What I Learnt About A Better Life By Watching Zootopia

There are a few powerful life lessons that Zootopia can teach us – how to be a better person, and to be anyone you want to be!

Last weekend I finally caught up with Zootopia. The movie was wonderful. I’m a great fan of these animation movies (I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched Kung Fu Panda, Ratatouille and Inside Out). The beauty of these movies lies in how wonderfully they convey a strong message in a very simple and subtle manner.

Most of these movie plots work on some theme which people of all ages can easily relate to. I’ve realized that I’m drawn to movies which focus on hard work and the ones that emphasize on how you don’t need to be special to be able to do anything.

• Anyone can be anything
• It’s unfair to be prejudiced against an entire community because of a few
• There will always be people trying to put you down- you just have to ignore them.

Let us look at these one by one.

Anyone can be anything

If you randomly picked 10 people and asked them if they were happy with what they were doing, it would be safe to assume that just 50% would probably say yes and the rest might not say so. All of us have dreams when we’re young, but along the way some of us lose sight of what we want to do and resort to doing something else, more as a necessity. One has to be more practical than emotional when it comes to choosing one’s life but if we aren’t happy with the way we have shaped up our life, what is the whole point? Aren’t we supposed to be the architects of our lives?

I wish I could respond with a resounding yes, but at least for us Indians there are a lot of stakeholders to satisfy when it comes to living our life the way we want it.

Of course parents these days are really cool about letting their kids choose their paths, but sadly that’s not the case everywhere. We are bound by so many restrictions that some just give up and get into a routine which makes them hate the life they’re leading. Only when I look at a few such people, do I realize how lucky I’ve been to be able to do anything (ahem, ‘calculated’ risks), as far as I have some strong reason or passion backing my decision.

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Don’t generalize your prejudices

How common have prejudices become today? No wonder we’re more surprised when people are good to us than when people behave badly with us.

As in, from the world being a good place, with some exceptions, nowadays people look at it as a bad place with some exceptions and hence the reason behind people being surprised with good behavior.

We have the most silly prejudices for every category of human beings that the mind can classify. I am equally guilty of that too. Things would have been better if it were all just in the mind and if people weren’t too vocal about their prejudices. Sigh, one can only hope!

Keep Calm and Ignore!

You know how elders say, if you don’t have anything good to say, please don’t say anything. I really wish many followed this.

This is not about learning to take constructive feedback, but it is highly annoying when some people come out of nowhere, with no idea of what you’re doing, and speak in the most negative manner (more out of jealousy than being concerned or practical).

So instead of trying to shut them up (they have the right to sound silly) we can try to shut our minds against such negative thoughts and curate what thoughts and ideas get inside our mind. Luckily, we all have that choice. So we should just quit worrying about those people, because at the end you know who has the last laugh.

When I was done with the movie, I looked around and couldn’t find many kids in the theater. Still, I could guess that the crowd had enjoyed the movie, the smiles on their faces made that clear. Who said animation movies were only for kids? I beg to differ, and for good reason!

Published earlier here.

Image source: youtube.

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