Zootopia facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Zootopia
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Byron Howard Rich Moore
Produced by	Clark Spencer
Screenplay by	Jared Bush Phil Johnston
Story by	Byron Howard Rich Moore Jared Bush Jim Reardon Josie Trinidad Phil Johnston Jennifer Lee
Starring	Ginnifer Goodwin Jason Bateman Idris Elba Jenny Slate Nate Torrence Bonnie Hunt Don Lake Tommy Chong J. K. Simmons Octavia Spencer Alan Tudyk Shakira
Music by	Michael Giacchino
Cinematography	Nathan Warner (layout) Brian Leach (lighting)
Editing by	Fabienne Rawley Jeremy Milton
Studio	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release date(s)	February 13, 2016 (2016-02-13) (Belgium) March 4, 2016 (2016-03-04) (United States)
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$150 million
Money made	$1.025 billion

Zootopia (titled Zootropolis or Zoomania in various regions) is a 2016 American computer-animated buddy cop action comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 55th Disney animated feature film, and the first installment in the Zootopia franchise, it was directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore, co-directed by Jared Bush (in his feature directorial debut), and produced by Clark Spencer, from a screenplay written by Bush and Phil Johnston, and a story by Howard, Moore, Bush, Johnston, Jim Reardon, Josie Trinidad, and Jennifer Lee. The film stars the voices of Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrence, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Tommy Chong, J. K. Simmons, Octavia Spencer, Alan Tudyk, and Shakira. Taking place in the titular city where anthropomorphic mammals coexist, it tells a story of an unlikely partnership between a rabbit police officer and a red fox con artist as they uncover a criminal conspiracy involving the disappearance of predators.

Zootopia premiered at the Brussels Animation Film Festival in Belgium on February 13, 2016, and went into general theatrical release in Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, IMAX 3D, and 4DX formats in the United States on March 4. Zootopia received positive reviews from critics, who praised its screenplay, animation, voice acting, subject matter, and Michael Giacchino's musical score. The film opened to record-breaking box offices in several countries, and earned a worldwide gross of over $1 billion, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2016. Among other accolades, the film was named one of the top ten best films of 2016 by the American Film Institute and won Best Animated Feature at the 89th Academy Awards. A television spin-off series, Zootopia+, premiered on Disney+ on November 9, 2022. A sequel is in development.

Plot

Judy Hopps, a rabbit from rural Bunnyburrow, fulfils her childhood dream of becoming the first rabbit police officer in the urban city of Zootopia. Despite being the academy valedictorian, Judy is assigned to parking duty by ZPD Chief Bogo.

On her first day on the job, Judy is hustled by a con artist fox duo, Nick Wilde and Finnick. The next day, small-time crook Duke Weaselton steals a bag of Midnicampum holicithias crocus bulbs. Judy abandons her post to arrest Weaselton, and is reprimanded by Bogo. Mrs. Otterton unexpectedly barges into Bogo's office, pleading for someone to find her husband Emmitt, one of fourteen missing predators. Judy volunteers, and the city's assistant mayor, a sheep named Dawn Bellwether, praises the assignment. Bogo has no choice but to agree, but secretly orders Judy to resign if she fails after forty-eight hours.

Having ascertained that Nick was the last to see Emmitt, Judy forces him to help her by covertly recording his confession to tax evasion on her carrot pen. They track Emmitt's belongings to a limousine owned by crime boss Mr. Big, an arctic shrew whom Nick has a history with. Mr. Big reveals that Emmitt suddenly went "savage" and attacked Mr. Big's chauffeur Manchas, a black jaguar.

Upon interrogation, Manchas explains that, prior to attacking him, Emmitt yelled about "Night Howlers". Manchas then turns savage himself, chasing the pair. Judy traps Manchas and calls the ZPD for help, but Manchas vanishes before they arrive. Bogo demands Judy's resignation, but Nick reminds Bogo that she still has ten hours remaining. While leaving the scene, Nick reveals to Judy that he became a con artist because, as a child, he tried to join the Junior Ranger Scouts, but was bullied and rejected simply for being a fox.

At City Hall, Bellwether offers Judy and Nick access to Zootopia's traffic cameras. They discover Manchas was taken by timberwolves, whom Judy surmises are the "Night Howlers". Following the wolves, the duo locates Emmitt, Manchas, and the other missing predators, who are all "savage" and imprisoned in a hidden asylum. Zootopia's mayor, Leodore Lionheart, ordered their capture, and is trying to quietly ascertain the cause of their feral behavior. Lionheart and the asylum staff are soon arrested for false imprisonment, and Bellwether becomes the new mayor.

Judy, praised for solving the case, asks Nick to join the ZPD as her partner, but he angrily abandons her after a reporter sheep manipulates her into saying predatory biology is behind the mysterious "savageness" epidemic. Judy's comments, broadcast on television, incite fear and discrimination against predators throughout Zootopia. Wracked with guilt, Judy quits her job and returns to Bunnyburrow.

While managing her parents' vegetable stand, Judy learns that "Night Howlers" are actually Midnicampum flowers, which have severe, lasting psychotropic effects if ingested. Realizing that someone is deliberately using the flowers to turn predators savage, Judy returns to Zootopia and reconciles with Nick. Aided by Mr. Big, the pair interrogates Weaselton, who admits he was hired by a ram named Doug to steal the Night Howler bulbs. They find Doug in a laboratory hidden in the city subway, where he manufactures a Night Howler serum to be shot at predators via a dart pistol. Judy and Nick obtain a serum gun as evidence, but before they can reach the ZPD, Bellwether confronts them in the Natural History Museum, revealing herself to have masterminded this prey-supremacist conspiracy. The duo become trapped in an exhibit, and Bellwether shoots Nick with the serum gun in an attempt to have him kill Judy, only to find Judy had replaced the darts with blueberries. Judy records Bellwether's confession with the carrot pen, just as the ZPD arrives in answer to Bellwether's summons.

Bellwether and her accomplices are arrested. The still-imprisoned Lionheart publicly denies knowledge of her plot, and insists that imprisoning the infected predators was a "wrong thing for the right reason". With the cause of the epidemic identified, the predators are cured, and Judy is reinstated into the ZPD. Months later, Nick graduates from the police academy, becoming her partner and the first fox police officer.

Voice cast

• Ginnifer Goodwin as Judy Hopps, a young optimistic rabbit from Bunnyburrow and a newly appointed member of the Zootopia Police Department, assigned to the 1st Precinct.
  • Della Saba voices a younger Judy Hopps.
• Jason Bateman as Nick Wilde, a sly red fox who is a small-time con artist.
  • Kath Soucie voices a younger Nick Wilde.
• Idris Elba as Chief Bogo, an African buffalo who is the police chief of the Zootopia Police Department's 1st Precinct.
• Jenny Slate as Dawn Bellwether, a diminutive sheep who is the assistant mayor of Zootopia.
• Nate Torrence as Benjamin Clawhauser, an obese cheetah who works as a dispatcher and desk sergeant for the Zootopia Police Department's 1st Precinct.
• Bonnie Hunt as Bonnie Hopps, a rabbit from Bunnyburrow who is Judy’s mother.
• Don Lake as Stu Hopps, a rabbit from Bunnyburrow who is Judy’s father and a carrot farmer.
• Tommy Chong as Yax, a laid-back domestic yak.
• J. K. Simmons as Mayor Lionheart, a lion who is the noble, but pompous Mayor of Zootopia.
• Octavia Spencer as Mrs. Otterton, a concerned North American river otter whose husband Emmitt has gone missing.
• Alan Tudyk as Duke Weaselton, a small-time least weasel crook also known for selling bootleg DVDs. The name references the Duke of Weselton from Frozen, whom Tudyk also voices.
• Shakira as Gazelle, a Thomson's gazelle who is a famous pop star. Shakira also voices Gazelle in the Spain and Latin America Spanish dubs.
• Raymond S. Persi as Flash, the "fastest" three-toed sloth in the DMV (short for Department of Mammal Vehicles).
  • Persi also voices Officer Higgins, a hippopotamus who is an elite member of the Zootopia Police Department's 1st Precinct.
• Maurice LaMarche as Mr. Big, an Arctic shrew who is the most fearsome crime boss in Tundratown and is served by a group of polar bears.
• Phil Johnston as Gideon Grey, a red fox from Bunnyburrow who used to bully the young rabbits and sheep when he was young. As an adult, he has reconciled with those he tormented and became a much-respected baker.
  • Johnston also voices an angry offscreen character who states that his taxes pay Judy's salary after she gives him a parking ticket.
• Fuschia! as Major Friedkin, a polar bear who works at the Zootopia Police Academy as a drill instructor.
• John DiMaggio as Jerry Jumbeaux Jr., an ill-tempered African elephant who owns an ice cream parlor called Jumbeaux's Café, frequented by elephants and other larger mammals.
  • DiMaggio also voices Woolter and Jesse (a pun on the show Breaking Bad's main protagonists, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman), two tough rams who are Doug's assistants; a moose that gets a parking ticket from Judy; and a pig reporter.
• Katie Lowes as Dr. Madge Honey Badger, a honey badger scientist who helps Mayor Lionheart look for the cause of the animals' savagery.
• Gita Reddy as Nangi, an Indian elephant who works as a yoga instructor at Mystic Springs Oasis.
• Jesse Corti as Manchas, a black jaguar from Zootopia's Rainforest District who is a chauffeur for Zootopia's biggest limo company and is the personal chauffeur to Mr. Big.
• Tom Lister Jr. as Finnick, a fennec fox who is Nick's partner in crime.
• Josh Dallas as an unnamed domestic pig who frantically asks Judy for help after his "Flora and Fauna" flower shop is robbed by Duke Weaselton. He later appears as a protester at Gazelle's peace rally arguing with a female leopard.
• Leah Latham as Fru Fru, an arctic shrew and Mr. Big's daughter who befriends Judy after Judy saves her from a runaway Donut sign in Little Rodentia. She also makes Judy the Godmother and namesake of her daughter.
• Rich Moore as Doug, an emotionless ram chemist and sniper who works for Bellwether.
  • Moore also voices Larry, a gray wolf that is a security guard at Cliffside Asylum.
• Fabienne Rawley and Peter Mansbridge as Fabienne Growley and Peter Moosebridge, the snow leopard and moose anchors of the ZNN News.
  • The moose co-anchor is used in the standard version of the film, released in the United States, Italy, France, Canada, Russia, Philippines, and Mexico. In the UK version, the moose is named as Moosos Alexander, voiced by radio journalist Vassos Alexander (though the UK home release used his US name and voice). In other countries, the anchor is a different animal voiced by a different person. David Campbell voices a koala newscaster named David Koalabell in the Australian and New Zealand versions. The Brazilian version uses a jaguar named Onçardo Boi Chá who is voiced by Ricardo Boechat. The Japanese version uses a tanuki named Michael Tanuyama who is voiced by Kazumasa Kōra [ja]. The Chinese version uses an unnamed giant panda.
• Byron Howard as Bucky Oryx-Antlerson, a greater kudu who is Judy Hopps' neighbor and Pronk's husband.
  • Howard also voices Travis, Gideon Grey's black-footed ferret friend.
• Jared Bush as Pronk Oryx-Antlerson, a gemsbok who is Judy Hopps' neighbor and Bucky's husband.
• Mark Rhino Smith as Officer McHorn, a black rhinoceros police officer who is part of the Zootopia Police Department's 1st Precinct.
• Josie Trinidad as Mrs. Dharma Armadillo, a nine-banded armadillo and the landlady of the Grand Pangolin Apartments that Judy Hopps moves into.
• John Lavelle as the unnamed construction mouse foreman of Little Rodentia's construction crew who receives the Pawpsicle sticks from Nick and Finnick.
• Kristen Bell as Priscilla, a three-toed sloth and Flash's co-worker at the DMV.

Production

Writing

Development of the film that would come to be called Zootopia began when Byron Howard pitched six story ideas to Disney Animation chief creative officer and executive producer John Lasseter, of which three involved animal characters: an all-animal adaptation of The Three Musketeers, a 1960s-themed story about a "mad doctor cat...who turned children into animals", and a "bounty hunter pug in space". The common thread running through these ideas was that Howard wanted to do a film similar to Disney's Robin Hood, which also featured animals in anthropomorphic roles. According to Howard, Zootopia emerged from his desire to create something different from other animal anthropomorphic films, where animals either live in the natural world or in the human world. His concept, in which animals live in a modern world designed by animals for animals, was well received by Lasseter, who responded by embracing and lifting Howard "in the air like a baby Simba". Lasseter suggested that Howard should try combining the 1960s theme with the animal characters, especially the space pug. This led Howard to develop and pitch Savage Seas, an international spy film centered on an arctic hare named "Jack Savage" who was somewhat like James Bond. It was around this time that screenwriter Jared Bush was hired to work on the film; he was excited to work on a spy film because his own father and grandfather had worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Howard and Bush continued to develop the film with the assistance of the Disney Story Trust, the studio's top creative personnel who meet regularly to review and discuss all projects in development. The most delightful part of the spy film turned out to be its first act, set in a city created by and for animals. To focus on the all-animal city, Howard eventually dropped the 1960s setting, along with the espionage and international aspects, and changed the film into a contemporary police procedural in which Nick Wilde was the lead role and Judy Hopps was essentially his sidekick. For a while, "the filmmakers were very committed" to that version of the story, but then in November 2014, the filmmakers realized the film's plot would be more engaging if they reversed the roles to instead focus on Hopps as opposed to Wilde. The change in perspective involved dropping several characters, including two characters known as "The Gerbil Jerks" who were described as "trust-fund gerbils that had nothing better to do than harass Nick."

Pre-production

Directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore presented footage from the film at the 2015 Annecy International Animated Film Festival

In May 2013, The Hollywood Reporter initially reported that Howard was directing the film and that Jason Bateman had been cast, but little else about the film was known at the time. Zootopia was first officially announced on August 10, 2013, at the D23 Expo, with a March 2016 release date.

Research for the film took place in Disney's Animal Kingdom, as well as in Kenya and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, where animators spent eight months studying various animals' walk cycles as well as fur color. Eight hundred thousand forms of mammals were created for and featured in the film. To make the characters' fur even more realistic, they also went to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County to closely observe the appearance of fur with a microscope under a variety of lighting. The filmmakers drew inspiration for Zootopia's urban design from major cities including New York City, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Brasília. To develop a city that could actually be inhabited by talking mammals ranging in size from two inches (5.1 cm) to 27 feet (8.2 m) and from drastically different climates, the filmmakers consulted Americans with Disabilities Act specialists and HVAC system designers. For assistance with designing motor vehicles appropriate for so many different types and sizes of mammals, the filmmakers consulted with J Mays, former chief creative officer of the Ford Motor Company. During the development process, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan F. Horn suggested that Nick should expressly state his disappointment ("Just when I thought someone actually believed in me...") after discovering that Judy still fears him as a predator. In March 2015, it was revealed that Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph) had been added as a director of the film, in addition to Jared Bush (Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero) as co-director.

Animation

Disney's most recent work on animating fur was for the titular character of the 2008 film Bolt, but the software they had used at the time was not ready for creating the realistic fur of the animals of Zootopia. Therefore, the studio's IT engineers developed the fur-controlling software "iGroom", which gave character designers precise control over the brushing, shaping and shading of fur and made it possible to create a variety of eccentric character styles for each animal. The software was also able to control an unseen "imaginary" under-layer that gave fur a degree of plushness not seen before. This feature was used to create characters like Officer Clawhauser, who has a big head that is entirely made of spotted fur. Characters with noteworthy numbers of strands of hair or fur included both of the two lead characters, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, who each had around 2.5 million hairs; a giraffe with nine million strands of fur; a gerbil with 480,000 strands; and a rodent with more strands of hair than the 400,000 that were on Elsa's head in Frozen.

Zootopia was the second time Disney used the Hyperion renderer, which they had first used on Big Hero 6. A new fur paradigm was added to the renderer to facilitate the creation of realistic images of the animals' dense fur. Nitro, a real-time display application developed since the making of Wreck-It Ralph, was used to make the fur more consistent, intact and subtle much more quickly, as opposed to the previous practice of having to predict how the fur would work while making and looking at silhouettes or poses for the character. The tree-and-plant generator Bonsai, first used in Frozen, was used to make numerous variations of trees with very detailed foliage.

Zootopia was produced in makeshift quarters in a giant warehouse in North Hollywood (together with Moana) while Disney Animation's headquarters in Burbank was being renovated.

Casting

On May 6, 2015, Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin were announced as having been cast, respectively, in the roles of Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps. The filmmakers chose Bateman because they wanted an actor who could bring "a funny yet heartfelt side" with "a wily, dry-witted sort of voice". Bateman described his character as "a crafty, sarcastic schemer", remarking on the role's similarity to many other roles he had done since he was 12.

Commenting on the casting of Goodwin, Moore said that she brought "very centered sweetness, tremendous heart and a great sense of humor"; he described Judy as "a little Pollyanna mixed with Furiosa". Goodwin stated about her character: "People mistake kindness for naïveté or stupidity, and she is a good girl through and through. But she's not a dumb bunny."

Music

The film's score is composed by Michael Giacchino, in his first feature-length project for Walt Disney Animation Studios, as he previously worked on several short films and television specials produced by the company, as well as multiple Pixar films. Recording took place from November 16–20, 2015, with an 80-piece orchestra conducted by Tim Simonec. In addition to her voice role of Gazelle, pop star Shakira also contributed an original song to the film titled "Try Everything", which was written by Sia and Stargate. The soundtrack was released on March 4, 2016, by Walt Disney Records.

Marketing

The first teaser trailer was released online at Walt Disney Animation Studios' YouTube page on June 11, 2015. A second teaser trailer was released online again at Walt Disney Animation Studios' YouTube page on November 23, 2015, featuring a sequence of the film where the main characters encounter a Department of Mammal Vehicles (based on the DMV) run entirely by sloths. The official theatrical trailer for the film was released online at Walt Disney Animation Studios' YouTube page on New Year's Eve 2015. Figures of Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde were released for Disney Infinity 3.0 on March 1, 2016.

In addition, the studio devoted considerable marketing attention to the furry fandom demographic, believing that they would logically be most interested in this film project.

Release

Theatrical

Zootopia was released on March 4, 2016, in Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D, making it the first Disney animated film shown in domestic IMAX theatres since Treasure Planet (2002). It was shown for the first time to the public as a feature film in an international competition for a young audience during the Brussels Animation Film Festival in Belgium on February 7, and was screened to the general media and audience on February 13.

In China, the state's SAPPRFT granted the film a rare two-week extension to play in theaters in addition to its limited 30-day run, which was to have ended on April 3.

Alternative titles

The film was retitled for theatrical release across several international territories. In the United Kingdom and other European, Middle Eastern, and North African countries, the film was renamed Zootropolis, a reference to the concept of a "metropolis" rather than to that of a "utopia". This was due to Disney being unable to trademark the name "Zootopia" in these territories for various legal reasons, including Danish Givskud Zoo registering the name Zootopia in 2014. In Germany, the film was titled Zoomania due to a children's book by German author Kay Fischer titled Zootopolis released in 2010.

Home media

Zootopia was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and Digital HD platforms on June 7, 2016. It includes some bonus material such as "Scoretopia", an alternate opening, and the music video to Shakira's "Try Everything". The film debuted at the top of the home media sales chart for the week ending on June 12, 2016. The film made a revenue of $89.6 million from home media sales with 4.4 million units sold, making it the third best-selling title of 2016 behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Finding Dory. Zootopia was released on 4K Blu-ray on November 5, 2019.

Re-release

On June 22, 2020, amid the reopening of movie theaters due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Disney announced that Zootopia, along with 11 other Disney owned movies, were to return to US theaters during a 4-week period. Zootopia returned to US theaters on June 26 and played through July 2, 2020, alongside The Avengers, and The Greatest Showman. The re-release grossed a total of $393,600.

Weeks later, on July 20, 2020, it was announced that the film would be returning to theaters in China, along with Big Hero 6 and the Chinese debut of Sonic the Hedgehog on July 31, 2020.

Merchandise

A card game based on the film called Zootopia: Suspect Search was released, as well as a game for mobile phones titled Zootopia Crime Files.

In May 2018, it was announced that a Zootopia graphic novel is set to be published by Dark Horse Comics. The graphic novel, titled Disney Zootopia: Friends to the Rescue, was written by Jimmy Gownley, with art by Leandro Ricardo da Silva. It was released on September 25, 2018.

Theme park attractions

On January 22, 2019, Disney Parks announced a themed area based on Zootopia was to be coming to Shanghai Disneyland Park, with construction on the land beginning on December 9, 2019. Construction halted for a brief period during the COVID-19 pandemic, but by June 2020, construction had resumed. It is set to open in 2023.

On September 9, 2023, it was announced at Destination D23 that the It's Tough to Be a Bug! attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom would be replaced by a Zootopia show in the Tree of Life theater.

Television spin-off

On December 10, 2020 during the Disney Investors Day livestream, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced that a television series entitled Zootopia+ would premiere in 2022 on Disney+ as one of the studios' first television projects, as most TV shows based on Disney's animated films are produced by Disney Television Animation. It was announced to be an anthology series that would feature storylines that follow 3 sets of characters from the film (the mobster shrews, the tiger dancers, and the sloths). On November 12, 2021, Disney confirmed the series for a release in 2022, and also released a first-look teaser image which included characters from the film not previously confirmed to be in the series. The series would be directed by Trent Correy and Josie Trinidad. It was released on November 9, 2022 with six shorts.

Among the episodes include an action parody starring Bonnie and Stu Hopps, a musical starring Duke Weaselton, a Real Housewives spoof with Fru-Fru, a film noir parody with Mr. Big, a dance competition parody with Clawhauser, Bogo, and Gazelle, and a romantic comedy parody with Flash and Priscilla. Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde cameo in the action parody and make other appearances throughout. All the cast members from the movie reprised their roles. The music is composed by Curtis Strong and Mick Giacchino (Michael's son), with Michael scoring the "Duke the Musical" episode with lyrics by Kate Anderson and Elyssa Samsel (Olaf's Frozen Adventure, Central Park).

Sequel

In June 2016, Howard and Moore were in talks about the possibility of a Zootopia sequel. On February 8, 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that a sequel to Zootopia was in the works. Later that day, screenwriter Jared Bush confirmed that he is working on the film. Ginnifer Goodwin, who voices Judy, told CinemaBlend that she’d like to see a role reversal between Judy and Nick in the sequel. “I would like to see Nick have to be the one to convince Judy that the world is worth fighting for,” Ginnifer said. Jason Bateman, who voices Nick, also told CinemaBlend about his idea for the sequel.