Alternative Character Interpretation in Zootopia.
- Just how much of a 'con' was the Pawpsicle hustle? For the most part, all Nick was doing was taking something, repurposing it, moving it from a low-demand area to a high-demand area, and reselling it at a markup - nothing more than an ordinary cash-and-carry businessnote . The "redwood" bit was somewhat shady, but the rest was a perfectly legitimate business. Fridge Brilliance sets in when you realize that what makes the whole hustle possible is the elephant's bigotry driving up demand - and Nick's taking full advantage of it. Apart from conning Judy out of twenty bucks, the one out-and-out fraud was filing false tax returns, which Judy picked up on instantly. He was fully licensed for the rest of it. (Assuming those licenses were real; having them printed on the same sheet was a bit suspicious...)
- Was Mayor Lionheart's reasons for imprisoning the feral Zootopians and finding a cure altruistic, or was it because he was more worried about losing his position should the public discover that only predators are going savage, and might cause the citizens to demand that he be removed from power because he himself is one? As he's being dragged away to jail he is pleading with them that they're wrong, he was just trying to find the cure and it hadn't been found yet... but just prior to this he actually stated aloud to the doctor (which is what Judy recorded) that he was afraid of being targeted for being a lion (and that it would ruin his career). Which suggests both interpretations are true, because he's actually a more complex character than it seems. Like most of the characters, and like real people. Interestingly, his lines to the doctor could also be taken in an altruistic way, as he points out that the Mayor being a carnivore who could for no reason go berserk would be a terrible thing to reveal. Specifically, if you thought that the person in charge of the government could go crazy and start eating people, you might get a wee bit concerned. His statement in an interview at the end of the film regarding doing the "wrong thing for the right reasons" implies that both are true.
- Was it so out of line that he was quarantining what might have been an unknown disease, while having medical research investigate the cause? There was some politics involved, true, but the evidence pointed to a Hate Plague. One known victim had been wounded slightly before by another one, and changed suddenly while talking to the police.
- Did Bellwether genuinely want to form a friendship with Judy due to how they both were pretty similar? If so, is this why she tried persuading Judy to join her in her goal to put prey species on the top? Or did she see Judy as nothing more than a pawn? If so, did she only support and aid Judy before just to manipulate her into unwittingly helping her with her schemes, and was her offer just a lie to try and lure her and Nick out of hiding?
- What especially muddles this is that she wants to give Judy a promotion and make her the face of ZPD after the latter busts Lionheart. She seems genuine at this moment, but is she perhaps trying to buy favors from a celebrity cop proactively and boost her political image? Also, what would she have done if she had fooled Judy and Nick into surrendering the suitcase of evidence in the climax?
- The other conspirators that were working with the Big Bad. Did they join Bellwether because of any anti-predator prejudices on their part, did they join her because they wanted political power and they saw the anti-predator conspiracy as a way to achieve it, or did Bellwether pay some of them off to help her out? Or could it have been a mix of two reasons, or all three reasons, depending on the person?
- Does Finnick have an Inferiority Superiority Complex? Considering he's a pretty minor character, it's never really made clear what makes him so irritable but, considering the press release described him as having "a big chip on his adorable shoulder", it's possible he tries to act tough and violent because he's afraid that, if he isn't tough, everyone will look down on him for being small. Having to pretend to be a baby for a scam, even to the point where he sucks on a pacifier and wears a diaper, probably hurts his self-esteem.
- Is Finnick really a badass or is he just pretending to be one because he wants to be seen as tough by everyone? We never actually see him do anything badass, although considering he seemed to be ready to use the baseball bat on anyone trying to muzzle him, it could be argued he really is as tough as he seems.
- Did Finnick react to someone knocking on his van with aggression and a baseball bat in-paw because he's a grouchy jerk? Or was he simply just ready to defend himself if anyone was there to try and muzzle him? At the time, the city was up in-arms about predators going feral and anyone who fit the description of "predator" was facing a lot of prejudice regardless of personal qualities. That in-mind, it might not surprise you he was more than ready to defend himself, especially given his size. Considering he calmed down, his expression even softened a bit when he saw it was Judy, and he helped her locate Nick, he's potentially not the hot-headed jerk he tries to project. He's still a grouch considering his reaction to Nick saying "do you wanna give daddy a bye-bye kiss" was "if you kiss me tomorrow, I'll bite your face off", but this made it worse.
- Bogo:
- It's been argued that the character isn't prejudiced against bunnies, but he'd just like to have Judy work her way up and get experience like any other rookie, political appointee or no. Once she does prove herself, he has no problem supporting her and all but says he's proud of her for solving the case. Then again, he also didn't want her on the force period, and has no problem telling this to her face. And given how he also refuses to acknowledge Nick as a witness for no other reason than Nick is a fox, and that Manchas being missing so her story can't be corroborated causes him to assume Judy was just being a typical bunny in her assessment of the danger ("or perhaps any predator would seem savage to you"), it's probably intended as yet another demonstration of "people are complex."
- This doubles as an alternate interpretation for Judy: Is she justified in saying that he should use her in the search for the missing Predators, or does she think she's too good for parking duty and is entitled to being given better assignments even though she's new to the force and hasn't proven herself to Chief Bogo yet?
- Additional fuel to the fire that is given to the "Bogo is just a tough, but fair chief" comes both from his line about the world already being broken which has some horrific implications about what he saw or knows and from the fact that Judy came as the first result of a special political program. If mirrored to real life, where people often assume that affirmative action-like programs result in a bad performance, it's a safe bet that this was meant to show how people are likely to assume that you're incompetent, even if you clearly aren't (her graduating at the top of her class), if the place to which you're applying takes part in affirmative action.
- It's also possible that Bogo wanted to ease Judy into the Zootopian crime scene — he wouldn't want her to get "eaten alive" (as Clawhauser noted) on her first day, especially since she's a high-profile graduate. Giving her something safe to start with and then slowly giving her more dangerous assignments later would be a sensible way to gauge how much danger she could handle in everyday work.
- Judy's and Nick's final exchange ("You know you love me..."/"Do I know that...? Yes. Yes, I do.") — "love" as in philia or eros? To make matters even more confusing, according to the interviews of their voice actors, Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman have very different opinions on their relationship. Ginnifer states that their relationship is just platonic, while Jason seems to ship Judy and Nick. Meaning, if you apply this perspective to their characters/performances, Judy thinks that she and Nick are Just Friends, while Nick seems to be interested in her.
- Is Finnick a Shadow Archetype of Judy? They may not seem that similar personality-wise, but he was the closest animal to Nick before Judy came along and was his partner, if not best friend, like Judy ended up being. Also, like Judy, he's small. That, and Nick tends to tease Finnick like he does Judy, albeit he teases him about his height rather than being a bunny. It could be argued he resembles what Judy could be like if she didn't have better self-esteem, as, while she doesn't let her height get to her, he seems to detest being short and, while she mostly shakes off Nick's insults or insults him back, he threatens Nick whenever he insults him.
- Are Nick and Finnick still friends at the end of the movie? Were they ever friends at all? They didn't seem particularly close at the beginning of the movie and only seemed to work together moreso as business partners and less so as best friends. What doesn't help is that they both seem to take a lot of pleasure in humiliating each other. Also, Finnick is nowhere to be seen at the dance party at the end, especially not with Nick and Judy. And it would be kind of awkward for someone whose still (supposedly) a con artist to be friends with someone who's now a cop. However, he did know where to find Nick, even after he left Judy, which implies they still kept in touch, and Nick was eating a popsicle, which implies they still make them, even though he's a cop now. Also, Rich Moore did imply that, if there was a sequel, Finnick would still be in it somehow.
- How close are Nick and Finnick? Are they hustling "brothers-in-arms" working out cons together, practicing their father-and-son routine in their off-time? Or given that during the payout after their jumbo-pop hustle, Finnick only receives 40 dollars and Nick has the lion's share of the money left in his hands then is Finnick really nothing more than "hired help" (if it's 200 total, like Nick brags he makes daily, that means Finnick only received a paltry 20% of the take)?
- One of the polar bears in Mr. Big's employ looks up a selfie
(on Zoogle) of himself choking a wolf in a headlock and chuckles fondly. "Business" or is it just friendly roughhousing? - Was the Predator/Prey dynamic really the only prejudice that existed in the film? In many cases large animals actually seem to enjoy privilege over smaller animals, and the most privileged group seems to be large prey species (they receive neither distrust nor disrespect), with small predators like foxes being the most disrespected (receiving neither trust nor respect). The elephants didn't seem to like Judy any more than Nick (they seemed to give her grudging respect only because of her badge), it apparently never occurred to the police before that it would be useful to have smaller animals to deal with rodent areas (which likely means Mr. Big's organization is the only semblance of order rodents get), and for the most part any authority figure who isn't a criminal is a large animal. Also, the police force appears to have very few females; Judy and Francine seem to be the only females in Precinct 1 note .
- Did Nangi the elephant yoga instructor really not remember Emmett Otterton or was she disinclined to talk about a client who was connected to a mob boss — at the very least, someone wealthy enough to fetch him a limo with a jaguar as a driver — in front of the police (well, one cop and one "deputy")? The English dub makes her sound determined not to talk about him while in the Japanese dub she seems a bit more air-headed.
- In the apology scene under the bridge, was Nick really still mad at Judy at the beginning of the scene, only forgiving her after hearing her heartfelt apology and being moved by it, or was he just faking it to get a response out of her, having in fact been quite prepared to forgive her the entire time? His behavior and expressions lend credence to the former, but his status as a Master Actor throws this somewhat into doubt, and his prank with the carrot pen and abrupt change in demeanor strongly suggests the latter, though it's still conceivable that he could have thought of the prank halfway through the conversation, rather than having planned it the whole time. It's very ambiguous, and people have interpreted it both ways.
- The fact that he had the carrot pen in the first place, and had it on him when she found him under the bridge, adds another layer of complexity. Did he feel conflicted about leaving her, and kept it as a reminder of their friendship even though he was upset with her? Did he want to make up with her, maybe even regretting his angry words on some level, but couldn't bring himself to make the first move for whatever reason? Or was Nick willing to forgive Judy once he cooled down, but still wanted her to apologize before any reconciliation could happen between the two of them?
- Word of God, in the form of this tweet, states that Nick does not eat meat. However, it did not specify if this simply means that, like every other predator in the film, he doesn't eat mammal meat note , or if he's actually a full-on Vegetarian Carnivore who doesn't even eat fish or insects. The former seems to be the more common interpretation, but the latter interpretation is not unheard of, and is rendered at least somewhat plausible by the fact that foxes are omnivores rather than true obligate carnivores.
- When Zootopia is growing more and more unstable, one of the predators shown going savage is a polar bear in a tracksuit; was that one of Mr. Big's men? On the one hand, it could just be another case of Doug targeting predators, or it could have been a calculated move on Bellwether's part to try and damage the mob's reputation and weaken their influence.
- Is Dr. Badger some sort of a Boomerang Bigot who is seriously worried about the possibility of something savage hiding latent in predators' DNA, or did Judy misinterpret her statements about the savage affliction possibly relating to predators' "biology"? She had very little screentime and was interrupted before she could finish explaining her theory, so it's hard to tell.
- Jerry Jumbeaux, the owner of the elephant ice cream shop. Was he prejudiced toward foxes solely based on a stereotypical preconception, was he or someone he knew at the receiving end of an actual scam from a fox in the past, did he somehow hear about Nick's "pawpsicle" hustle and took his precautions a bit too far, or (as pointed out in the Fridge Brilliance page) did he not appreciate his species by fetishized because dressing as another specie is Zootopia's World's version of blackface and Nick didn't think of that?
- If Nick's "pawpsicle" scheme is one he runs regularly, then he would need to buy his supplies from ice cream stores catering to larger mammals. That means Nick would be a semi-regular customer at Jerry's, who was possibly growing suspicious about this particular fox who keeps buying popsicles that are far too big for him to eat alone.
- Gideon subverts the fox stereotype by being fat and somewhat slow witted rather than slender and clever. Is his Inferiority Superiority Complex partially the result of not living up to the expectations of what a "real" fox should be like? If so, his particular character arc is very applicable to toxic masculinity (ie, violence-inducing self-hatred stemming from an inability to live up to traditional hyper-masculine gender roles). Notice how he seems significantly happier as an adult, presumably because he's no longer living with the anxiety of having to meet those expectations, especially when wearing pink and with a traditionally "girly" job.
- Nick blowing up at Judy at the press conference. Was he legitimately angry and offended that Judy would believe all predators would potentially go savage or did he somewhat secretly sympathize with her reasoning and only masked it with fake/misplaced outrage? Given the news spreading fast of the savage animals, the trauma he was reliving, and Judy encouraging him to sign up for the ZPD, he might've seen where the wind was blowing and feared for Judy's life if she had a fox for a partner. So he might've intentionally pushed Judy's Trauma Button to make her disillusioned of him and give himself a reason to cut ties with her for her own protection.
