And again. And then a third time. 

Things quickly got very, very bad for me. My favorite goat passed away, then my friend’s mom, then a professor I was friends with, then my grandfather. All within four months. Throughout this whole, terrible time, I was watching Zootopia almost nonstop. If I was home, Zootopia was on. I wasn’t really even paying attention to it most of the time, it was just kind of there. It was light hearted, funny, comforting, and familiar. When my best friend came over for New Years Eve, we literally watched Zootopia to celebrate. 

Right around the time I finally started feeling better, Zootopia was taken off Netflix. I was okay at that point and didn’t really need to have something on constantly any more, but it was still sad to see it go! My best friend gave it to me on DVD as a gift months later, and I still pop it in whenever I feel like watching Zootopia! 

Recently, things got bad again. I was feeling drained and horrible and upset all the time. I turned on Netflix and looked for something to watch, but Zootopia wasn’t there. Mulan’s on Netflix, and while that’s my second favorite Disney movie, it didn’t have the same vibe as Zootopia. For whatever reason, I went for Shrek. And watched it again and again and again. And again. And then some more. I’m home? Shrek is on. Shrek is literally on right now, as I write this. Why???? I’m not even paying attention to it! I’m not watching Shrek. It’s just there. Usually it plays three or four times a night, and if I wake up and it’s ended, I press play again and go back to bed. 

I went to a friend’s house the other day and laughed when I got there and saw he–a man in his 30s–had “Open Season” on. He shrugged and told me it’s a good movie and I should check it out some time. The next time I was there, he was in a very bad place emotionally (PTSD). I noticed that the credits for Open Season were rolling on the TV when I walked into the living room. When I got him calmed down and made him some food, I asked if he’d want to watch a movie, and he said yes. I decided to test my theory.

“What do you want to watch?” I asked. 

“I don’t know…” 

“Do you want to watch Open Season?” 

“Yes please…” 

So I turned on Open Season and we laid on the couch and watched Open Season. By the time the movie was over, he was all better and we were already up and doing other things. When we passed through the living room again, however, he stopped and replayed the movie. “Do you mind?” he asked, “I like having something on.” 

Later that night I made an Open Season joke, and he just randomly confessed that he once watched it during a really rough time, didn’t have the energy to get up and change the movie, and just watched it again. And again! And the next night he watched it some more. soulmates, obviously. So I told him about Shrek and Zootopia. Neither of us could believe that we both had oddly specific CGI children’s movies that we secretly watched over and over whenever we’re Going Through Things. We dubbed them “depression movies” and determined that it is what it is. 

Sometimes you just gotta watch Zootopia for six hours. Sometimes you have an emotional breakdown to Open Season and that’s okay. If Shrek gets you through emotional trauma then Shrek gets you through emotional trauma. (of course we could talk about psychology and regression and coping mechanisms, but this post is just a little appreciation for people who are Going Through Some Things and might be in the same boat. )

These are all excellent picks, and exactly what I’m talking about! :) They’re good, familiar, comforting movies/shows that don’t require a lot of effort to appreciate, but we do anyway. 

♡ another meme i won’t finish ♡

   ↳ female characters [1/20]: Judy Hopps from Zootopia (2016)

It’s been the same damn thing every time. Denigrating the princesses that came before to prop up the new one. There’s already so much cool and interesting stuff about Anna and Elsa and Judy and probably will be about Moana that I have to roll my eyes at the media still going with “not like the other girls!” over and over again.

I’ve seen a Judy Hopps article that derides princess dresses as “silly.” I saw an article that rated Elsa and Anna as “more feminist” than any princess that came before (how did they beat Mulan, the old usual title holder, you might ask? the article bashed her for “forgiving Shang for leaving her on that mountain” aka when he spared her life against protocol. yep–tons of reaching, just like today). It was a big part of Merida’s marketing too!

And now they’re doing it again with Moana and…what’s so feminist about bashing other female heroines again? About bashing feminine qualities a lot of little girls do honestly hold, like liking dresses or wanting romance or just generally being girly?