The creative team traveled to Kenya to see how real life animals, both the eaters and the eaten, lived side by side. “Most of the things in the animal world happen around a watering hole,” says co-director Bush. “All sorts of animals are there. The cape buffalo push out the gazelles, the elephants push out buffalo.”
“We found predator and prey intermingling all the time. You’d think the lions are over here and the deer over there, but they’re usually around the watering hole at the same time. They kind of get along -- until somebody needs to eat.”
Zootopia’s true story is about two, dare I say real, characters, each who enter the story with their own views and blind spots and barriers and foibles, and who sail the messy seas together. Over the course of the film, Judy and Nick travel way more than the metaphorical 211 miles between Bunnyburrow and Zootopia. Through their escapades together, their personal journeys are immense.
That is the true heart of Zootopia. We bear witness to the deep and profound insights and growth that rocks each of them to their very core. To be clear, these are not superficial shifts, minor adjustments of character or the learning a quick and easy slogan. They are foundational. The Nick and Judy who dance together at the end of the movie are not the same Nick and Judy as those we met at the beginning.
Furthermore, everything is on display. Zootopia is not necessarily a “positive” movie. It presents no magic moments. Throughout the movie, they confront all manner of existential and philosophical barriers, and they deal with them. Judy and Nick earn their transformations because they work for it. They make serious mistakes. They take risks. They let themselves be vulnerable. Nothing is ever guaranteed. They fail, and they go back.
Consider what we see get transformed in the movie: hidden bias, personal barriers, incidents from our past, broken friendships, societal and peer pressures, and fear. We witness amazing examples of taking ownership, of apology and forgiveness, of empathy, of trust, and that anything can be worked out in communication. We are reminded that we can fail without being a failure, and that we are never stuck in who we think we are, or who we think we have to be. We can always choose, and we can always change.
Through it all, we follow Judy and Nick as they develop one of the most incredibly authentic friendships ever depicted in cinema, one forged in understanding and, by the end of the movie, in deep acceptance of each other.
All of these, all in one movie. That’s… beyond remarkable.
Here’s the thing: We are hungry for this.
We want to journey, like Nick and Judy, towards the best versions of ourselves we can be.
We want to be dragged, like Nick, kicking and screaming if need be, back to our own idealism of a world that can work for everyone, with no one left out.
We want to know, like Judy, how to handle a world that doesn’t always fit our hopes and dreams.
We want to find friendships where we truly feel at home.
We want to make a difference in this world.
This is it. This is what we all want in life. These are the hopes and desires we all share. And this is why this movie calls to us so strongly. It not only touches our shared humanity, but celebrates it.
And that is why Zootopia has captured our hearts so strongly, in so short a time. Zootopia is a clarion call towards those aspirations that we have hidden and buried under resignation and overwhelm.
I’m going to make a bold declaration here: Zootopia is more than just a good movie, Zootopia is IMPORTANT.
Stories are powerful. Everything we know about ourselves, and about the world, is codified into stories. Some of the stories we make up ourselves. Most of the stories, we hear… and then make up something about. Often, our mind doesn’t know which are which. This conflux of narratives gives us our experience of life, and they tell us who we are, and who we are not, tell us who others are, and how others are not, and tell us how the world is, and how it is not.
That’s why, when we see these kinds of possibilities and are shown wonderful examples of powerful transformation on the screen, they all becomes a part of us. Possibility begets possibility. When possibilities are shared, they create space for possibilities for others. They alter our worldview, and thus, our world.
As we journey along with Nick and Judy, as we witness and experience their trials and triumphs, we too gain access to t
“The fur is an amazing achievement,” boasts producer Spencer. “We pushed it tactilely. There are 64 species of animals in the film. Think about a polar bear next to a yak with dreadlocks, an arctic shrew that has a very kind of soft fur, even the wet oily fur of an otter. All of them are completely different in film. I think it was a great achievement bringing that to life so it’s not humans in animal suits. No, they’re animals, which comes not just from the fur but from their animal behavior as well.”