Let’s talk about Judy (and Nick)

So I caught a showing of Disney’s Zootopia this past weekend, and really, really liked it. I wanted to see it based on the world-building alone, but then it blew away my expectations. I’ll be unpacking everything this movie made me think and feel for awhile, and while I’m not alone in that, a lot of the thinkpieces and reviews so far have been focused on the racial or feminist metaphors. But in the midst of all of that (and a great, entertaining story), there was an aspect of the film even more special to me. Spoilers may follow, sort of…

Zootopia is a buddy cop movie featuring intergender buddies.

Technically, I suppose Nick and Judy (pictured above) are interspecies buddies, but there we are with the metaphors again. These are an identifiably male and female character who by the film’s end have bonded and shared intimate moments — but only intimate in the pure platonic sense that they have chosen to share otherwise private details of their lives. Though there is a brief exchange where the word “love” is used, it’s used without any romantic weight to it, the tone played as banter between friends. It’s more Murtaugh and Riggs than Anna and Kristoff.

That’s my interpretation, anyhow, which I believe is shared by the filmmakers — and I highly appreciate it seeing an example of it in a movie for kids. Not that I have anything against romance per se, but in a movie with themes examining preconceptions and prejudices, forgive me if I’m happy that it happens to feature two adults that happen to be different genders who can hug and cry on each other’s shoulders without it leading necessarily to kissy kiss — and even more importantly without it being a big deal.

Yeah, we’re talking an animated rabbit and fox here so maybe imagining a romance between them is the weirder option, but again — this is metaphor time, fable time — where these characters are stand-ins for humans and human issues. And one of the human issues I find personally frustrating is the ingrained cultural idea that male and female relationships are defined first and foremost by a biological imperative to “bump uglies”, as it were. That left to their own devices, an unsupervised man and woman will swiftly get down to screwin’ regardless of whether either or both are already in committed relationships with others or maybe even just don’t feel like it.

I was lucky enough to have the example of my father who did have a long-term friendship — and never anything more than that — with a (married) woman who wasn’t my mom. I myself was quite platonic best friends with a woman for several years, who in fact ended up being my best (wo)man at my wedding to Dawn. It can happen.

But I’m aware there are a distressing amount of people out there who don’t believe it can. Ever. A married man or woman meeting someone of the opposite gender for lunch? Even a business associate? This will inevitably lead to them having an affair. Maintaining cross-gender friendships while in a relationship? No! They must be renounced or your love is in danger!

Now are there people who cheat on their relationships? Certainly. But chalking that up to biological inevitability is problematic in more ways than one — not the least of which is, say, a message to girls that the only reason a boy would ever want to hang around with them is because that boy desires them sexually.  And how does all this conventional wisdom factor in boys who are attracted to boys, girls attracted to girls, etc.? Doesn’t this idea of gender separation based on romantic urges start to seriously fall apart at that point?

The parable of Nick and Judy in Zootopia stops short of showing them having a platonic partnership while also committed romantically to outside parties — which I’m fine with, I have Agent Carter for that — but it’s still nice to see Hollywood acknowledging that the “heterosexual life partner” aesthetic has the potential to exist even when the heterosexuals in question happen to be a man and a woman, and communicating that message in a mass market, all-ages film.

Nick and Judy’s friendship isn’t perfect, and goes through some rough spots as even their own prejudices aren’t so easy to shake in moments of stress or inattention, but in the end a deep bond, trust and mutual respect has developed that ends not in a wedding scene but a car chase. You can still “ship” ’em if that’s your bag, but leaving that aspect up to us to interpret is a big step forwards for me. And Disney of all sources — the very home of the Princesses and the Love Songs and the Happily Ever Afters — is the one who took it.