Zootopia Accused of Spreading Furry Fandom

Below is the text version of my short episode for MPX.


So around this weekend, I had an interesting conversation regarding the upcoming film Zootopia, the latest CG Animated film from Disney that comes out March of this year. The subject of the conversation is that Zootopia, which features a world where it's the Animals that lived normal lives than humans and sporting human characteristics and behavior, would somehow increase the familiarity and popularity of the Furry community and it's a bad thing for some.

Just in case some of you may have no idea what a Furry is - In a nutshell, if you like Sandy Cheeks, Lola Bunny, or Krystal from Star Fox, then you're a Furry. In that case, I'm a Furry too since I like Donald & Daffy, Rigby, Renamon from Digimon, Callie from Swat Kats, Heathcliff, Klonoa, Strongarm from Transformers, and Grunt from Mass Effect 2. Ok, so the last two aren't anthropomorphic animals, but you get the idea.

So what's the problem then? Well, to some, being a Furry or even liking one is just plain disgusting, period. Even more so in the realm of R34. For obvious reasons, I won't delve into that subject. But there's just some individuals saying that Zootopia will further expand the Furry fandom, most especially the murky side of it. You may recall the rise of the Bronies when My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic because a huge hit, and with that comes its dark side. Regardless, certain entities, for a lack of a better description, would take up arms and tell the fandom to "back off and don't spread your disease to our children", or something like that.

I just scoff at the idea, to be honest. Me, and generations of kids grew up watching these anthropormorphic characters and loved them. So for the naysayers, you're practically going up against literally the entire world who has watched at least one Looney Tunes short or something similar. It's that preposterous .

I do get about the R34 part, but then again, literally ANYTHING can be made into an R34. So these concerns are practically pointless as it's going to happen anyway. And if the naysayers say these will rip apart the minds of young children, I'd argue that, rather than to educate kids so they can tell right from wrong, they prefer the Easy Button. And being easy doesn't mean being right.

So if your favorite character turns out to be a talking animal that acts like a human or whatever, there is absolutely nothing wrong about that. We all enjoy it. If you don't like it, fine, I won't judge you, nor change your mind, but don't change my mind about these characters, or everyone else's, lest you want to look like a sheepheaded Dodo bird, or worse.