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With comments this time: ZOOTOPIA - Thoughts and Speculation
9 years ago
Apparently, being the dolt that I am, I managed to deactivate journal comments the last time around. Pretty retarded, considering I wanted you guys to discuss and birng in your own two cents and stray thoughts. So here we go with a second try. Fire away!
So, since Zootopia is still about a week away for most of us and I'm in no shape to really art tonight, I figured I'd finally jot down my thoughts, hopes, expectations and such for out favorite upcoming Disney feature for you all to read and potentially start a discussion on.
Just as a reminder; I HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE YET, so all those of your fortunate enough to be in a country where it's already out, you will be keeping spoilers out of the comments or I swear I will find a way to punch people through their screens. Spoilers also include any material released in clips which aren't the actual trailers (see movie clip "Elephant in the room", "Skunkfur", etc.).
There may be spoilers ahead for those of you who have managed to remain absolutely trailer and material free. Just a fair warning.
This stuff will be in no particular order, so just scroll to the points that interest you :b
Main Plot
I think we all know by now what the movie is about.
Judy Hopps, a young, spunky bunny from out of town, with an idealistic approach to justice, enrolls with the Zootopia Police as the first rabbit officer. She also appears to be the first female officer, judging from what's seen in the ready room, but that might still be disproven in the movie.
Unhappy with the prejudice and position she's put in because of it, Judy begs the Chief to give her a shot at solving "the big case" that's on the table, missing persons through Zootopia of all shapes and sizes. He begrudgingly gives her 48 hours to make headway, provided she resigns from the force should she fail.
With a bit of smarts and a soda bottle, she identifies a witness by ways of his tail, namely Nicholas Wilde, a scam artist fox who'd previously cheated a giant popsicle out of her kind heart. What he used that popsicle for I'll redact here, because it's funny and smart, but not plot central (I asume).
At this point the exact progression becomes blurred, since most of the scenes are likely shown out of order. They visit a nudist club, obviously trek through all the varied districts of Zootopia, like Tundra Town, where they track down a car in which one of the missing persons seems to have been transported, who also appartently turned feral ... and get captured by the local polar bear Mafia, headed by a shrew (whom Nick pissed off real bad at one point in his past, btw., again redacted, because Nick's antics are genius material).
Nick gives up his past, a building gets infiltrated, Judy gets fired and they both end up saving the day in a climatic chase scene on public transport rails, because it's the right thing to do, badge or not.
-- this is what I've gathered from trailers so far.
Thoughts and Speculations
Turning Feral
Why are people in Zootopia disappearing and turning feral?
My first guess, which I mentioned on one of the fanarts last week, was that there might be a predator somewhere who feels things should return to "the old ways", because life was so much simpler then and you really shouldn't argue with the order of nature. However, due to something I read somewhere (and I’m not gonna say what it is, because it is a potential spoiler), this is no longer on the top of my possibilities list.
While I’m pretty sure it’s still about upsetting the order in Zootopia, I’m not entirely certain it’s a predator anymore. In fact, I have someone very specific in mind as the ‘big bad’ and while I again wont say who it is, I’ll tip off that the character is one of the very few I’ve noticed falling out of the scaling of most others in universe.
Spoiler: All the disappeared mammals are predators. A lot of leading figures are large, powerful mammals (e.g. Lionheart, Bogo, etc.). So my thought is, this someone is trying to discredit preds from power positions/sow fear and prejudice against them enough to promote ‘non-risky’ population groups and more of the physically weaker demographics.
This would also create an interesting moral dilemma for our young Judy, seeing as she too is struggling with the prejudice that she can’t be a proper police officer, because she lacks size an strength (though I’m pretty sure a kick from her would be pretty damn painful). We’ll see whether I’m right on that one.
Judy Hopps
Is the prejudice justified?
Let’s get this out of the way; I would not be intimidated by Judy herself. I’m pretty sure that goes for all of us. However, I’ve seen a lot of police officers who’m I wouldn’t be intimidated by, if they were out of uniform. IN uniform it’s a different matter. Judy in a uniform represents not her, but the authority of the law and the promise that disobeying her will bring consequences, which would very likely be respected by enough decent citizens outside of extreme situations.
Having said that, you still need to be able to hold your own if things get messy. This is where Judy is a double-edged sword. On one hand she’s small and nimble and very likely has a lot of power to spare in those legs, which should give her well enough opportunity to evade opponents stronger than her, not factoring in that police officers are taught self defense, both offensive and defensive strategies and the like. Using a good fulcrum or leverage point will bring even larger opponents to their knees if done right, and Judy strikes me as physically fit enough to pull that off. Maybe not on a rhino or an elephant, but d’you honestly see a wolf pulling either of those? So you call in a big guy to handle a big guy, means you’re capable of delegating and judging what your assets are good at ... now say you have a small perp who keeps slipping through the cracks in the wall ... who do you call if all your officers are at least the size of a wolf?
What’s Chief Bogo’s issue?
As much of a jerk as he might seem to be for succumbing to prejudice against Judy, Bogo has several points on his side about why not to want Judy on his force.
Apart from the size aspects described above, which means Judy has only a limited field of operation, there’s other things to take into account; where does she change/go to the bathroom? Custom cut uniforms and equipment for her? All of that kills budget and it’s likely an organization inconvenience too. If Judy really is the first and only officer of her size and shape to make the grade, they had to get all of her gear custom made, including that cutesy e-scooter she uses for getting around (where she’d likely be faster just walking places).
Here’s my problem though; Judy made the grade. No matter what he says, if Judy actually got through all the trials and qualifications of becoming an officer of the ZPD and was granted the right to wear the uniform by all the right standards, he has no place being grudgy at her for it.
Now, despite what we might say/hope, this is still a movie targeted at a far younger audience than most of us are, so chances are they never adress this/training isn’t actually as harsh as real police training (pretty sure Judy never gets to see pictures of gunshot/mauling victims or the like, never mind actually firing a weapon, ever). Taking that into account, I’ll let it slide. Just my two cents to the matter is all ;3
Judy gets fired/suspended
I’m pretty sure of this. At which point exactly I don’t know, but I’m going to venture a guess it’s after she and Nick break into (what I presume to be) the Mayor’s office and sifting through a good deal of classified stashed data which, given the right nudge and combination, would reveal who’s responsible for the disappearances.
Spoiler: Hints;
In (what I think is) the final chase scene, Judy doesn’t wear her uniform, but a checkered button shirt, just like she does when she gets ‘emotional’ with Nick under the bridge (likely back in her home town). The emotional scene, I think, is likely Nick coming to fetch her to finish her job, i.e. something along the lines of „the Judy Hopps I met would never turn her back on a problem, no matter how much bigger than her it might seem. Besides, there’s two of us now, right?“ ~ or something like that.
Nick Wilde
Who is this guy?
A fox. No shit. Foxes are sneaky bastards. No shit. They’ll do just about anything to get ahead, if they can ...
This seems to be the general consensus about foxes in Zootopia. While I have yet to see actual proof that foxes are shunned with the kind of mischief and trickery prejudice that seems to be common place in every universe (hint-fucking-hint), Nick Wilde is a product of his environment, of this I’m sure.
SpoilerCase in point; little boyscout Nick Wilde.
Like all lovable thief-heroes, Nick too seems to have been the cute, happy kid from next door, with a loving family and hopes and dreams. In one of the trailers we see a young Nick, who very proudly puffs up his chest in his little boyscout uniform, just before his mom tickle-deflates him. It’s childs play, but you can see the good character being there.
So my guess is this; young Nick wanted to be a police officer himself, or at the very least had no intention of becoming the sneaky fraud he appears to be at first. But then the world happened. I’ve been subject t a good deal of mobbing and bullying in my time for various reasons, so I might be projecting, but I’m pretty sure Nick was bent ouf of shape as he grew up, getting more and more disdain and prejudice thrown his way as he grew older until he eventually decided he’ll turn his back on the world and just fall into the stereotype, letting the hopeful inner boyscout receed into a bitter cynic with a smart smirk.
Now here comes Judy, a young, idealistic BUNNY of all things, in a uniform. While I’m sure it doesn’t tag him personally at first, when she seeks him out as an aide and they go on their adventure together, Nick sees in her the potential that he could have been, had he not given in to what everyone else thought of him.
This I’m pretty sure is not just Nick’s big turn around, but also what makes him come back for Judy after she gets dumped/gives up, reminding her that he made that mistake once before and she was the one who showed him that he had been wrong in doing so.
So what’s to become of Nick?
This I have the most trouble with, not just in speculating, but also consequently with the fan arts I’ve been producing.
Those of you who have been watching me for a while know I’m a big fan of doing character driven, canon specific works. But there’s hundreds of directions Nick can go at the end of the movie.
Maybe he’ll turn around and start a day job, maybe even fulfilling that boyscouts dream and becoming an officer like Judy. Or a detective, cuz foxes are sneaky and such ... or maybe just as a consultant/informant for a more street savy or promoted Hopps. Or maybe he decides that he’s best off doing what he does best and turning a living out of his slight of hand and wits, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the winner ^^;
Final thoughts
Shipping
The big question pretty much everyone on this page wants answered; do Judy and Nick hook up?
I have no answer. I’ve been confirmed that the end and the resolution of their personal relationship is supposed to be very sweet and charming indeed, but I have no confirmations on whether or not they’ll decide they want more out of eachother than just a good chat and a friend - and to be honest, as itchy as I am at this point, I’m willing to wait for the two of them to do their magic for us on screen.
My guess?; it’s unlikely that they’ll end up a couple directly on screen, but considering how self aware this movie has been in all of it’s released material, I find it’s very likely that, even if their bonding lines don’t fall on screen, it’ll possibly be implied that they both have an interest in potential romance eventually.
Misc
The one thing I’m sort of sad about is that Zootopia is not a Pixar feature and there’s a very specific reason for that.
Most, if not all fo the Pixar movies, had a series of outtakes at the very end during the credits run .. and I’m sure they could have come up with a great deal of antics for that considering the ‘actors’ sizes etc. .
A reason why I’m happy that wont be included though is, that the outtakes take just a little bit of tangibility away from the characters being the characters in the story that was just told and no matter whether or not we get a shipping confirmation, I want to remember Zootopia as the actual event, not as a filming set ;3
That is all.
I’d be happy to hear all of your opinions, speculations and the like if you’re willing to share them. Again, those of you who have already seen the movie ARE TO KEEP THEIR MOUTHS SHUT ON DETAILS! <3
Be well.
So, since Zootopia is still about a week away for most of us and I'm in no shape to really art tonight, I figured I'd finally jot down my thoughts, hopes, expectations and such for out favorite upcoming Disney feature for you all to read and potentially start a discussion on.
Just as a reminder; I HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE YET, so all those of your fortunate enough to be in a country where it's already out, you will be keeping spoilers out of the comments or I swear I will find a way to punch people through their screens. Spoilers also include any material released in clips which aren't the actual trailers (see movie clip "Elephant in the room", "Skunkfur", etc.).
There may be spoilers ahead for those of you who have managed to remain absolutely trailer and material free. Just a fair warning.
This stuff will be in no particular order, so just scroll to the points that interest you :b
Main Plot
I think we all know by now what the movie is about.
Judy Hopps, a young, spunky bunny from out of town, with an idealistic approach to justice, enrolls with the Zootopia Police as the first rabbit officer. She also appears to be the first female officer, judging from what's seen in the ready room, but that might still be disproven in the movie.
Unhappy with the prejudice and position she's put in because of it, Judy begs the Chief to give her a shot at solving "the big case" that's on the table, missing persons through Zootopia of all shapes and sizes. He begrudgingly gives her 48 hours to make headway, provided she resigns from the force should she fail.
With a bit of smarts and a soda bottle, she identifies a witness by ways of his tail, namely Nicholas Wilde, a scam artist fox who'd previously cheated a giant popsicle out of her kind heart. What he used that popsicle for I'll redact here, because it's funny and smart, but not plot central (I asume).
At this point the exact progression becomes blurred, since most of the scenes are likely shown out of order. They visit a nudist club, obviously trek through all the varied districts of Zootopia, like Tundra Town, where they track down a car in which one of the missing persons seems to have been transported, who also appartently turned feral ... and get captured by the local polar bear Mafia, headed by a shrew (whom Nick pissed off real bad at one point in his past, btw., again redacted, because Nick's antics are genius material).
Nick gives up his past, a building gets infiltrated, Judy gets fired and they both end up saving the day in a climatic chase scene on public transport rails, because it's the right thing to do, badge or not.
-- this is what I've gathered from trailers so far.
Thoughts and Speculations
Turning Feral
Why are people in Zootopia disappearing and turning feral?
My first guess, which I mentioned on one of the fanarts last week, was that there might be a predator somewhere who feels things should return to "the old ways", because life was so much simpler then and you really shouldn't argue with the order of nature. However, due to something I read somewhere (and I’m not gonna say what it is, because it is a potential spoiler), this is no longer on the top of my possibilities list.
While I’m pretty sure it’s still about upsetting the order in Zootopia, I’m not entirely certain it’s a predator anymore. In fact, I have someone very specific in mind as the ‘big bad’ and while I again wont say who it is, I’ll tip off that the character is one of the very few I’ve noticed falling out of the scaling of most others in universe.
Spoiler: All the disappeared mammals are predators. A lot of leading figures are large, powerful mammals (e.g. Lionheart, Bogo, etc.). So my thought is, this someone is trying to discredit preds from power positions/sow fear and prejudice against them enough to promote ‘non-risky’ population groups and more of the physically weaker demographics.
This would also create an interesting moral dilemma for our young Judy, seeing as she too is struggling with the prejudice that she can’t be a proper police officer, because she lacks size an strength (though I’m pretty sure a kick from her would be pretty damn painful). We’ll see whether I’m right on that one.
Judy Hopps
Is the prejudice justified?
Let’s get this out of the way; I would not be intimidated by Judy herself. I’m pretty sure that goes for all of us. However, I’ve seen a lot of police officers who’m I wouldn’t be intimidated by, if they were out of uniform. IN uniform it’s a different matter. Judy in a uniform represents not her, but the authority of the law and the promise that disobeying her will bring consequences, which would very likely be respected by enough decent citizens outside of extreme situations.
Having said that, you still need to be able to hold your own if things get messy. This is where Judy is a double-edged sword. On one hand she’s small and nimble and very likely has a lot of power to spare in those legs, which should give her well enough opportunity to evade opponents stronger than her, not factoring in that police officers are taught self defense, both offensive and defensive strategies and the like. Using a good fulcrum or leverage point will bring even larger opponents to their knees if done right, and Judy strikes me as physically fit enough to pull that off. Maybe not on a rhino or an elephant, but d’you honestly see a wolf pulling either of those? So you call in a big guy to handle a big guy, means you’re capable of delegating and judging what your assets are good at ... now say you have a small perp who keeps slipping through the cracks in the wall ... who do you call if all your officers are at least the size of a wolf?
What’s Chief Bogo’s issue?
As much of a jerk as he might seem to be for succumbing to prejudice against Judy, Bogo has several points on his side about why not to want Judy on his force.
Apart from the size aspects described above, which means Judy has only a limited field of operation, there’s other things to take into account; where does she change/go to the bathroom? Custom cut uniforms and equipment for her? All of that kills budget and it’s likely an organization inconvenience too. If Judy really is the first and only officer of her size and shape to make the grade, they had to get all of her gear custom made, including that cutesy e-scooter she uses for getting around (where she’d likely be faster just walking places).
Here’s my problem though; Judy made the grade. No matter what he says, if Judy actually got through all the trials and qualifications of becoming an officer of the ZPD and was granted the right to wear the uniform by all the right standards, he has no place being grudgy at her for it.
Now, despite what we might say/hope, this is still a movie targeted at a far younger audience than most of us are, so chances are they never adress this/training isn’t actually as harsh as real police training (pretty sure Judy never gets to see pictures of gunshot/mauling victims or the like, never mind actually firing a weapon, ever). Taking that into account, I’ll let it slide. Just my two cents to the matter is all ;3
Judy gets fired/suspended
I’m pretty sure of this. At which point exactly I don’t know, but I’m going to venture a guess it’s after she and Nick break into (what I presume to be) the Mayor’s office and sifting through a good deal of classified stashed data which, given the right nudge and combination, would reveal who’s responsible for the disappearances.
Spoiler: Hints;
In (what I think is) the final chase scene, Judy doesn’t wear her uniform, but a checkered button shirt, just like she does when she gets ‘emotional’ with Nick under the bridge (likely back in her home town). The emotional scene, I think, is likely Nick coming to fetch her to finish her job, i.e. something along the lines of „the Judy Hopps I met would never turn her back on a problem, no matter how much bigger than her it might seem. Besides, there’s two of us now, right?“ ~ or something like that.
Nick Wilde
Who is this guy?
A fox. No shit. Foxes are sneaky bastards. No shit. They’ll do just about anything to get ahead, if they can ...
This seems to be the general consensus about foxes in Zootopia. While I have yet to see actual proof that foxes are shunned with the kind of mischief and trickery prejudice that seems to be common place in every universe (hint-fucking-hint), Nick Wilde is a product of his environment, of this I’m sure.
SpoilerCase in point; little boyscout Nick Wilde.
Like all lovable thief-heroes, Nick too seems to have been the cute, happy kid from next door, with a loving family and hopes and dreams. In one of the trailers we see a young Nick, who very proudly puffs up his chest in his little boyscout uniform, just before his mom tickle-deflates him. It’s childs play, but you can see the good character being there.
So my guess is this; young Nick wanted to be a police officer himself, or at the very least had no intention of becoming the sneaky fraud he appears to be at first. But then the world happened. I’ve been subject t a good deal of mobbing and bullying in my time for various reasons, so I might be projecting, but I’m pretty sure Nick was bent ouf of shape as he grew up, getting more and more disdain and prejudice thrown his way as he grew older until he eventually decided he’ll turn his back on the world and just fall into the stereotype, letting the hopeful inner boyscout receed into a bitter cynic with a smart smirk.
Now here comes Judy, a young, idealistic BUNNY of all things, in a uniform. While I’m sure it doesn’t tag him personally at first, when she seeks him out as an aide and they go on their adventure together, Nick sees in her the potential that he could have been, had he not given in to what everyone else thought of him.
This I’m pretty sure is not just Nick’s big turn around, but also what makes him come back for Judy after she gets dumped/gives up, reminding her that he made that mistake once before and she was the one who showed him that he had been wrong in doing so.
So what’s to become of Nick?
This I have the most trouble with, not just in speculating, but also consequently with the fan arts I’ve been producing.
Those of you who have been watching me for a while know I’m a big fan of doing character driven, canon specific works. But there’s hundreds of directions Nick can go at the end of the movie.
Maybe he’ll turn around and start a day job, maybe even fulfilling that boyscouts dream and becoming an officer like Judy. Or a detective, cuz foxes are sneaky and such ... or maybe just as a consultant/informant for a more street savy or promoted Hopps. Or maybe he decides that he’s best off doing what he does best and turning a living out of his slight of hand and wits, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the winner ^^;
Final thoughts
Shipping
The big question pretty much everyone on this page wants answered; do Judy and Nick hook up?
I have no answer. I’ve been confirmed that the end and the resolution of their personal relationship is supposed to be very sweet and charming indeed, but I have no confirmations on whether or not they’ll decide they want more out of eachother than just a good chat and a friend - and to be honest, as itchy as I am at this point, I’m willing to wait for the two of them to do their magic for us on screen.
My guess?; it’s unlikely that they’ll end up a couple directly on screen, but considering how self aware this movie has been in all of it’s released material, I find it’s very likely that, even if their bonding lines don’t fall on screen, it’ll possibly be implied that they both have an interest in potential romance eventually.
Misc
The one thing I’m sort of sad about is that Zootopia is not a Pixar feature and there’s a very specific reason for that.
Most, if not all fo the Pixar movies, had a series of outtakes at the very end during the credits run .. and I’m sure they could have come up with a great deal of antics for that considering the ‘actors’ sizes etc. .
A reason why I’m happy that wont be included though is, that the outtakes take just a little bit of tangibility away from the characters being the characters in the story that was just told and no matter whether or not we get a shipping confirmation, I want to remember Zootopia as the actual event, not as a filming set ;3
That is all.
I’d be happy to hear all of your opinions, speculations and the like if you’re willing to share them. Again, those of you who have already seen the movie ARE TO KEEP THEIR MOUTHS SHUT ON DETAILS! <3
Be well.
Oh well I'm still gonna do it anyway. Your prediction though isn't far off from mine.
And I think that despite your well-done analys and reasoning... you will still be surprised. In a positive way.
I fully expect to be surprised from top to bottom :3
PS: I should also start commenting here and there in your comic again, as soon as I've some time
Still really looking forward to it and I am already guessing that the person that looks like the main villain isn't, and it is someone else that doesn't look like a bad guy. So hoping it isn't *cough cough* and is instead *cough*
as for nick i wonder how foxes got stock with cunning has their defult. off the top of my head i can think of two stories where the foxes cunning or charm dont do anything and become something as a lesson for the reader to learn from.