"It has the makings of a good story, and it settled for less than what it could've been." I love that point that you made right there, including the one about the fan-base surrounding a story's "what-ifs" rather than what it really is. It could apply to a number of recent Western animated kids programs, particularly others that try to tackle what this movie tried to tackle (i.e. fantasy racism, sanitized historical revisionism, police brutality, fantastical fascism). Within the latter half of the last decade, this was especially the case with certain Avatar the Last Airbender wannabes like Steven Universe or Star vs the Forces of Evil.
The politics of this film is exactly why I disagree with the sentiments that Zootopia is an adult film, not a childrens. Yes, it touches up on some pretty adult themes but they are not presented in the real life way that adults are familiar with. Much like how Beowolf is fairy tale it is about a real life Monarch without the real life storybeats.
