zootopiagush

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zootopia

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Gazelle and her Tigerrrrrrrs :)

by Kissyander

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I saw someone speculating that Bogo could be made into a villain in the sequel and to say I would be livid if that happened would be an understatement.

Since people are speculating about Zootopia 2, here are my top two fears:

They pull a Ralph Breaks the Internet and decrease my two favorite characters'/OTP's screentime to a footnote in favor of more boring new characters. Or worse, pull a Santa Clause 3 and remove them altogether :(.

They make Clawhauser's dream (mis)behavior canon in his waking hours and/or make Bogo equally OOC.

And one of mild disappointment:

They canonically ship-sink Clawbogo

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It looks like Zootopia 2 has decided on introducing reptiles...

I hope they will then be able to address the concerns of (for lack of a better term) implicit dehumanization in using "mammal" as a stand-in for "person" in legal contexts.

[zootopiagush]

Since people are speculating about Zootopia 2, here are my top two fears:

They pull a Ralph Breaks the Internet and decrease my two favorite characters'/OTP's screentime to a footnote in favor of more boring new characters. Or worse, pull a Santa Clause 3 and remove them altogether :(.

They make Clawhauser's dream (mis)behavior canon in his waking hours and/or make Bogo equally OOC.

And one of mild disappointment:

They canonically ship-sink Clawbogo

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Judy: you know before we get married we’ll have to do a blood test. It’s a big thing in Bunnyburrow so people know they’re not related.

Nick:

Judy:

Nick: yeah I don’t think that’s a concern for us.

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"The story doesn't work because prey are right to dislike predators! They really do eat them!"

In our universe, where they are not all sapient and civilized, they do. In universe, where their opinions matter, this hasn't been true for "thousands of years", if even that was true and not just a commonly accepted myth. Thousands of years ago in our world predates most of written history.

I mean, I'm sure there were cases of what would legally be considered cannibalism, but that is hardly justification for racially profiling everyone who shares an order with them.

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by fluffypaperweight

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It’s not a phase mom

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The sillies

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An amusing crossover! :D

by powree

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If it doesn't have grumpy x sunshine, I didn't write it, sorry

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Duke: welcome to the “Fuck Nick Wilde” club, where we all talk about how much we hate Nick.

Judy:

Judy: I may have misunderstood the purpose of this club.

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Zootopia (2016) / Elemental (2023)

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Did you guys know that even all of Zootopia’s SIDE characters hit the theme right on target? All of them circumvent their species’ stereotypes, for good or for bad.  First one we’re introduced to is Gideon. He’s a fox, and he’s a bully, but Judy nails him right off the bat. He’s small-minded—actually, he’s just not very bright. He’s a bully, so immediately we know he solves problems with his physicality. But that’s the thing. Foxes are supposed to be sly and cunning and sneaky. There’s nothing sneaky or sly about Gideon.

He just shows up and mispronounces words and pushes bunnies around. In fact,  Judy is the sly one in their interaction; even while he’s pushing her down, she’s slipping the tickets out of his pocket to give back to her sheep friend.  Okay so fine, Gideon’s obvious. But what about the next side characters we meet?

Clawhauser! Everybody loves Clawhauser. This one is obvious too. He’s a cheetah—he’s not a leopard, he’s not a jaguar. He’s a cheetah. But what do we learn about him as soon as he actually has to do something for his job? 

HE’S NOT FAST. Cheetah’s are “supposed to be” fast, if they’re anything. But as many character traits as Clawhauser has (loves pop stars, loves donuts, loves his job, willing to help, all-around nice guy) the one that he SHOULD have, as both a police officer who’s job description could be “CATCH” bad guys, AND a cheetah, is speediness! But he’s not a runner. And he’s not even very quick on the uptake, either. When Judy is trying to solve a murder and has the evidence laid out right in front of him, and is LITERALLY connecting the dots out loud, he has no clue what she’s talking about. He’s not quick-thinking. 

Okay let’s do the next one. Chief Bogo! This one is, I think, obvious too, but for funsies, let’s talk about it.  Chief Bogo’s whole character design, as a water buffalo, is supposed to be big, square, tough. He’s scarred up and masculine and authoritative and brusque. He even says several times that he doesn’t care about people’s feelings. But he is not big, heavy, and unyielding like a Cape buffalo should be. They’re literally described as “dark, brooding, tough,” animals. But Chief Bogo gets behind closed doors and he’s like: 

“Ooo, an app where I can dance to mainstream pop music!” And on a more serious note, when Judy totally proves him WRONG and could be seen as having HUMILIATED HIM, he instead proudly walks her up to the Mayor’s office for a promotion. And he even consoles her and calls her a good cop when she’s at her lowest point.

Even the other fox in the movie, Finnick. His whole thing is that he looks small and cute; clever foxes like Nick take advantage of that expectation. Other animals clearly don’t realize that his species, which is totally different from Nick’s, is why he’s so little—they just assume he’s a baby red fox (to their disadvantage.) But even if they did, you see a Fennec Fox and you either go, “aw, cute,” or “foxy tricks!” Finnick has neither. The movie makes it seem like the scheming part of their lives is all Nick’s idea and Finnick is just there playing along to collect the money. He’s also not cute when the disguise comes off—he’s ferocious! A bust-heads first, ask questions later fox with no slyness. 

Let’s move on to some even-lesser-known characters—I’ll try to go faster—

MAYOR LIONHEART! He’s supposed to be an animal associated with great leadership, pride, and honor, and the word “heart” is even in his name. But he has no real heart—he exploits everybody, Bellwhether and Judy included, for his own gain. He’s so self-protective and selfish, two non-leaderly traits, that he even exploits the poor sick feral Zootopians that they recover. 

he doesn’t even seem to care about his actual mayoral duties, which is, you know, the hands-on LEADERSHIP part of being a leader that you’d think the King of the Jungle would be great at.  And what about Madge the Honey Badger? Many people don’t like that her role was made smaller after Pre-production and she became a barely-seen doctor character rather than one of Nick’s closest friends, but LOOK WHAT A GREAT JOB THEY DID. She’s a HONEY BADGER. Honey Badger don’t care. They’re just supposed to be these tough-as-nails, vicious littler buggers who not only have thick skin, but attack predators much larger than themselves—LIKE LIONS. 

But the only time we see this Honey Badger, she definitely cares. She cares enough to sort-of suggest that they get outside help for the sick animals Lionheart is hiding, but when he yells at her? Does this Honey Badger use her thick skin to stand up to him and make a stand for justice? No! She cowers and backs down. And she must have been doing it for weeks, too, because the Missing Mammals have clearly been there for a while.  What about Mr. Big? Clearly it’s all in the name; he’s implied to be a huge threat, very dangerous, but he’s little, sure. Not only that though—he’s implied to be ruthless, a killer, even Nick is scared of him. But instead, he winds up being warm and fatherly toward his own daughter and Judy. He gives wisdom, and helps justice more than once. Also, by the way, a Shrew’s brain is supposed to get even smaller in the winter to conserve energy. There are articles online called “how winter makes shrews stupid,” when I looked it up. But is Mr. Big stupid? Absolutely not. 

What are others known for? Being cute and playful. How many times do you see Mrs. Otterton OR FERAL MR. OTTERTON being cute or playful in the film? This has less to do with their personalities, but the point is, we’re seeing an animal known for it’s cheerful and fun demeanor only in sad or scary situations in this masterpiece of a movie. Not to mention the fact that Emmett Otterton, a “sweet little otter” is basically never sweet until the very end of the movie. 

Yax the Yak is supposed to be big, slow, dumb—he even has hair covering his face, as if he’s not all that observant. But who remembers every little detail about his interactions with Emmett Otterton? Even when Nangi, an elephant who is supposed to remember according to stereotypes, remembers nothing, ever?

YAX DOES. And not only does he remember, but he remembers about interesting things, like being able to tell by the sound of a car which cylinder is firing incorrectly. He’s smart.  We also have Mr. Manchas, the panther, who is shown to be less an apex predator (which is what panthers are) and more a traumatized, suspicious, mild-mannered driver. Oh, and he and all the big, stronger animals work for the tiny little shrew, remember that too. 

Sheep are also supposed to be followers, and stupid. They’re supposed to go toddling after one another, and sometimes just straight up walk over the side of cliffs to their deaths out of idiocy. But the only sheep we see in this film, BESIDES Bellwhether, are not only rebels trying to undermine Zootopia’s whole system, but smart. 

Doug, Jesse, and Woolter are all lab geniuses cooking up government-toppling terrorism serums. 

Gazelle, also, by the way, is a gazelle. They don’t stand up to anyone or anything in the wild; they run away from problems and conflict with other species. Yet here she is, not only being a graceful dancer, but spearheading peace rally’s and speaking out against conflict. 

And of course, Flash. He’s slow physically when he’s at the DMV, but it’s implied that he’s no dummy—for all we know, he was helping Nick stall. Because at the end we learn he’s sort of a criminal, too—because he loves to do what ladies and gentlemen? SPEED. 

So. What I’m saying is, there’s a REASON Zootopia’s so good—it just keeps smashing the theme out of the park with every single character that comes onscreen. They don’t stop at Nick being helpful at heart instead of selfish, or Judy being a clever detective instead of dumb. This movie’s a masterpiece right down to the most basic characters.

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Judy: I have some conditions.

Chief Bogo: I reject them all.

Judy: I’ll take the job, see you on Monday sir.

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Judy, Bogo, and Fangmeyer, often get into heated arguments over who has the cutest boyfriend, or -as they put it- who’s boyfriend is “the handsomest boy in the world.”