ZOOTOPIA VOL. 1 #1
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT
STORY: Jeff Parker
ART: Alessandro Ranaldi
COLORS: Dearbhla Kelly
LETTERS: Jeff Eckleberry
EDITOR: Nate Cosby
COVER: Trish Forstner
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Alessandro Ranaldi; Craig Rousseau; Trish Forstner
32pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (January 2025)
Rated “Teen”
“Call Dropped”
Zootopia is a 2016 animated buddy-cop comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Zootopia is set in a world of anthropomorphic animals (animals that talk and act like humans). The film follows a rabbit named Judy Hopps, who is rookie police officer, and a fox named Nick Wilde, who is a con artist. Judy and Nick end up working together to uncover a conspiracy involving the disappearance of predators. At the end of the film, Nick graduates from the police academy and becomes Judy's partner.
Dynamite Entertainment has been producing licensed comic books based on Disney characters and IP since 2022. The latest is a Zootopia comic book series, entitled Zootopia Volume 1. It is written by Jeff Parker; drawn by Alessandro Ranaldi; colored by Dearbhla Kelly; and lettered Jeff Eckleberry. The series continues the adventures of Judy and Nick and is set after the events of the original film.
Zootopia Volume 1 #1 (“Call Dropped”) opens in Zootopia Police Precinct 1. Officer Hopps and Officer Wilde are known as the heroes who unraveled Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellweather's “prey-supremacist” conspiracy (as seen in the 2016 film). This morning, however, Chief Bogo has them on the crowd control detail at the airport.
A V.I.P. is arriving, and it's Tripp Zebrando, CEO of PBJ. Zebrando is introducing a new smart phone, and everyone wants one... that is except the people that are against smart phones. The trouble starts when Zebrando's airship, “the Sky Cow,” becomes distressed. It's Hopps and Wilde to the rescue and into another conspiracy... maybe.
THE LOWDOWN: Since July 2021, Dynamite Entertainment's marketing department has been providing me with PDF review copies of some of their titles. Zootopia Volume 1, Issue #1 is the latest.
I passed on Walt Disney's 2016 computer-animated hit film, Zootopia, when it first played in theaters. Later, I started hearing good things about it, so I gave it a try on DVD (via Netflix). I loved it, and I'm excited about the sequel film, which is due November 2025.
My enjoyment of the film virtually assured that I was going to give Dynamite's new comic book adaptation a try. I can safely tell Zootopia fans that they will likely enjoy the comic book. Series writer Jeff Parker is quite adept at writing comic books that adapt other media (DC Comics' Batman '66 and Future Quest) or that revisit comics stories from decades past (Marvel Comics' X-Men: First Class). He offers an intriguing first issue of Zootopia, in which he smartly puts the movie's star character smack-dab in the middle of new conspiracy.
The series' artists, penciler-inker Alessandro Ranaldi and colorist Dearbhla Kelly, offer the most exciting storytelling that readers will find is similar to the aesthetic the original film. Ranaldi's illustrations move so fast that I felt as if I were chasing the story in order to keep up with it. Kelly's colors have the spark of Disney's animation magic and also make the story pop. As usual, Jeff Eckleberry's lettering captures the motion and the noise.
I look forward to more Zootopia Volume 1. Anyone who reads this first issue, dear readers, will feel the need to return for the second issue, at least.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of Dynamite Entertainment's Disney comic book series will want Zootopia Volume 1.
A
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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