Zootopia
Zootopia (titled Zootropolis or Zoomania in various regions)[a] is a 2016 American animated buddy cop action comedy film[6][7] produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. 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.
This article is about the film. For the franchise, see Zootopia (franchise). For the zoo and safari park in Denmark, see Givskud Zoo. For the theme park attraction in South Korea, see Everland. For the soundtrack, see Zootopia (soundtrack).Zootopia
- Byron Howard
- Rich Moore
- Jared Bush
- Jim Reardon
- Josie Trinidad
- Phil Johnston
- Jennifer Lee
- Nathan Warner (layout)
- Brian Leach (lighting)
- Fabienne Rawley
- Jeremy Milton
- February 13, 2016 (Belgium)
- March 4, 2016 (United States)
United States
English
$150 million[4]
$1.025 billion[5]
Zootopia premiered at the Brussels Animation Film Festival in Belgium on February 13, 2016,[8] 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.[9][10] Zootopia received positive reviews from critics, who praised its screenplay, animation, voice acting, subject matter, and Michael Giacchino's musical score.[11][12][13] 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.[14] A television spin-off series, Zootopia+, premiered on Disney+ on November 9, 2022, while a sequel, Zootopia 2, is scheduled for release on November 26, 2025.
Plot[edit]
In a world inhabited by anthropomorphic mammals, Judy Hopps, a rabbit from rural Bunnyburrow, fulfills her childhood dream of becoming the first rabbit police officer in the city of Zootopia. On her first day at the Zootopia Police Department (ZPD), Chief Bogo gives Judy parking duty, and during her shift, she is hustled by a con artist duo of foxes, Nick Wilde and Finnick. The next day, she abandons her post to arrest small-time crook Duke Weaselton for stealing a bag of crocus bulbs. Later, while Bogo is reprimanding Judy, Mrs. Otterton visits his office, pleading for someone to find her husband Emmitt, one of 14 missing predators. Without first seeking approval, Judy volunteers, and Bogo is about to fire her for insubordination, but the city's assistant mayor, a sheep named Dawn Bellwether, praises Judy for taking the assignment. Bogo has no choice but to agree, but makes a deal that Judy will resign if she fails to solve the case within 48 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. They track a limousine that picked up Emmitt and find his belongings inside. They learn that the limousine is owned by crime boss Mr. Big, an arctic shrew whom Nick has a history with. Mr. Big reveals that Emmitt suddenly went "savage" and mindlessly attacked his chauffeur Manchas, a black jaguar. Upon interrogation, Manchas explains that, prior to attacking him, Emmitt yelled about "Night Howlers". Manchas then suddenly turns savage himself and chases Judy and Nick. Judy traps Manchas and calls the ZPD for help, but Manchas vanishes before they arrive. Bogo demands Judy's resignation, but Nick reminds him that they still have ten hours left to solve the case. While leaving the scene, Nick reveals that as a child, he was bullied by his peers due to their prejudiced beliefs about foxes.
At City Hall, Bellwether offers Judy and Nick access to Zootopia's traffic cameras. They discover Manchas was abducted by timberwolves, whom Judy guesses are the Night Howlers. Following the wolves, Judy and Nick 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. At a press conference, Judy accidentally implies that predators' biology is the cause of the "savageness" epidemic. Nick, disappointed at the disastrous outcome and offended by what was conveyed, angrily abandons Judy, whose comments incite fear and discrimination against predators throughout Zootopia. Wracked with guilt, Judy quits her job and returns to Bunnyburrow.
Days later, while managing her parents' vegetable stand, Judy learns that the 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 after borrowing her father’s produce delivery van and reconciles with Nick. Aided by Mr. Big, they interrogate 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 serum from the Night Howlers be shot at predators via a dart pistol. Judy and Nick obtain a serum gun as evidence after a dangerous chase in the subway, but before they can reach the ZPD, Bellwether confronts them in the Natural History Museum; revealing herself to be the mastermind of a prey-supremacist conspiracy. Judy and Nick become trapped in an exhibit, and Bellwether shoots Nick with the serum gun, then calls the ZPD to capture him. Judy reveals that she had replaced the darts with blueberries from her family’s farm and recorded Bellwether's confession.
Bellwether and her accomplices are arrested for their crimes, while 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". The predators are cured, and Judy is reinstated into the ZPD. Months later, Nick graduates from the police academy, becoming Judy's partner and the first fox police officer.
Production[edit]
Writing[edit]
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,[41] a 1960s-themed story about a "mad doctor cat...who turned children into animals", and a "bounty hunter pug in space".[42] 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.[43] 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".[44] Lasseter suggested that Howard should try combining the 1960s theme with the animal characters, especially the space pug.[42] 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.[42][45] 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.[42]
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.[45] The most delightful part of the spy film turned out to be its first act, set in a city created by and for animals.[42] 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.[42][45][46] For a while, "the filmmakers were very committed" to that version of the story,[45] 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.[46] 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."[47]
Marketing[edit]
The first teaser trailer was released online at Walt Disney Animation Studios' YouTube page on June 11, 2015.[65] 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.[66] The official theatrical trailer for the film was released online at Walt Disney Animation Studios' YouTube page on New Year's Eve 2015.[67] Figures of Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde were released for Disney Infinity 3.0 on March 1, 2016.[68]
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.[69]
Release[edit]
Theatrical[edit]
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).[9][10] 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.[70][71]
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.[72]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
Zootopia grossed $341.3 million in the U.S. and Canada and $682.5 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $1.024 billion, against a budget of $150 million.[4][5] On March 18, 2016, the film reached the $500 million mark, becoming the third consecutive Walt Disney Animation Studios film to reach the milestone after Frozen (2013) and Big Hero 6 (2014).[87][88] On April 5, it became the first film of 2016 to gross over $800 million in ticket sales,[89] and on April 24, became the first film of 2016 to cross $900 million.[90] On June 5, the film crossed the $1 billion mark, becoming the second film of 2016 to do so (after the studio's own Captain America: Civil War), the fourth animated film (after Toy Story 3, Frozen and Minions), the eleventh Disney film, the third Disney animated film, and the twenty-sixth film overall to reach the milestone.[91]
Worldwide, it was the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2016 (behind Civil War, Rogue One, and Finding Dory),[92] the second-highest-grossing animated film of 2016,[92] the second-highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film (second-highest overall) of all time in its original release (after Frozen),[89] the second-highest-grossing original film (behind Avatar),[93] and the fourth-highest-grossing animated film of all time. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $294.9 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film, making it the fifth-most profitable release of 2016.[94]
