REVIEW: The Stinky Cheese Caper and Other Cases from the ZPD Files (book) by Greg Trine, illustrated by Cory Loftis

Yes, I have read another Zootopia book intended for children in an effort to get a new Zootopia fix. One of these days I'll break down and dive into the fanfic.

After reading the junior novelization, I wasn't expecting much from this. The cover made it sound like it would be composed of four standalone stories (“Four stories in one!”). Since it was only 75 pages long, I figured those stories would have to be extremely simple.

In “The Stinky Cheese Caper,” Judy and Nick investigate the theft of a very expensive and very stinky cheese. In “There's Dirt in Your Eye,” Judy and Nick investigate a report of someone dumping dirt of the Old Outback Bridge. The dirt landed on a boatload of tourists and could have hurt someone. In “No Noise Is Good Noise,” Judy and Nick investigate reports of incredibly loud and horrible music coming from a cafe. All the local shopkeepers feel it's hurting their businesses. Finally, in “The Dig's Up,” Judy and Nick investigate a prison break.

This book takes place several months after the end of the movie. Judy and Nick are partners, assigned mostly to traffic duty or cases that none of the other cops want to work on. Astute readers will guess that the four stories are probably related after finishing the first one. Readers who aren't able to figure out that the stories are connected by the beginning of the second one will probably not enjoy this book because, individually and taken at face value, most of these mysteries are pretty dull.

Zootopia: The Junior Novelization (book) adapted by Suzanne Francis

Zootopia: The Junior Novelization is just what it says, a novelization of the movie.

Once again, I opted not to include read-alikes.

Review:

The first thing I did when I finished watching Zootopia for the second time was buy this. The story and characters were still in my system, and I wanted more. I knew that this book was aimed at kids and would probably only be a shadow of what I really wanted. Still, it seemed to be the best I could get as far as official fiction went. What with Zootopia being a kids' movie, there are no novelizations aimed at older teens or adults.

What I tend to hope for from novelizations is at least a little of whatever it was that made me love the original, plus extra stuff that couldn't be in the original for whatever reason – new scenes, info about the characters' thoughts and feelings, or expanded versions of events. Slight differences and alternative versions of scenes can be fun too. More often than not, this junior novelization felt like little more than a slightly more detailed version of the script.

Zootopia (CGI animated movie), via the movie theater

Zootopia is children's cop/mystery movie.

I opted not to include watch-alikes or read-alikes, although I'm now on the lookout for 1) decent furry (anthropomorphized animals) fiction that I haven't read before and that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and 2) fiction with prominent cross-gender friendships that don't become romantic (harder to find than I expected, especially since I'd prefer stuff written for older teens or adults). Feel free to recommend some in a comment, if you'd like.

Review:

I probably wouldn't have gone to see Zootopia if it hadn't seen all the positive viewer comments about it. People whose opinions I usually trusted said it was far better than they'd expected. Of course, some of those same people also said that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the best movie ever, so I tried to take their recommendations with a grain of salt.

Most of what I knew about Zootopia was based on the one theatrical trailer I'd seen, the clip of Nick, the fox, and Judy, the rabbit, at the DMV. This clip was okay the first time around, but it was almost painful to watch the second and third time. It also left me with the impression that Zootopia didn't really have much of a plot. Thankfully, the movie was much better than that clip led me to believe. In fact, I loved it so much that I went to see it a second time.

I'll keep my synopsis as spoiler-free as possible, but keep in mind that that means I have to leave out a lot. Basically, in the world of Zootopia, mammals have evolved to the point where they've become sentient. Predators and prey now live in peace, although prejudice is still a problem – animals who were traditionally prey are sometimes fearful of animals who were traditionally predators, and foxes, in particular, are looked down upon (why foxes and not tigers, lions, or any number of other predators? I have no idea).

Judy is a rabbit living in the rural town of Bunnyburrow. Although her parents would love it if she became a carrot farmer like them, Judy's greatest dream is to become a police officer, the very first bunny cop. She accomplishes her dream and is even assigned to Zootopia, the big city she's always wanted to visit, but reality isn't quite like she imagined. While doing her job and trying to keep her spirits up, Judy meets Nick, a cynical and street smart con artist fox. After Judy makes a rash promise, Nick becomes her best bet for finding the missing predators and keeping her job.