Zootopia is a unique take on the classic buddy-cop film with quite the powerful underlying message of acceptance and living in harmony. I really like the characters of both Judy and Nick and would love to see more of Zootopia in the Disney Parks one day.
Premiered on: February 17, 2016 at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood
Directed by:
Byron Howard
Rich Moore
Produced by: Clark Spencer
Based on: Original Idea
Sequels: None
Cast:
Ginnifer Goodwin – Judy Hopps
Jason Bateman – Nick Wilde
Della Saba – Young Judy
Kath Soucie – Young Nick
Idris Elba – Chief Bogo
Jenny Slate – Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellwether
Nate Torrence – Benjamin Clawhauser
Bonnie Hunt – Bonnie Hopps
Don Lake – Stu Hopps
Tommy Chong – Yax the Yak
J.K. Simmons – Mayor Leodore Lionhart
Octavia Spencer – Mrs. Otterton
Alan Tudyk – Duke Weaselton
Shakira – Gazelle
Raymond Persi – Flash
Maurice LaMarche – Mr. Big
Phil Johnston – Gideon Gray
Fuschia! – Drill Instructor
John DiMaggio – Jerry Jumbeaux Jr. / Woolter / Jesse
Katie Lowes – Dr. Madge Honey Badger
Jesse Corti – Mr. Manchas
Rich Moore – Doug
Supervising Animators:
Nathan Engelhardt
Robert Christian Huth
Kira Lehtomaki
Jennifer Hage
Chad Sellers
Music by: Michael Giacchino
Songs: “Try Everything” by Shakira
Academy Awards: Best Original Animated Feature Film
The Story:
Zootopia begins with the title card. A tiger is chasing a bunny through a forest as young Judy Hopps narrates how long ago, they were all divided into vicious predator and meek prey. The chase is part of a presentation and Judy preforms a violent fake death which has the audience gasping. She then explains that they have since evolved and now live in harmony. The children all say what they want to be when they grow up and Judy declares that she wants to be a cop. Gideon Gray the fox laughs at her in the audience, but Judy does not let that discourage her. She is still very excited to one day go to Zootopia where anyone can be anything.
After the play, Judy’s parents tell her that they are very happy because they gave up on their dreams and settled so Judy should do the same thing. Her dad explains that if she never tries anything new, then she will never fail. They don’t think she can become a police officer because bunnies aren’t cops. Judy just declares that she will be the first one then. Her parents want her to be a carrot farmer like them. Judy then sees Gideon picking on some of her friends and Judy steps in. Gideon pushes her down and Judy kicks him back. He then scratches her face before threatening Judy once again and walking away. Her friends are very thankful to Judy for standing up for them.
At the Zootopia Police Academy 15 years later, a drill instructor is talking about the different ecosystems that make up the city like Tundra Town and the Rainforest District. Judy is failing at the police courses. The drill instructor tells her to quit and go home, but Judy does not give up. She works harder and ends up concurring the courses.
At the police academy graduation, Mayor Lionheart talks about his Mammal Inclusion Initiative program and presents ZPD’s first rabbit officer, Judy Hopps. She is the valedictorian and Assistant Mayor Bellwether gives Judy her police badge. The mayor then assigns her to Precinct One in the city centre. The mayor pushes Bellwether out of the way for a photo with Judy.
Judy’s parents are saying goodbye to Judy at the Bunny Burrow train station. They say they are very proud of her, but they are acting very scared for her. They give her a care package which is filled with products like fox repellent. She takes the fox repellent just to get them to stop talking. She hops on the Zootopia Express train after one last hug. The song “Try Everything” plays as the train journeys towards Zootopia and travels through the different ecosystems and right to the city centre.
Judy arrives at her new apartment. It is very tiny and she has loud neighbours, but Judy loves it because it is her own.
She wakes up the next morning at 5:30am and is very eager for her first day of work. She grabs the fox repellent on her way out.
At the police station, Judy meets Clawhauser at the front desk. He is eating many sugary snacks and thinks that Judy is very cute.
Judy goes to the police briefing. Chief Bogo comes in and says that he should introduce the new recruits, but he doesn’t care to. He goes on to say that there are 14 missing mammals, all predators, and this is their priority case. Judy gets parking duty though. She protests with Chief Bogo because she was the top of her class. She says that she is not just some token bunny. Bogo says that writing 100 parking tickets should be easy then. He leaves and Judy accepts this. She then challenges herself to write 200 tickets before noon.
Judy quickly gets ready and sets out. She writes parking tickets the second time expires. She easily writes 201 tickets before noon, including one for her own vehicle. Judy then sees a fox and thinks that he is shifty so she follows him into a nearby ice cream parlor. Inside, Jerry Jumbeaux Jr. won’t sell Nick Wilde a jumbo pop for his little boy. Nick explains that his little boy wants to be an elephant and Jerry still insists no. Judy steps in and asks Jerry if his costumers are aware that they are getting snot and mucus with their ice cream and says that he has a health code violation. She tells Jerry that she will let him off with a warning if he sells Nick and his son a jumbo pop. Nick says that he does not have his wallet so Judy offers to pay. He gives her a big thank you and they walk out with a jumbo pop.
Judy continues on with the parking duty. She sees Nick and his son later in the day and realizes that his son is not a child and is only pretending to be a child. They have melted down the jumbo pop and have created smaller pawpsicles. They sell them to hamsters coming off of work and then they collect the empty sticks and sell them as lumber to a construction site. Judy confronts Nick and wants to arrest him, but Nick has an excuse for everything she accuses him of. Nick says that he has been hustling since he was 12 and she can’t touch him. He predicts that her dreams of being a cop will fail and she will be back in Bunny Burrow soon. She will not let Nick get her down, but she gets herself stuck in wet cement and so Nick walks away.
Judy goes back to her apartment and is feeling depressed. There are only sad songs on the radio and she has a very sad dinner of microwaved carrots for one. Her parents MuzzleTime her and Judy tries to be positive about her time in Zootopia. Her parents realize that she is wearing a meter maid outfit and are very happy that she is not a real cop.
Back on parking duty, everyone is very upset with Judy for ticketing them. She tries to convince herself that she is a real cop when a robbery takes place near her. Judy takes off after the weasel that is running away with a duffle bag. She chases him through Zootopia and into Little Rodentia. She saves the rodents from the damage that the weasel is causing. Judy catches up and catches him with a donut sign.
Judy brings him back to the police station and loudly declares that she has caught him. Bogo yells at Judy to come see him. He tells her that she abandoned her post and has caused unnecessary danger to Little Rodentia. The criminal she stopped was only stealing a bag of moldy onions. Judy says that she got the bad guy which is her job. Bogo says that her job is putting tickets on cars. Clawhauser buzzes in and says that Mrs. Otterton is there to see him, but Bogo says not now. Judy keeps arguing that she really wants to be a cop. Mrs. Otterton pushes in and Bogo assures her that they are doing everything they can to find her husband who has been missing for 10 days. Judy declares that she will find her husband. Bogo is not impressed that Judy stepped in and he dismisses Mrs. Otterton. Bogo fires Judy and tells her to go tell Mrs. Otterton that she will not be taking the case. Bogo opens the door and there is Bellwether who is very excited that Judy is taking the case. She has already told the mayor so now Bogo gives Judy 48 hours to solve the case. If she strikes out then Judy must resign.
Clauhauser gives her the complete case file, even though it is a very tiny file. There are no witnesses and no evidence. There is a photo of Mr. Otterton’s last known sighting. Judy sees that he is eating a pawpsicle and she also sees Nick Wilde in the photo.
Judy finds Nick pushing a baby stroller. She has some questions about the case, but Nick does not care. Judy shows him a photo of Mr. Otteron and asks if he knows him. Nick says he knows everyone but refuses to cooperate beyond that. Judy boots the stroller and says that he is under arrest for felony tax evasion. She has hustled him and has him bragging about his own hustle on recording on her carrot pen recorder. Nick has to agree to help now. He does not know where Mr. Otterton is but does know where he went after he was last seen.
They go to Mystic Springs Oasis. Yax greets them and they ask if he knows Mr. Otterton. He says that he has not seen the otter in a few weeks but will take them to the yoga instruction in case she knows. Yax gets up and Judy realizes that he is naked. It is a naturalist club and Yax brings them back to the pleasure pool where everyone is naked. Nick comments that if she is uncomfortable then they can give up, but Judy refuses. They meet the yoga instructor and Yax tries to ask her about Mr. Otterton. He ends up remembering more about the otter than the instructor does. He says that after his last yoga class, Mr. Otterton was picked up in a white limo and he even knows the license plate number.
They leave the oasis and Nick thinks that his part is over. He turns to leave, but since Judy is not in the police system yet and can’t run a plate, she still needs his help. Nick takes her to the DMV because he has a friend there who can help. Inside, everyone working there is a sloth and is working incredibly slow. They walk up to Nick’s friend Flash and it takes him a very long time to type in the numbers of the plate. Judy is losing her patience with the slowness and then Nick interrupts Flash to tell a joke, causing further delays. By the time Flash finishes and they learn that the limo that picked Mr. Otterton up is from Tundra Town, it is nighttime and the DMV is closed.
The limo rental lot is closed and Judy does not have a warrant to investigate. Nick again thinks that his end of the bargain is done, but then Judy throws the carrot recorder over the fence and Nick climbs over to get it. Judy reaches the other side as well and tells Nick that she does not need a warrant if she has justiciable cause. And she saw someone just climb over the fence. They find the limo and look inside. They find polar bear fur and see that the back of the limo is completely scratched up with claw marks. They find Mr. Otterton’s wallet as well. Nick finds a glass with a ‘B’ on it and knows whose limo this is, the feared crime boss Mr. Big, and he hates Nick. They need to go but are caught before they can escape.
On the way to Mr. Big’s home, Judy asks what Nick did to Mr. Big to make him so angry and Nick admits that he sold the crime boss an expensive rug make from a skunk’s butt. They arrive at the house and Judy is very nervous to meet Mr. Big. But the crime boss turns out to be an arctic shrew and she is very surprised by his small size. Mr. Big is unimpressed that Nick is there unannounced on his daughter’s wedding day. Nick points out that they were brought there against their will but then quickly insists that this is all a misunderstanding. Judy is not scared of Mr. Big and says that she is there on Mr. Otterton’s case. She says that she will find the missing mammal if it is the last thing she does. Nick tries to stop her from mentioning that she is a cop and Mr. Big tells his polar bear henchmen to ice them. They open up the floor beneath them to reveal icy water below. Mr. Big comes in just then to bring her father back to the wedding reception and she recognizes Judy from Little Rodentia, she was one of the rodents Judy saved from the weasel. So Nick and Judy are not iced and Mr. Big says that to repay her kindness for saving her daughter, he will help find Mr. Otterton.
Nick and Judy attend the wedding reception and Mr. Big explains that Mr. Otterton is their florist and says that he has something important to discuss so the car was sent to pick him up. Mr. Otterton never arrived and he went crazy and attacked the driver before disappearing into the night. He tells them to talk to Mr. Manchas, the driver of the limo.
He lives in the Rainforest District and Nick and Judy arrive at his house. The door partly opens and Nick and Judy are surprised at the large scars that Mr. Otterton gave Mr. Manchas. In a flashback, Mr. Manchas explains that the otter was a complete animal and turned savage in the car. He attacked Mr. Manchas before running out. Mr. Otterton kept yelling about night howlers. But before they can talk some more, Mr. Manchas turns savage as well. He chases them through the rainforest and Judy tries to radio the police station for help. Clawhauser is too busy playing with the new Gazelle dance app to respond right away, but he finally does and promises to send backup. Judy drops her radio in the chase. They head to the sky trams and Judy almost falls off the platform. Nick gives up escaping to help her and he chains up Mr. Manchas. Nick then slips and Judy catches them. They swing on a vine but get all tangled up as police backup arrive.
Judy leads the police to where Mr. Manchas is chained up, but he is gone when they get there. Bogo takes her badge. Nick stands up for Judy and says that they still have 10 hours left to find Mr. Otterton and he and Judy take off on the sky tram.
Judy thanks Nick and Nick tells her to never let them see that they get to you. He talks about how he wanted to join the Jr. Ranger Scouts when he was young and in a flash back, he goes to his first meeting. He was the only predator and in the initiation, the others make fun of him for being a fox and put a muzzle on him. Nick says that he learnt that do to never let anyone see that they got to him and that there is no point in being anything other than a shifty fox if that is all the world sees. Judy tells him that he is so much more than that. Nick is uncomfortable with the tender moment and pretends to be a traffic news reporter from above. He then remembers the jam cams and Judy says she has a friend at city hall that might let them look at the traffic cameras.
Bellwether is chasing after Mayor Lionheart and is trying to get his help with reviewing important paper work. He ignores her and slams a door in her face. Nick and Judy arrive and ask for her help.
Bellwether’s office is an old file room. They are looking on the computer at the traffic cameras in the Rainforest District. Bellwether is excited to be actually doing something of importance. The mayor comes on the intercom and demands her attention. Bellwether takes off and leaves Nick and Judy to continue to look through the footage. They find their chase and then see Mr. Manchas being hauled away in a van by timber wolves. Judy thinks of night howlers and they follow the van on the cameras. It goes out of town to the Cliffside Asylum.
Judy and Nick arrive at the asylum and they sneak in past the wolf guards by starting a howl. Inside they find old hospital equipment, but then find a room with more modern equipment. The room is filled with claw marks. A tiger is growling at them from behind glass. They find more animals including Mr. Manchas and Mr. Otterton locked up. All 14 missing mammals are there. Nick and Judy hide when Mayor Lionheart and Dr. Honey Badger come in. The mayor demands to know why the animals have gone crazy, but the doctor does not know and insists that they are doing everything they can. She says that they might need to consider their biology because only predators are going savage. The mayor says that no one can know because the public will not like having a lion as a mayor, even Chief Bogo does not know. Judy is recording the conversation on her phone, but then her parents call and the mayor and the doctor leave in a panic at the ring. They call for a security sweep. Nick and Judy are locked up in one of the cells and they escape through the toilet.
Bogo is playing with the Gazelle dance app when Clawhauser bursts into his office. He is very excited that Bogo is playing with the app, but then remembers that Judy just called and has found all of the missing mammals.
At the Cliffside Asylum, Mayor Lionheart is arrested. He says that he was only trying to protect the city and that they still do not know why this is happening. Judy says that he was only trying to protect his job.
A press conference is held at the police station. Bogo introduces their newest recruit who found the missing mammals. Judy is very nervous and Nick encourages her to answer the questions with a question of her own and then answer that one. She thinks that he should be up there because they solved it together. Nick reminds her that he is not a cop and Judy gives him a police application form and says that it would be nice to have a partner. She gives him the carrot pen to sign with. Judy then goes on stage and says that the predators going savage may have something to do with their biology and turning back to their aggressive hunting instincts. Pictures of animals with muzzles are shown behind her on a screen. Nick is not impressed with what she is saying and the crowd is growing very anxious with her speech. Bellwether helps her off the stage and Nick is not happy with Judy and calls her out on the fox repellent. He asks if she is scared of him and Judy flinches. Nigh says that it is best if she does not have a predator as a partner and gives back the application before leaving. Judy tries to follow, but she is caught up in reporters.
On the news, it is reported that more predators are going savage and that Gazelle is organizing a peaceful protest. She says that Zootopia she knew is where everyone is celebrated for their differences. Judy notices the changes in the city and that prey are now scared of predators. She comforts Mrs. Otterton as she is still watching her husband going savage in his cell.
At work, Bogo says that the new mayor wants to see them and Judy goes downstairs and sees Clawhauser packing up his things. He says that he is being moved to records so that a predator is not the first face people see at the ZPD. He is very sad about the reassignment.
Bellwether says that she and Bogo want Judy to be the public face of the ZPD because the city is 90% prey and that they are all scared but can trust Judy. Judy says that she is not a hero because she came there to make the world a better place, but she thinks she has broken it. Bogo says that the world has always been broken and that is why they need good cops like her. She argues that cops are supposed to help the city and not tear it apart. She says she does not deserve her badge and takes it off and leaves.
Judy is selling carrots at Bunny Burrow. She is very sad and her parents try to cheer her up. Gideon pulls up in his pastry truck and her parents say that they now work with him because of Judy’s encouragement to try something new. Judy is impressed. Gideon apologizes to Judy for how he treated her in their youth and he brought them some pies. The other children excitedly run towards them and Stu Hopps stops them from running through the plants because there are night howlers there. He planted them to keep the bugs off the produce, but he does not want anyone near them because of what happened to Uncle Terrance. He went nuts after eating one. Judy realizes that bunnies can go savage as well and that the night howlers Mr. Otterton was talking about were not wolves but flowers. They make the predators go savage. She takes off and goes back to Zootopia.
Judy finds Nick and explains about the night howlers. Nick does not want to hear about it, but she says that she needs his help. After they are done, he can hate her and that is fine because she is a horrible friend. Nick forgives her and they hug. Judy shows a picture of the weasel who stole the moldy onions and Nick knows where to find him.
Duke Weaselton is selling movies on a street corner. Judy says that she knows it was now onions he stole but night howlers. She asks what he was going to do with them, but Duke won’t talk. They bring him to Mr. Big’s to be iced and so the weasel talks. He says that he sells them to a ram named Doug and that there is a drop spot underground.
They head down into the subway and find night howlers growing in an old train car. They spy Doug extracting the night howler juice into pellets. He gets a call that the next mark is a cheetah. There is a knock on the door and Woolter and Jesse have arrived with his latte. Judy gets an idea and pushes Doug out the door. She locks it and then says that they are going to take all of the evidence to the ZPD. She starts up the train car and they drive off. The rams catch up and break back into the car. They are about to crash head first into another train, but Judy throws a ram off and he hits a switch. The car takes the corner too fast and it slides over. The car crashes and blows up, but Night still has one of the cases of evidence. They cut through the natural history museum to get to the ZPD.
Nick and Judy race through the museum and Bellwether stops them. Judy explains what has been happening and she is about to hand over the case, but then wonders how Bellwether found them. She figures out that Bellwether is behind this and they run. Security chases them and Judy gets hurt. She tells Nick take the case to Bogo, but Nick won’t leave her behind. Bellwether catches up and tells Judy that they are the same. They are underestimated and underappreciated. She wants to unite all prey against the 10% of predators. Judy and Nick fall into a diorama of a forest. Bellwether shoots Nick with a night howler pellet and then calls the police to say that a savage fox has brought Judy down. Judy is telling Nick to fight it off, but he starts growling at her and chases Judy around the diorama. Bellwether plans on darting every predator in Zootopia to keep the prey fearful so she can stay in power. Nick attacks Judy and Judy pretends to die. Then they stand up and show that they were faking it to get Bellwether to talk. The mayor actually shot a blueberry at Nick and Judy got her confession on the carrot recording. The police arrive and surround Bellwether.
The news reports that Bellwether is behind bars and that a night howler antidote was found. Mr. Otterton wakes up in a hospital and is fine. His wife is very happy he is back and thanks Judy.
Judy is wandering through Zootopia and realizes that real life is very messy, but everyone makes mistakes and they more they try to understand each other, the more exceptional each of them will be. Clawhauser gets his front desk back. Judy is giving a speech at a police academy graduation. Nick is now the first fox officer and is given his badge. Judy finishes by saying that changes starts with all of them.
Bogo is briefing the police officers. He jokingly gives Judy and Nick parking duty, but then says that there are reports of a street racer tearing up Zootopia. They need to find him and bring him down. Nick and Judy find the street racer and are very surprised to see that it is Flash the sloth.
The end credits play as Gazelle sings “Try Everything” at a concert. Bellwether is watching the concert on T.V. in jail.
Trivia:
- The flower shop that is robbed is called Flora and Fauna.
- Judy’s cell phone provider is PB&J.
- Nick’s full name is Nicholas Piberius Wilde.
- Judy’s full name is Judith Laverne Hopps.
- Ginnifer Goodwin’s husband, Josh Dallas, voices the Frantic Pig.
- Peter Mansbridge, a CBC news anchor, voices Peter Moosebridge, a ZNN news anchor.
- Judy calls Duke Weaselton, Weselton, a reference to the Duke of Weselton from Frozen. Both Dukes were voiced by Alan Tudyk.
- Some of the pirated movies that Duke Weaselton is selling are Pig Hero 6, Floatsen 2, Wrangled, Wreck-It Rhino, Meowana, and Giraffic. Some of them are advertised as “Weaselton Exclusives!”
- The horn on the train is the sound of the monorail horn from Disneyland.
- Zootopia is called Zootropolis in the U.K.
Representation in the Disney Parks:
Aside from the occasional meet and greet with Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, there is currently no representation of Zootopia in the Disney Parks.
Check out the other films of Disney’s Revival Era:
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