#bellwhether

[dreambones]

Luka and Goldie’s Misadventures second batch of character profiles, this time with the antagonists or “bad guys”, which is a too wide term.

Previous / Next (eventually)

[noahlivingston]

it's really annoying to be an avid midsommar hater bc the writer's intentions really do matter here. so either midsommar is a regular movie that I personally just didn't vibe with, made more annoying by the fact that a lot of the people who do like it don't actually get it, meaning they aren't even giving the story the credit it actually deserves. OR. it's just the most cringe worthy dogshit movie in the world and ari aster is so stupid that he accidentally wrote a damning critique of his own movie into the script without realizing it. and I can't even enjoy the irony of that critique bc the movie sucks. it is impossible to tell which timeline we live in or how justified my hatred of ari aster is. we shall never know.

[artist-issues]

Let’s play a game

I like to call it

‘The Twist in Time Effect’

I play it sometimes when I rewatch movies. It’s when you take all the lowest moments (you know, Long Dark Night of the Soul for the Main Character Moments) from Disney movies and you try to come up with what would’ve happened in that world if the turning point didn’t come.

We will use an example.

In Zootopia.

Judy Hopps does not hear, from Gideon, that “a bunny can go savage,” —which was always a crucial character-moment for her because it’s ironic that the species of animal she misjudged (Nick, a fox) is the one (Gideon, a fox) that clued her in to the flaw in her thinking that needed to be fixed before she could save the day—and so, she does not put two-and-two together. She doesn’t go back to get Nick’s help and reconcile with him. She doesn’t stop Mayor Bellwhether’s plot. She stays, disheartened and guilt-ridden, on her family farm. Meanwhile, Nick tries to go back to his old con-artist ways—why wouldn’t he, nobody believes in him—but now there’s a problem.

Within a few months, Zootopia is a transformed city! Predators are going savage everywhere, and as the asylums fill up and even sane preds lose their job due to discrimination and heightened fear, Mayor Bellwhether steps in—and declares that Zootopia’s brightest minds have come up with a solution. Apparently, the only way to stop predators from “devolving” is to “help them regulate their emotions.” To save their less-fourtunate predator citizens from winding up like the mindless Emmett Otterton and his fellows, the city of Zootopia mandates shock-collar tech. Except she calls them “Taming Collars” and they detect an elevated heart rate, so that predator’s emotions can be regulated, as if that’s the key to their “going savage.”

Yup, it’s just the “Deleted Concept.” But this time, it starts where Judy and Nick have had a falling out already from the finished-product movie. So while tame collars are being instituted, Nick tries to avoid having to wear one, seeing how twisted and wrong they are. In this situation, he learns—wrong place, wrong time—a tiny piece of Bellwhether’s plot. Even having learned more, he is simply going to lay low, until Clawhauser appears to go savage and attacks Chief Bogo. Then Nick realizes that if he doesn’t find a way to bring down the Mayor, Zootopia, and all predator’s futures, will be bleak. He tries to leave the city with Fennec, maybe to find Judy, but they are cornered by Bellwhether’s goons in Tundratown.

Meanwhile, Judy re-enters the increasingly dark city to visit Chief Bogo and Clawhauser in the city hospital, feeling guiltier than ever. While there, she catches sight of Fennec, except now he’s pacing and looking savage in a little one-room cell, alongside Clawhauser’s. She ventures to ask the recovering Chief where Fennec’s friend, the fox who was a “witness on her Missing Mammals case,” was, and whether or not he had visited the little predator. She’s told that Nick Wilde is “missing.” Judy decides that she may not be a cop, but she can do something to find the friend she wronged, no matter how crazy the city gets. And from there, you have adventure. Maybe Judy will find Nick before it’s too late, and they’ll try to stop Bellwhether—but now, the fact that some of Judy’s closer associates have been attacked by predators, and that she once demonstrated prejudice against Nick in a city where prejudice now has a palpable, scary taste—plus the city’s increasing fear and trust in Bellwhether, and her knowledge that the Fox is onto her—are stacked against them.

That one’s easy. It’s just a blend-up of the deleted concept everybody likes so much and the first two acts of the movie we got.

Want to do another?

Treasure Planet

Jim Hawkins does not get met immediately by Silver and given encouragement after Mr. Arrow goes overboard. Instead, Scroop, up in the mast, sees Jim brooding after his "mistake" and comes and taunts him. Jim and Scroop are fighting when Silver arrives to check on the cabin-boy, and he tries to break it up. But this time, instead of Mr. Arrow being there to stop things from getting ugly, it's Captain Amelia.

Still grieving Arrow's loss, she confines Scroop, Silver, and Jim to the brig. With Scroop in hissing, bitter, close vicinity all night, Silver has no chance to give the defeated Jim his pep-talk about "greatness and sticking to his own course."

However, when Treasure Planet does come into view the next morning and the crew moors the ship safely in the atmosphere, the Captain (probably softened a bit by Doppler's intervention) sends the Doctor to fetch Jim. Jim, however, doesn't feel any particular desire to leave the brig even after the Doctor unties him. In trying to cheer him up, Doppler mentions that Jim is needed to use the map-device and find the treasure—enlightening Silver and Scroop to Jim's practical use.

Silver tries to wheedle the Doctor into untying him so a "poor cyborg could catch a glimpse of the mythical planet at long last," or something by like that. But the Doctor only has orders to bring Jim above deck—the pirates in the brig will not be accompanying them to Flint's Trove.

Silver is freed from the brig as soon as the pirate crew catches wind of this, and stages his mutiny successfully. He captures Amelia and Doppler, and seems to convince Jim to help the pirates find Flint's Trove.

Silver claims he can see Jim's potential for greatness, just like the original storyline, but this time, it's in the context of "I always knew you had the guts to join us (pirates, free-thinkers, etc.)" And he hasn't made any kind of speech about Jim being an easily-manipulated brat he doesn't care about.

So now, with Scroop left fuming in the brig with a captive Captain Amelia and Doppler for being more trouble than he's worth, and the rest of the pirates venturing in search of the treasure with Jim, the main character has a hard decision to make.

Does he betray the new father-figure who might be a criminal, but hey, at least he believes in Jim—or does he betray Doppler and Amelia, the two honorable if more-distant adults who are on the "right side?" Now Jim has to "chart his own course" and decide if that means "piracy" or "hero" with a little more emotional tension, as they hike through the jungles of Treasure Planet.

One more

Frozen

If you consider Anna the main character of Frozen, then Anna does not get help from Olaf. He does not make it to the room to help her build a fire, or, more importantly, to explain true love to her. So she doesn't go and look for Kristoff as the cure to her frozen heart—nor does she sacrifice herself for Elsa, because she doesn't know Elsa is in immediate danger. Instead, Anna freezes solid while Hans successfully tells Elsa and Arendelle that it's all Elsa's fault.

However, Hans is not successful in killing Elsa out on the fjord. She despairs and drops to the ground, like we see her do in the original storyline. But even though Olaf didn't find Anna after splitting up from the group earlier, he does find and stop Hans from slaying the Queen...simply by appearing there.

Hans is about to strike, when Olaf, having heard his claim about Anna and seen Elsa's grief, pops in and shouts, "But—but she can't be—an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart!"

Elsa turns around and sees that Hans is about to swipe her head off, and in pure self defense, she hits his hand with an ice-blast, freezing it. She spins around to flee, dizzy and blind with grief, and runs smack into Kristoff, who is still trying to reach Arendelle.

Kristoff sees Hans, who's been joined by grieving Arendelle guards, scoops Elsa onto Sven's back, and makes their escape, urgently questioning the broken Queen about Anna, but not getting much out of her.

Meanwhile Hans returns to the castle to display Anna's frozen-statue in the courtyard and tend to his wounded hand. He rallies all of the kingdom around the idea that the only way to stop the winter is to kill their former Queen, and as their new King, he vows to accomplish this mission.

While he tends to his hand, though, he questions the little enchanted snowman standing sadly by Anna's statue. What did he mean about true love? Could Anna be brought back? Olaf claims he doesn't know—only that the trolls told him Anna's heart was frozen until an act of true love thawed it. Olaf absent-mindedly comments that Anna must not have loved Hans if their "marriage" didn't save her from freezing.

But Hans has put two and two together. He could lose his newly-acquired throne if anyone who loved Anna remains alive. In the coming day, pursuing Kristoff into his element—the woods—to try and finish off the broken-hearted Queen, Hans realizes that Anna might've been loved by this outdoorsman, even if Elsa is too broken to try any rescue. He expands his plan to hunt down Kristoff and Elsa, and keep them away from Anna's statue at all costs.

Meanwhile, Kristoff, at the advice of Grabdpabi, organizes the trolls to try and storm Arendelle, get Elsa into Anna's "Memorial Chamber" where her statue is being held, and ask her to apologize to her sister. Maybe that will break the curse and bring her back, and fix everything.

But Elsa is unsure of herself, everything is becoming a barren wasteland, her emotions are more out of control than ever, and Hans knows they're coming. They sort of have an easily-befuddled, not-very-situationally-aware Snowman on the inside, though. Maybe they can do it.

...I said this was a game, I didn't say it was fun

The basic idea is to see if you can remove the piece that immediately lifts the character out of their dark-moment and teaches them the lesson...and see if you can teach them the lesson later on, maybe in a darker sequel. or it's a dark AU, whatever

[drdemonprince]

Ageplay for the kink stock report

It is a bear market on ageplay! With the rash of attacks ageplayers face both by bigoted homophobes and due to the internal policing against it even from within the queer and furry communities, ageplay is not currently positioned for major gains. Hold your investments! There will be a payoff for ageplayers once the market enters a landscape of broader experimentation; expect the performance of CNC and primal as early bellwhethers for how ageplay will perform.

[multifandomvillainblog]

Hey, um, Chameleon, Tai lung, how do you feel about Bellwhether and Negaduck?

Shes uh..very gleeful. -🫖

Hes fine. Bad, but not the worst..I mean- -📜

Oh no, he's pretty horrible. Don’t like him. -🫖

Eh. -📜

[cherrywhite]

Oh man.. a part of me can't help but wonder when Paige and Hayward got to talking about Carpenter and Faulkner. Was it when they got to Bellwhethers? Did they arrive there and Hayward talked about how he found it only to have Paige set him straight on what exactly happened, that Carpenter and Faulkner weren't to blame for it? Did they have to go through a whole "let's talk about the elephant in the room" moment and did Paige also tease Hayward about his whole "I'll hunt you down until the ends of the Earth" speech?

And on that note, I also can't help but wonder how Paige told the story. Considering how much emphasis TSV puts on stories, I can't help but wonder what Paige did or didn't tell to Hayward. Did she tell him about their conversation at the restaurant, when Carpenter revealed what happened to her parents? When Faulkner stood up to the angel? It's especially amusing to me that Hayward immediately refers to Faulkner as "the lory thief" like.. did Paige and Hayward have a good laugh at the absurdity of Paige getting put in the trunk of her own car because she stumbled upon their attempted theft? And that's the thing that stood out most to him? This isn't meant to be Deep Thoughts about this part or anything I just am fascinated by the image of Paige and Hayward talking about the other two, a conversation that completely changed Hayward's perspective of Carpenter to the point that she's now an old friend to him.

[moonlightsolo]

i’m adding the tag list since y’all read it and i want ur opinions :p

@k----a27s @aspenreadsfanfic @aliseaaah @bellwhether @xoxobabe @koalalafications @embersfae @mae-is-crazy @softhetixx @minkyungseokie @iwanttohitmyself @neqeyam @lovedbychoi @lala-1516 @jbxws @ancientbeing10 @angrycoffeebean @taleiak @nyenye @vivangothic c @theunfortunateplace @jakesully-sbabygirl @urdeadpoet

should there be REAL smut for the last part of i see you ORRRRR implied smut ???? help

[theblueberrycarrots]

Zistopia - The Final Chapter

I had to redraw these scenes because they were so gooooooooooooood

[x]

[firecraker-j]

Reminder that people find the racist politician who wanted systemic oppression is more sympathetic…

…than the James Corden fursona who only wanted to steal a billion dollars

Which I totally 100% agree with!

[beldacycles]

Edmundo Gonzales y su hijo Nicolás compraron una #BMC armaduria Belda Cycles y la equiparon con zapatos #Specialized, ropa #Bellwhether, pedales #LOOKcycle y porta caramagiolas #ELITE. . Precio $845.450, antes $1.690.900. . . Encuéntrala en www.beldacycles.cl (en Belda Cycles) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2aQRiTHssy/?igshid=ldb802orid2u

[firecraker-j]

“I had the perfect plan for Systemic Oppression, and I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t been for that meddling bunny and her dumb fox!”

Zootopia (2016), dir. Byron Howard, Rich Moore

[booksrbetterthanpeople]

If the Miraculous characters were Looney Tunes? Or Disney villains?

(And... Just for the hell of it, I'm adding in Animaniacs for the Science Kids since they and Looney Tunes are both owned by Warner Bros)

Marinette: Tweety/Cruella De Vil

Adrien: Pepé Le Pew/Jafar

Alya: Lola Bunny/Narissa

Nino: Bugs Bunny/Honest John

Nathaniel: Marvin the Martian/Queen of Hearts

Max: Tech E. Coyote/Syndrome

Kim: Daffy Duck/Gaston

Alix: Rev Runner/Shere Khan

Juleka: Witch Hazel/Maleficent

Rose: Lexi Bunny/King Candy

Ivan: Hector the Bulldog/Oogie Boogie Man

Myléne: Gossamer/General Ratcliffe

Sabrina: Yosemite Sam/Madame Medusa

Chloé: Elmyra Duff/Lady Tremaine

Marc: Katie Ka-Boom/Evil Queen

Aurore: Brain/Madame Mim

Mireille: Pinky/Hades

Cosette: Dot Warner/Bellwhether

Zoé: Minerva Mink/Hans

Denise: Rita/Dr. Facilier

Simon: Dr. Scratchansniff/Claude Frollo

Ismael: Skippy Squirrel/Scar

Reshma: Hello Nurse/Captain Hook

Jean: Wakko Warner/Tamatoa

Lacey: Yakko Warner/Mother Gothel

[mrcn-e]

NEW TAG DROP

[multifandomvillainblog]

To Negaduck and Bellwhether, How do you feel about tai lung and the chameleon?

The Chameleon?..me and her don’t talk much, especially since..the whole animal thing? Shes nice though! -🐑

That cat? Oh please he’s just some bastard that- - 🦹

Let’s not start insulting now! It would be rude, especiallysince they can see our posts! Remember? -🐑

Ugh..fineee..he’s cool. -🦹

[artist-issues]

I don’t know that I understand your problems with the movie. It seems like you’re saying they weren’t clear enough about the theme of racism in the movie, and should’ve been more obvious with depictions of prejudice…and maybe that they should’ve added more scenes to describe why Bellwhether wants to ruin the lives of predators, and more scenes to explain how the city’s peace could be so easily disrupted.

If those are your issues, and I accurately described them: I completely disagree.

There are too many examples of prejudice, both subtle and extreme, for both sides of the issue, to name. Every single scene has them. Every single scene has one animal referencing the species of another animal and making assumptions based on that species. Every single one. I literally am replaying the movie in my head and I can’t think of a scene where “prejudice” isn’t addressed.

Maybe one. The scene where Mr. Manchez, the leopard driver, is at the door and Judy and Nick are trying to convince him to let them talk to him.

No, wait, I just rewatched it to make sure. Nick Wilde says “woah. A teensy otter did that?!” In reference to the fact that a small, cutesy creature couldn’t possibly do damage to a bigger animal. Prejudice.

The movie never stops giving examples of it. It takes no breaks from the topic.

Also, the city’s fragile peace doesn’t fall apart in one night. The “Missing Mammals” case had the city on edge before we, the audience, arrived in it with Judy. And the “social unrest” that threatened to ruin that peace (didn’t actually topple the city, didn’t actually result in any predators eating prey, just threatened the peace) went on for days after. Know how I know?

There’s a montage. It’s during the News Spot, after Judy’s press conference. That montage indicates time passing. And in a city full of mixed species, just like the real world where there are whole countries full of mixed races—it only takes a little bit of time combined with too much manipulative media coverage to destroy the fragile peace.

You only really need one extreme case of prejudice (Bellwhether) who happens to be in a position of power to tip all of the less-extreme prejudices (the citizens of Zootopia) into a place where they are no longer willing to coexist peacefully. They were already a little prejudiced; every character shows it, even the background characters. They just needed those small prejudices to combine with fear—then the peace is threatened. That’s believable. That’s happened in real life.

So there’s nothing wrong with the plot. The world-building and the surgeon’s-scalpel-care taken to write the dialogue in every scene, even jokes or action sequences, makes the plot believable.

Thanks for engaging. For what it’s worth, I think the scrapped plot was interesting, but would not have made a good first movie—it was too hard to swallow. But, I think you can argue that if Bellwhether had not been exposed and defeated by Judy and Nick? Then the Zootopia movie we got would actually be a good prequel to the scrapped concept.

Tell me every reason you enjoy Zootopia enough to give it all the rewatches you do.

Every? Oh boy.

Good Story

Perfect Characters

Visual Appeal

Earnestness

Let me break it down.

1. Good Story

Zootopia’s main point is: “Try to make the world a better place by realizing we’re fundamentally the same.”

That’s a really good main point.

It has the benefit of being true. Right now our culture is super into “self-identification,” and this crazy contrast between, “I want to be able to identify as something special” and “Now that I know what categories I fit in, I can choose who’s ‘one of us’ and who’s ’not one of us.’” Okay well that sounds pretty and I’m sure it fulfills some emotional need at some point, but it’s actually super divisive, and self-serving, and it’s the seeds for all prejudices. Including racism.

Do we have differences in origins and experiences? Yes. Of course. Do we also have some fundamental things in common? Yes. Of course. Which truth are you going to give the highest priority to? If it’s “no, I’m a prey animal, I know exactly where I belong, that’s who I am, that’s how I dress, that’s my compass for how I interact with others” then you’re getting all your security from your “sense of self,” and being able to understand what that is…which is just a fancy way of saying “I’m all about me. My own perspective informs everything I do.”

Anyway. Zootopia’s message was super true.

And the coolest thing about it is that if only Judy were in the wrong, and the other half of the dynamic duo, Nick, was this open-minded, un-prejudiced guy…and she just hurts him and has to apologize…the movie’s message wouldn’t be as well-communicated.

They have their prejudices and their hurt-from-being-prejudiced-against in common!

They’re the same…because they’ve both felt what it’s like to be treated like they’re not “the same.”

Nick isn’t the only character being mistreated and written off because of his species. The whole first half of the movie is about Judy being mistreated and written off. They think she can’t be a cop because she’s little and cute and a prey-animal. They think Nick can’t be trustworthy because he’s sneaky and small and a predator.

So literally…if Judy represented one race, and Nick represented a completely different race…the movie would be saying that both those races are discriminated against. They even have discrimination in common. AND, if Nick represented men who people make assumptions about because he’s a man, and Judy represented women who people make assumptions about because she’s a woman—the movie would be saying that both those genders are falsely judged.

I mean. Wow. Right now, your movie is either pro-woman or pro-man. Right now, your movie is either BLM or white-supremacy. Everybody’s lining up on one side of the line or the other. Zootopia says, “it doesn’t matter what character you’re looking at, from the elephant that can’t remember anything to the two main characters—every single one of them has fundamental things in common, and one of those things is that they all live like they’re in their own special category. When actually, they’re all fundamentally the same.”

I don’t want to keep beating the dead horse. But I have a post somewhere that lists every background character and points out that each animal is the exact opposite of what you would assume they are based on their animal-stereotype. The otters are never shown being playful or snuggly, only traumatized and ferocious. The cheetah is fat and slow, not quick or even quick on the uptake. Etc.

Even if you look outside of characters—look at the sets. Look at the environments. The whole city is designed “for animals, by animals.” But it’s in neat little segments. The animals organize themselves by habitat. Of course, in one sense that’s practical—the polar bears can’t live in Sahara Square, etc. but the point is, by making Judy and Nick, the main characters, small animals, in a city where everything is built to accommodate by species—UGH this is so good—they have to figure out how to problem-solve in situations that weren’t made to accommodate them.

Little Rodentia? Judy has to avoid stepping on all the mice or knocking over their buildings. Parking tickets? She has to figure out how to jump to reach bigger animals’ windshields—or she inconveniences smaller animals because the tickets are all printed at the exact same size. Stuck in a cell? The guards didn’t think about the fact that small animals can fit down the pipes made to accommodate big animals.

Zootopia is a city advertised to be where all the animals can come together. But the way they do that is by trying to accommodate every species’ preferences. So then actually while they try to come together, everything from their cars to their districts remind them of their differences. The whole idea is that they prioritize the wrong truths. Yeah, mice can’t drive giraffe cars—but they still have “driving” in common. See?

And oh my word. Initially it was supposed to be a spy story. But they changed it to a buddy cop story. Why? Well because justice doesn’t discriminate. Or at least, it’s not supposed to. So then there’s another lens to look at the story’s main theme through.

It’s just that every layer, every perspective you look at the movie from, is just hammering that truth into you: “Try to make the world a better place by realizing we’re fundamentally the same.”

2. Perfect Characters

Every character is so well-thought-through in this movie, even the side characters. You get the feeling you could watch a whole movie based on the side characters, because that’s the amount of love and nuance built into them.

Look at the main ones, though. Bellwhether is supposed to be soft and a follower. She’s a sheep. Instead, she’s hard and bitter—and she’s a leader. A villainous leader, but a leader, nonetheless. Even as she tries to keep animals divided based on fear of their stereotypes, she’s not fitting her own stereotype. Her voice actress has this strained, half-hoarse, but sweet voice. Like you can tell that this character has spent a lot of time under pressure and trying to manage appearances. Appearing like she’s fine, and she can handle it—until you realize that the appearance she’s really managing is “the cultural fear-based identify of the city.” They dress her in plaid and flowers and she’s a farm animal, because that’s the kind of character Judy would be most likely to trust. But she still has green eyes, and jagged teeth, so that when she does start making evil expressions there are some caricature-pieces in there that come out and accentuate that.

Nick Wilde—everybody’s favorite—is supposed to be sly and smooth and shifty. And he is. He’s a fox. But he’s also brave, helpful, and trustworthy. The first time you see him is when he’s dodging out of the way of a bigger animal ignoring him and about to run him over. Well, that’s important.

Because Judy knows what it’s like to have to get out of the way of larger animals, because they overlook her.

So right off the bat, this character she has to get along with and work with, this character who furthers her development and nails the main point, is introduced in a way that has something in common with her. But he’s also introduced in a way that gives her an opportunity to focus on a different truth—that he is different from her. Because the sheep is yelling that he’s a “fox.” Right away, we’re back to species-as-identification.

And that’s what the movie does, all the way through. It presents new animal characters, and with those new animals characters, more than one thing is true at a time. And Judy has to try to focus on which truth is more important. “Try to make the world a better place by realizing we’re all the same.” Yes, Nick is a criminal. But Nick is also brave, helpful, and eventually, becomes trustworthy.

Judy, too. Judy is an incredibly well-done character. Because she believes, in her head, that anyone can be anything—which is not what the movie ends on. In fact, she goes from saying, “anyone can be anything,” to saying, “we all have limitations.” It’s not true that a fox can be an elephant. But it is true that a fox can be trustworthy. Figure out what’s true, and try to make decisions for the better, based on that.

I could talk about character design and acting. Ginnifer Goodwin gives just the right amount of smugness and self-confidence to Judy without making her unlikeable—you don’t realize she’s smug and her self-confidence is misplaced until she does, when she fails to make the world a better place for Nick.

Judy wears tight, actionable, well-fitting uniforms for the whole movie. In her civilian clothes when she comes to Zootopia, she’s wearing athletic t-shirts and shorts. Ready for action, that’s Judy, even in her civvies. Meanwhile, Nick? Nick wears loose-fitting clothes. Loud, patterned clothes that don’t match. Like he didn’t even what, ladies and gentlemen? Like he didn’t even TRY. “Try to make the world a better place…”

Because when you meet Nick Wilde, he’s long since given up on trying, in life. So his character design reflects that. He rarely even stands up straight, or opens his eyes all the way—his default is drooping. And guess what?

When Judy “gives up?” Quits her job? Goes back home? Stops trying? Her civvies aren’t ready-for-action, trying clothes. They’re loose flannels. And her “ears are droopy.”

SERIOUSLY, you can find things like this in every corner of the movie. For every character. Not one character is a throwaway, not in voice acting, not in design, not in animation, and not in narrative.

3. Visual Appeal

Which leads me into this point—no other animated anthropomorphic animal movie is as visually appealing as Zootopia.

What Zootopia does is it matches the best of the best anthropomorphic animal designs from past Disney movies:

And they marry it with this incredible intentionality with modern CGI.

Did you know Disney invents its own software for things like fur textures?

The sheep’s wool, the velvet pig skin, the fox fur, the bunny fluff—it’s all completely different textures. There’s no one “fur” covering all the hairy mammals.

Nick isn’t just orange. He’s orange with deep red and dark tufts. Judy has black tips to her ears, too—which helps the two of them look like, in some sense, they belong “together” in every shot.

It’s so important to the movie that the animals feel like animals that they worked this hard to do this. And then that extends to the textures of the snow, the ice, the sand, the wet leaves, the grass, the fire.

Every character moves like their animal, and like themselves. Nick and Gideon are both foxes, but they don’t move similarly at all. Gideon is aggressive and glowering and physical. Nick, again, is slouchy, leans on everything, completely non-confrontational.

Other anthropomorphic animal movies like Sing or Puss in Boots—they’re not doing both as well. Zootopia is appealing, without sacrificing realism completely, and without cutting character acting.

The lighting. Nope. This post is too long, I can’t talk any more.

4. Earnestness

There is no disingenuous moment in this movie.

The animators are never lazy. They always go for the challenge. They don’t cut corners. Have you ever seen “Over the Hedge?” I like Over the Hedge. But I watched it recently and it’s crazy how many shots are strategically placed so that the animators don’t have to solve a certain effects problem.

For example, when RJ sprays Hammy with cool whip to make it look like he has rabies? He doesn’t. You never see the cool whip leave the can. It just cuts away, then cuts back when RJ is pulling the can away from his face. The shots are also cut so that you never have to see gas actually come out of Stella—and you never see Vern’s full body as he gets back into his shell, just the upper part of the shell as he wiggles it around, going through the motions of putting it back on.

That’s because that stuff would be painstaking to animate. Any time one character has to interact with props or substances (especially liquids) that are not part of their model, it’s harder on the animator.

Zootopia? We’re getting full-on views of characters getting wet, fur and all, characters touching various objects and elements, foam coming out of the mouth, new clothes, new set pieces, multiple models, huge crowd shots of different animals in different outfits, all with their own movement patterns and acting.

And all that hard work and effort, aimed so totally at the main theme of the movie? Making sure it looks as good as it can? Not just that, but the way it’s written, the acting, is so genuine. They don’t hold anything back. They don’t shy away from real emotion.

Judy Hopps’ apology scene is brutal. She’s crying, having a hard time finishing a sentence, her voice is all tight. It’s not pretty, it’s not romantic, it’s like…ugly crying. And her character is wrong in a super embarrassing way. They're not afraid to go there. The writers, the actors, the animators—they’re not afraid of being too vulnerable with these character flaws.

So many movies, especially kids’ movies today—they just pull up and shy away from being real through their characters. They think a quick sad facial expression will get the point across. And it does. The audience gets that the character feels sad about whatever the circumstance of the scene is. But not as powerfully. Because you didn’t put as much work and heart into it.

Zootopia is all heart, from work ethic to vulnerability to the filmmakers enjoying what they’re doing, enough to make it as good as it can possibly be. I can’t explain it better, other than to say, you feel like they would’ve been happy making this movie much much longer than it was. You feel like they’re cramming every bit of joy and passsion into every little joke, every side character, every hair on a CGI bear.

There you go. Long post, you did ask for it

[hokkaidossoul12]

Here is the sixth bunch of drawings from the expression chart made by @abisalli

Expression E3 I did one of the Mafia Goons from A Hat In Time (Game) Expression F3 I did Dolly Corleone, Dolly is an oc which belongs to @fnafmangl Expression G3 I did Alice Angel from BATIM (Game) And Expression H3 I did Bellwhether from Zootopia (Movie)