I love a kids movie!  A good one…..   One with a moral or a message.

 

Today, after a bike ride, a scooter park play, family lunch, a trip to the shops to kit out the littlest boy who seems to be growing like he sleeps in miracle gro…. We armed ourselves with sweet treats and settled in our seats for ‘Zootropolis’.

 

Just like the last movie about the young dinosaur, the messages felt like they were personal written for me!

 

The main character, a young rabbit who dreams of being a police officer, keeper of the peace, to serve and protect in Zootropolis.  She is consistently told by others, including those closest to her, that she is a ‘dumb bunny’ and her future is destined for carrot farming.  Being a police officer is not for her, it is too dangerous, she is too small, not clever enough…

 

But her dream is set in stone.  She knows what she wants.

 

In her training, her colleagues, competitors are far bigger, far more experienced than she is… but she does not let that deter her.  Each time she fails a course, a task, she gets back up and does it again and again.  Each time she is too small to face the obstacles, she finds another way to get round them.

 

The message clear, to be a warrior, never give up, get back up, learn from each knock down and keep going.

 

And of course, she graduates top of her class.  She is proud.  She is excited to be put to work and live her dream in reality.

 

Only to find that she is up against even more obstacles in the real world.  Even more preconceived ideas about her ability to be a good cop, because she is small, doesn’t fit the ‘type’… and no one is willing to see past the label of ‘dumb little bunny’.  Instead of serving and protecting, she is given parking duty and told to get 100 tickets.

 

And here is the message of the importance of attitude.

 

Rather than be disheartened.  She tells herself ‘I won’t do 100 tickets….. I am going to do 200 tickets.  Before lunch’.

 

She uses their negativity, their disbelief in her, to fuel her fire.  And she fights, with a fighter’s attitude, she gets her name known and is handed a real case.

 

Inevitably, when the continual battle to prove herself finally gets her down, and she loses faith in herself, loses sight of her dream, she heads home to the carrot farm, back to her comfort zone.

 

It may look like failure on the outside, but to me it was rest.  A way to get perspective.  An uncluttering of her mind and breaking free of others perceptions.

 

So the final message is one of courage.

 

She was brave enough to change her mind.  The break gave her time and strength to realise her mistake… her mistake to let go of her dream, her destiny…

 

… messages.  Clearly for me.
And now I had better don my bunny suit and get hiding those eggs!