>>80921808I'm pretty sure LotR was about Catholicism and forgiveness. It does comment on our world, but certainly not in the way that's common for science fiction. And comparing Fantasy as a genre and Star Trek as an example of science fiction is a bit of an unfair fight, given that Star Trek can without exageration be said to be some of the best television and science fiction ever.
In the end, there are no real rules, and loads of people simply say "magic = fantasy, technology = science fiction". Even Margaret Atwood abhorred the idea that she was writing science fiction, despite it clearly being science fiction, because most people figure science fiction to be "space ships and talking squid".
Neither genre needs to do any social commentary to be considered part of the genre. So if we pare it down, we can say science fiction is all fiction where scientific progress changes the setting from our world in a way that informs the plot. On the other hand, fantasy is all fiction that draws inspiration from mythology, legend, and history, and where this inspiration directly informs the plot. Both are speculative fiction because their central themes revolve around speculation from a certain known point.
This also shines an interesting light on that redheaded stepchild, steampunk. Because steampunk does BOTH. It takes the concept of science fiction (scientific progress) and places it in a world informed by myth, legend, and history (some of which used to be the science fiction of the 19th century).
So, to answer the central question: Zootopia is firmly in the realm of science fiction. Not in the least because its name and central theme unvoke one of the old mainstays of science fiction; the utopia. Utopia itself being, basically, science fiction from 1516.
