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YMMV / Zootopia

  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Just how much of a 'con' was the Pawpsicle hustle? For the most part, all Nick was doing was taking something, repurposing it, moving it from a low-demand area to a high-demand area, and reselling it at a markup - nothing more then an ordinary cash-and-carry business. The "redwood" bit was somewhat shady, but the rest was a perfectly legitimate business. Fridge Brilliance sets in when you realize that what makes the whole hustle possible is the elephant's bigotry driving up demand - and Nick's taking full advantage of it. Apart from conning Judy out of twenty bucks (and how was Nick going to pay for the popsicle if she hadn't been there, given none of the elephant customers seemed inclined to help him?), the one out-and-out fraud was filing false tax returns, which Judy picked up on instantly.
    • Was Mayor Lionheart's reasons for imprisoning the feral Zootopians and finding a cure altruistic, or was it because he was more worried about losing his position should the public discover that only predators are going savage, and might cause the citizens to demand that he be removed from power because he himself is one? As he's being dragged away to jail he is pleading with them that they're wrong, he was just trying to find the cure and it hadn't been yet...but just prior to this he actually stated aloud to the doctor (which is what Judy recorded) that he was afraid of being targeted for being a lion (and that it would ruin his career). Which suggests both interpretations are true, because he's actually a more complex character than it seems. Like most of the characters, and like real people.
    • Did Bellwether genuinely want to form a friendship with Judy due to how they both were Not So Different? If so, is this why she tried persuading Judy to join her in her goal to put prey species on the top? Or did she see Judy as nothing more than a pawn? If so, did she only support and aid Judy before just to manipulate her into unwittingly helping her with her schemes, and was her offer just a lie to try and lure her and Nick out of hiding?
    • Does Finnick have an Inferiority Superiority Complex? Considering he's a pretty minor character, it's never really made clear what makes him so irritable but, considering the press release described him as having "a big chip on his adorable shoulder", it's possible he tries to act tough and violent because he's afraid that, if he isn't tough, everyone will look down on him for being small. Having to pretend to be a baby for a scam, even to the point where he sucks on a pacifier and wears a diaper for the scam, probably doesn't help his self-esteem.
      • Did Finnick react to someone knocking on his van with aggression and a baseball bat in-paw because he's a grouchy jerk? Or was he simply just ready to defend himself if anyone was there to try and muzzle him? At the time, the city was up in-arms about predators going feral and anyone who fit the description of "predator" was facing a lot of prejudice and racism regardless of personal qualities. That in-mind, it might not surprise you he was more than ready to defend himself, especially given his size. Considering he calmed down, his expression even softened a bit when he saw it was Judy, and he helped her locate Nick, he's potentially not the hot-headed jerk he tries to project.
      • While that is true, considering his reaction to Nick saying "do you wanna give daddy a bye-bye kiss" was "if you kiss me tomorrow, I'll bite your face off", it's clear that, even before everyone started mistrusting predators, he was somewhat of a grouch.
    • Did Gideon become a bully because he was inclined by his superior physical size, or was he like Nick the victim of prejudice against foxes and other predators, and decided to live up to the image that most prey mammals have of his species? The adult Gideon admitted that his bullying was at least partly motivated due to his insecurities.
    • It's been argued that Bogo isn't prejudiced against bunnies, but he'd just like to have Judy work her way up and get experience like any other rookie, political appointee or no. Once she does prove herself, he has no problem supporting her.
    • Judy's and Nick's final exchange ("You know you love me..."/"Do I know that...? Yes. Yes, I do.") — "love" as in philia or eros?
      • For that matter... When Nick and Judy reconciled and Nick said she was grabbing for the recorder pen, was she really searching for it, or was she really feeling him up, and started blatantly grabbing for it as a cover? Or was she just playing along with it to humor him? Given that she showed no actual signs of reaching for it before Nick's accusation, it seems likely he just cracked a joke to lighten the mood—then, grateful for the excuse, Judy played along. She wasn't really trying to grab the pen, because as quick as she'd shown herself to be before, if she had really wanted it, she could have gotten it.
      • To make matters even more confusing, according to the interviews of their voice actors, Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman have very different opinions on their relationship. Ginnifer states that their relationship is just platonic, while Jason seems to ship Judy and Nick. Meaning, if you apply this perspective to their characters/performances, Judy thinks that she and Nick are Just Friends, while Nick seems to somewhat like her.
      • Byron Howard, the director, only adds fuel to the fire by drawing not one, but two fanarts: one depicting Nick as Ten with Judy as Rose in one, and Nick as Mulder with Judy as Scully in another - for anyone who missed it, both instances are the Official Couple of their respected series.
      • At least one piece of official marketing art depicts Judy and Nick back-to-back, with Judy playfully holding Nick's tie tight over his shoulder; a pose almost universally reserved for Love Interests.
    • Is Finnick a Shadow Archetype of Judy? They may not seem that similar personality wise but he was pretty much the closest animal to Nick before Judy came along and was pretty much his partner, if not best friend, like Judy ended up being. Also, like Judy, he's small. That, and Nick tends to tease Finnick like he does Judy, albeit he teases him about his height rather than being a bunny. It could be argued he pretty much resembles what Judy could be like if she didn't have better self-esteem, as, while she doesn't let her height get to her, he seems to detest being short and, while she mostly shakes off Nick's insults or insults him back, he threatens Nick whenever he insults him.
  • Applicability: Due to the open ended nature of the film's themes about prejudice, many viewers, critics, and professors alike have come up with many different interpretations of the film.
  • Broken Base:
    • The first trailer. Some found it hilarious, but others were turned down by the Lemony Narrator speaking in a very condescending tone, explaining what "anthropomorphic" means and presenting World of Funny Animals as a groundbreaking new concept, even though it is Older Than Print (see Reynard The Fox, for example). The later trailers restored many people's faith in the movie.
    • The decision to make the setting mammals-only. Some find it disappointing, since all the other worlds of funny animals that this film is trying to deconstruct included bird and reptile characters, and excluding them makes this film feel unfaithful. They also point out that the anti-racism message could've worked just as well, if not been even stronger, had non-mammals been included. Others point out that the Fantastic Racism in this film is severe enough with the wide variety of mammals, and including non-mammals would make it even more confusing.
    • The plot-twist villain. While some audiences like the message they carry (you can be oppressed and be racist yourself), others feel the character is barely memorable/intimidating, that the plot-twist villain cliche is getting old and Disney should stop using it for now. It doesn't help that one of the red-herring villains is a direct reference in name and voice to the red-herring villain of Frozen, so nobody is going to be fooled by him.
    • The racism metaphor. While some felt it was nicely handled, others felt it was too anviliciously in-your-face about it.
    • The aesop about the necessity of police. Its either a necessary moral about what police should be and what standards they should be held to, or its a decidedly tone-deaf moral glorifying police in an era where real life Police Brutality is at an all-time high.
  • Counterpart Comparison: Judy becomes the first small animal in a career of primarily larger animals and Clawhauser is a chubby and friendly animal who loves to eat. Sounds like Remy and Emile, respectively.
  • Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: Intentionally averted by the filmakers. This trope is stated to be reason that the directors scrapped their original idea of the shock collars for the predators in Zootopia as they feared that the audience would find hard to relate to such a setting.
  • Ear Worm: The song "Try Everything" by Shakira as heard in the trailer.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Gazelle's tiger dancers are becoming very popular simply because of how they generate fanservice for only wearing skimpy looking shorts and dancing in an alluring manner.
    • Also, the snow leopard news anchor, simply because of her cuteness and British accent.
    • Flash the sloth benefited from having one trailer based entirely around him, and the beautiful execution of making jokes about boredom without actually inducing that feeling in the audience.
    • Finnick only appears in three scenes, and has a minor role in the movie as Nick's partner in crime, but he's proven to be very popular with fans due to his adorable looks contrasted with his deceptively deep voice and in-your-face attitude. See also: They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character.
    • Also there is the black jaguar Manchas, who has to be one of the most adorable and harmless predators you'd ever meet. He only gets one scene, and only has a few lines before going "savage", but his accent, the trauma he went through with Otterton, how dapper he looked in his chauffeur's uniform, and his eventual fate all made him very popular with a lot of fans. Many have been saying they hope to see more of him in the sequels too.
  • Fandom Berserk Button: Rule 34 became quite a controversial subject for some fans before the film was released. The main concerns were directed towards the fact that the movie is (technically) supposed to be for children and that the furry fandom is infamous for its large amount of yiff art and occasional Self-Fanservice.
  • Fandom Rivalry: With Frozen, of all things. Breaking the earlier film's record at the box office in its opening weekend, many people have begun comparing between the two films and preferring one over the other. The Frozen fandom hasn't taken kindly to the criticisms. It doesn't help that in the later years Frozen's received a Hype Backlash, the movie itself pokes fun at Frozen, and both films, oddly enough, borrow significant but different elements from Wicked.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Judy and Nick, their Odd Couple dynamic along with constantly snarking at each other Like an Old Married Couple makes it pretty easy to see the two as a couple.
    Nick: You know you love me...
    Judy: Do I know that? Yes, yes I do.
  • Fanfic Fuel: The setting of Zootopia would be great Fanfic fuel itself for just talking about how Zootopia was founded, how animals got anthropomorphized or other backstories going into the movie. Then after the movie, it's quite common to create all manners of new cases for Judy and Nick to solve together now that they're both on the police force.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Many believe that one of the characters in the film, Duke Weaselton, has an uncanny resemblance to Cheasel T. Weasel from Foodfight!. Observe.
    • "Anyone can be anything" sounds like a quote from another prestigious individual, "Anyone can cook". Also, the premise of a small animal insipred by said quotes aspiring to become something that only bigger animals (e.g. humans) were viewed as capable of doing.
    • J. K. Simmons voices Mayor Lionheart who at one point gets mistakenly blamed as the Big Bad. Simmons had just a few weeks prior actually voiced the Big Bad in another World of Funny Animals film; Kung Fu Panda 3. It gets even funnier when players of video games hear the voice of Cave Johnson coming out of Mayor Lionheart. Especially since that makes two characters he's voiced that locked people up in scientific facilities, and Lionheart's the nicer one.
      • The same goes double in Japanese dub for the same character as Mayor Lionheart's Japanese VA voiced Dogawa in Angel Cop who is involved in a government conspiracy along with another person, Maisaka. The hilarious (and also ironic) part of this is while Lionheart and Bellwether are sent to jail on the other hand Dogawa and Maisaka are both killed victim of a situation they created.
    • Extra points that Lionheart's assistant Bellwether is voiced by Junko Takeuchi, who voices Naruto, the host of Kurama (played by Tessho Genda) and both are the villains of the film, and that without going with the fact the entire premise of the show deals with Naruto trying to overcome all the discrimination he suffers for being the host of Kurama and how he manages to overcome this, and becoming Hokage at the end. On the other hand, her role here turns her into basically the Zootopia version of Naruto's rival Sasuke Uchiha, who pretends to do basically a much more violent version of the same plan.
    • Another hilarious outtakes from the Japanese dub involves Toshiyuki Morikawa (Nick): He dubbed Michael Corleone in the newest dubbed version of The Godfather, and in this film he's almost got killed by an Expy of Vito Corleone, his father in the film. He also voiced Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage who is killed by a nine-tailed fox (Kurama) and also having half of the chakra of said fox with him as well, not to mention being the father of the titular protagonist who voices the Big Bad Bellwether.
    • In the Mexican Spanish dub, Nick is almost sent to a freezer (or more accurately, into a pool of freezed water) by Mr. Big. His Mexican VA voiced Cygnus Hyoga, whose main powers includes manipulating water and ice, and being able to swim into ice cold water. In a more meta-example, it also could include his role as Vegeta, who was working under the orders of Frieza.
    • Also from the Mexican dub, Stu Hopps's Mexican voice actor (Pedro D'Aguillon Jr.) voiced Mr. Fox in the dub of that film. In this film he hates foxes, and he gave a fox-repelant to his daughter Judy when she went to Zootopia.
    • In real life, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister was arrested in 2012 for helping with a tax evasion and mortgage fraud scheme. Ironically enough, in the movie, his character, Finnick, helps Nick with a tax evasion scheme. Like Nick, he also had to team up with the cops to avoid jail time (in real life, he gave information to the cops on who else was involved in the scheme).
    • At one point, Duke sells bootleg DVD's of movies that aren't even out in theaters yet. Ironically, Zootopia was leaked online before it even came out in the U.S. because it was released in many international theaters back in February.
    • The film opens with the heroine performing in a play that tells the story of how the world's different races of creatures used to be sworn enemies but eventually became friends and founded a new land where different species would all live together in harmony. When the play's over, you half-expect the audience to start singing, "The fire of friendship burns in our hearts..."
  • Ho Yay: Clawhauser's heart-melted expression complete with squeal when learning that Bogo has the Gazelle app is a favorite moment of shippers, as is their dance at the end, which involves butt-bumping on the part of the former.
  • Holy Shit Quotient: The movie that advertised itself as a comedic Odd Couple/Buddy Cop Movie, with a small guy making it in a big mans world undertone. Yeah, it's actually about racism, including a very powerful scene showing racism from the main character herself.
  • It's the Same, so It Sucks: As mentioned above, some viewers are beginning to get annoyed about the villain being the Plot Twist and feel that the cliche is getting old.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Yes, Bellwether has been treated badly. Yes, the Villain Has a Point about how predator species have been dominating prey species. Still, none of this justifies the character's willingness to hurt or kill innocent people...erm, animals.
    • Nick. He Used to Be a Sweet Kid with dreams of an honorable life, but since foxes are expected to be cunning and dishonest, he instead became a Con Artist and a Stepford Snarker.
  • Memetic Mutation:
  • Moe: Judy and Mrs. Otterton. ESPECIALLY Mrs. Otterton.
    • Also Judy and Nick as children. And the little tiger and snow leopard from Judy's play.
    • It's hard not to find Bellwether adorable, with her short stature and wide-rimmed glasses. It's what makes her reveal as the Big Bad all the more shocking.
    • Officer Benjamin Clawhauser has gotten this reaction from many fans as well because of his adorable personality and the fact that he's a chubby cheetah.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Bellwether crosses it when she shoots Nick with the Nighthowler serum (which he thankfully switched out prior with blueberries) in an attempt to make him kill Judy. Considering how friendly and supportive Bellwether had been to Judy in all their previous encounters, it really drives home how twisted the little sheep really is and how far she'll go to get what she wants. Bonus points for her choosing to simply stand there and watch her ex-friend be eviscerated.
  • MST3K Mantra: Nick's Establishing Character Moment takes place partially in an ice cream parlor, and Clawhauser is first encountered eating a bowl of breakfast cereal. Don't...think too hard about where they got the milk. Okay, it's probably soy milk — most animals are lactose-intolerant once weaned and soy milk makes decent ice cream — but still.
    • Though there are some commercially sold animal products in Zootopia, such as wool. And the mutation that produces lactase into adulthood spread through the human populations of Europe, India, and Sub-Saharan Africa in just a couple thousand years.
  • Older Than They Think: The film joins a specific sub-genre of Talking Animal works that depicts sentient animals in danger of losing their sentience and the horror that ensues in-universe.
    • The danger of reverting back into wild, savage beasts is a recurring subject in The Chronicles of Narnia, primarily in Prince Caspian and The Last Battle, although they're first warned about this terrifying possibility in the series prequel The Magician's Nephew.
    • It also happens to the surgically-uplifted animals in The Island of Doctor Moreau after the death of Dr. Moreau. Unlike the Narnian animals, Moreau's animals were anthropomorphized as well, though without continual surgeries to maintain the changes they would revert back to type.
    • Wicked even also has villains using the phenomenon to promote Fantastic Racism against one of the world's classes of creatures.
  • One-Scene Wonder:
    • Gazelle has only a few scenes but is no less excellent for it; from the light-hearted cell phone apps enjoyed by Officer Clawhauser and Chief Bogo to the more somber deploring the unrest following the discovery of savage animals, describing it as "Not my Zootopia", not to mention the Dance Party Ending.
    • Also, Flash the sloth, who is an Ensemble Darkhorse with Wolverine Publicity and has an entire trailer focusing on him, appears in exactly that one scene which is in the trailer, plus a brief gag at the end of the film.
    • Finnick, to a lesser extent. Despite barely being in the movie, he has a lot of fan art based off of him and a video uploaded to Youtube that shows all his scenes has gained a lot of comments, with people either talking about how much they love him or how they wish he was in more of the movie.
    • And as mentioned above, Manchas. It helps that he's the only mammal we actually get to see go "savage" on-screen and this leads to one of the more heart-pounding and frightening action scenes in the movie.
  • One True Pairing: The fandom was exploding with Judy/Nick before even the second trailer.
    • Even more after the movie, where many people came in just expecting a friendship but came out adoring the relationship and wanting more. Their relationship has already been favorably compared to actual popular canon Disney couples like RapunzelxFlynn and AnnaxKristoff.
  • Periphery Demographic:
    • While other movies like Disney's Robin Hood have been hugely popular with them, this movie appears to be tailor made for the Furry Fandom.
    • The first trailer actually specifically defines the word "anthropomorphic" and makes a pun that the movie is "like nothing you have ever seen be-fur."
  • Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: The messages about racism and prejudice are not merely tacked on, like a moral in a G.I. Joe episode—they're integral to the story, and in this case the message and the story build on and resonate with each other. Judy's personal journey begins with her opposing the speciesist attitudes of those who don't think she could be a police officer—including her own parents. Then, just when she finally thinks she's achieved her dream, she realizes her own actions may have provoked civil unrest across the entire city, and also that she is just as prejudiced herself as the establishment she was fighting against—which drives further character development. The story could not have had as great a dramatic impact without having these "anvilicious" messages built into its core.
  • Shipping:
    • Bogo/Clawhauser is a popular pairing. This is likely because they both are fans of Gazelle, use the same "Dancing with Gazelle" app, and they later attend her concert (and even dance together) by the end of the movie. Their Sensitive Guy and Manly Man dynamic also helps.
    • And, naturally, there are the Judy/Nick shippers.
  • Squick: The fact that the elephants at the ice cream shop add toppings by shooting them from their trunks...and that nobody thinks of it until Judy points it out.
    • Although it is stated to be an In-Universe health code violation.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • Some fans felt Finnick could have had more screen time. Rich Moore has even said that, if a sequel gets made, Finnick will be in it more.
    • In another way, Gazelle. With such a well known singer as Shakira for her voice actress, people expected her to have a larger role in the film, perhaps ending up as a possible villain. She simply ends up as the celebrity guest star with a few cameos here and there.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Bellwether's motivation is very unexplored outside of a single, very brief Motive Rant after The Reveal that amounts to her wanting to keep the power she's stolen. The film's moral on racism is told through its heroes, who are prejudiced in more institutionalized ways, but having a Politically Incorrect Villain whose bigotry is not really elaborated upon or given any meat is seen by some critics as a wasted opportunity to delve into the thought process of an actual racist. Racism is bad, but racists tend to actually believe in their preconceptions and claim that there is some kind of innate inferiority in the cultures and people they despise; Bellwether makes no attempt to justify or even explain where her hatred of the minority species is rooted (although the scenes showing Mayor Lionheart's boorish treatment of her may have been intended to explain this), and ultimately just comes off as power-hungry.
    • Nearly cranked to eleven if you consider the rejected script that would have given Zootopia a decidedly more City 17 feel, and would have been a pain to keep the MPAA rating down, and the critical reviews up with.
  • Uncanny Valley: Seeing animals with realistic eyes in addition to the ones with Cartoony Eyes is a little unsettling.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: There were many viewers upon first watching the teaser trailer that didn't know Judy was a girl.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: For a Disney animated movie, Zootopia has very mature themes and aesops such as issues involving racism, political and social unrest, and drug abuse. All disguised under a world of funny animals.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Zootopia has so many themes tied into the story that making it political would be inevitable, especially after the American police unrest in recent years.
    • When Judy and Nick find out that Bellwether is behind the incidents of predators going savage, Judy tells her, "You can't rule Zootopia through fear". Dawn replies that she can because "fear always works". Not that different from many dictator's line of thought.
    • More than one reviewer has described this film as Disney's most openly political film since World War II's Victory Through Air Power, Education for Death and Der Fuhrer's Face
    • Some have already noted that the film seems like a vague Take That towards Disney's most racist film, Song of the South, by having the message be about racism and prejudice and having a fox and a bunny as the main leads, not that different from the 1940s film.
    • You would be forgiven if, in twenty-years' time, this film is mistakenly taken as alluding to themes in the 2016 Presidential Race, despite the film being released during the very-early months of said race, and (thanks to Animation Lead Time) having been in production for literally years before the first vestiges of the race began.
  • The Woobie:
    • Judy, a rabbit with dreams of being a cop and doing the right thing, shunted to meter-reader because no one believes rabbits are strong enough or capable enough to do anything else in law enforcement.
    • Mrs. Otterton, a loving wife desperate to find her missing husband but pushed aside by every cop who isn't Judy because otters are known for being lazy and irresponsible so they just think he's on vacation without telling his wife and will return once he gets bored. It gets worse when he's found, but is completely feral. She has to see her husband tied to a post, attacking everyone within reach, and not showing any sign of recognizing her or getting better.
    • Nick, a sly fox who was mercilessly bullied and stereotyped by the one thing he'd always dreamed of becoming, a scout, simply because he was a fox. It sets him on his current life as a Con Artist to fit the stereotype and to never let anyone see anything more than what they expect to see in a fox. It's also implied he may have developed PTSD provoked by muzzles after a rather horrifying incidence of bullying involving them.
    • Manchas. Even though he's only around for one scene, by the time we meet him, he's been injured and clearly traumatized by his experience with a savage Emmett Otterton, and won't open his door more than a crack to talk to Judy and Nick. Just when it looks like they're getting somewhere with him, and he looks so hopeful that they might believe and help him Doug snipes him through a barely-open window with a Night Howler pellet, and he's turned into a savage monster. He ends up abducted like all the other savage predators. What's worse, it's implied that he was targeted simply because he might have known too much.
  • WTH, Casting Agency?: Tom 'Tiny' Lister as a fennec fox, especially considering he's a really strong and tall man with a booming voice; though that is the entire point, as his completely disproportionate voice was Played for Laughs.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/Zootopia