Night of the Zoopocalypse Parent Guide

Nothing exciting ever happens at the Culpepper Zoo. That’s the opinion of Gracie (Gabbi Kosmidis), a young wolf with an adventurous streak, much to the chagrin of the rest of her pack. But one night, a mysterious meteor lands in the middle of the zoo, where a curious bunny eats it and transforms into a zombie intent on spreading its mutation to the rest of the zoo. As chaos erupts, a small group of animals find shelter in the veterinary office, including Gracie and Dan (David Harbour), a grumpy mountain lion fresh from the wild. Desperate to avoid the zombies, the animals have to band together to find a way to survive the night.

I’m not a horror movie person, but I appreciate the craft, especially of the old classics. I also appreciate the idea of a kid-friendly zombie flick as a way to introduce young audiences to the genre. But the line between fun and scary is a fine one, especially for children, and this film crosses that line more than I expected. My eight-year-old, who has seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as every Marvel and Star Wars film, said this movie was “pretty scary” and expressed concern about having nightmares of certain scenes. He’s not an easy scare, so if he feels that way, I imagine most children younger than him will too. I will admit I found a few scenes disturbing, mostly due to the visuals of the zombies combining into Franken-critters.

With that major warning out of the way, the film itself is a mixed bag. The script seems to be missing huge chunks of story, as some of the character motivations are never explained and the relationship between Gracie and Dan makes no sense, even though it’s meant to be the emotional core of the story. My biggest complaint is that the character design doesn’t measure up to the overall animation quality, which is pretty good. My son had to ask what type of animal Gracie was in the first act, and he’s too old to need to do that. I can appreciate a unique style, but it has to be readable and at least somewhat visually appealing.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed a lot of the side characters and had some genuine laughs. There are also some sweet messages around teamwork, selflessness, bravery, and loyalty. The zombies themselves are very creatively designed, which is hard to do in such an oversaturated genre.

Night of the Zoopocalypse is an okay movie with some flashes of brilliance and a script in need of rewrites. Though there are enjoyable elements, the scare levels are high for children’s media, so parents should use caution when deciding if this is the right choice for their family. The last thing any of us want is to give our kids more excuses to wake us up in the middle of the night.