2016 zootopia or zootropolis in some
areas takes the animal kingdom and puts
them in a kind of parody of human
society they aren't the first modern-day
parable but they use the smartphone the
very icon of the 21st century in a way
that many movies don't why are these
movies so afraid of smartphones
ladies and gentlemen please turn off
your phones the video is about to begin
unless you're watching this video on
your phone in which case carry on the
problem with smartphones in movies is
that they are deus ex machinas basically
an unfair plot device that can solve
pretty much any problem which removes
any sense of peril or suspense no i
don't have the map we gave it back to
you after map check yesterday you've
always had the map can a movie coexist
with a magical pocket-sized gadget that
gives you worldwide connection and can
answer any question home alone would be
a [ __ ] film if smartphones were involved
ill judge see
told you my mommy said she wishes you
were dead plenty of films include
smartphones obviously i'm not saying
that they don't exist in movies but when
they do their capabilities seem hardly
used other than phone calls or texting
dot
i think an element of adventure is
isolation being forced to take the
lessons you've learned and put them to
the test on your own and without a
wikihow and maybe smartphones kill any
sense of adventure so to do this movies
may set the film in a time or place
where smartphones aren't around like
turning red set before the dominance of
smartphones and how mei's red panda
secret is kept thanks in part to the
limited capabilities of early mobile
phones and a lack of social networks
wow why did you think turning red was
set in 2002
hmm
or they have the plot fixated on the
phone like a critical examination of its
effects on people or something that
isn't that like the emoji movie we're
number two but that feels so try hard
and it's like any time somebody becomes
a overnight viral sensation it's just
you're going to be famous
on youtube
i'm doing this it's lazy it's going
viral doesn't work like that
i clearly find this very upsetting then
there's the other option get rid of the
phone
like the battery dies or they have no
signal there's no signal
there's always a signal not out here in
the middle of nowhere or they lose it
probably shouldn't have thrown your
phone though nope immediately regretted
it you could draw a lot of parallels
between zootopia and onward both being
reinterpretations of a modern day
society with either an anthropomorphic
or fantasy creature twist except onward
mainly uses the modern day elements to
illustrate the passing of time to
compare the good old days versus what
we've become targeting things like
gentrification and a loss of
old-fashioned values it's surprisingly
resentful of modern technology like how
it under utilizes technology in its
story bali's van quinniver is ultimately
just a vehicle to get them from a to b
and so the film setting could have been
instead a parallel for the 90s or the
80s or the 70s or even just be a horse
and cart
it turns the modern day element as this
ambiguous generalization of civilized
americana with nothing really pinning it
down to any one particular error other
than ian's smartphone and what happens
to it
ah at the very moment their call to
adventure the inconvenient smartphone is
written out so what was the point of
putting it in there in the first place
well it's of course a big trope to
forcibly isolate characters by first
removing the means of communication
radio's down calms it down alpha team
coms are down radio's out too phone's
dead combs are down sir the radio's down
the phone's out the road's out
we're on our own basically if your phone
line has been cut you are about to be
killed by a man with a knife
hello hello
wait a minute i don't have a house phone
also this is a can of beans there you
are
are you gonna slash me the only thing
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what a nice guy what
phew i landed in the beats
so do smartphones kill adventure i
suppose with improved cameras that are
in our hands all the time that's why we
don't get so much mass hysteria over
blurry ufo photos anymore but for better
or worse smartphones are a huge part of
everyday life like a wallet handbag keys
etc it's not as if they're totally
absent but why are they not integrated
into the movies more one issue may be
branding famously apple do not allow
villains in movies to use iphones bad
guys cannot have iphones on camera it's
unclear how enforced this really is but
maybe it's not worth risking the legal
hassle
when the matrix used the nokia fancy
sliding phone it was a pretty expensive
model at the time but thanks to the
film's popularity it shows the power of
product placement as nokia saw a massive
9.5 billion increase in sales
because everyone wanted that phone as
well as the sunglasses the long black
codes and the ability to look cool
steven's agent
simon arena
freeman 713 i'm a sentinel
dark days dark days so given the
publicity a smartphone gets just by its
mere inclusion it has a lot of hoops to
jump through with marketing lawyers
contracts maybe it's just not even worth
trying and when they are included it's
usually for phone calls or vague spy
stuff things that don't need to be a
smartphone just a regular phone or a
made up gadget will do perhaps this is
designed to be some intentional escapism
we don't want to see doctor strange
spending four hours checking his twitter
indirect because that would be boring
obviously characters have a conversation
is more gripping than text message
bubbles although we are seeing this done
more creatively lately we come to the
cinema for adventure and the
blockbusters have figured out that the
best way to cater their films to a large
enough audience is to just minimize
smartphones after all not everyone is a
fan where we've got today is the
audiences who are brought up on these
[ __ ] cell phones the millennium do
not want to ever be taught anything
except unless it's you told it on the
cell phone right i don't care
but i wonder if because of the
exponential growth of smartphones and
their capabilities writers are still
figuring out how to best integrate them
which makes me appreciate zootopia's
usage of smartphones let's look at them
all other phone calls while this is used
by the villains hiding their identity
phone calls are generally kept as
background elements with passers-by but
it's interesting that in the flashbacks
we also see older styles of phones
helping to compare and illustrate the
passing of time video calls only used
between the openly honest judy and her
parents and even when she does try to
hide her feelings it's hard to hide
something that's designed to be hi-vis
texting while the characters are
occasionally seen typing there's only
one clear instance of a text being sent
illustrating how instantaneous this
spread of news can be now for a movie
it's about solving a mystery they never
turn the smartphone into some spy
tracker so here are some other uses we
see video recording used to film vital
evidence in a revelatory moment which
ends up endangering them photos used by
reporters and this polar bear showing
their past encounters helping to make
clear the threat in a light tone
scrolling like phone calls the idol
scrolling around is only seen by the
background characters face swap app wow
you are one hot dancer benjamin claw
a running joke is the gazelle face swap
app a frivolous distraction that comes
packed with tts that's pretty impressive
chief pogo
torch even while other characters use
torches the more forward-thinking judy
uses her phone information the
characters never search the internet for
any information but judy does hold up a
photo taken from a news website there's
a few gaps here early in the film judy
uses an ipod which is naturally very
popular at the time of the films
released although they've since been
discontinued because they've been
entirely replaced by smartphones there's
also her carrot shaped voice recording
pen this too could have been done on a
smartphone but then it was probably
better to have the blackmail as a
physical object that could be
ceremoniously handed over to nick
there's also no mention of social
networks so maybe this is a utopia but
those aside zootopia still demonstrates
a unique approach to smartphones not as
an unfairly powerful get out of jail
free card nor as a stand-in for the
walkie-talkie but as a part of everyday
life and is treated so normally it may
even go by unnoticed
unless you're an obsessive who makes
video essays don't at me
no actually do so toby is far from the
only movie to treat smartphones as
normal everyday things but in this case
this goes a long way to improving the
film as a whole for all the advancements
we've made in progressivism and basic
rights it's naive to believe the
problems aren't still there and for a
film that challenges themes of prejudice
which while not perfectly executed it
would be far less impactful if it wasn't
designed to be a reflection of modern
day society which is best illustrated by
the omnipresence of the smartphone i was
worried this movie would awaken the
furry in me but fortunately i think oh
mother yiffa it's called a hustle
sweetheart
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