History Fridge / Zootopia

* [[FridgeLogic/{{Zootopia}} Fridge Logic]]

Due to the tremendous amount of entries, the Fridge page has been split into separate FridgeBrilliance and FridgeHorror pages.

* [[{{FridgeBrilliance/Zootopia}} Fridge Brilliance]]
* [[{{FridgeHorror/Zootopia}} Fridge Horror]]

* [[{{FridgeHorror/Zootopia}} Fridge Horror

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[[folder:Fridge brilliance]]
* Starting with the first [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9lmhBYB11U teaser]], the audience is introduced to the film with a literal textbook definition of "'''Anth'''-'''ro'''-'''po'''-'''morph'''-'''ic'''", defined as a "modern ''civilized'' world that is entirely animal". Some found it odd and, dare say, even somewhat condescending considering this isn't Disney's first talking animal film, the word isn't exactly esoteric, and the concept isn't difficult to grasp. Right? But then remember the theme of Zootopia: it's an allegory for biases and prejudices [[spoiler: especially with the third act leaving some to question whether predators really are reverting back to savagery before the climax hits]]. So in some sense, perhaps the audience needs that blatant reminder in the beginning- that animals in Zootopia aren't savage beasts, only how they are perceived by others.
* Judy frequently uses her seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of the law to her advantage (she points out the health code violation of the ice cream shop, all the ways Wilde's scheme is a crime, probable cause, the exact classification of the flower bulbs, etc.). She graduated Valedictorian, of course she knows the law back to front, perhaps even better than her boss.
* The zoologically minded may find it grating to keep seeing foxes and bears being threatened with "going feral" on account of them being predators - what with neither ''actually being an obligate carnivore'' in real life (both foxes and bears are omnivorous, and the former may, out of necessity, even live for long periods of time on nothing but vegetable matter). This is actually foreshadowing that the HatePlague [[spoiler: has nothing to do with an animal's natural diet and is made of a toxin that would've turned anyone, even a herbivore, "savage".]]
** Also, it could be a sign that the prejudice against predators is ''just that bad'' that it extends to animals that aren't ''exclusively'' herbivores. (This is slightly FridgeHorror, though, arguably...)
* Sloths:
** Aside from the obvious "comically slow bureaucrats" joke, it makes a weird sort of sense for the DMV employees to be sloths: an ideal employee in a place like that would be very careful, so as to avoid making clerical errors, and very patient and cool-headed, for dealing with dissatisfied customers. Maybe the sloths are a little ''too'' careful, but there's a kind of logic to it.
** Sloths, out of all mammals, are best suited to that kind of desk work. For most species -- humans included -- the forced inactivity can just about drive them insane. For a sloth, it's a lively outing.
* Surprisingly, even though mammals of all size and shape inhabit Zootopia, primates are nowhere to be seen. The creators of the movie must have thought that primates are too closely related to humans. The idea of apes not understanding AnimalTalk because of this dates all the way back to ''Disney/LadyAndTheTramp''. It's entirely possible that the reason humanity "never happened", to quote the trailer, is that primates all became extinct long before the first proto-hominid.
** Going off of the whole "humans never existed" angle, it suddenly makes sense why we only ever see wild animals; there are plenty of big cats everywhere, and we know there are foxes and wolves, but there are no cats or dogs. It could be that those species don't exist in this universe because humans weren't around to domesticate the ancient wolves and the smaller cats died out.
** While pink pigs and fluffy white sheep don't exist in the wild and appear to damage the "no humans" rule, their existence can be justified. Pigs come in as wide a variety of colors as humans -- it's the bristly hair that keeps them from looking that pale. Likewise, sheep have white wool as a dominant gene pattern that is only reduced in the wild because white animals stand out against natural backgrounds. (As for "fluffy", Bellwether must use product -- real wool is kinky, oily hair.)
** Floppy ears and pale coloration are some of the marks of domestication. Experiments in breeding foxes and rats revealed that even when you breed only for friendliness towards humans, you end up with curly-tailed floppy-eared animals with partially white pelts. It may be that sheep and pigs 'self-domesticated' at some point, the ones that could live and work together more comfortably leaving more offspring. Some anthropologists believe humans did this to ourselves.
** The lack of primates not only explains how humanity ''never happened'' -- it makes it clear that humanity ''never can happen''. Whatever common ancestor evolved into primates and other mammals in our world is obviously long extinct by the time of the film, so if primates never came into existence in this world, humans never will ''at all''.
* The movie demonstrates its own point - early on, Doug honks at Nick to get out of his way. Judy - and by extension, the camera - focus on Nick as the suspicious party, because he's a predator. Nick was pulling a hustle but the real criminal of the movie was Doug. If Judy had watched Doug - an 'innocent' prey sheep - instead of Nick, she could have solved the case much, much earlier. Doug is also the one who's more aggressive and in a hurry - he pulls out sharply and nearly hits Nick, who only shrugs in a disbelieving manner without yelling back, but Judy is too busy profiling Nick to worry what the sheep's problem is.
* Nick's philosophy of "since nobody trusts foxes anyway, [[ThenLetMeBeEvil I'll just be a conman]]" has an additional layer, since his scheme relies on other animals being prejudiced against foxes: Nick, who is a red fox, presents Finnick, who is a fennec, as his child; who could possibly believe such a transparent lie... except for someone who can't, or doesn't care enough to, tell foxes apart?
* Criminal shrew:
** A shrew being a mob boss might be an odd choice on just size alone, but shrews are actually very vicious animals for that size and need to eat 1/2 to 2 times their body weight in food every day. Some species are even venomous.
** Shrews are highly territorial ''predators''. If you force two ''arctic'' shrews (which Mr. Big might well be, considering he lives in Tundratown) into close quarters, one of them will be dead within the next several days. This would be less chilling (no pun intended) if researchers had any idea [[FridgeHorror why the dead shrew stopped living]]…
** Also, we see that a small species criminal can actually be very successful in Zootopia. When Judy chased the weasel into Rodentia, they caused considerable collateral damage, with both cop and criminal being barely the right size to run in there. Any of the other officers would have destroyed a building or crushed an innocent civilian just by moving, so a chase would have been incredibly destructive. That would mean a small sized criminal could evade the police for years and make quite a profit. Mr Big and his family surely started like this, and once they were wealthy enough, they could get the polar bears as hired muscle.
** Small predator species would be the likeliest to form criminal gangs in Zootopia, since in American history many of the most notorious gangs were formed by discriminated minorities (Jews, Italians, Blacks, Irish), and predators are the discriminated minority in Zootopia.
* Related to the above, Mr. Big actually has a pretty valid reason to help Judy in her investigations the second time: he and all of his mooks are predators (and he already lost one subordinate to the HatePlague), so if one is spreading hatred against them it is in his best interests to stop that. Plus, Judy is by far the smallest police officer -- the only one small enough to actually deal with rodents -- and that might be dangerous for his operations, so getting on her good side can't be a bad thing.
** Don't forget that Mr. Big said that Otterton is "like family to me." Given his [[DisproportionateRetribution established temper,]] it's not hard to imagine how pissed off Mr. Big became after learning that Weaselton had a hand/paw in turning Otterton feral...
*** As well as the fact, Weaselton was the one responsible for almost getting his daughter crushed by a donut, which Judy saves her from. So, [[PapaWolf Mister Big probably wouldn't take kindly to Weaselton, would he?]]
* Zootopia is specifically mentioned as a mammal city, and birds and reptiles are nowhere to be seen. Zootopia is also rife with FantasticRacism. If the various mammalian species are prejudiced against each other, then ''of course'' an average mammal wouldn't want to walk the same streets a bird and a lizard step on.
** There may also be another reason. Some animals, like cats, are obligate carnivores that need meat to survive. Putting two and two together, well...
*** Which gets even better when one takes into account that, in nature, both big reptiles and birds of prey are the apex predators of the natural habitats they appear in, and only get trumped by humans, which as established don't exist in the Zootopia universe.
*** Three buildings ("Fishtown Market", "Clark Halibuts", and "Blubber Chef") seen in Tundra Town when Judy rides the train through the city) imply that they sell fish. Which admittedly doesn't stop reptiles and birds ''also'' being non-sapient and thusly a food source for predatory mammals, seeing as how, like fish and bugs, they do fall under WhatMeasureIsANonCute.
* Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are trying to stop species-based bigotry in Zootopia. The main antagonist, [[spoiler: [[CuteIsEvil Bellwether]], while mistreated and genuinely sees the predators' dominance in Zootopia as bad, her entire plan revolves around ''enforcing'' it. The plan is to have the 90% of the population act against the remaining 10%, that she sees as oppressive. She doesn't try to accomplish that by having them start thinking on their own, but by trusting them to follow her lead without question. Of course, she's a ''sheep''.]]
* The last gag. [[spoiler: Aside from the obvious joke being made about Flash being the fastest sloth around, it makes a fair bit of sense why a sloth would be an avid street racer. Given how slowly they moved, once they stepped on the accelerator of a car, it'd take them a long time for them to stop accelerating/hit the brakes. Add on the fact that Flash has a sports car and it makes sense that he'd be traveling at ludicrous speeds most of the time. Even justified, in that three-toed sloths (unlike two-toed sloths) can move ''very'' quickly when angry or excited. When driving his car at high speeds, Flash is going to be reacting ''much'' faster.]]
* The last gag is particularly interesting since Flash works at the DMV. [[spoiler: Probably not for long after that scene, though.]]
* Nick's shirt pattern, of all things, is a link to proving he still [[spoiler: has softness under his cynical DeadpanSnarker facade. It has a faded green pattern of palm leaves on it - just like the wallpaper in his house in the flashback scene.]] It's subtle, but invokes some Fridge Sadness as you realize he may very well think of the home he left every time he looks at it.
** Similarly, a closer inspection of Nick's handkerchief reveals it to be the scarf from his Junior Ranger Scout uniform. The colour is a bit washed out, but the pattern is still recognisable.
*** Fridge Sadness: [[spoiler: of course he kept the Junior Ranger Scout scarf: he probably couldn't afford to throw clothes away given it's established he was extremely poor growing up.]]
* Given Mr. Big's [[spoiler: actual size and species, the fact that the wall rug Nick gave him was just a skunk's butt fur makes sense. That isn't a lot of fur to a polar bear, and wouldn't be considered a wall rug by bear standards. But to a shrew? Definitely.]]
** And the reason why Mr. Big [[spoiler:got so pissed off at Nick about it]]? [[spoiler:Shrews have an incredibly good sense of smell]].
* Just a few days after her wedding, Fru Fru shows a very advanced pregnancy. For a human, this would mean it was a ShotgunWedding, but shrews and other small mammals have very short pregnancies, so she likely got pregnant on her wedding day or a few days before.
** This is kind of undermined by the fact that WordOfGod states that there's a TimeSkip of about 3 months, at the least, between Judy's disastrous press conference and her short-lived resignation from the ZPD. Plus, there's the whole [[ObviousPregnancy "pregnant women need to look big so that we know they're pregnant"]] trope to take into consideration.
* When Nick and Judy are in a museum, you can see an exhibit where several prehistoric rabbits with spears are fending off a predator who is still walking on all fours like a savage animal, implying that prey animals were the first to develop civilization and the predators only followed later, presumably out of necessity. This makes the public fear about predators turning savage the more understandable as there would be cultural biases of prey deeming themselves inherently more civilized.
* Mr. Otterton was [[spoiler: Mr. Big's florist]]. And he then said that Otterton wanted to talk with him about "something urgent." Considering what we later find out about [[spoiler: Nighthowler plants]], it's possible that Otterton wanted to warn [[spoiler: Mr. Big about the plant]], hence why it was so urgent for him to get that limo to [[spoiler: Mr. Big's]] place. It also would give an added layer on why he [[spoiler: was turned feral.]] Not just that he was a predator. He was also [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade turned to uphold the conspiracy.]]
** In an early scene, Duke Weaselton steals "moldy onions" from a florist (really, Bogo?). Emmett Otterton was also a florist. It is entirely possible that Otterton's shop was also stolen from, and as a predator [[spoiler: with close ties to organized crime]], he knew what they were really good for.
* How weird is it that Bellwether couldn't feel her head wool being touched by Nick? A simple case of ToonPhysics? Except that she very likely did feel it, but was [[HiddenVillain holding it in]] for the time being.
** This is given more credit as later [[spoiler: in prison]] she slaps away another mammal's hand that touches it much more lightly than Nick did.
*** Also, foxes are one of a sheep's natural predators, so the way Nick paws her hair, and practically drools as he does so, might well creep out some viewers.
* Bogo's justifications:
** Bogo is definitely a JerkAss early on... except he actually was right. Judy's behaviour as a ''new recruit'' is ''quite'' reckless. Her being dispatched as a meter maid is seen as demeaning and stereotyping, except a lot of police officers start out at the bottom and work their way up. He's not being sexist and racist for doing that, he's just ''doing his job''. (Not so much of an excuse for when he gives her ''forty eight hours'' to make an arrest on a case that the whole ZPD itself cannot solve ''in two weeks''...)
** Adding to that, it makes sense for Bogo to make Judy a meter maid initially; since she's just moved to Zootopia, it would allow her to learn the layout of the city without being at risk.
** Since she was a political appointment and valedictorian, he also likely feared entitlement issues and an ego that he would need to beat out of her with menial work.
** Even the 48 hours thing makes sense if you consider that Judy had started her insubordination in a shorter amount of time. If she fails, she learns a lesson about overestimating her own abilities and how much time things realistically take and doesn't end up any worse off than she would have if Bellwether hadn't intervened in her termination. If she succeeds, Bogo will have empirical proof she can walk the walk as well as she talks the talk.
** Although he might have taken the time to interact with Judy as an equal and ''explain'' to her why she was a meter maid, since her "token bunny" speech clearly indicated that she felt discriminated against. I can see him not giving his full motives to see if she will obey him without question, but when she comes up to talk to him about how she doesn't feel he's being fair, instead of saying something like, "Trust me, meter monitoring is where you need to be right now, show me that you can work hard," he ''acts'' demeaning toward her and slams the door in her face. He might mean well, but he comes off so rudely it's no wonder she took it as discrimination, which then fueled her desire to prove herself. She might have been less insubordinate, or at least admitted her errors, if she hadn't felt like Bogo was set against her. Judy's got her own issues, but it takes two to tango.
** Bogo's forthright demeanor hints that he is not discriminating against Judy solely because of her species, because if he was he would have ''said so'', directly, as he does with Nick later on. The closest he comes is an indirect comment about not wanting her on the force in the first place, which he only makes after she breaks a lot of rules and doesn't apologize.
** At first glance, Bogo appears to be a BadBoss who prefers dumb muscle to smart cops; but once you look deeper at his interactions, you realize how much of a ReasonableAuthorityFigure he truly is. He has every reason to be the way he is with Judy in the first act - she's a rookie straight out of the academy with little experience walking the beat, she goes after a thief without backup or a weapon, and does endanger the civilians of Little Rodentia with the chase. His attempt to 'remove her' from the force using their wager is in reality an attempt to rein in her impulsive tendencies, which could cost her further down the line, as cops need to be rational and level headed when on the job. His attempt at firing her was completely justified, as she was a probationary officer who refused to follow direction or commands. However, once she locates all of the feral victims, not just the one she was assigned, he doesn't chastise her or steal the credit, but gives her the respect she deserves. The fact that he treats Clawhauser with the utmost dignity and respect despite his obvious eccentricities is in contrast to this apparent BadBoss behavior, and only confirms that he merely has high standards for his officers to meet.
* When Chief Bogo assigns the officers to track down the disappeared mammals, he said that the City Hall has been pressuring him to hurry up and find them. Later in the movie, it's revealed that [[spoiler: Mayor Lionheart is behind the mammals' disappearances, so why would Lionheart order ZPD to find the missing mammals in the first place if it was he himself who's responsible? Except it's actually part of ''Bellwether'''s plan to discredit Lionheart. She deliberately targets predators to turn feral and [[BatmanGambit expects Lionheart to do something about it to protect his own reputation (because he's also a predator), then "requests" ZPD to find out about it]]. It will also explain why Bellwether is so supportive of Judy's investigation. She wants Judy to expose Lionheart's plans and discredit predators as a whole while she becomes the new mayor and is free to do anything she wants]].
** His rough treatment of Judy seems to be based off her being a "bunny," yet throughout the movie there are hints of an antagonistic working relationship between Lionheart and Bogo. Bogo's low approval of Judy may not be her only being a bunny, but because she's the latest in a long line of Lionheart's political schemes to gain public favor. He can't take it out on Lionheart directly because he's on top of the food chain, literally and figuratively, so he takes it out on Judy being a product of one of the MANY "political inclusion programs." This also suggests that Bogo doesn't see his superior as a credible authority figure but more as someone who preys upon the oppression and resentment of minorities to gain the populace's vote, a predator. Lionheart exploits the broken system Bogo detests to his advantage. But that begs the question whether his later and much better treatment of Judy is because she found the animals or gratitude she got rid of a pain in the rump for Bogo?
* The film obviously promotes inclusion and not judging books by their covers. This theme is stealthily promoted by many characters and their unique/contradictory traits.
** Chief Bogo, a big, no-nonsense cop, secretly loves pop idols.
** Flash the sloth is actually a speed demon when he's in his muscle car.
** Finnick looks like a little cutie, but is a tough baller.
** Clawhauser, a cheetah, is sedentary and an acquiescent sweetheart.
** Mr. Otterton, a perfectly normal, happy husband likes to hang around nekkid.
** Otterton's yoga instructor is an elephant who can't seem to remember anything.
** The receptionist at Otterton's nudist hangout is a CloudCuckooLander and (implied) stoner with an incredibly accurate and detailed memory.
** Gideon Grey is a fox without any cunning and is instead a DumbMuscle bully as a child [[spoiler:and a ReformedBully as an adult]].
** Madge is a honey badger who really, really cares--enough to be perfectly willing to sacrifice her image as a predator if it means the Zootopians know the truth.
** Mr. Big who, outside of his don persona, is shown to be a great father who has a lot of respect for the people he trusts and a sense of honor. And Fru Fru, who has such an incredibly sweet personality despite being a mob boss's daughter.
** And the villain of the movie, the secret mastermind behind everything that's happened, is [[spoiler:''a cute little sheep''!]]
* At first it may seem off that an otter like Mr. Otterton reverting to his feral state would be so aggressive at all times, even when there's no one around to attack, or provoke him. While most animals chalk this up to him reverting to his predator instincts, in real life otters have pretty [[PlayfulOtter relaxed and playful dispositions]] (although it should be noted that they are wild animals that attack when they feel threatened or provoked, and do ''not'' make good house pets) and they evolved to mainly forage for slow-moving fish and invertebrates like crabs, mussels, clams, etc. At first it can seem like a glaring case of CriticalResearchFailure, until it's revealed that [[spoiler:the cause of the HatePlague is a poisonous plant that makes ALL animals it comes into contact with turn aggressive, even ''[[BunniesForCuteness bunnies]]''. This also serves to highlight how pervasive Zootopia's FantasticRacism is: otters technically being carnivores gets them classified as "predators," and since they're predators that means they ''must'' have naturally feral, savage, aggressive dispositions. If anyone had said, "Wait, otters were mainly foragers, and were pretty mellow and friendly even in their natural state," they probably would have figured out how artificial the HatePlague was]] a little sooner.
** Though it should also be pointed out that no one in the city would have any idea how wild otters would actually act. The only way they would know about the behavior of wild predators is if the herbivores managed to not only develop sapience but full on writing (which took hundreds of thousands of years for humans to develop in real life) before predators developed sapience, unlikely since predators are usually smarter than herbivores (they need to be), and even if they did, the records would be similar to big bad wolf tales, not scientific observation. Of course [[spoiler: no one realizes that the behavior of the savage predators doesn't match the behavior of real wild animals]] they have no frame of reference for it.
* Disney does a good job of setting up Nick and Judy's final scheme to take down [[spoiler: Bellwether]]. They show you all the pieces- the gun, the serum capsule, and the blueberries. And if you look at Nick carefully, you can tell he's not actually [[spoiler: under the affects of the serum]]. All the Feral animals eyes turn more similar to the real life counterpart's [[spoiler: but Nick's stayed green rather than turned a vulpine brown, nor did his pupils contract to slits]].
** The two characters [[spoiler: faking the whole scene]] is also really well set up during the film as both showed at least once that they enjoy [[spoiler: playing comedy: Judy with her acting role in the first scene (made obvious by her echoing the [[ChewingTheScenery overdramatic death]] of the play) and Nick's scam as a [[GoodParents nice dad]] in the elephants' ice cream shop]].
** During the bullying scene, Travis teases Judy about how her nose twitches when she's scared. When Nick [[spoiler:pretends to attack her, Judy's nose doesn't twitch at all]].
** One more thing about Nick and Judy [[spoiler:faking out Bellwether. Both the fox and rabbit are archetypical Trickster Animals. Of course they tricked the BigBad.]]
* During the climactic ChaseScene, after Judy got injured, she didn't tell Nick to go on without her just to save the evidence. She (correctly) deduced that [[spoiler:Bellwether]] wanted to kill her -- they couldn't inject her with the PsychoSerum, as a savage bunny would have undermined the predators-are-evil campaign. Nick had no such protection -- Judy would have known their attackers had no qualms about giving a fox the serum. She was trying to save him from a FateWorseThanDeath!
** This is reinforced by the "plan" Nick and Judy come up with to save themselves. The [[spoiler:fake rabbit used to distract the guards]] was a decoy. The real plan was to [[spoiler:swap out the PsychoSerum with blueberries.]]
* Like Nick points out (and proves later), the case with the weapon and dose of the Night Howler drug was evidence enough to prove what was happening, so why did Judy risk everything trying to get the entire mobile lab out of the subway tunnel? Sure, she'd want to stop it from being used on anyone else, but why couldn't she wait? Because she'd just heard Doug's next target was a "cheetah" and, like the audience, she must have feared it could have been her friend Clawhauser and become desperate to stop him immediately!
* The black panther Manchas is only ever referred to as a jaguar. This makes a whole lot of sense as zoologically black panther is a term for both jaguars and leopards with black coats. It's a term used to describe two different species from very different parts of the world based purely on the color of their fur and if it even exists in the world of Zootopia it would probably just be asking to be used as a slur.
* Clawhauser is exhausted shortly after the one chase he gets involved in which is partly due to his weight slowing him down... but also because cheetahs, despite how quickly they run naturally, have exceptionally poor stamina. A RealLife cheetah in top hunting condition drops the chase after no more than a minute without going over 30 mph -- at 31 mph and up, it's only about 23 seconds.
* A rather interesting advantage both Judy and Nick have over the other ZPD cops. While the large cops have the advantage of muscle and intimidation, most of them are animals that would have trouble in Biomes that are not their native one (I.E. the Elephant and Rhino cops might need special winter gear just to work in Tundra Town). Judy and Nick, however, are both a rabbit and a fox, two animals that can be found in just about every land biome. This means that, while they aren't that strong compared to their fellow officers, they can move through the different biomes of the city easily, without special equipment.
** This can also explain how Judy very quickly went through the obstacle course. It was a combination of her will power, and the fact that rabbits can thrive in just about every biome.
** Note also the animals in the police bullpen. By a narrow margin it's mostly wolves, another animal that thrives in a large number of biomes.
** [[spoiler: The Mayor's special forces consist only of Wolves. Aside from their nose being excellent in tracking, Wolves also work best in close-knit packs of other wolves, which are great for covert-ops missions that require a small group of highly skilled combatants.]]
* Before the movie came out a lot of people were guessing that the HatePlague was something akin to rabies infecting the population. [[spoiler: It's not - it's a plant toxin the animals are specifically being hit with - but the movie makes us think that might be the case at first since we see the character that was attacked and scratched by an animal that had gone feral ended up going feral as well.]]
** This also did a good job of [[spoiler: hiding the fact that there's a villain at all. Until half-way through the movie, you'll probably be thinking the issue is gonna be finding a cure for those going feral. Disney may have played their same-old PlotTwist as in their past few movies, but it's not immediately evident that there's an actual bad guy. Even Lionheart would be questionable as an actual villain, seeing as how he was trying to find a cure (his methods notwithstanding).]]
* The SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan dynamic between Chief Bogo and Officer Clawhauser subtly reinforces that stereotyping is wrong. Bogo is a prey animal and Clawhauser is a predator animal, but the former fits the stereotype of "predator" far better than the latter does. Meanwhile, the latter fits the stereotype of "prey" far better than the former does. Had Judy been asked to pick which of those two was more likely to go savage, if she'd thought about it, she might not have chosen the predator over the prey.
* At the climax of the film when Nick and Judy are [[spoiler: running away from Bellwether in the Natural History museum. As they were fleeing from Bellwether and her minions, Nick was able to avoid the tusk of the Mammoth exhibit, but Judy trips over it and injures her leg to the point she can't run, despite showing to be the more physical and agile of the two. If you think about it, the teaser shows Nick, a fox, to have good low-light vision, while Judy, a rabbit, doesn't, which is really helpful in the very dark museum.]]
** This is foreshadowed in Mr. Big's car and the Abandoned Hospital, when Judy uses her phone flashlight to look around while Nick doesn't bother, as he can see in the dark unaided.
* The Natural History museum having a mammoth and saber-toothed small rodents as the predecessors to the film's current animals makes a lot of sense as a meta reference to ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'', the first CGI feature film to star mammals. The mammoth even bears a striking resemblance to Manny from ''Ice Age''.
* How does the BigBad keep up with Judy and Nick's progress, taking out Manchas before he can spill any useful info? [[spoiler: It's easy when Zootopia is blanketed by traffic cameras, and she has access to all the feeds from her computer, with the number of her hit man next to the phone.]]
** That also explains how the BigBad was able to find Judy and Nick in the museum at the end of the movie.
* Yax has an incredibly good memory, recalling multiple small details from the last time he saw Otterton and being seemingly unaware that this is something out of the ordinary. Meditation is known to improve memory.
* The reconciliation scene between Judy and Nick...
** He needed time to cool his head enough to realize that, deep down, he was just as prejudiced as she was. He played her during their first interaction, even making a fool of her by setting up an instance that got her stuck in wet cement, and even sliced hours off her mission timer with that needless stunt at the DMV, and yet not only did her actions in the movie save his life when they inevitably crossed paths with Mr. Big, she did so again when Manchas went feral. Then the final clincher happened when they arrived at the hospital and saw the other frenzied animals, her target included. Not only was he emotionally preying upon her with those stunts, and intentionally at that, but he nearly compromised a case that could have helped the person she was trying to rescue and so many more, all predators. In contrast, her discriminatory comments were a side effect of the pressures of the interview. She only reached for the fox repellent, which she kept on her person ever since she left home, when he appeared to physically threaten her. In short, he was just as much a product of his childhood as she was of hers. He had forgiven her before she arrived; he just ribbed her to show that he was still himself.
*** It's not prejudice if it's true and Nick read her entire life (and even future) just by looking at her and to a degree, seeing his young self in her.
*** 1.^ You can view the truth with a prejudicial perspective. 2. ^^ He threatened her as a trust test. To prove that she had prejudices towards foxes. After all, why would he hurt her in that situation?
*** It hardly proves her prejudice against foxes specifically, just that she felt threatened. After all, if somebody suddenly snarls at you in the midst of a heated argument, it is natural to get scared. Besides, even if they didn't think going "savage" is something that only predators did, there is still a risk for anyone. If they assumed that to be a spreading disease, Nick (as well as Judy herself) was the most likely candidate to become the next victims of it, since they were interacting with an infected jaguar recently.
** If the above is not true, consider that Nick has also had plenty of time to reflect on what he has seen, chiefly the sharp contrast between the cute little otter florist (whom Nick knew) and [[spoiler: the savage otter that messed up Mr. Manchas' face]], as well as the sudden, rapid transition of [[spoiler: Mr. Manchas from terrified eyewitness to savage jaguar trying to kill them]]. It is entirely possible, not only that Nick completely understood her fears of him attacking her, but that he felt like utter crap after realizing the idea did not scare him too.
*** That would be a valid argument if Judy hadn’t tried to use the fox spray before. At the beginning of the movie, when she first saw Nick, she immediately treated him with suspicion. He wasn’t doing anything wrong (as far as she knew, anyway), but followed him inside the ice cream shop for no other reason than him being a fox. She reached for the fox spray and was going to use it, only stopping when she saw Nick’s “kid”. And Nick noticed it. He says so when he confronts her at the press conference. It wasn’t fear that he was going to attack her that led to her reaching for the spray, it was pure prejudice. If you pay attention to her facial expression, she quickly realizes that herself and is mortified. He later forgave because he saw how genuinely sorry she was. It’s that simple.
** It's a small moment, but there's the fact that he didn't throw away the application like he did with the fake badge sticker; he just gave it to Judy. Nick probably knew deep down that Judy would eventually realize her mistakes and apologize for it, that they would reconcile, and that despite what happened, he still wanted to be her partner.
* Why didn't Judy recognize the common name for Night Howlers and their effects on animals, considering even someone like Gideon Grey knew about them growing up at Bunnyburrow? Judy grew up always wanting to be a police officer and therefore spent most of her childhood focusing on entering the academy and later getting through the academy, which probably meant she did not spend much time helping around her family's farm nor would have had much interest learning about it. She might have known their scientific name and recognized them as bulbs due to a childhood being educated on horticulture and other subjects related to farming, without knowing about their use as a benevolent pesticide or their potential use as a feral-inducing drug.
** Stu uses the plants to keep bugs off of the produce. He knows that the plants have a psychotic effect on children when consumed due to the incident with Uncle Terry, but he may not have known that this was common knowledge enough for them to have a nickname in reference to it.
** Also, it's possible the nickname 'Night Howler' is an impolite term (re: wolves), so Judy's parents just didn't use it where Gideon's parents did. Regarding the effects of the plant, Judy's mother could have been uncomfortable to share the story where her brother attacked and bit her. So Judy didn't associate Night Howlers with feral insanity because it was a story she had never heard until now.
* Clawhauser sports a classic "camp voice", which fits his personality to a T... but also works perfectly as an anthropomorphized version of the vocalizations of a lesser cat or feline (the subfamily to which cheetahs belong). Its high pitch and sibilance cleverly combine elements of meowing and hissing.
* Nick calls Judy "cute", and can't understand why she finds the fact (as he considers it) offensive: ''he'' doesn't attach any negative connotations to the word, so why should she? Then in the interview scene, Judy states that predators may be inherently more "savage", and is later mystified as to why Nick would consider that offensive. [[CallBack It's just a fact, right?]]
** Wasn't that Clawhauser who called Judy cute?
*** They both did, but only Clawhauser apologised when Judy objected.
*** When Clawhauser called Judy cute, he genuinely meant it as a compliment, completely unaware of any offensive connotations and immediately apologized when informed. In sharp contrast, the two times Nick calls Judy cute (first during TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and then after she hustled him), his tone is scathingly condescending. Nick wasn't InnocentlyInsensitive like Clawhauser; he was ''Deliberately'' Insensitive.
* When they first meet, Judy calls Nick "a real articulate fella". It at first seems to be a strange YouAreACreditToYourRace-kind of thing to say to a fox (as there's not much of a well-known stereotype about foxes not being articulate; the dominant stereotype actually being that they are cunning), until you remember the other fox Judy has ever been shown encountering: Gideon Grey, who is shown to be [[DumbMuscle aggressive and tough but not very bright]] (such as when he pronounces DNA as "dunnah").
* Zootopian society works not only because everyone can agree that using power to hurt others is wrong, but because there are many more types of power than brute ("predatory"?) strength. Judy and Nick use intellectual and social power to defeat the BigBad, just as she uses fear tactics and strength in numbers to endanger all predators. True, Judy wasn't equal to the other police officers- but only because Bogo wasn't giving her the same opportunities to be so. Given a chance, she triumphed over Bogo's glass ceiling just as she triumphed over police training.
* Having Desert Square right next to Tundra Town makes sense. The tundra is more than just the plants and animals, it's the climate as well. They have giant refrigeration units to keep the district cold enough to properly replicate the tundra ecosystem. Those units would absorb a tremendous amount of heat, which is promptly radiated over in Desert Square (During Judy's arrival, the train passes through the desert. Look at the large structures built into the walls. They are glowing red in parts as they release the heat.).
* Nick stereotypes all Rabbits as farmers, which makes sense. Rabbits are explosive breeders and without predators to thin their numbers, can quickly devour all of the food within a given area (just ask Australia), so it makes sense that they would be all on a farm; they have more than enough hands to handle all of the manual labor and a farm mass producing food is probably the only place that can reliably sustain them. This could explain why Judy's parents had to "settle hard" instead of pursuing something or someone else.
* As Nick and Judy are infiltrating the Cliffside Asylum, Nick is nearly discovered by a wolf who manages to smell his scent. Red foxes have musk glands, which exude their scent so that they can mark their territory for other animals. That, and the fact that the wind was blowing in the wolf's direction (you can see his coat collar being pressed against his neck) means that the wind blew the musk in the wolf's direction, allowing him to smell Nick out.
* [[RealityIsUnrealistic In real life]], predators tend to only attack when hunting or being territorial/protective. This is due to the fact that they have limited energy that they mostly spend hunting. Herbivores, on the other hand, are constantly in danger from being hunted, and thus some tend to be more aggressive than predators; plus since their food (plants) doesn't fight back, that means they have plenty of energy to spare. This is the reason why some of the most dangerous animals on the planet such as elephants, rhinos, and hippos are herbivores. This fits in with both the "villainous" acts by the predator characters in the film and the main villain.
** Nick is a ConArtist who's been ripping people off for a living since he was a kid. He got that way because he grew up poor (having no territory and needing to work to protect his family), and because he was so viciously bullied by bigots [[FantasticRacism falsely assuming he was a crook entirely because of his species]] that he [[ThenLetMeBeEvil just decided he might as well make the most of it]]. But he's still [[ButNotTooEvil not THAT evil]]; he just cheats and swindles, actually HURTING people isn't his thing.
** [[WellIntentionedExtremist Mayor Lionheart]] basically had a bunch of citizens kidnapped; he imprisoned people without charge or trial, without even informing their families, and put them in an undisclosed location for medical experimentation. The people he did this to weren't actually in a position to BE tried since they'd lost their minds and become dangerously violent, but that doesn't change the fact that he broke quite a few laws. He did it to protect his own job (territorial), prevent a public panic (protecting the city and himself), find a cure for whatever was causing the HatePlague, and avoid a race war against predators (of which he is one). Also, he had no idea how it was spread and no way of knowing [[FateWorseThanDeath if he would be the next one infected]]. So his job, his home, his family, his species, and his own life are in danger.
** Not so much for the main villain, a prey animal. [[spoiler: While Lionheart was cruel and condescending to her, this is hardly enough excuse for Bellwether to turn innocent civilians into rage zombies in hope of starting a civil war! However, this ''does'' fit in with the phenomena of herbivores attacking anything they think will harm them (regardless of whether it's actually a threat, like an innocent human), since Bellwether wants ''all'' predators discriminated, including the harmless ones like Clawhauser and the Ottertons.]]
* Clawhauser uses the word "cute" to compliment Judy and is shocked and horrified to discover she finds it offensive. This makes sense, as Clawhauser belongs to a subfamily that is known for [[CuteKitten adorable physical characteristics and mannerisms]] ''and'' capabilities such as fierceness and cleverness. He would likely not ascribe any connotations of inferiority to the word at all.
** On top of that, have you seen what baby cheetahs look like? [[http://slappedham.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Baby-Cheetah.jpg Just look at the little guy!]]
** There's also the issue that there doesn't appear to be any other rabbits around - it's possible most of them live in rural country because of how big their families can be. So if this is a rabbit-specific issue, then any other animal that calls them cute wouldn't realize it was offensive because there were no rabbits around to tell them so.
* Where did Judy get the idea to [[spoiler:escape down the toilet in the asylum? She must have remembered her little mishap in the bathroom back at the academy.]]
* While Night Howlers are the only actual drug referenced in the film in any fashion, ''Judy's'' surname isn't just a pun on her being a bunny, it's also actually a reference to an active ingrediant in ''beer'', itself a legal but controlled substance, just like Night Howlers themselves!
* During the climax, [[spoiler:Judy badly injures her ''right'' leg. Later, while she and Nick are running from the sheep, he's supporting her on her ''left'' side. What, were they trying to get caught...? Of course, [[BatmanGambit considering how things played out...]] ]]
* Chief Bogo is suggested early on to be very closed-minded, which makes his eventual acceptance of Judy surprising, except for in context with his relationship with one direct report in particular: Benjamin Clawhauser. He's fat, AmbiguouslyGay, a BunnyEarsLawyer, somewhat short, and not even remotely fitting the archetype of a tough cop... and Bogo seems to have no problem with him, even immediately forgiving him for letting Mrs. Otterton into his office by accident and apologizing. This suggests that all he's really concerned about is whether he can consider someone a "good employee" or not, which would include contextual competence in balance with compliance with instructions.
* A subtle bit of foreshadowing that [[spoiler: Bellwether]] is behind everything is that [[spoiler: all three of the other animals in Judy's main circle are explicitly shown to be very honest by nature and she is not. Bogo is blunt, keeps his word and accepts his loss honorably, and demonstrates poor lying and bluffing skills when Bellwether boxes him into keeping Judy on the force and when Clawhauser finds him playing with the Gazelle app. Clawhauser is open about his feelings, doesn't try to hide any of his passions others might find shameful, and consistently delivers information that the audience can verify is truthful and accurate. Even Nick, who doesn't have this as a major defining character trait, explicitly only became dishonest because of a traumatic experience. Bellwether, on the other hand, is clearly framed as "nice" without any clear indications of honesty.]]
* Why is it that while Nick felt betrayed and got very upset about Judy's careless parroting of the doctor in the secret facility's preliminary speculation about the cause of the HatePlague at the press conference, other predators like Clawhauser (who was even having his career messed up as a result) and Mrs. Otterton continue to be on speaking terms with her? Because he's the only one among them who'd previously had a traumatizing experience with discrimination. He reacted so intensely because it brought back memories of how the bullies beat up and muzzled him as a kid for being a "dangerous predator", and felt especially betrayed since it came from the first person he'd ever opened up to about the issue. Of course, the fact that he'd previously noticed how she carried Fox Repellent Spray didn't help either. But mostly, I think other predators just saw her actions at that press conference for what they were: those of an investigator who didn't know exactly what was going on but tried to relay the facts of the case to the best of her knowledge, and they didn't really blame her for the ensuing unrest. I think he realized not long afterwards that he overreacted and shouldn't have taken it so personally, which is why he was so quick to completely forgive her when she came back, albeit after enjoying listening to her grovel for a bit.
* Where did Judy get that plastic baggie to protect her phone from the water, and how did she know it would hold? She's a police officer, so of course she would carry ''evidence bags'' that are designed to prevent contamination.[[note]]Do note that this depends on the evidence item; most items, including anything that contains biological fluids, are packed in paper since the risk of them developing mold contamination is too great otherwise.[[/note]]
* Clawhauser, a cheetah, is obsessed with pop star Gazelle. Gazelles are a cheetah's natural prey. The major difference is Clawhauser is more interested in ''meeting'' her than ''eating'' her.
* The "angel" depicted in the Carrot Days play at the beginning has a rainbow for a halo. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, of course, the rainbow was the promise to never again destroy the world after Noah left the Ark--as in, the means which preserved all the animals.
* Both the predators and prey in the movie have "coded" language like "Don't touch a sheep's wool" as well as both experiencing prejudice and discrimination. This makes for a confused metaphor for human race relations... unless you actually want ALL viewers to identify with elements of both sides.
* Judy didn't have access to the police computer system, so how did she get Nick's tax record? For one thing, Nick's taxes wouldn't be on file with the police anyway; law enforcement can only get access to those records with a subpoena. What Judy needed was someone that could pull some strings to get Nick's tax file from the federal government. Enter Dawn Bellwether, who had just declared herself Judy's "friend at City Hall." Since Mayor Lionheart is rather uninterested in paperwork his Assistant Mayor liaises with the federal bureaucracy on his behalf, so she has all the necessary connections to pull Nick's record for Judy.
** Or she just faked the form, gambling that he would not have declared the income and would be unsettled enough by realizing he hadn't covered all of his legal bases that he wouldn't question where she got the information.
* And on the topic of Mayor Lionheart's disinterest in actually governing (e.g. his "Clear my afternoon, I'm going out") makes far more sense when it's revealed [[spoiler: that he's fixated on the Savage Predator situation, and clearly wanting to devote all of his available time to it than his routine duties]].
* During the [[AMinorKidroduction preface]] in Judy's childhood, Gideon inflicts a flesh wound on her. It's a bit of a shock, but it's a deliberate bit of writing to show that the rules of this particular Disney universe are more ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' than they are ''Disney/RobinHood:'' bad people can and ''will'' do violence to innocents unless they're stopped. It makes it clear that all these fuzzy little friendly critters in Zootopia can bleed and feel pain, which increases the emotional stakes once mysterious 'atavism' and paranoia-fueled hate crimes become part of the story.
* Mrs Otterton mentions that she and Emmett have two children. They appear in the photograph she gives Judy, but never on camera - because she didn't want them to see their father in the feral state he was in when the missing mammals were found.
* After Manchas's attack, when Nick steps in to defend Judy after Bogo demands her badge, it has been noted that he uses both of his four fingered paws to indicate they have 10 hours left. The viewing audience would interpret a character holding up all fingers of both hands as 10 and the animators likely used that visual shorthand to indicate that. However, there is an entertaining alternative. Nick did what he did to deliberately hustle Chief Bogo. Since Judy said they had 36 hours remaining when they left the Mystic Oasis nudist club, he either worked out the math and came up with 8 hours or just winged it and even when holding up 8 digits he said 10 to extend the deadline. That fits his con man personality and he gets to pull something over on Chief Bogo after he just gave Judy an embarrassing dressing down in front of her peers and made a remark about the trustworthiness of foxes.
** Or he could be using his paw pads to count.
* When Judy and Nick come to Bellwether's office, Judy is the only one she speaks to or interacts with -- she glances at him a few times but prefers to interact only with Judy (Nick promptly takes advantage of being overlooked to feel her wool). [[spoiler:A subtle demonstration of the disdain she apparently has for all predators.]]
* While it hardly excuses Lionheart's rudeness to Bellwether, knowing the truth behind the events makes it much more understandable:[[spoiler: he really had ''a lot'' on his plate at the moment: the mysterious disease, abducting people to cover it up, the fear that, at best, he might lose his office if it all comes out, and, at worst, the madness might afflict ''him'' or [[AdultFear his family]]]] - such things do tend to make people irascible, impatient for red tape and eager to vent their frustration on someone.
* The scene where Clawhauser is removed from his desk, because he is a predator is meant to be a WhamShot for both Judy and the audience. Many viewers were charmed by his constant grin, friendliness and being a big, fat ball of fluff. It was a harsh reminder that Clawhauser is in fact, a cheetah; a difficult thing to keep in mind when he reminds you more of your adorable, loving pet back at home.
* Just before the press conference, Nick gives Judy a trick: Answer to their question by another question, and answer to that question. For Judy, it doesn't go over so well; however, Mayor Lionheart, when he is interviewed at the end of the movie, appears to be using the same trick, to better results; he starts his answer to the interviewer by a question and answers to it.
* The Natural History Museum where the climax takes place can be seen in the establishing shot of Savanna Central Plaza toward the end of the movie when Judy's voiceover is saying "When I was a kid...". The Museum is at roughly the 12 o'clock position. In the same shot, you can see that ZPD Headquarters is at the 3 o'clock position. It light of this it's no surprise that the police were able to mobilize and respond so quickly to Mayor Bellwether's call. It's literally right across the plaza.
* Gideon Grey's apology when he meets Judy as an adult uses language you wouldn't expect from him: "I had lot of self doubt, and it manifested itself in the form of unchecked rage and aggression." But it is the kind of language you might expect to hear from a psychologist. Gideon went to therapy.
* It always bugged me how the ethnics of this world's society was merely separated into two categories: "Predator" and "Prey". Then it came to me exactly ''why'' this felt wrong, [[InPlainSight the answer being so obvious it's utterly idiotic that I didn't see it]]. I was [[MostWritersAreHuman looking at it through a human's lens, not an animal's]]. While the animal kingdom is made up of so many species with inherent differences in strength and capabilities, of bloody course it doesn't work with human society, because humanity is one species all with the same potential! To attach such connotations to ethnic labels only ends up making them demeaning, when it's barely relevant to the potential any human has! You look at Judy's drive to become a cop as a child, it's mostly the same as any human child; not truly caring about labels and stuff, and looking to gun for the goal she set for herself! The {{Aesop}} of ''Zootopia'' isn't "don't be racist, [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad even just a little bit or accidentally]]"; it's that having such connotations to ethnic labels in the first place is detrimental and pointless. When you learn look at yourself and the world around you beyond mere ethnicity, [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre you and those around you have the potential for anything]]!
* There's actually a good reason for Clawhauser to be so addicted to donuts, beyond his being a (Lampshaded) [[DonutMessWithACop stereotypical cop]]: because of the high energy demands and intense metabolic rate of a cheetah's body, it's only logical that in a world where [[NoBiochemicalBarriers they can eat sugar without killing themselves]], they would have a racial case of a SweetTooth. Sugar-rich food would be great for fueling their bodies. Clawhauser just A: takes it to excess (note the ending scene, where he gets presented with what looks like four dozen donuts), and B: works a mostly sedentary lifestyle. He'd probably be even fatter if he weren't a cheetah!
* Why is Clawhauser the cheetah the nicest, sweetest and friendliest of the cops until Judy proves herself? With his coat, Clawhauser actually looks at a quick glance vaguely like a domesticated cat, something [[BigFun emphasized by his chubby build]]; you'd expect a "domestic" animal to be friendlier than the "wild animals" who make up the rest of the police force. Adding further to this, whilst it's still not a ''great'' idea, cheetahs have been domesticated with slightly more effectiveness than lions or tigers in real life.
* Chief Bogo's status as a MeanBoss actually fits into the animal stereotypes that the film lampshades, invokes and plays with; real-life cape buffalo are known for being very aggressive. Of course, as this film relies on subverting or playing with those tropes, Bogo is more than just a JerkAss, and we see plenty of softer streaks to his personality as the film goes on.
* The division of mammals to "Predator" and "Prey" is a gross oversimplification - omnivorous animals eat both meat and plant, smaller predator species may be prey for larger predators, etc. But that's exactly how social classification and labeling works: classifying people in four or five "race" categories ignores the massive ethnic diversity, not to mention people of mixed parentage.
* It has been mentioned elsewhere that is seems odd that Judy didn't notice how empty and light her microwave carrot dinner was. While the single carrot in the container doesn't fit the title "Carrots for One", the net weight of the package is supposed to be 16.7 oz. A closer examination of the carrot shows that it's very dehydrated indicating that among all the other things that went wrong for Judy today, it seems she also severely overcooked her dinner.
** Or RuleOfFunny was in effect.
* Honey badgers are, for their size, very strong animals; they are capable of driving off animals several times their own size. Madge is head doctor at an ''asylum''; at some point (particularly at the time of the film), as part of her job, she'd have to physically restrain a dangerous patient.
* Doug's gun resembles a paintball marker more than a conventional firearm or even a real-world tranquiliser dart gun. And while this could be FamilyFriendlyFirearms it actually makes sense when you think about it [[spoiler: a dart gun would leave darts at the scene of the crime breaking the charade that the Nighthowler attacks are pred’s going savage, whereas the small fragments of a paintball casing could be easily overlooked by the police or designed to rapidly dissolve after they break.]]
* When Nick delivers the oath as a Junior Ranger Scout, he promises to be Brave, Loyal, Helpful and Trustworthy. His harsh rejection and muzzling by the other members of the troop caused him to become cynical and live up to the stereotype of a sly fox. However, during his time with Judy on the Nighthowler case he finally gets to fulfil each part of that oath. He bravely stands up for Judy when Chief Bogo demands her badge and later comes to her defense yelling "Back Off" when one of the Rams breaks through the subway car window and starts grabbing at her. His loyalty is shown when refuses to leave her behind when she injures her leg at the museum. Many times he is helpful to her on the case especially in saving the evidence as the Subway car crashes. And finally he proves his trustworthiness when he fake attacks Judy's throat as part of their BatmanGambit.
* It seems strange at first that out of the original 14 missing animals, all of them were caught before they could be seen as feral and have the news story spread, especially since Bellwether's plan was for this to be become a widespread media issue. As the assistant mayor, she probably found out right away that the mayor was working to have them detained, and this played right into her hands. It was more beneficial for her to wait for a cop to expose him, and once the mayor is exposed and arrested, the cases of predators going berserk seems to happen much more publicly. That's why every earlier case had been designed to not be public; after all, it would have been very easy for Doug to tag a poor predator in broad daylight and watch him cause havoc. Better for her that all of the missing predators get media attention at the same time as they're discovered, since it makes for a much bigger media story. It was good luck on her part that Judy "solved" the case, but if she hadn't, then Bellwether would have likely had the case to be solved by herself at some point, since it all hinged on her becoming mayor in the first place. All she would have to do is create some evidence against Lionheart and submit it to the police herself. The case getting cracked open by a rabbit (i.e. prey) was just icing on the cake.
* The BigBad's identity makes sense when you realize that, like quite a few other Disney Villains, [[spoiler:she is essentially an EvilChancellor]].
* When you take a close look at it, the two good guys (Judy and Nick) and the two bad guys [[spoiler:(Lionheart and Bellwether)]], you have an interesting case of quadruple foiling. That is, any member of that group can serve as a foil to any other member.
** Nick and Judy: Both are the snarky, quick-witted, and sneaky good guys, but Judy's an optimistic loose cannon whereas Nick is the more reserved pessimist.
** [[spoiler: Lionheart and Bellwether: Both are politicians who are willing to lie and break the law in the name of the greater good. However, one lies to cover up something that could lead to unrest, the other to cause major unrest.]]
** Judy and [[spoiler:Bellwether]]: Both are small creatures with bigoted views who are trying to make the world a better place. However, whereas Judy tries to correct herself and actually help everyone, [[spoiler:Bellwether]] assuredly does '''not'''.
** Nick and [[spoiler:Lionheart]]: Both are braggarts who break the law, hide, hide their true personalities to play on people, and understand just how dangerous prejudice is when aroused. However, when faced with the whole situation, [[spoiler:Lionheart tries to cover it up, Nick helps bust it open]].
** Judy and [[spoiler:Lionheart]]: Both have to worry about prejudice in the course of their jobs and flaunt the code of conduct they're supposed to adhere to in order to do their jobs. However, while [[spoiler:Lionheart]] refuses to fully admit to doing something wrong, Judy's willing to face the consequences of her actions.
** Nick and [[spoiler: Bellwether]]: Both are people who are pushed around and who play to a stereotypical view of themselves while taking out their frustrations on others, often in a bigoted manner. However, Nick doesn't try to hurt anyone and is willing to become an actual hero.
*** The main difference between the heroes and the bad guys is that the good guys are willing to admit when they're doing something wrong and try to do right. This underscores the message of the film: anyone can be anything: part of the problem or part of the solution. It depends on if they're willing to examine themselves and step up to try.
* An intrepid Zootopia fan with knowledge of ASL has attempted to analyze Nick's hand signals [[https://www.reddit.com/r/zootopia/comments/4s8yyv/apparent_meaning_behind_nicks_hand_signals/ in this thread]]. His hand signals are a combination of actual ASL, close-enough ASL, and educated guesses based on context which is presumed to say "Keep an eye out for me so I can sneak in, then you can escape quietly Listen for my signal. Okay?"
* The wolves that capture Manches are for more than just the RedHerring. The wolves react to howling like a reflex or a leftover instinct from their days as wild animals. This small detail plants doubt later, as the wolves demonstrate that some animals are subject to involuntary, primitive behaviors.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fridge horror]]
* [[spoiler: Nighthowlers]] are now well known thanks to this case, and really, how many [[spoiler: street drugs disappear when one distributor]] goes down? This troper is willing to bet that before the end of the year the ZPD will be dealing with cases of criminals [[spoiler: taking nighthowlers before hold-ups and robberies to make themselves more vicious or just for the high of losing all those rational thoughts. Humans do it in spades.]]
** It depends if the [[spoiler: Nighthowler essence]] actually makes you feel good. Nobody takes drugs solely to become savage; it may (sort of) happen with certain pharmaceuticals, but it's a collateral effect. In fact, "feral" citizens do not seem to be in an enjoyable state - they appear to be infuriated and scared, so it's probably not a pleasant experience at any stage.
** It might be used in the same way as poison, in that case. Although it doesn't kill, it would cause the victim to go savage, possibly near loved ones, which would likely destroy the person, especially if they killed someone. It may also be used to help in robberies - kidnap some random person off the street, force them to take some Nighthowlers, unleash them into your target a few minutes before you go in during the confusion.
* Nick Wilde mentions that he sold Mr. Big a rug that was made from the fur of a skunk's butt. In a setting where all mammals are sapient, the idea of a fur rug is very disturbing. (Can also be Fridge Humor. Nick's perfectly capable of talking a skunk into an unusual fur style or gathering up shed fur, but considering the skunk's anal glands -- the source of the musk -- are located in the same part of the body...)
** Considering Nick's propensity for running scams back to back, this results in the hilarious/horrifying suggestion that Nick once ran an anal waxing scam and sold the results as rugs to various smaller species...
*** Is that why Nick was so comfortable at the nudist resort? That's horrifyingly hilarious!
** Also, taking in consideration Mr. Big's status as a mob boss, it wouldn't be so strange for him to have a sentient species' fur as a rug. Maybe the scam was not actually the fur but the butt waxed hairs, and Nick prevented more Fridge Horror for the audience.
** Or another theory. Similar to how people sign waivers to allow legal use of their bodies after they die, perhaps animals like that skunk do the same so that their pelts could be used as rugs.
* Police presence across the biomes...
** As pointed out in FridgeBrilliance, Zootopia's police force is very limited when it comes to catching small species criminals, who can move in areas where the very large cops can't enter without hurting a civilian or causing extensive material damage; so, their options are to either chase after the criminal and risk hurting the citizens they're meant to protect, or to let the criminal escape and hope they can catch him/her on a later time. Luckily the weasel was a petty crook, but you can just imagine all the major criminals that have evaded capture for years.
** With no police presence, Mr. Big's mob handled security in places like Little Rodentia. Considering this is one of the traditional functions of actual mafias, it makes sense. Now consider what he considers to be "justice", I.e. "icing".
** As we see in the scene with Duke Weaselton, whenever a criminal (or simply an average animal) larger than an average Rodentian house is in Little Rodentia, it is ''living hell'' for the animals that live there.
* Ferals and discrimination:
** During [[spoiler: Doug's (the sheep who's responsible for turning the predators feral) phone call with Bellwether, he mentions that his next target is going to be a cheetah. Now while there are a lot of cheetahs in Zootopia, it's very possible that this cheetah could be Officer Clawhauser. Think of the public's horror if even the nicest predator who's seemingly harmless like Clawhauser turns feral, ''and he's also working on the police force''. It would result in a severe case of discrimination at work between preys and predators, playing right into Bellwether's hooves]].
** The above is seemingly reinforced by the fact that [[spoiler: Clawhauser gets [[ReassignedToAntarctica reassigned to records]] after the press conference, just for being a predator species. The police force is ''already'' getting hit by discrimination, despite everyone knowing [[NiceGuy how nice of a guy]] he is. Any one of the officers going feral would have had some ''huge'' ramifications]].
** [[spoiler: Clawhauser]] going feral wouldn't only have huge ramifications for [[spoiler: the police force]] and society but also for himself. [[spoiler: The guy has enough empathy for the entire police force and gives Judy a huge apology because he slightly offended her by accident.]] If and when things got cleared up, if anyone, anyone at all, got hurt or killed while he was feral, [[spoiler: it's very likely he'd ''never forgive himself.'']]
* Judy's parents at the beginning attempt to give her self-defense tools that are specifically marketed to be against foxes, including mace and tasers, and implied to be commonly and legally available. This despite her family growing up with Gideon and his family, and foxes being seen as sly conmen instead of aggressive. While their behavior could be a result from Gideon attacking Judy during her childhood, the fact there are self-defense brands against very specific species of predator is pretty scary and reflective how wide-spread the predator-prey fears are. Taken a bit more charitably, the items might be tailored for effectiveness based on size. To use real life tranquilizers as an example, what would put a lion out of commission would just piss off a rhino or an elephant. The same dosage that would disable a lion would probably risk killing a smaller animal like a fox.
** Perhaps worse, for what purpose was a ''muzzle'' invented for in this film's universe? It'd be the equivalent of creating some sort of horrid device to shove in a particular group of people's mouths so they wouldn't be able to speak.
*** Muzzles are probably considered about the same as handcuffs in the Zootopia-verse. Real life police forces and prisons have "bite masks" for the occasional human that tries to bite or spit at them. In a world where certain individuals have mouths FULL of sharp canines, muzzles are probably more common. Now as to how these prey kids got one, I can think of two explanations: The muzzle was actually a toy muzzle (like the toy plastic cuffs you can get for human kids) OR one of the scout's parents is a cop and they took it from them.
* As noted on the [[NightmareFuel/{{Zootopia}} the Nightmare Fuel page]], one aspect of the climax becomes really disturbing if you think about it. [[spoiler:Bellwether doses Nick with what she thinks is the HatePlague, then calls the police and waits for them to arrive. Since she made the call she obviously can't leave the crime scene but that she intends to watch while Nick stalks, kills and possibly ''eats'' Judy with a triumphant look on her face is quite disturbing.]]
** Even worse, the villain feels confident that [[spoiler: she could frame them the same way she framed Lionheart]]. Meaning that [[spoiler: she ''chose'' to get rid of them in such a opportunistic yet merciless way despite having other options]].
* Depending on how long ago Zootopia was established (given its size possibly a long time ago), what sorts of strife have there been between predators and prey? In the Natural History Museum we see at least one display of ancient jackalopes warding off a panther with spears. Have the two families fought wars? How many have died in them?
* After the events of ''Zootopia'', both the mayor and assistant mayor have been indicted on criminal charges and are imprisoned. The political offices of Zootopia are likely in turmoil, and the populace won't rest with news of this internal corruption since the recent upsurge in inter-species tensions.
* Judy's EurekaMoment comes when her mother reveals [[spoiler: her own brother, Judy's uncle, went nuts after eating a Night Howler plant and attacked her, leaving scars.]] We never found out if he recovered or what happened to him. It's possible her uncle continued to be a rabid, violent lunatic. [[spoiler: Those who were hit with the concentrated extract didn't show any signs of recovering anytime soon and Judy's uncle ''ate'' the plant, which would enhance the effect. Of course, in the end, they found a cure for the madness, but in the meantime he probably had to be locked-up.]]
** To be fair, [[spoiler: the uncle ate one plant as a child, and who knows how many plants had to be used in the concentrate to create one pellet, that was a big bucket after all,]]
*** There is the question of which part [[spoiler: of the plant has the highest concentration of the toxin.]] Either way, you are looking at the difference between using [[spoiler: a plant that has HatePlague inducing chemicals in small quantities vs. the refined and extracted chemical.]]
*** [[spoiler: How many Bananas, oranges, lemons, etc. would it take to make one equivalent dose of a flavored extract used for cooking?]]
** Similarly, Judy's EurekaMoment happens due to the fact that she [[spoiler: [[TenMinuteRetirement temporarily quits her job]] due to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone her guilt]] over the press conference]]. If Judy hadn't gone back home when she did, and if Gideon and her parents didn't happen to have that particular conversation then, then [[spoiler: Bellwether likely would have [[NearVillainVictory gotten away with]] her scheme]].
* Near the end, the lab is going off the rails and crashing. Given that the lab was [[spoiler: weaponizing the toxic plants]] there was the risk of the product becoming aerosol and releasing into the subway system. Cue the targeted Hate Plague becoming the zombie apocalypse it was marketed as... the entire thing burning up in a big explosion was a very Good Thing.
* What could Judy [[spoiler:being the godmother and namesake to the child of a MafiaPrincess]] mean for her career?
** If she's careful? A lot. [[spoiler: Since there's no protection for civilians in Little Rodentia aside from Mr. Big, the police could lighten up on his businesses in exchange for co-operation on criminal investigations and keeping civilians safe from other criminals a la a ThievesGuild. Also, she could possibly get a recruitment drive for rodents into the ZPD specifically to handle crimes in Little Rodentia.]]
* In the end, the public finally learns that the true criminals who were responsible for making predators go savage are all [[spoiler: sheep. How would this affects the majority of the sheep species as a whole? The gag at the end when the wolf police officer puts on the sheep disguise, pun aside, could also implies that sheep as a whole are now associated with crime and villainy]]. On the other hand, it could also indicate that criminals who previously went unnoticed because they're "harmless" prey animals might finally be getting their comeuppance.
* Imagine the horrified reaction [[spoiler:Nick's mother must have had after her son came home losing hope that the world would never see him as anything other than his stereotype. Thoughts must have been racing in her head as to what happened to him.]]
* A bit of a small one, but at one point Bellwether exclaims, "Oh, muttonchops!" Since she's a sheep, this could translate into "Oh, chopped-up bits of old people's backs!"
** Let's say it meant "Oh, [[HotBloodedSideburns great big bushy sideburns]]!" and feel a little bit better.
* Finnick answered Judy's knock on his van door with a baseball bat. It might seem like he was just being jerkishly violent, but given the attitude toward predators going around at the time and his relatively small size... (To say nothing of having ears that size and being inside a big metal box while someone's knocking on it...)
* The feral animals that Lionheart imprisoned are only wearing whatever clothes they were captured in, with some being completely naked. Even prisoners get the dignity of clothing. Given they're acting like RealLife animals, however, they likely wouldn't accept it -- Manchas ditched his trousers during the chase, for example.
* Just where ''is'' Nick's mother? He only mentions her the one time, in the past, and she's never seen anywhere in the present day, not even [[spoiler:at Nick's police graduation ceremony.]] He never says anything about a father. Nick also told Judy that he's been running cons since he was twelve. Was he raised by his mother alone then, and did she die when he was that age, leaving her bitter and isolated child to scrape for himself? If so, no wonder Nick took to hustling. [[note]] Rich Moore confirmed on Twitter that she's still alive and living in the same apartment that she raised Nick in. [[/note]]
* A polar bear is seen in a news report, having gone savage in broad daylight and critically injured a caribou. According to the news anchor, that was the ''twenty-seventh'' incident of its kind. Nick and Judy escaped [[spoiler:being mauled/eaten by the newly-savage Manchas due to their agility, quick thinking, and speed, but what about the other citizens of Zootopia that wouldn't have had access to these skills, such as children or the elderly, when faced with a savage predator?]]
** Conversely, a bit of FridgeLogic shows that most of the predators didn't do much damage before being captured. This makes sense, given that most predatory behaviors are learned, and the average civilized animal of Zootopia has no reason to know how to catch prey with their bare paws.
* How did the reports of savagery be so effectively repressed knowledge until Judy found the Mayor's place, and why would Mayor Lionheart, someone with a cushy job, have a scar on his nose? What if that's because Bellwether's first attempt to remove him from the picture was a more direct approach and involved attempting to use a feral predator to assassinate him? Thus, Lionheart was able to keep things quiet because during the first incident, he and maybe a few bodyguards were the only ones on the scene?
* Doug wears a gas mask while he prepares the serum, meaning the fumes must be dangerous. Judy and Nick are hiding in the lab as he works with no such protection. Who knows how close they came to losing their sanity then and there...
** Admittedly, he has more exposure to it than they do.
** It could just be a precaution against accidental exposure. We see that this serum works ''very fast,'' possibly too fast to reliably put on protective gear if a vial of it were accidentally knocked over or something. He seems to have no problem opening the door for others not wearing masks, so ambient gas in the room under normal conditions probably isn't a major concern. Note that Doug is also wearing an isolation suit, as we know the serum works on skin contact too.
** It's also further confirmation that the concentrate doesn't just affect predators.
** Presumably, the preparation for the plan began a while before Judy arrived in Zootopia (the plan itself began two weeks before she arrived). If they didn't know just how potent [[spoiler:Night Howlers]] could be, mild exposure could have resulted in their eyes becoming more "animal-like" when compared to say, [[spoiler:Bellwether's]]. What if the airborne exposure they experienced over the course of, likely months, of refining the serum had begun subtly altering their physiology back to how it used to be in the past? Before [[spoiler:Doug]] started wearing a mask. A little airborne exposure, like the kind Judy and Nick experienced, probably wouldn't be an issue, but constant exposure over a long period of time spent refining it?
** Other than being an obvious and brutal visual pun, right down to the bright blue end product (as Cinema Sins puts it, 'Know what this is a reference to? Breaking '''Baaa''d.'[[note]]I'm so sorry.[[/note]]), organic chemistry to get concentrated herbal extracts sometimes requires some brutal solvents. Once the solvents are removed in the multi-part distillation columns as shomwn, however, the PPE is not necessary.
* Judging by how the News crews surrounds Judy right after Nick scares her into taking out her repellent, it's possible they filmed him doing that and probably showed it in the news. If anything, this could imply that Nick had to go into hiding in order not to get arrested for seemingly attempting to assault/maul a police officer.
** The fox repellent flags up several depressing truths about this world. One that this stuff is available, two that no one saw fit to comment on it, and three that even Nick is willing to just let it pass without comment until Judy reveals deeper prejudice. The world really is more rotten that most people care to admit.
** IRL, pepper spray is calibrated for different needs. For example, a big bottle of riot control spray would have a different concentration from the little can you keep in your purse or pocket. And with such a high diversity of species, spray designed for, say, an elephant might kill or seriously injure anyone smaller. But the pink branding on the kit makes one think it's aimed at women, so it's more like regular pepper spray.
*** I recognized the pepper spray implications too by colouring it pink; but...if Zootopia predators don't eat their "prey"...[[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil then what do they do?]]
* Judy and Nick manage to get to safety from Manchas before backup arrives, but what if they hadn't and Nick and/or Judy had died at his feral paws? Let's count the effects:
** Obviously, Judy and/or Nick would be ''dead'', which is bad enough on its own. And if one of them survived, ''especially'' if it was Judy, they'd be stuck with SurvivorGuilt. Additionally, Judy almost certainly would have gotten in trouble with the department for endangering a civilian. Not that Nick would be in a much better spot. He doesn't care all that much for Judy at that point, but given his reaction to her almost losing her job because of his wasting time, it's doubtful he'd take her getting killed following one of his leads very well.
** When Manchas is in control of his actions, he seems like a pretty nice guy. Imagine how he'd react to knowing that he ''killed'' someone if he eventually got better.
** Clawhauser was likely aware at the point of Judy's loud desperate greeting that he had missed the alarm for a while. Someone as scrupulous as Clawhauser would undoubtedly feel disproportionate guilt over the deaths for months, years, or even the rest of his life. "If only I'd noticed the call sooner, he/she/they'd still be alive...".
--> [[FunnyAneurysmMoment Awwww! That little bunny's gonna get eaten alive.]]
** Bogo probably wouldn't be all that happy, either. He may have been skeptical of Judy and looking for ways to set her up to fail, but getting her or some random civilian killed likely ''wasn't'' one of them.
** With the resourceful team either dead or permanently split apart, if Lionheart was eventually discovered, it's entirely likely no one would be able to stop Bellwether.
* Gazelle was not only a pop star, but also apparently an activist of sorts - her back-up dancers are tigers - one truly terrifying way to spread the "anti-predator" hate and fear would be to infect one (or more) of her dancers, either during a concert or during her protest rally, and have the infected dancer kill Gazelle - on the concert stage or in the protest rally - in front of an audience - and let the hate/rage/terror breed more chaos.
** This brings up the more likely aspect of Doug's next target -- specified as "a cheetah in Sahara Square". Right where the protest is being held, and within spitting distance of Gazelle, who doesn't have a tiger backup dancer in sight during the news report. Even if she didn't get damaged, it would likely put a damper on her attempts to smooth things over between the two sides. And if she ''did'' get damaged or killed, predators might ''never'' be forgiven.
** And, as with Manchas and Clawhauser: if something like this happened, and then the tiger dancer in question was cured, imagine how horrified ''he'' would have been. It's made very clear from the protest scene and the dance concert at the end just how much the tigers adore and look up to Gazelle...
** Someone followed through on this (as well as Clawhauser being targeted) in a rather DarkFic on FanFictionDotNet and it's about as tragic as you can imagine.
* Emmitt Otterton knew what the Night Howlers are and how they work. [[spoiler: When he was shot, he probably knew what was happening to him. ''He felt himself losing his mind.'']]
* Judy's investigation tactics:
** Judy didn't ''precisely'' stick to the law during her investigation (illegal police entry at the limo rental place, the asylum, and Doug's train car, police brutality in knocking out Weaselton and threatening him with torture, and perhaps even illegal surveillance,) so, even as the ZPD's poster officer, if her actions ever see the light of day, she will be fired, or even jailed.
*** Of course, the train car and Weaselton's interrogation were when she was no longer attached to the force (despite Bellwether's little slip of calling her "Officer Hopps"), she had probable cause for both the limo service (fox climbing over the fence) and the asylum (wolves capturing other animals), and knocking out Weaselton definitely caused less property damage than chasing him through Little Rodentia had. (Those poor drivers...)
** Imagine how betrayed Bogo would feel to learn that he had unwittingly supported an employee who was not only breaking procedure but also the law, ''especially'' considering that he had a hunch she was trouble but dismissed it after seeing those ill-gotten results. It might make it difficult for him to trust any of his employees ever again, even the ones who had already earned his trust.
* The desk calendar on Bellwether's desk displays a May date. When Judy is [[spoiler: wrapping carrots in a newspaper at her family's stand]], the date at the top is November. Unless Bellwether was so overworked by the Mayor that she didn't have a chance to update her calendar, the anti-predator crisis lasted for ''six months''.
** Closer inspection of the newspaper shows that it doesn't actually have a date on it. At the top of the paper is No. 27.0262 which at first glance could be mistaken for November.
** It was [[WordOfGod confirmed]] [[https://i.imgur.com/3pp1w4L.jpg by Rich Moore's Twitter]] that after the [[spoiler: disastrous press conference, three months have passed, for most of which Judy remained on the force until she finally gave up and left the city.]] He also mentions that it's been another three months since Bellwether changed her calendar due to her being overworked. This sets the movie sometime in August or September, meaning after three months, it really ''is'' November when she [[spoiler: returns to the city!]]
* Duke Weaselton is a predator. He sold material for ammo to a group that was targeting predators and could easily have decided further down the line they [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness didn't need him anymore]].
** It is pretty clear from his actions that he [[TooDumbToLive isn't the brightest weasel around]].
** Also, he was given AnOfferYouCantRefuse - money. Maybe he didn't know what the Night Howlers do at all; he just stole the bulbs and sold them to Doug because he offered a fair sum.
* It's hard not to draw some (albeit comical) parallels between Nick petting Bellwether's wool and some kind of real life sexual harassment. Imagine if they were humans and he was getting excited about grabbing her butt. Heck, even if you go no farther than getting that excited about touching someone's ''hair'', Judy's affronted reaction is -- while hilarious -- completely understandable.
** It could also be seen simply as an allusion to insensitive people who ask (or not) if they could touch someone's afro, which is [[http://satwcomic.com/like-a-cloud actually]] [[http://www.africaspeaks.com/reasoning/index.php?topic=7483.0;wap2 a well known]] [[http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/09/dont-touch-black-womens-hair/ phenomenon]] [[http://newsone.com/1417375/natural-black-hair-touched-by-whites/ in some places.]]
* Imagine if [[spoiler: Bellwether]]'s plan had succeeded. Would that eventually lead to a "predator holocaust"?
** Doubtful. Bellwether is savvy enough to know that it's more useful to have the predators around as a common enemy to unite against than to kill them all. Unless she gets DrunkWithPower; then all bets are off.
* What if the florist to uncover the plot involving Night Howlers wasn't an otter but a prey species? The villains couldn't have prey turn up savage or it would ruin their campaign, so Doug would have had to "silence" him the old-fashioned way (not with a serum pellet, but with a bullet or the like).
** He's sharing a car with a Jaguar: hit the predator and let ''Manchas'' silence the witness.
* Mr. Otterton, a cute little otter florist who learns the terrible secret that someone is weaponizing a toxic flower takes this information and imminently tries to tell... the mafia? So either the police are so useless that Otterton thinks that this is a better way to warn people than going to the police or to the press, or he's realized that he has information on a potentially valuable combat drug, and immediately tried to tell Mr Big so he could get in on the action.
** I'm going to presume it's a matter of trust and efficiency. He's longtime friends with Mr. Big, so it stands to reason that when he says he knows what's going on, Mr. Big will trust him and immediately take decisive action. Get Night Howler off the streets, get some of his guards on lookout, etc. Whereas the press and police, neither of whom have a relationship with him, would, at worst, laugh off his claim that a "harmless flower" is causing the problems, and, at best, could only either a)incite more panic (the press), or b)assign a small force to it (the police). After all, the ZPD can't drop everything else on the lead of some random otter florist.
** Mr. Otterton most likely went to Mr. Big first, because mob bosses tend to get nervous when their associates go talk to the police. He was most likely going to explain the matter to Mr. Big and ask his permission to inform the ZPD, in order to avoid any unfortunate misunderstandings.
* In one scene, Judy almost gets stepped on by a pedestrian rhino, causing Nick to joke "Be careful or it won't just be your dreams getting crushed." This makes you wonder just how many innocent small civilians have been crushed by accident by larger animals who weren't paying attention.
** At least one fanfic ran with this and had a rhino assassin doing his jobs via trampling and being so reviled that [[EvenEvilHasStandards the Tundratown mafia thinks that only scum with more money than morals hires him]].
* Despite that these animals are stated to have evolved to a human-like state and that prey-eating is a thing of the past, it would seem that bunnies are still ExplosiveBreeders. Not only would said evolution even this tendency out over hundreds of generations, but the whole reason real rodents have so many young so fast because they're at the bottom of a lot of food-chains; if you're a rabbit, you need to have lots of babies. Some will die of natural causes, some will be killed by hunters or killed and eaten by a bigger animal, and with luck, a couple will survive to have their own kits. With all of those threats now gone and the ludicrous breeding still going strong, what is keeping those populations in check?
** Condoms? (Assuming that the animals have something to put the condom on, despite what we see at the "naturalist" club...)
** Or other forms of contraception. One background poster even shows a bunny family with a lot of children, saying "It is about time you get fixed", implying that voluntary vasectomy is a practice in Zootopia.
** Then there's the possibility that said population is still self-sustaining. As mentioned elsewhere on the page, a large family of rabbits provides more than enough manual labor to maintain a large farm, producing enough food for themselves and likely in surplus, given that a late scene has Judy selling carrots and Gideon entering a business partnership with Judy's parents, so it's not inconceivable that other animals with similar breeding rates could make similar arrangements. Besides, there's no indication that Zootopia is the only city in the animal world... if the population gets too large for them, there's always other places to live.
*** Until there aren't. Zootopia is, in all likelihood, set on a spheroid, earth-like planet. This is the kind of situation that starts wars and creates overpopulation, limited resources, and a very easy to manipulate population (especially via fear).
** There's an alternative angle to consider here; in addition to being bunnies, don't forget that Judy's family is characterized as being two things. The first is old-fashioned, and the second is as being a farming family. Both are the kinds of family that tend to go for large numbers of kids. It's not unreasonable that Judy's nearly-three-hundred siblings are something that's considered fairly antiquated amongst modern bunnies and most don't have anywhere near that many offspring; Judy's family is so big mostly to keep up with operating a huge produce farm, and other bunnies in the area have much smaller and more manageable families.
*** There's actually a fanfic that ran with an interpretation much like this; Judy's home count is called the "Triburrows Region" because there's only three "burrows" -- huge, traditionalistic farming families with hundreds of bunnies belonging to them -- in that whole area. Judy just happens to come from one of those three families. Also, the constantly increasing population counter is explained in said fic as a gag set up by the town council as a way to mess with the heads of visitors; it just automatically counts up to a billion and then resets itself.
** Another possibility, besides the "bunnies only breed like wild bunnies in the more old-fashioned rural families" theory above, is that Zootopians use selective abortion to decrease the number of embryos in a litter, so they have only a fairly small number of kids in total. Do take note that, during the scene of Judy riding the train after the disastrous PR scene, the bunny who drags her daughter closer from the tiger who just sat down only has ''one'' child with her, something you wouldn't expect if she had a full-fledged litter, which could be taken as proof for either of these two theories.
*** '''Fun Science Fact:''' Female rabbits have a natural capacity for birth control. No, really. If a doe's protein intake is not sufficient for her to produce healthy offspring, her womb re-absorbs the embryos. It's a survival trait to permit rabbits to get through periods of reduced food supply. If Bunnyburrow's population starts to outgrow their ability to produce food, a change in diet will help them fix the problem themselves.
* Nick has made $73000 tax-free every year since he was twelve, and is still implied to live under a bridge. What does he spend his money on? either A, he has some addiction that never appears on screen (possibly gambling, considering his hustler personality) or B, even more depressingly, as work of God confirms that Nick's mother is still alive, it's likely that she had some sort of medical emergency when Nick was twelve, and he's been paying her medical bills ever since: perhaps the reason she's not at his police graduation is she's too sick to walk, and has been for twenty years.
** It could also be that he deliberately keeps living in a relatively poor manner for a variety of reasons. Perhaps he does it so that he doesn't ever forget who he was and where he came from, or, more pragmatically, he does so to avoid drawing unneeded and unwanted attention to himself. After all, if he started becoming too ostentatious, then people might start digging into the source of his revenue, and find out about his various tricks.
** Alternatively, it's just a place he goes. After all, he's right next to where 'Wilde Times' from the 'tame collar' draft of the story was. It could be that's just a sentimental place for him, a place where he tried to start an above-ground business, but it didn't last. As to why his mother's not at graduation, another theory is that she's well enough to walk, but she isn't on speaking terms with her son for whatever reason.
* A more subtle horror: when the elephant ice cream parlor cashier refuses service to Nick, he 1) does so specifically because Nick is a fox and 2) rudely asks whether there are "fox ice cream parlors" in the city. When Judy wants to do her part to fight racism, she has to invoke health regulations ''rather than antidiscrimination law.'' Since she knows the law backwards and forwards, it's telling she doesn't invoke it: Zootopia has racism but lacks antidiscrimination laws and could very well be ''de facto'' segregated beyond the artificially maintained biomes.
** Jumbeaux is correct in citing his business's right to refuse service, since it's a private company. Antidiscrimination laws generally only apply to public services and certain aspects of employment and/or tenancy when only a single individual was involved. Judy would have to be able to demonstrate that Jumbeaux habitually refuses service to certain types of animals, and given that she only just started working, she wouldn't have that kind of information. Therefore, Judy using health regulations was an approach far more likely to withstand judicial scrutiny.
* So apparently about three months (at least) pass between Mayor Lionheart's arrest, followed immediately with moving the savage predators from the asylum to the hospital, and the conspiracy finally being taken down and the savage predators cured. One little tidbit of horror here: Bellwether is mayor during this period, which means she has full control over the city's facilities. Including the hospital. For those savage predators to remain feral during those three months while being incarcerated in the hospital, what are the chances that instead of being cared for or treated, they are constantly being drugged with Nighthowlers? That also leads to one potential long-lasting disaster: Depending on the substance, chronic substance abuse may eventually lead to irreversible physiological change (including organ failure and brain damage). Had Bellwether remained mayor for longer, is it not possible that those savage predators might become ''incurably, permanently'' feral without hope of salvation?
* Just how long has Bellwether been stalking the Otterton family? She (and/or her henchrams, particularly Doug) very likely was aware that Emmit Otterton might have found out her plan with the Night Howlers, which is why [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade she had the otter darted to prevent the info from leaking out]]. And when did she become aware of Lionheart's agenda of imprisoning the savages? Tied in with the darting incident above, it seems like she knows very well, if not exactly, what happened to Emmit once he became feral, which is probably why she's explicitly supportive of Mrs. Otterton's plight which ends up causing Judy to take the case and eventually find out about the Cliffside Asylum deal, all for Bellwether's benefit. Poor Mrs. Otterton and her children probably were not too far from joining Emmit...
* As mentioned in WMG page, here's a simple question: How many test subjects did Doug go through before finalizing his current version of the Nighthowler gun? And what happened to them?
* Mr. Big gets offended when he learns of the source of the rug Nick sold him, and cites that he buried his Grandmama in that rug. But mafiosos generally use rolls of carpet for disposing of *enemies*. So was there some internecine warfare in the Shrew family? And if so, is he only offended about burying Grandmama in a skunk-butt rug because she was a WorthyOpponent?
* Sort of a Fridge Sadness as well, but in the aftermath of the press conference, I couldn't help but wonder about Gideon. It's implied that his attack on Judy was indirectly responsible for inspiring a small fear of predators in Judy. He even mentions the 'predator's instinct buried in DNA' idea. Years later, after what seems like not speaking to her for awhile, he's reformed, thinks she's moved on (and she has, at least consciously), but then she gives the 'reverting predators' speech. Did he ever look at the unrest and feel like it was his fault, for putting the words in her mouth, then backing them up? It would also put his apology in a bit of a new light, not just feeling sorry for hurting Judy, but also trying to clear his taxonomic order's name.
* Try to picture the mood of the Predatory population after the events of the film. After what can now be deducted as ''months'' of being treated with fear and suspicion by the majority Prey population, it is then revealed the whole situation was nothing more than an insidious conspiracy against their taxonic order by a member of said Prey majority. Not just any member, the ''Mayor'' herself. Try to imagine the sheer ''fury'' and sense of betrayal amongst the Predators, who have now come to the sobering realization that after generations of alleged peace, many of their Prey friends and neighbors not only still do not trust them, but some were actively conspiring against them. From now own, when they look at their Prey neighbor, the Prey milkman, the Prey cashier they deal with in their daily lives, how many of these Predators are secretly thinking, "Does this mammal hate me? Are they out to get me?"
** In fact, how easy will it be for a Predator version of Bellwether to emerge amongst this sea of distrust and whip up the Predator population against the Prey in a reversal of the first film? Perhaps even forming their own Predator supremacy/separatist group? Bellwether's don't grow in a vacuum and the fear and outrage many predators are likely to feel is far more justified than those of the prey in the film. It wasn't as if both sides were at fault, where some predators ''were'' going savage and the Prey were (perhaps overly) reacting out of fear, it was an outright conspiracy against their community. Of course, that doesn't make the entire Prey population responsible, but that likely means little to the indignant Predators.
[[/folder]]

** An intrepid Zootopia fan with knowledge of ASL has attempted to analyze Nick's hand signals [[https://www.reddit.com/r/zootopia/comments/4s8yyv/apparent_meaning_behind_nicks_hand_signals/ in this thread]]. His hand signals are a combination of actual ASL, close-enough ASL, and educated guesses based on context which is presumed to say "Keep an eye out for me so I can sneak in, then you can escape quietly Listen for my signal. Okay?"