BACKGROUND
The 2010s saw Disney Animation release hit after hit.
Well, for the most part. We don’t need to mention that 2011 Winnie the Pooh remake, a minor speed bump on the road to success.
Now that Disney Animation was fully immersed in the world of computer animation, they were doing well. And not even just with fairy tale musicals, like Tangled (2010) and Frozen (2013), which, obviously became a huge phenomenon all of its own, but with non-musicals too, that were based on video games and superheroes – I’m looking at you, Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and Big Hero 6 (2014). It was great to see Disney branching out and doing something different. All of those films did well both financially and critically.
Disney just needed to keep that momentum going, and they did just that in 2016, with Zootopia, a movie about a city full of anthropomorphised animals. It dealt with issues such as prejudice, discrimination, and unconscious bias – all topics that have been discussed amongst the human population for a few years now, but 2016 was a big year for these types of debates. Disney managed to get their own message in at the perfect time.
Although this message about not judging others by what they look like, which in Zootopia’s case is masked behind the metaphorical city of Zootopia and its war between predators and prey, may not be fully explored in the movie, it certainly caught the attentions of the public, with many praising this effort to weigh in on the topical discussions. Some, however, felt Zootopia was a bit preachy at times, and that the message itself could be confused, not standing up to scrutiny and dissection if it’s thought about for long.
But generally, Zootopia was a hit, with critics and audiences alike. I watched Zootopia at the cinema when it was first released, and I really liked it then. It was funny; the design of the city was clever, colourful, and engaging; and the characters were flawed like any person but still remained likeable. I also enjoyed the movie’s theme song, “Try Everything”, with its message of not giving up and keeping going, even though you might fail.
However, nowadays, I don’t find myself liking Zootopia. At the time, I found the message touching, and that it hit quite close to home, in terms of our own prejudices against others who might be seen as “different” to ourselves. The moment in the film on the train, where prey animals are moving their children away from predator animals was a surprisingly moving one for me. I’m not really sure why but now, I don’t find myself ever thinking about watching the film. It could just be that I’ve over-watched it, as Zootopia has been on television over the festive period here in the UK pretty much every year since its release, or it could be that it is just too long a movie, as it stands at close to two hours. Or perhaps, I find the overall message of Zootopia to be a bit simplistic now, like it is trying to solve all the problems of the world – even though I know Disney weren’t trying to succeed in achieving world peace with their film. It’s probably a combination of all three, but many people like Zootopia, and I feel that children in particular will get a lot out of it.
PLOT
The movie begins with a brief backstory of the world, told via a school play, where it shows that there once was a time when predators attacked prey, and prey had to protect themselves or risk death. In present day, though, predators and prey have lived alongside each other peacefully for centuries. Judy Hopps, a young rabbit, has just performed in this play and has always dreamed of being a police officer. Despite the fact that others, including her parents, and a bullying fox, tell her that it’s not possible for a small rabbit to do anything great, she is determined to see this through. She enrols at Zootopia Police Academy, and although she begins training as the weakest recruit, she soon learns how to make the most of what she’s got and graduates, getting a job at the Zootopia Police District, in the thriving city of Zootopia, which is split into districts of differing ecosystems and environments, like the rainforest and the tundra. She leaves her town of Bunnyburrow, with her parents still believing she will ultimately fail and have to return home. Great parenting there…
Once at the city, Judy reports to the Zootopia Police Department (ZPD) station, where she meets Benjamin Clawhauser, the bubbly desk sergeant, and the hard-to-read, hard-to-get-close-to Chief Bogo. Whilst Bogo hands out missing resident cases to the larger, predator species of police officers, Judy is tasked with traffic offences, basically being a “meter maid”. Judy is determined to be the best she can be, so sets out giving tickets to any resident who has wrongfully parked – which doesn’t make her very popular…One day she goes into the local ice cream shop, which is run by elephants. They have a sign up saying that they have the right to refuse custom to anyone they want, so when a fox and his young son comes into the store wanting a jumbo pop, a huge ice pop meant for elephants, the elephant refuses to sell one to him. That is until Judy comes over and says it’s unlawful for him to do that and that she’ll have someone over there to shut the shop down if he still doesn’t sell the kid a jumbo pop. The elephant relents and Judy feels happy knowing she’s already made a difference – albeit a small one – in Zootopia.
However, Judy soon realises that she has been conned, as the same fox and his “son”, actually not his son or even a child, are spotted melting down the jumbo pop in the hot sun, and taking the liquid to Tundra Town to freeze into smaller popsicles. Judy then follows the two back to the city where the popsicles are being sold to lemmings who seemingly work in finance at the Lemming Brothers Bank – I would’ve thought health and safety was a better profession for lemmings. Judy confronts the fox, Nick, who tells her that he has all the permits needed to make this enterprise legal and that the “dumb bunny” can’t do anything about it. Feeling emboldened after this put-down by Nick, Judy sets about looking for crime. She sees a weasel, Duke Weaselton, robbing a florist and chases him through the city, all the way to Little Rodentia. Luckily, no-one is hurt in the chase, though it comes very close. Big doughnut models speeding towards tiny little animals isn’t a nice image…
Back at the station, Judy is being reprimanded by Chief Bogo for her little escapade when an otter comes in, enquiring about her husband’s case; Emmitt Otterton is one of the 14 missing animals in the city. Chief Bogo is about to fob Mrs. Otterton off with some excuse when Judy hastily volunteers to look for Emmitt. The mayor’s assistant, Dawn Bellwether, a sheep, is only too glad to hear this and so Bogo gives Judy 48 hours to solve the case or she will have to resign. Judy believes she can do it, even though the case file contains just one piece of evidence: a photograph of Emmitt’s last known location. But within the photo, she sees Nick, so he is her first port of call. Nick is blackmailed into helping Judy, as she recorded their conversation earlier when he was bragging about his cons being legal. It turns out he hasn’t been paying tax on any of that “income” – big shocker there – and that is tax evasion, so Nick begrudgingly agrees to help Judy.
After a meeting with a chilled-out hippie yak, who remembers the license plate of the car Emmitt got into that day he disappeared, and a stressful wait at the DMV run by sloths, where Judy waits for an excruciatingly long time to find out where that car is, they finally are led to a limousine in Tundra Town. It turns out this limo is owned by Mr. Big, a tiny shrew that sounds an awful lot like the Godfather. He is feared by many residents of Zootopia, but luckily, just as he is about to “ice” Judy and Nick for trespassing – and because Nick once sold him a “skunk butt rug”, which he’s understandably not happy about, Mr. Big’s daughter comes in and announces that Judy was the one who saved her from the rolling doughnut during the chase earlier at Little Rodentia. They are instead invited to the daughter’s wedding, where Mr. Big tells them to talk to the chauffeur that drove Emmitt that day; he is called Manchas, a black jaguar who lives in the Rainforest District.
Nick and Judy go over to the Rainforest District, and find that Manchas is quite injured. He tells them that Emmitt said something about “night howlers” and then went savage, attacking Manchas in the car, before running into the night. Suddenly, Manchas then goes savage and chases after Nick and Judy. The two manage to tie up Manchas and call for police back-up. Chief Bogo and other officers arrive to find that Manchas has gone. Bogo orders Judy to resign, as she is an embarrassment to the force, but Nick says they still have ten hours left to solve the case. The two continue on their journey, where Judy learns that Nick has been struggling with self-doubt for years as he was bullied by other prey animals as a child. As a young fox all Nick wanted was to join the Junior Ranger Scouts; he would be the only predator in the group, but he didn’t think it mattered. Unfortunately, the other members of the troop were not so forward-thinking and during Nick’s “initiation ceremony”, the kids pinned him down and tied a muzzle to him, saying they would never trust a predator. This is why Nick doesn’t see any point in trying to be a better fox, because if the world is only going to see him as a bad guy, he may as well be one.
Nick and Judy decide they need to see the traffic cameras from the area that night to figure out where Manchas went. Dawn Bellwether shows them at the mayor’s office, where they discover that wolves took him. Judy believes these must be the “night howlers”. Judy and Nick follow the wolves to an abandoned building. Breaking inside, they discover that all of the missing residents are being housed there – and it turns out Mayor Lionheart was behind it, though he claims he was only keeping them there to find out what turned them savage. He is arrested for false imprisonment and Bellwether becomes the new mayor. At a press conference, Judy is given the spotlight to explain the solved case. She accidentally seems to imply that the predators are going savage because they are giving in to their natural instincts, which both alienates Nick, who himself is a predator, and makes all the prey suspicious of all the predators in the city, igniting a war between them. Judy soon quits her job as a police officer, believing this mess to be her fault, and returns to Bunnyburrow.
Back home, Judy is managing her parents’ vegetable stand, when an old foe from her past comes to the stand. It is the fox who bullied her as a child, Gideon, but he is just a hard-working farmer now. At the same time, Judy’s parents tell their children not to go near the Midnicampum flowers. Gideon says that’s a fancy name for them and that he used to call them “night howlers”. Judy asks for more information on them. Her father says that her mother’s brother ate one once and went crazy, biting Judy’s mother. Judy realises that this flower is actually causing the animals to go savage, and that it can happen to prey too.
She rushes back to Zootopia and apologises to Nick, who seems uninterested at first but soon forgives her, especially as she calls herself a “dumb bunny”, which makes Nick laugh. The two need to speak to Duke Weaselton, who has been stealing these flower bulbs, and, using Mr. Big, they get him to admit that a ram named Doug told him to steal them. They follow Doug into the subway, into a disused train, where a whole lab has been set up to manufacture the night howlers’ poison into pellets that can be shot at animals, turning them savage. Judy and Nick attempt to take the train all the way to the police station as evidence, but the whole train explodes and they are left with just the loaded dart gun. They try to get to the police station on foot, but are followed to the Natural History Museum by the rams. Their leader is also with them – and it’s Dawn Bellwether! Judy and Nick become trapped in an exhibit and Bellwether shoots Nick with the gun. Bellwether reveals that this was all her plan, wanting the predators to be shut away so that the prey can dominate the city. Nick is seen to go savage, but actually it is all an act; the two swapped out the night howler pellets for regular blueberries from Judy’s parents’ farm.
They also recorded Bellwether’s confession and luckily, the police soon arrive to arrest Bellwether and her accomplices. The predators are cured and go back to their normal ways, living peacefully in the town. Judy also gets her job back and encourages Nick to go through police training too. He graduates and becomes the first fox police officer, joining Judy as partners. They also seem to be a couple now, so whether or not their relationship can last whilst working together remains to be seen! The movie ends with all the characters attending pop star Gazelle’s big concert.
CHARACTERS & CAST
Zootopia takes place within a city built by animals where they all live “in harmony” together, living as humans do by wearing clothes, talking, and walking around on two legs. Zootopia has strong characters to get behind. Judy Hopps is a great character, as she is so positive and determined to be taken seriously that you can’t help but like her, even if she does come across as naïve at times. She is shown to have the same unconscious biases as all the other animals do – and humans do – by fearing Nick at times just because he is a fox, a rabbit’s natural enemy. The fox deterrent she takes to Zootopia to please her parents ends up being a safety tool for her, even though she doesn’t always realise it. Judy is a great role model, as she doesn’t let life get her down for very long, and she is eager to move forward at every chance she gets.
Ginnifer Goodwin voices Judy Hopps. She has appeared in television series such as Big Love (2006-11), where she played Margene Heffman, and she starred as Snow White / Mary Margaret in the ABC series Once Upon a Time (2011-18). Goodwin has also been seen in romantic comedy movies such as He’s Just Not That Into You (2009) with an all-star cast, and Something Borrowed (2011). She voiced the character of Fawn for another Disney movie: Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2014). As Judy Hopps, Ginnifer Goodwin won Best Animated Female at the Alliance of Women Film Journalists awards, where she tied with Auli’I Cravalho, the voice of Moana, from Disney’s Moana, their other 2016 movie release. An interesting fact is that Josh Dallas, Goodwin’s real-life husband, as well as her on-screen husband, as he portrayed Prince Charming / David in Once Upon a Time gets a cameo voice role as “The Frantic Pig”, the unnamed owner of Flora & Fauna which is robbed by Duke Weaselton.
Nick Wilde is my favourite character as he is just a lot more fun, and some of the things he says are patronising, but funny: “It’s called a hustle, sweetheart” – though that comes back to bite him a couple of times in the movie! He’s a con-artist, but he’s not actually harming anyone by what he’s doing. He’s sort of a lovable rogue, I suppose, and he does have a sensitive side; it’s quite emotional to hear how Nick became that cynical from his experiences as a child. It was because of this that Nick learned he would never let anyone know that they’d got to him, and that if the world was only ever going to see him as one thing, then what was the point in trying to be something else. It’s horrible to think about, but it’s all too real. Kids can be cruel, as can adults, and it just shows how discrimination and fear of others can start at a young age, and how people feel they have to change how they act either to fit the rhetoric surrounding them, or change themselves to fit in.
Nick Wilde is voiced by Jason Bateman, who won the Annie Award for Outstanding Voice Acting for this character. Alongside Ginnifer Goodwin, the two also won the Favorite Frenemies award at the Kids’ Choice Awards. Outside of Zootopia, Jason Bateman has appeared in numerous screen projects. He starred as Michael Bluth in the series Arrested Development (2003-19), where he won Golden Globe and Satellite awards for his performance in 2005. He also starred as Marty Byrde in the series Ozark (2017-22), this time winning three Screen Actors Guild awards for his acting, and a Primetime Emmy award for his directing. Bateman has also appeared in movies such as Horrible Bosses (2011) and its 2014 sequel as Nick Hendricks, and recently acted alongside Matt Damon in Air (2023).
So that’s the two main characters, but we can’t forget our villain, Dawn Bellwether. As a sheep, the audience doesn’t believe that she could ever be evil – that shows how we judge everyone based on appearance. Bellwether seems over-worked and under-appreciated by Mayor Lionheart, who disrespects her frequently. The viewers feel sorry for her, so when she does finally became Mayor, because Lionheart has seemingly been behind the whole missing predator scandal, it feels like a victory for the “underdogs”, showing that you can get somewhere in life even if you seem small and helpless. But it turns out that is not the case, as Bellwether had her own plot to have prey dominate society by turning them against predators, and forcing predators to go savage. I have always liked surprise villain twists, and this is one of the good ones. I personally didn’t see it coming, but then again, I’ve never been particularly good at guessing movie plots; I get too absorbed in the story to think ahead. Although Bellwether isn’t the most fearsome or evil villain, it shows how one person can force their ideas and opinions onto more people, especially when they are in a position of power. Judy and Nick manage to out-think her in the museum though, and their little scene of pretending that Nick has gone savage and is about to kill Judy is a very clever throwback to the first scene in the movie, of Judy in her school play.
Dawn Bellwether is voiced by Jenny Slate, who has a long career of voice acting. For example, she voiced Gidget the Pomeranian in The Secret Life of Pets (2016) and its 2019 sequel. She has also voiced characters in these series: Big Mouth (2017-present); The Great North (2021-present); and Bob’s Burgers (2012-present), and its 2022 movie. Slate recently appeared in the romantic comedy I Want You Back (2022) for Amazon Prime. Slate was also a cast member on Saturday Night Live for one season between 2009 and 2010.
There are plenty more characters to mention in Zootopia after these three, so here are some of my favourites. Chief Bogo is a buffalo and police chief at the ZPD. He’s brusque and grumpy, but he does have one of the best lines in the film, a very deadpan “Let it go”, when he’s telling Judy that life isn’t about singing a song and all your dreams coming true; obviously a reference to one of the most common Disney tropes and to one of the most famous Disney songs of all time. Idris Elba voices Chief Bogo. Elba also voiced two other characters for Disney’s 2016 movie releases: Shere Khan for The Jungle Book live-action remake, and Fluke the sea lion in Finding Dory (2016) for Pixar. Elba has recently voiced the character of Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) and is set to reprise the role for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) and the Paramount+ series Knuckles. On television, Idris Elba appeared as Stringer Bell in The Wire (2002-04), and starred as DCI John Luther in the BBC series Luther (2010-19), for which he won a Critics’ Choice Television award, a Golden Globe award, and a SAG award. Elba portrays Heimdall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Also, there is Flash, the “fastest” sloth at the DMV. This whole scene is just a mickey-take of how slow administration workers can be, which I think many people can relate to! Flash speaks and does everything annoyingly slowly; I really feel Judy’s pain when she’s waiting for him to type a few simple letters into the computer, and then Nick decides to tell a joke to Flash mid-typing so he takes even longer to finish the task. It’s a good scene, probably my favourite one in Zootopia. It’s also hilarious to find at the end of the movie that the speeding car Judy and Nick have seen and followed is actually being driven by Flash, who would’ve thought it? Raymond S. Persi voices Flash. Persi has directed episodes of The Simpsons (1989-present) and won a Primetime Emmy award for the episode “The Seemingly Never-Ending Story”. For Disney, Persi has also provided the voices for other characters, including Gene, the Mayor of Niceland, in Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). There is another voice cameo here too. Kristen Bell voices Priscilla, one of Flash’s colleagues. Apparently, she got the role because of her love of sloths. Kristen Bell is obviously well-known for her voice role of Anna in the Frozen franchise.
Some other great voice castings include Bonnie Hunt as the voice of Judy’s mother, and she has voiced a few characters for Pixar movies, including Sally in the Cars franchise (2006-2022), and Dolly in the Toy Story franchise since 2010. She also voiced Rosie the spider in A Bug’s Life (1998). Octavia Spencer provides the voice of Mrs. Otterton, wife of the missing Emmitt Otterton. Spencer won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and the BAFTA, for her role as Minny Jackson in The Help (2011). Most recently, Spencer played Poppy Parnell in the AppleTV+ series Truth Be Told (2019-23), and was cast in other notable movies such as The Shape of Water (2017) and Hidden Figures (2017).
Rounding out some of the voice cast, we have Disney’s “good luck charm” Alan Tudyk, who has voiced numerous characters for Disney films. Here he voices Duke Weaselton, which is another Frozen reference, but this time to Tudyk’s character the Duke of Weselton in that film. Other voice roles of his include King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Alistair Krei in Big Hero 6 (2014), Hei Hei in Moana (2016), and Valentino in Wish (2023).
I also particularly like Benjamin Clawhauser, a cheetah who is the desk sergeant at the Zootopia Police Department. He is clearly meant to be the stereotypical lazy police officer who spends all day eating doughnuts! He’s funny, and obsessed with Gazelle, a famous pop star – and gazelle. He spends most of the movie talking about her and playing with some sort of app that puts his face on one of her dancers. Nate Torrence voiced Benjamin Clawhauser. He played the part of Lloyd in the comedy-action film Get Smart (2008) and its direct-to-video sequel. He also appeared in the film She’s Out of My League (2010) and the sitcom Hello Ladies (2013-14). Speaking of Gazelle, she is voiced by Colombian pop sensation Shakira. Gazelle is part of an important scene during the “species war” as she is leading a peace rally, stating the dangers of becoming so divided. It’s not a big role but she makes an impact.
MUSIC
Shakira gets to sing the only song in the film “Try Everything”, and luckily, it’s a good one! The movie ends with a huge dance party, and this song being sung at Gazelle’s big concert. Everyone starts dancing to it, even Chief Bogo, who we see is actually a closet Gazelle fan, something that Clawhauser is ecstatic to find out! “Try Everything” also plays during the amazing train journey that Judy takes from Bunnyburrow to the city centre, as she goes through all the other districts that make up Zootopia, experiencing all the different plant life and weather cycles that go with it. We are hearing “Try Everything” at this point through Judy’s iPod. At the Disney Parks, the song has also been performed during shows like Tokyo Disneyland’s Mickey’s Magical Music World stage show, and at Mickey’s Storybook Adventure at Shanghai Disneyland. “Try Everything” was written by superstar singer Sia with Stargate’s Tor E. Hermansen and Mikkel S. Eriksen, and was nominated for Best Song at both the Teen Choice Awards and the Grammys, however, it lost out to “I’m in Love with a Monster” from Hotel Transylvania 2 (2016) at the Teen Choice Awards, which I don’t understand because I’ve watched Hotel Transylvania 2 many times and can’t even remember that song, and to “Can’t Stop the Feeling” from Trolls (2016) at the Grammys, which is kind of understandable.
Along with that, Michael Giacchino composed the score for Zootopia. Giacchino had previously composed the score for Pixar’s film Up (2010), for which he won the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Critics’ Choice Award for Best Score. Giacchino has composed numerous scores for Pixar movies, beginning with The Incredibles (2004), and its 2018 sequel, Ratatouille (2007), and Inside Out (2015). Outside of Pixar, he has composed music for the most recent Spider-Man films, the three latest Jurassic World movies, and for the series of Disney television Christmas specials, Prep & Landing (2009-11). Giacchino was also nominated for Primetime Emmy awards for his work on the series Lost (2004-10), winning one for his underscore of its pilot episode. For the Zootopia soundtrack, Michael Giacchino made sure to include many different percussion instruments from around the globe to create a “world music” feel, to enhance the diversity message of the movie[1]. I particularly like the pieces “Ticket to Write”, which plays as Judy is working as a traffic warden, for its upbeat, dance music feel, and “The Naturalist”, from the yoga retreat, though all of the score is placed well in the film.
PRODUCTION
Zootopia is an original story from Disney. It was first pitched as an idea to John Lasseter in the early 2010s, by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, who were the directors of Tangled (2010). They pitched six different ideas for new film plots, with many of them involving anthropomorphic animals, i.e., animals that act like humans. John Lasseter liked the sound of Disney making another animal movie, as Robin Hood (1973) was one of the last ones to do that. Once the “animal movie” had been agreed upon, the team did over a year of research looking into animals and their behaviours. Part of this research was done close to home, at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom Park, where they spent time talking to the animal care staff. More research was completed on a trip to Africa. During this visit, they found themselves watching the animals at the watering hole, where they discovered that actually, although natural enemies, the lions drank next to the zebras with no issues; they just drank their water and left. This gave the team the idea of cooperation and understanding despite differences, so that became the central core of Zootopia, where animals co-exist together, regardless of the fact they have different behaviours and instincts. This idea grew into becoming a story about bias and discrimination, but moving it into the animal world made it more of a fable or metaphor, so that it wouldn’t become preachy[2].
The movie plot ultimately moved away from one of the ideas they’d worked on for quite a while. Though they knew that they wanted to make a movie about animals, specifically mammals and the divide between predator and prey because of what they had encountered in Africa, they had a very different angle to begin with. Nick Wilde, that sleazy con-man, or con-fox, I guess, was going to be the main protagonist of Zootopia. The idea was that all predators would receive on their fifth birthdays a “tame collar”, which is basically like a shock collar, so it would emit a shock to the predator whenever they became too emotional or angry, and this was because even though prey outnumber predators 10:1, the prey only felt safe around predators if they were wearing these collars. I watched one of the deleted scenes from this original story, of a polar bear giving his son his “tame collar” on his birthday; the father obviously feeling sad about it as it is the first step to his son losing his freedom, but the son happy about it because it means he is all grown up. He receives his first shock soon after… It’s quite an emotional scene considering it wasn’t even fully animated, just storyboard images. This version of the movie did not do well in internal screenings as it felt very negative and cynical through Nick’s eyes so the idea was scrapped, and they decided to tell the same predator vs. prey story and convey the same message as they had originally intended but from Judy the rabbit’s point of view.
Zootopia’s overall message is one that hits quite close to home, even seven years later, because there has been so much division not just between different countries, but between residents of those countries; there are less and less people willing to see the other side’s point of view, turning us into “black-and-white thinkers”, so co-operation is at an all-time low around the world, where suspicion and tension are rife. The scene where Judy has inadvertently started a war between prey and predator is not nice to watch, as it feels very real even in our lives, where we are striving for inclusion and equality, yet can’t see past our differences or even see our similarities. It feels like a very relevant take on life today. I hate the brief scene where there is a tiger getting on a train, and the mother moves her child away from it, even though the tiger isn’t doing anything, and doesn’t look dangerous, all because the media have got to the prey animals, making them think these predators will attack them seemingly for no reason. Sometimes it just feels all too real, and it is saddening.
But Zootopia isn’t meant to make us feel “doom and gloom”, as there are plenty of positive points to focus on, and one of those is the look of the film. To make the world of Zootopia look realistic, Disney decided early on that they needed to create the animals to scale in the real world, so that an elephant would be much bigger than Judy and Nick, as they would in real-life. Judy and Nick also have quite a height difference as would be natural for them. The other challenge was that the animals would be walking on two legs, like humans, however, their body shapes and structures did not make tailoring clothes to them easy, or even just having them stand up look natural! It took a lot of modifications to allow these characters to work. There was an impressive number of hairs that needed to be added to each character, and across 60 different species of animal. Nick and Judy have over two million hairs each, and one giraffe has over nine million! This required an upgrade to the technology as their computer system had mostly been used for human hair. Now the fur had to be specific to each animal, i.e., coarse, soft, dark, or light. Disney even went into enough detail to add different shades of colour to the fur so that it was darker closer to the skin[3]. To ensure that the animals didn’t act too much like humans, the animators exaggerated some of their natural instinctive movements that are obvious at times, for example, Judy’s ears go up and her nose twitches when she hears something or feels scared, as rabbits do[4].
The animals also got to wear clothes, including trousers, unlike many other Disney characters, including those in Robin Hood (1973) and even Donald Duck himself! Though it wouldn’t be a real world if we didn’t have naturist animals, as we see during the scene at the yoga retreat. Judy gets really freaked out seeing all these animals not wearing clothes and contorting their bodies into unnatural positions, and her reactions are brilliant! To be fair, many of us wouldn’t probably feel the same should we ever be faced with naked people when we aren’t expecting it!
Disney went into very specific detail when creating the city of Zootopia itself. It is split into several districts, with some of these that we see in the movie being: Sahara Square, Tundratown, Rainforest District, and Little Rodentia, as well as Downtown. We also see Judy’s hometown of Bunnyburrow, but it is a rural neighbourhood miles away from Zootopia. When Judy is travelling to the centre of Zootopia, the train goes through all these districts, and we see how they are situated next to each other and their specific climates. The animators spent a lot of time figuring out how the animals would move around the city, as they were all different sizes. I like the train with its three separate doors, with the tiny one at the bottom being for rodents; it shows the level of detail that went into this film[5].
RECEPTION
Before Zootopia’s official release, attendees of the 2015 D23 convention got to see a panel about upcoming film releases from Disney. Directors Byron Howard, who had pitched the initial idea, and Rich Moore, who came on as director later in production and had previously co-directed Wreck-It Ralph (2012) told the crowd about their research in Kenya where they studied animals in the savannah, and explained the different neighbourhoods of Zootopia. The panel released a few exclusive clips, like the one of Nick and Judy at the DMV, and another of Judy making sure Nick got to buy his “jumbo pop”. This pre-release footage increased excitement for the movie and many attendees seemed to think it was going to be a high-quality, comedic film[6].
Zootopia was widely released in March 2016, after being shown at the Brussels Animation Film Festival in Belgium in February of that year. Due to trademark reasons, Zootopia was released under a different title in some countries. In some European countries, including the UK, as well as parts of the Middle East and Africa, the movie is called Zootropolis, referencing the term “metropolis” instead of “utopia”. In Germany, the film was actually named Zoomania, as a children’s book called Zootropolis was published in 2010 in over there; it was written by author Kay Fischer. Despite the change of title in some countries, generally the movie is the same in any country – apart from one thing. The animal newscasters are tailored to the country they are reporting from in some cases. The news anchor on the left is always a snow leopard but the anchor on the right changes. Mostly, the right anchor is a moose, including in Europe and the US, however, in Australia and New Zealand, it is a koala; China has a panda; and Japan has a raccoon dog[7].
Zootopia did incredibly well at the box-office, becoming the second-highest-grossing animated film of 2016, behind Pixar’s Finding Dory, and the-second-highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film at the time, after Frozen. It was the fourth-highest-grossing movie of 2016, with Finding Dory at #3 and The Jungle Book live-action remake at #5. Zootopia currently stands at #11 in the highest-grossing animated films list – if you include The Lion King (2019) remake as an animated movie, which you should, because it really is.
The movie made over a $1 billion worldwide, making $73.7 million in its opening weekend in just the US and Canada; this was even more than Frozen (2013) made in its opening weekend, which was $67.4 million. Zootopia benefitted from very favourable reviews, as well as a lack of competition in theatres at that time of year especially in the children’s entertainment sector[8]. Normally, Disney and Pixar release their movies either in summer or during the festive period.
Although Zootopia did get many positive reviews, which credited the state-of-the-art animation, the humour, the mystery element to the plot, and the overall inclusivity message, it did not escape criticism of its overall theme. Zootopia tells us not to judge others based on pre-conceived ideas, however, many of the gags within the film involve just those types of stereotypes, such as jokes around sloths being slow, and rabbits multiplying. The city also claims to live in a peaceful time of co-existence between all species, yet because there once was a time when predators and prey did not live in harmony, then the fear remains that life could revert back to these original biological instincts. So, if you think about it for too long and start to question the message, then it doesn’t hold up under this intense examination[9]. But I think Disney were just trying to simplify the message and say that you shouldn’t judge others by their appearance and that anyone can be anything they want, regardless of their circumstances. It’s supposed to be motivating for the children of today, and is unlikely to hit adults in quite the same way.
Zootopia went on to win numerous awards, including in the Best Animated Feature category at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice, Annie Awards, and the Academy Awards. It did not win the BAFTA in this same category, though, losing to Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings (2016). Zootopia also won other awards, including many at the Annie Awards in Character Design, Directing, Storyboarding and Writing.
LEGACY
Following on from the success of Zootopia, Disney released a series on Disney+ in November 2022 titled Zootopia+ which consisted of six short episodes looking at characters from the film that perhaps didn’t get enough screen time, such as Mr. Big’s daughter, Fru Fru, Duke Weaselton, and Clawhauser, with those voice actors returning to reprise their roles. The series also included some new characters. It was a relatively amusing series, and they were short episodes, making them easy to watch, but it wasn’t overly necessary in my opinion. Zootopia will also soon have its own sequel, with Zootopia 2 due to be released in November 2025, after Bob Iger announced it was in the works in February 2023. Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman are set to return to their roles of Judy and Nick respectively.
At the Disney Parks, Zootopia is slowly but surely being seen more and more. It started early with a limited time exhibit opening 29th January 2016, just over a month before the movie’s theatrical release, within Rafiki’s Planet Watch at Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. This exhibit showed some of the research of animals that the team completed during production on Zootopia. A preview of the film was also shown at the Walt Disney Presents attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World from 21st January 2016, and at the Bug’s Life Theater, which was closed in 2018 to make way for Avengers Campus, in Disney California Adventure at Disneyland from 22nd January[10].
Also at Disneyland, Judy and Nick were added as character meet-and-greet opportunities at both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure in March 2016, as part of promotion for the new movie. Similarly, at Walt Disney World in Magic Kingdom, Judy and Nick were both added to the Move It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! street parade. The two characters also debuted at Disneyland Paris in 2016, and were spotted on top one of the floats in the Disneyland Paris 30th anniversary parade, Dream…and Shine Brighter, but have not found themselves permanently featured at these parks yet. At Hong Kong Disneyland, Judy and Nick continue to be listed as characters you can meet at the location Meet Disney Friends at Karibuni Marketplace in Adventureland.
Due to the continued interest in the movie, it is likely characters will continue to appear at Special Events, such as DVC After Hours events and Halloween parties. Judy and Nick were available for meet-and-greets for the Earth Day celebrations at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 2024, for example. They may be featured more as new attractions are made, and with the upcoming movie sequel. At Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, Zootopia was considered as a theme to replace the Dinoland, U.S.A, area, however at D23 2023, it was basically confirmed that this area would instead be themed to Encanto and Indiana Jones. It was confirmed, though, that a 3D show based on Zootopia will replace the It’s Tough to be a Bug! show that is housed within the Tree of Life. No expected opening dates have yet been given.
Currently, at Tokyo Disneyland, there is a float section dedicated to Zootopia within the Harmony in Color Parade that debuted in April 2023 for Tokyo’s 40th anniversary. It features Judy, Nick, and Clawhauser, as well as a sculpture of Flash sitting in a doughnut atop the float/ There was also a castle stage show here, titled Judy and Nick’s Jumpin’ Splash that only ran during Summer 2019. It took some inspiration from Shanghai Disneyland’s Summer Blast show of 2017, which also featured the song “Try Everything” and Judy and Nick in its opening section.
But the most exciting Zootopia-themed attraction is at Shanghai Disneyland, where a whole new land opened on 20th December 2023. The city of Zootopia has been re-created with as much fun and colour as the movie. You can even see animatronic characters from the film who will interact with each other from the windows on the street in the atmosphere show Disney Zootopia Comes Alive, which operates throughout the day. At Jumbeaux’s Café, you can purchase the famous paw-shaped popsicle and Clawhauser’s favourite doughnuts. There is also a shop called Fashions by Fru Fru. Judy and Nick also feature as meet-and-greet characters in their police uniforms. There is a trackless dark ride, Zootopia: Hot Pursuit, which sees you go on a police chase through the various neighbourhoods of Zootopia as you try to save Gazelle from Dawn Bellwether, who has kidnapped her on the day of her big performance at the Zootopia Day Concert. The queue and pre-show have very impressive animatronics of Officer Clawhauser and Chief Bogo. Finally, at Shanghai Disneyland, at their Garden of the Twelve Friends, Judy Hopps replaced Thumper from Bambi (1942) as the icon for Year of the Rabbit from 2023.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Although I don’t particularly enjoy Zootopia, I do find it very clever and funny. Sadly, I just can’t love it. I think it makes me feel too uncomfortable and emotional watching it, because it’s clear to see how our world is divided; we seem to be getting further away from living in any sort of harmony. It’s a scary time at the moment. If I’m watching a Disney movie, I’d rather be escaping from the troubles of today than have them portrayed as some sort of fable. But Zootopia is certainly a good movie for children, who don’t necessarily need to know about the realities and cynicism of life quite yet, but need to know how important it is to be kind to others, and strive to be whoever they want to be.
Zootopia is probably the most powerful and hard-hitting film to come out of Disney so far, because of its message, which it cushions with a colourful, bright, fun city, full of interesting characters and habitats. I can certainly see why Disney are increasingly including the film in their Disney Parks, and why many people love the film, even if I don’t myself.
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Disney, Zoology: The Roundtables (2016).
[2] Credit: Ed Gross, ‘Zootopia: a final behind the scenes look’, Empire (online), 14th June 2016.
[3] Credit: Jeremy Kay, ‘’Zootopia’: the painstaking journey behind a billion dollar hit’, Screen Daily.com, date unknown.
[4] Credit: Disney, “Research: A True Life Adventure”, from Zootopia (2016) Blu-Ray (2016).
[5] Credit: Disney, Zoology: The Roundtables (2016).
[6] Credit: Mark Hughes, ‘Disney’s ‘Zootopia’ Earns Big Laughs At D23’, Forbes (online), 15th August 2015.
[7] Credit: Trent Moore, ‘The Untold Truth of Zootopia’, Looper.com, updated 3rd April 2018.
[8] Credit: Frank Pallotta, ‘’Zootopia’ roars to biggest opening in Disney Animation history’, CNN.com, 6th March 2016.
[9] Credit: Emily St. James, ‘Zootopia wants to teach kids about prejudice. Is it accidentally sending the wrong message?’, Vox.com, 7th March 2016.
[10] Credit: Shawn Slater, ‘Discover the Real World Research Behind Walt Disney Animation Studios’ ‘Zootopia’ in a New Exhibit Coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom’, Disney Parks Blog, 20th January 2016.
The Disney Purist 