Trailers are normally such fast-paced, choppy things that the movie being sold can get lost in its rigid formula. To get a clear look at what the film itself will be is something of a rarity, which makes the boldness of the Zootopia sloth trailer impossible to miss.
After a brief introduction to the spry Officer Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), it launches into what appears to be an intact scene of her and the amused Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) getting a plate run at the DMV. The riff is that the DMV is notoriously slow in America, so of course in a world inhabited by animals, its employees are sloths. The glacially paced movements of the sloths provide a natural foil to the hyperactive Hopps, and the trailer’s confidence that the joke will work is well-placed.
The scene follows the lifespan of many long-term gags, starting out funny, then becoming tiresome, and then circling back to being funny all over again. It shows a strong understanding of how to construct a good joke, and its got a riotous payoff in the slowly animated elation of a sloth’s laugh. It remains to be seen if the rest of the film will live up to the section featured in this trailer, but at least I’ll always have those laughs I shared with the hundred or so people waiting to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Zootopia is directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore and co-directed by Jared Bush. It stars Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman. It launches in the U.S. on March 4th, 2016 and the U.K. on March 25th, 2016. For international release dates, click here.
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