Any WMGs that are about specific characters from the movie, and are by someone who has seen it, go here.
WARNING: Unmarked spoilers!
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Theories About Judy
Nick and Judy are neither a couple, nor are they just friends.
They simply don't agree on what they are. Nick who hasn't really had anyone in his life that we are aware of beyond Finnick and other business partners thinks of himself and Judy as a budding couple. Judy who's still learning to see her own biases sees them as very close friends because the idea that they even could be a couple is utterly alien to her. So they aren't one or the other, one thinks they are one and the other thinks they are the other.
In tandem with above: Judy is asexual.
Bunnies are normally thought of as
hypersexual, but that wouldn't be the first bunny stereotype for Judy to avert. Indeed, she devotes her life to her work and is never really shown being attracted to anyone in that way. It may be more than just her racial biases keeping her from seeing Nick as more than just a close friend; she may be incapable of seeing
anyone in that way.
- If you combine this with the above WMG about Nick and Judy not being on the same page about the nature of their feelings for each other, you'd have the makings for an interesting fanfic where they eventually have to confront that issue.
- Or Judy is hypersexual and so it doesn't mean the same thing to her (as a bunny) that it does to Nick (the fox) when they hook up.
- Alternatively, Judy and Nick could be in a Friends with Benefits situation - because, as a rabbit and fox, respectively, it would be unlikely for Judy to get pregnant by Nick, unless this world follows similar rules as the webcomic Kevin and Kell which does feature a married rabbit and fox couple that did somehow have a child together, to say nothing about the titular couple being a rabbit and wolf with a child together, but this troper digresses. In any case, Judy and Nick being involved in a sexual relationship poses no real issue, unless foxes are bigger than rabbits in a certain area, to which there are creams and ointments for, probably. The only other real issue, which this troper featured in their own fanfic, would be Judy's neighbors at the apartment, who can hear Everything, which might ruin the moment when they start arguing for one reason or another. "You shut up!" "No! You shut up!" (Off-screen sound of fighting.)
She sees her life flash before her eyes but sees herself and everyone around her as animals. Sometime after the events of the film, she was mortally wounded on the job, and this is the last thing she sees.
Judy is fixed.
If the reproductive rate isn't the only thing about rabbit reproduction that's the same as with real ones, then that would mean un-altered bunnies would be "in heat" (i.e, extremely horny) almost all the time. Judy didn't want that distraction getting in the way of her career, so she had herself spayed before entering the police academy.
- Well, she could've had her tubes tied as a method of birth control, though it's possible that the idea of rabbits constantly being in heat is a myth. Which would make the press conference extremely ironic.
Judy accepts the offer of being on the recruitment posters
…After the movie. Having brought the real culprit to justice, she would feel that she had actually made the world a better place, fixed her mistakes, and earned such recognition. She also insists on having Nick with her in the poster, both because she had his assistance when finding the missing animals and tracking down the Night Howlers, and because having a fox and bunny together on the poster would send the message ‘Predators and Prey Alike Working To Keep You Safe’/’Anyone Can Be a Cop’.
- I imagine she probably would, assuming the offer is even still on the table. It was Bellwether who made the offer in the first place, and she only did so with the intent of using it as "prey supremacy" propaganda. Whether they reinstate Lionheart or get a new mayor entirely, either way it can't be taken for granted that the offer is even still on the table (though it very well may still be, after all if they're inviting her to be the keynote speaker at the graduation ceremony for the police academy, they may want her in their advertising as well).
Judy’s apartment does not have a bathroom in her room
The apartment complex was meant for many species, with differing hygiene and waste removal needs. A toilet sized for a bear would be far too large for a rabbit, and might even be uncomfortably large for a wolf. Some animals cannot bathe with water (example: chinchilla fur is so thick that if they got wet, the deepest layers of fur would never air dry and could grow moss, or even rot and gangrene.) Other animals would need very different shower/bath systems simply due to size. There is probably a large collection of communal bathrooms set up for different size ranges in the apartment tenants.
- The concept sketches for the apartment show a second door inside the room and it can't be a closet since there's a bar in the room she hangs her clothes on. It might be something else but it logically seems like a bathroom. Though obviously, concept sketch, not necessarily canon.
- Consider the age of the apartment: The external wiring (the switch on the wall has wiring on the surface of the wall), the "greasy walls," the coat-rack, the hardwood floors that have seen much use all suggest a place that is easily a century or two old. Even in our own universe, such apartments lacked bathrooms — they were communal. Judy must've been really hard-up to have to rent there! Reminds one of the room Elwood had at the beginning of The Blues Brothers.
Judy tracked down most of the Big Bad’s network
…While Nick was going through the Police Academy. Chief Bogo needed to keep her busy while waiting for her soon-to-be-official partner to graduate. He acknowledged her investigative skills and had her tracking down the last of Bellwether’s goons, weapon/supply/Night Howler stashes, evidence.
Judy is Male-to-Female transgender.
The "Jude the Dude" line seemed to be referencing something from her childhood, and her father seemed awkward about it (hoping it would bring up a happy childhood memory, but uncertain). She transitioned early in childhood, before the opening.
- Plausible, but it's more likely meant as a cheesy "dad" joke and didn't really mean anything beyond the fact that it rhymed. Alternatively, because Judy doesn't really act particularly feminine (outside of some of her interactions with Fru Fru), maybe it was her dad calling her a tomboy.
Judy (and possibly her hundreds of siblings as well) are adopted.
There's not quite enough family resemblance for the Hoppses to be the same
species, much less the same bloodline. Judy is slender with huge ears like a hare, but her parents are more rotund with shorter ears like rabbits. Also, Bonnie and Stu look different enough from each other to be
different species of rabbits, which would mean that they either couldn't produce offspring at all, or it would be infertile hybrids.
It's possible that instead of rabbits retaining their Explosive Breeder qualities in this world, instead farmers are allowed to adopt freakish quantities of children as farm labor.
This has some Fridge Horror to it, and makes you question how high the orphan bunny population must be for the government to be willing to send them off as free labor to anyone that can feed them, but fortunately Judy managed to get a decent amount of individual attention from her "parents" despite this (although it's not clear that her "siblings" got the same level of attention, many of them may have been raised primarily by older siblings).
Judy not wanting other animals to call her "cute" has more to do with feminism than racism
At first glance, Judy's line about bunnies calling each other cute being okay but other animals doing it isn't seems like a play on
N-Word Privileges. However,
a fan comic
by
Sabrina Online author Eric W. Schwartz theorized that calling a bunny "cute" in this world is more akin to a woman constantly being told by men that she's pretty: it implies that, even if people don't outwardly hate you, they certainly don't respect you.
Judy fell asleep at the DMV
When Judy exits the DMV she's surprised that it's nighttime. She's far too observant not to notice that much time has passed unless she was unconscious for most of it. Flash's languid pace plus Nick's stalling bored her to sleep.
How Judy got hold of Nick's tax form
It has been speculated in the
Fridge section that she either forged it (which doesn't seem to line up with her sense of righteousness and would have been risky to pull as a bluff, had it been based on a mere assumption, with a high chance of being called out) or got it from Bellwether early on (although there's no indication of that when she comes to her with Nick to check the traffic cameras).
Another possible source could be her classmate Jaguar, who was seen at the beginning of the film performing alongside her in the school play and expressing his wish to hunt for tax exemptions and become an actuary note Although the writers probably mistook the term for "tax accountant", since actuaries rather deal with risk assessment. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility to figure that he went on to study accounting and eventually got a job in the IRS (or the Zootopian equivalent thereof). Knowing this, it would've only been for Judy a matter of getting back in touch with him, and he was probably glad to pull some tax records to help out a former classmate in her ongoing investigation.
Judy and Travis knew each other after Gideon attacked her
Gideon attacks Judy, Judy's siblings want revenge. However, Gideon gets expelled, putting him out of their reach. His toady remains behind, though, possibly having ratted Gideon out to save his own hide. So, they take revenge on him, though Judy forces them to apologize. After Judy apologizes to him, the two start hanging out. It's possible that Travis tells her more about Gideon, which puts Judy in more of a mood to accept him when the two meet later. Regardless, Travis gets a friend who can encourage him in more socially-acceptable ways, so he turns out alright in the end.
OK, make that the
downplayed Zootopia version: Even today humans are e.g.
born with a tail. So, maybe Judy has a few jackalope genes popping up again? It would explain her extreme strength (remember how she single-pawedly K-O-ed a rhino?).
Theories About Nick
Nick and Judy are neither a couple, nor are they just friends.
They simply don't agree on what they are. Nick who hasn't really had anyone in his life that we are aware of beyond Finnick and other business partners thinks of himself and Judy as a budding couple. Judy who's still learning to see her own biases sees them as very close friends because the idea that they even could be a couple is utterly alien to her. So they aren't one or the other, one thinks they are one and the other thinks they are the other.
Nick and Judy aren't actually that much higher on the police squad at the end.
They're essentially on traffic duty, only dressed up much more positively. That's not exactly high end police work, but still more acceptable for a new rookie to enter into with a partner.
- Well, they are both relatively new, Nick especially.
Nick is in debt to bad people.
If his claim of earning $200 a day is even remotely true and he pays no taxes, his monthly income is in the vicinity of 6000 dollars! With that kind of money his partner in crime shouldn't have to live in a van, and Nick himself doesn't seem all that wealthy, himself, so where does the money go? He probably tried to score lots of easy money when he was younger, only to cross wrong people in the process, and ended up with an ever-increasing debt that he's still trying to pay off.
- We've already seen he's familiar with Mr. Big and his gang (knows the goons on a first-name basis). Perhaps the skunk butt rug was just one of many run-ins?
Alternately, Nick is secretly and extremely charitable.
Some of it undoubtedly goes to Finnick, hence why Finnick has a van to live in and maintain, but maybe he gives away the rest to some cause he believes in, sacrificing his own well-being for others.
- The movie itself gives very little indication of Nick having any such tendencies prior to Judy defrosting him. However, this theory is interesting if for no other reason than how well it fits with the comparisons often made between Zootopia and Robin Hood (1973).
- Or he gives it to his mother. It has been confirmed by Rich Moore that she is still alive and living in Nick's childhood home. Considering that they come from a poor background (Mrs. Wilde had to scrape money to buy her son his Junior Ranger Scout uniform) and that Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas, it makes perfect sense that Nick would use his earnings to provide for her.
Alternately, Nick lied about how much money he made.
When he said 200 dollars a day, he was trying to boast to Judy. He didn't realize she was recording the conversation. In reality, he didn't make enough money to require filing taxes. He made sure to run the rest of his scam by-the-books, tax fraud doesn't seem like a mistake he would make.
Alternately, Nick doesn't work every day.
These scams may actually take a while to plan, he may not be able to run them every day.
Alternately, these dollars are not worth very much.
Who's to say that a Zootopian dollar is the same as a U.S. Dollar? $200 a day of their currency may not actually be a terribly high income, especially when you also factor in that large cities tend to have a high cost of living.
- Nick buys giant Jumbo-pops for Z$15 each, and sells smaller "pawpsicles" for Z$2 each, so it seem that Z$ are not dissimilar in value compared to US$
Alternately, that $200 figure is actually the combined total of what he and Finnick make in a day, and he only actually gets to keep half of it.
He didn't make that clear because he didn't know he was being recorded and wanted to exaggerate his income for bragging purposes.
- At the end of the day, Nick is shown giving Finnick $40, which would make it a 20% cut of their profits.
Alternatively, and very depressingly, we can combine the "Nick Gives it to his mother" theory and the fact that he's apparently been doing this since he was twelve to suggest his mother has spent the last 20 years chronically and/or terminally ill, and he's been paying her medical bills.
She could have finally snapped when Nick's father abandoned her, and has spent the last two decades in an asylum, unable to even recognize her son. He visits every week, and that's why his shirt matches the wallpaper from his childhood home in the flashback:he's trying to give her a visual clue as to where she knows him from. Sometimes she mistakes him for his father and rages at him, and it's all he can do not to cry.
Never let them see that they get to you.- Sounds like an interesting premise for a Dark Fic.
Alternatively, Nick is supporting a family we never get to see on screen.
His Jumbo pop scam could have been inspired by trying to buy an ice cream for his now estranged biological son and getting horribly rejected by the storekeeper, and he adopted Finnick as a surrogate as a way to get back at the industry and support his son and pay alimony.
Nick had a criminal mentor as a child.
His pawsicle scam is a two person con, and one of them needs to be a child. He's been doing this since he was 12, so did he used to take the role Finnick now takes? how exactly does he know Mr Big? Did he work for him as a child?
And before the conversation, or at least before the end of the conversation, he had already concluded that he would like to reconcile with Judy. He must have spoken to Finnick at length about Judy's good qualities, or else Finnick would probably have not been so quick to give Judy his location when she came around asking for it.
Why Nick forgave Judy so
quickly and easily later on despite how upset he was at the press conference
It may have something to do with the point where Nick storms off after the press conference, and Judy tries to follow, but is accosted by the press, and she tries to backpedal out of the mess she just made but they keep twisting her words. He may have seen that on TV later and realized that even though the things she said made him feel
betrayed and hurt, she really didn't mean anything by it and felt bad about it afterward, and despite her unresolved biases she did still care about him very deeply. And that's when he decided he would like to reconcile with her.
The scare quotes around "organic" on Nick's pawpsicle stand were some sort of
Loophole AbuseSimilar to "red wood", they give him
Plausible Deniability about his misusage of a regulated term. "No, I didn't actually claim that they were Certified Organic by the Department of Agriculture, I just meant that they were organic in the sense that they contain carbon."
What about Lady and Rapunzel?
- I could see similarities with Nick and Flynn, but Lady, Rapunzel and Judy are much different. Judy is more of a Tiana/Anna blend.
Nick's father died/ran away when he was twelve.
Given that's when Nick started running his cons, it's not hard to imagine that's when money really got tight. While Nick says that his mom scraped together the money for his Junior Ranger suit, that doesn't mean his father was out of the picture. He could just have been between jobs at the time. Once he left for good, though, that's when Nick had to step up into his father's shoes.
Nick tried to hold out in the Junior Rangers
After seeing his mother having worked so hard to get him a uniform, I wouldn't be surprised if little Nick didn't want to disappoint her, so he stuck around. He knows how to make a kid's bandana/adult's handkerchief into a bandage, so it's possible that he stuck around that long. However, he could only keep up appearances for so long before his mother cottoned to what was going on, possibly after Nick just couldn't take any more.
Nick and his mother had financial support up to when he was twelve
As an alternative to the above theory, Nick's father divorced Nick's mother when Nick was still young. There's little contact between the two, but Nick's father pays alimony and child support as best he can. Then, however, Nick's mother meets someone else, and she and Nick's father agree to stop alimony after her marriage. Once the marriage is conducted, though, Nick's stepfather turns out to be entirely unsuitable, and unable/unwilling to provide support. Alimony from Nick's birth father doesn't get started up again for whatever reason (I don't know the legality of that, it's possible that Nick's mother just doesn't ask since Nick's birth father has another wife as well), and child support isn't enough. Thus, Nick steps up and starts running cons.
The skunk butt rug was done when Nick was a teenager
That might be the only reason Mr. Big let Nick off with a warning, he didn't feel comfortable icing a minor. Or it's possible that Nick narced on someone in exchange for his own life, inspiring him to stick to much less dangerous cons in future.
Theories About Bellwether
Much like
Higurashi,
Zootopia pulls a twist about
an underling being the Big Bad. Takano was also
doing work with a Hate Plague. The two also share a common MO of
sowing fear and paranoia.
She uses others in her end goal of starting a race war. The only difference is that she is female, and also Manson's followers believed in his cause. With Dawn Bellwether, the only reason she has any support is drugs.
The Big Bad has been planning the attacks for years
A chemical extraction process like that may have taken years to perfect, coupled with more years to refine the delivery method into those Nighthowler pellets that are effective through the skin. She framed Mayor Lionheart because he was mean to her and a convenient scapegoat.
- Fridge Horror: How many test subjects did she go through until she got those pellets in their final form?
Bellwether being mistreated by Lionheart was her own fault
On top of having to administrate a city, he had been dealing with containing the savage animals and trying to finance research for a cure. Being overworked like that made him short tempered, which coupled with Bellwether being insistent on a lot of bureaucracy led to him lashing out verbally at the sheep when he had legitimately more important things to do.
Alternately, Bellwether is either transgender or an
Evil EunuchA bellwether being a castrated ram that leads a flock of sheep.
- Probably not. It's simply a family name. A woman could have the last name Prince or Duke, both names related to males in leadership positions.
- It's incredibly doubtful that it's just a family name. Almost every main character has a pun related name to their character and in the doc info about the movie's production they went into a lot of research on the animals they included in the film. There's no way that the writers were not aware that a wether is a specifically castrated sheep (or goat) Of course this is an argument that comes down to Watson and Doyle.
Bellwether checked the gun.
It was dark in the museum, and she didn't have much time between getting the case and catching up to Nick and Judy. She no doubt checked the cartridge of the gun to make sure it was still loaded, but she just gave it a brief glance and saw, yes, it was loaded with what (in the dark, without taking the time to look very closely) looked like the serum pellets. Had she taken the time to look more closely, felt them, or smelled them, she no doubt would have recognized them as blueberries, but why would she find that necessary? It's understandable that the possibility that Judy and Nick would just happen to have something of the exact same size, shape, and color as the Night Howler pellets on them never occurred to her. If she suspected anything, in context, it could only reasonably be that they would have taken the serum, not that they would have swapped it with an identical but harmless substitute.
Bellwether has a condition that stunted her physical growth
Contrary to the above WMG: regular female sheep look more or less the same way as males. This seems to be supported by the one of the concept artworks for the movie: inside the Cloven Hoof bar there's a sheep that seems to be dressed like a waitress, and she has the usual size and horizontal pupils.
Instead, it's Bellwether who still looks like a lamb even though she's an adult, for some reason. This would explain why she's half the height of an adult ram - and would make Lionheart calling her "Smallwether" much more cruel.
- I'm pretty sure the nickname was actually "Smellwether", so it's not a crack about her height, but instead it's either a generic childish taunt or possibly a crack about her body odor. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that Bellwether having some sort of dwarfism rather than being representative of all female sheep is still a viable theory.
- It's possible that she may be based on the Ouessant sheep, which is known for being one of the world's smallest sheep breeds.
- In line with the Trans Bellwether idea above, due to her name. She could be an intersex victim of gender corrective surgery.
Bellwether's plot is a lot more sophisticated than it seems at first glance
This solves a number of apparent plot holes the film has, some of which are detailed in the Headscratchers section:
Firstly, how exactly does Lionheart contain the savage predators quickly enough to hide their affliction from the public? He's not part of Bellwether's plot, so he doesn't know where Doug the toxic sniper is going to hit next, yet his wolves manage to snatch Manchas before the police arrive despite the fact that Hopps called for backup immediately. Without knowing who is going to go savage next, that kind of reaction time would require monitoring every single predator around the clock and having lots of vans ready and waiting all around the city, as traveling from the out-of-city base would take too long.
Even if Lionheart could finance, organize, and keep secret such a huge operation, how did he even know there would be something he'd want to keep hidden from the public in the first place? The first predator going savage was just an isolated incident of someone going nuts, Lionheart couldn't have been prepared for that. And he couldn't have known it wasn't an isolated incident, so the second one must have become known as well. Without inside information about the plot, Lionheart could realize that this was going to be a serious problem only after the second incident, by which point it would have been be too late.
Furthermore, the investigations are for missing persons, not kidnappings. This indicates that nobody saw Lionheart's wolves capturing the savage predators, which in turn indicates that Doug shot them in isolated locations with nobody else around. Doug is even dispatched to dispose of the only witness there is, Manchas. If Bellwether's plot was merely to cause a panic in order to turn prey against predator like she says when confronting Hopps, this makes no sense. Wouldn't it be better to strike in public places with lots of witnesses/potential victims? Especially after being thwarted and having her savage predator disappear without anyone even noticing it for the fourteenth time?
And finally, Bellwether says that she framed Lionheart. But did she? There's no implication at all from anyone, neither Bellwether nor the police, that he's somehow responsible for making the predators go savage. The only thing he's guilty of is illegally detaining them, and he did that on his own.
All of the above inconsistencies go away if you assume Bellwether was anonymously informing Lionheart about the attacks ahead of time. Taking over a city government is a risky venture at the best of times, you don't want the added uncertainty of doing so while the public is rioting in the streets. Causing a panic was therefore only the second stage of Bellwether's plan, first she needed to secure her place as mayor while things were still nice and peaceful. The first stage of her plan was to anonymously feed Lionheart information about the impending attacks, let him capture and hide away the savage predators, even silence witnesses where necessary in order to keep the whole thing hidden from the public, and wait for the police to discover the illegal detention facility. Only once she was firmly in control would she move on to stage two, striking openly to incite panic to push her anti-predator agenda, as indicated by Doug saying his next attack, the first after Lionheart's arrest, is going to make the news. No wonder the poor lion was in such a foul mood most of the time; he knew he was being played like a fiddle but unable to do anything about it. Even though he's in jail during the credits, he's a lot happier and looks like a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.
Bellwether had a rough childhood
There might possibly be a reason why Bellwether was darting every predator in Zootopia so she can create a new order where prey animals dominate the predators is might be because she had a rough childhood like Nick and Judy's. When she was a young lamb she was humiliated by the bully predators (Similar how Nick was picked on during his childhood and how Gideon Grey bullied Judy). The bully Prediators sheered all of her Wool fur off with an electric shaver and she ran away and cry while the bullies laughed at her, and insted of leting it go like Nick and Judy did, she might halved developed a deep strong hatred towrads the predators. As the years passed she became Lionheart's assistant mayor and she hired some of henchmen to use the nighthowlers to target every predators, and turned them into savages and that could possibly be the reason why she wanted the prey to dominate all the Predators is to get her revenge.
- She could have Post-traumatic Stress Disorder like Nick dose. And if so, her fear could be sheering like Nick's fear of Muzzles.
Bellwether's
Adorkable behaviour wasn't an act
The mere existence of the
Affably Evil trope proves that one doesn't have to be a sneering, contemptuous
Jerkass in order to commit evil. What we see of Bellwether before the confrontation at the museum makes it clear that she is either unwilling or unable to stand up to Lionheart's mistreatment directly, hence her instead choosing to manipulate events from behind the scenes. Only when it's clear that she has the upper hoof over her enemies, such as when Nick and Judy are in the pit at the museum, completely at her mercy,
does she begin to act out, basking in her villainy. Notice how, when her plan begins to fall apart, she goes right back to acting meek and surprised, even comically skittering along the floor when she
attempts to make an exit, mirroring her earlier skittering after Lionheart at the office.
Since she makes a point of noting how she is 'underestimated and underappreciated' by predators, and making the likely assumption that she, as an undersized sheep, was raised to fear larger predators like the devil, it would stand to reason that she would spend much of her life in public constantly in fear of annoying the wrong mammal, which would bubble under the surface into resentment and envy at their seeming omnipotence (which may extend to large mammals in general, to a lesser extent). Thus, it becomes likely that her meek, socially awkward demeanour is not only genuine, but is in fact a key motive for her evil plans. As she never mustered the self-confidence to stand up to her abusers directly, she instead enabled her fear to grow into hatred and envy, but her lack of self-confidence meant she would have to use subterfuge to undermine and overthrow them; and her naturally awkward demeanour made it all the easier to get the idealistic Judy on her side.
Bellwether funded her scheme using money embezzled from the city government.
With Lionheart delegating all his real work onto her, it wouldn't be hard for her to cook the books and divert some funds without anyone else noticing.
Bellwether's redemption will actually come from Nick
Everyone likes pairing up Judy and Bellwether as foils, but I personally like Nick and Bellwether more. The two are more distinct opposites: predator and prey as well as good guy and bad guy. However, they also share two important similarities, though adjusted for scale. One: they're both dumped on, whether by people in their lives or just society in general. Two: they take it out on other people, often showing bigotry themselves. Bellwether goes all out, true, but Nick seeing him and her having anything in common is going to be odd for him. Plus, having Nick confront Bellwether adds an extra layer to the tension, as his whole order was her target. And it gives her a chance to grab his tail for touching her wool.
Bellwether keeps a crucifix in her pocket
No, not for the white-analogue terrorist = die-hard Christian stereotype. However, after Bellwether gets pushed around (probably called a dumb sheep more than once), she becomes a bit of a Jesus fan, what with Him being the Lamb of God. She doesn't see eye to eye with Him, and might not even be Christian to any measurable degree anymore, but she keeps some sort of image of Him with her, as a reminder that sheep aren't always powerless, brainless... well, sheep.
Bellwether was actually motivated by sizeism
Upon a second viewing, Dawn's
We Can Rule Together speech at the museum comes off as less of an emotionally-charged
Motive Rant and more of a sales pitch to Judy, simply stating the facts that while predators are indeed capable of much, they are a very easy target to unite the city against, as she demonstrated by orchestrating the Night Howler crisis; her smug, self-assured delivery of the whole thing merely reflected a case of
Acquired Situational Narcissism (as detailed in the above theory positing that her
Adorkable behaviour earlier in the movie wasn't an act).
Given her small size even by sheep standards, and the fact that she repeatedly makes a point of standing up for 'the little guys', it becomes more likely that the real reason she wanted to become mayor was out of a petty, power-hungry Napoleon Complex compelling her to put the little guy on top for once, sticking it to the big-mammal establishment that she's spent her entire life in fear and envy of - the same establishment that Judy challenged when joining the ZPD. Though Dawn is likely to have been especially fearful and envious of large predators due to ingrained, historically-rooted prejudice of the same variety that Judy had, and Lionheart certainly wouldn't help. The species of the original 14 missing mammals links into this; with the sole exception of Mr. Otterton, they were all either bears, wolves or big cats.
So why did she try to turn the city against predators rather than large mammals? Because it was easier, and because it would have gotten her more power.
She could have tried to run against Lionheart in a future mayoral election as the candidate of the little guy, putting forth rational arguments as to why the system is biased in favour of large mammals and is in dire need of reform, but that would have required some serious campaigning, and she ain't got time for that shit. She wanted the power right then and there. In addition, Real Life has demonstrated that politicians can get elected and stay elected from whipping up their supporters into an emotional frenzy, demonising anyone who disagrees with them. What better way to do this than to directly transform 'anyone who disagrees with them' into savages that could strike at any time, with no warning? Bellwether did exactly that with predators; something that would have been impossible if she had instead divided the city on size, for the simple reason that some large mammals are predators and some aren't.
And even if she had legitimately run for election on these lines and won, it wouldn't be enough; she'd still be saddled with all the checks, balances and pressures that comes with being a democratically-elected official. If only she had some kind of public crisis going on that would allow her to push her decisions through unconditionally and generally throw her weight around. A savage crisis, if you will. Not to mention, 'levelling the playing field for mammals of all sizes' is a pretty bold and abstract promise, one that even a rational and experienced politician would have trouble keeping, whereas 'stop these random attacks that are suddenly plaguing society' is a much more concrete goal, even if all the 'easy solutions' involve curtailing predators' rights. Especially big predators, like the ones that 'went savage' in the first place. Thus, she gets her revenge and she gets to throw her weight around. Her scheme comes full circle.
...came about when she watched
400 sheep get scared by a wolf and jump off a cliff to their deaths. This convinced her that for prey to survive, the predators should be removed altogether.
Theories About Chief Bogo
Chief Bogo wasn't actually going to shunt Judy off into the meter maid position forever.
She just assumed that she was being discriminated against due to Bogo's curt demeanour. At the start Judy was a completely inexperienced rookie and Bogo didn't have an experienced partner to assign to her due to the department being overworked from all the missing mammal cases. So rather than take the risk of a rookie messing up or worse, getting hurt or killed due to inexperience, he put her into the one job that didn't require on the job training. It was only when she blatantly disregarded orders and flaunted the chain of command that he really had it in for her.
- Agreed; I got the impression from the morning debrief (where he doesn't bother to introduce her, then gives her a menial task) that it was not personal, but just some mild hazing of the newest member. It also makes sense to make Judy a meter maid initially; since she's just moved to Zootopia, it would be a way for her to learn her way around the city without being at risk.
- I also agree with this statement. I feel as though Bogo was keeping her safe. Everybody starts at the bottom, no matter how you excelled during the police academy. Another thing I wanted to bring up was that Bogo had every right to fire her, even though she did a good job by arresting the perpetrator in question, she left her position. She's lucky that Bellwether saved her or the movie would have ended a lot quicker.
- Chief Bogo says there are "new recruits" in the plural, so Judy was not assigned to parking duty because she was a rookie.
- I agree, to me it seemed pretty clear that he saw her as someone who wouldn't even be there without the mayor's affirmative action program, and gave her menial work to try to keep her out of the way. That doesn't change the fact that Judy behaved inappropriately, but the buffalo's hands weren't completely clean in the matter either.
- To compromise between these two interpretations. Bogo probably knew that Judy was qualified to at least give it a shot, especially since they seemed to have a cop shortage. But due to some small prejudice influencing his judgement, he decided to simply give Judy the meter maid job. He justified it to himself that he was doing it to help her work her way up and get to know the city, which was part of the reason, but not the whole story.
Chief Bogo had his own dreams crushed by species-ism when he was younger.
His diatribe to Judy about how she can't be more than what she is seems to be quite personal. He wanted to be a dancer — see his fascination with the Gazelle app and how he dances at the concert. There's only so many "bull in a china shop" remarks you can hear before you give up.
Chief Bogo's first name is actually
Chief.Considering that the majority of characters in the film have stated first names either in the film itself or it supplementary materials except Bogo. Maybe Bogo's first name really is Chief. Also, the door to his office at ZPD has the name 'Chief Bogo' on it.
Bogo has yet to acknowledge Judy’s fighting skills
The missing animals case had been unsolved for more than two weeks, possibly more than a month. There were no leads, witnesses, or evidence. Despite this, Judy and Nick found all the animals, not just Mr. Otterton, in less than two days. Bogo believes in their investigative skills. In the future, he will not question their competence in tracking down other difficult cases.
Nonetheless, he has yet to see Judy’s fighting ability. Against Mr. Manchas, they ran. Against Bellwether and her goons, they ran. He may rationally acknowledge that both instances were times when running was more prudent than fighting, but they say Seeing is Believing. If the cops frequently visit a gym or dojo to maintain their fighting edge, he could see Judy taking down a rhino in five seconds. Then he would begin believing her academy records.
Incidentally, he will also try to keep the nature of her fighting style a secret to prevent criminals from getting a new species of fighters: the small mammals that practice Judy Kata.
He chooses not to disclose his first name with anyone he doesn't have an intimate relationship with because he wants to avoid people getting too casual or chummy with him.
Chief Bogo is very cynical and has an unambiguous prejudice against foxes. He is also very honest, and likely had to be taught the hard way others wouldn't necessarily give him the same benefit. Perhaps he used to have a fox friend, who betrayed him. When he told someone else about it, they told him, "Well, you should know better than to trust a fox" continuing the vicious cycle.
Bogo and Clawhauser are fans of Gazelle for completely different reasons.
Now, this theory
does rely a bit on stereotypes, but hear it out:
Clawhauser's obsession with Gazelle can be seen as a play on how many gay men admire pop divas like Madonna or Barbra Streisand, assuming that he's gay. Bogo, on the other hand, could just be enjoying her for the reasons a lot of straight men admire pop divas (seeing as how Gazelle is played by sex symbol Shakira), assuming that he's straight or at least bi. Their mutual love of her is just a coincidence.
- Given the movie's penchant for subverting stereotypes, it would be hilarious if both those statements were true, but for opposite characters than expected.
Chief Bogo actually did a really terrible job throughout the movie.
I mean, the crime rate in Zootopia seems fairly low, so I guess he's usually good enough at running the day-to-day operations of the police department. So he's not
incompetent per se. But there are some situations that he severely mishandled, suggesting that, at minimum, he at least has some pretty massive blind spots in his thinking.
First off, he severely mishandled Judy from the beginning. Some have tried to justify his behavior, for example saying that being given traffic duty initially might have been the standard for new recruits. But it seems much more likely that the standard is for rookies to be partnered with a more experienced officer, rather than sent off alone to do menial work (this was in fact what they did with Nick at the end of the movie). And when Bogo said he didn't care that she graduated at the top of her class, he wasn't simply saying that she still needed to prove herself, he just really didn't think that meant anything at all since he was cynically assuming that her grades were probably fudged so that Mayor Lionheart could have his photo op. When he told her to write 100 tickets a day, that wasn't him giving her a challenge to prove herself; that was probably just the standard daily quota for meter maids (after all, it was much lower than her Self-Imposed Challenge of writing 200 tickets before noon). His early pattern of behavior towards her was generally to assume that she wouldn't even be there without the mayor's "Mammal Inclusion Initiative" affirmative action program, that she didn't belong there, and she just needed to be kept out of the way.
Most telling was how he responded to Judy's unauthorized chase of Weaselton. By far the most severe of her offenses there was to continue the chase into the highly fragile rodent district, risking hundreds of lives. If Bogo's priorities were even remotely straight, his retort to her saying, "I got the bad guy, that's my job." should have been, "No, your job is to keep the public safe!", followed by a lengthy lecture on how this sort of recklessness is unacceptable. Instead, he simply replied, "No, your job is putting tickets on parked cars!", followed by him making it very clear that the mayor assigned her to him against his will and he didn't even want her there to begin with. Clearly, he just wanted her out of the way and was probably planning to keep her as a meter maid for as long as he could get away with.
Secondly, he clearly has some serious prejudice issues, mixed with a healthy dose of hipocrisy. On the one hand, he seems to get along fine with the large predators on the force, and is a fan of Gazelle, who is well known as a peace/equality activist. On the other hand, as stated previously, he has no respect for Judy simply due to her being a bunny. His hipocrisy becomes most egregious when he shrugs off her claims about Manchas by accusing Judy of prejudice ("Maybe any aggressive predator looks savage to you rabbits"), followed immediately by shrugging off her attempts to have Nick corroborate her report with, "You think I'm going to believe a fox?!"
Finally, he apparently never suspected Bellwether of anything until the evidence was thrown right in front of his face. As others have noted before, in real life it's not typical for the officers involved in a case to answer questions about it in a press conference, especially when there are still important details missing. Assuming that the ZPD has sane standard protocols like a real police department, it could reasonably be assumed that Bellwether pulled some strings to set up a special exception to the rules that normally keep officers untrained in the art of public relations from fielding questions from the media. It was awfully blind of Bogo to not find this suspicious.
Due to the fact that, as mentioned before, he is not really racist against predators in general, it seems very unlikely that he was actively conspiring with Bellwether. However, his prejudicial tendencies may have played some role in his not suspecting Bellwether. Even as he was just proved wrong about what a rabbit can be capable of, he may still have unconsciously clinged to some sort of stereotype that sheep (especially cute miniature sheep that look like lambs) are sweet and harmless, and probably believed whatever BS she might have fed him about setting up that press conference being an honest mistake, and generally assumed any strange behavior on her part to be due to incompetence rather than malice.
Bogo suspects Bellwether of being up to something, particularly after Lionheart's arrest.
- There are two main cases in the movie: the mass kidnapping conspiracy, and the Night Howler plot.
- Some of his more over-the-top actions towards Judy make more sense if he saw her as Bellwether's plant or pawn in his precinct, as much as or in place of a "diversity hire" pushed on him by Lionheart. Then, Judy proves herself to be acting independently from them when she single-handedly breaks open the kidnapping conspiracy and proves Lionheart is driving it.
- But... would someone like Bellwether, clearly competent enough to serve as Assistant Mayor in her own right, not have noticed any of this happening? At the very least, ZPD would have had to clear Bellwether (and the rest of the Mayor's office) of involvement, and there are clearly times where her actions are a little suspect or too well-timed to be coincidental. And would Lionheart really have been capable of both running the city and setting up a reasonably well-organized conspiracy with armed guards and a base of operations on his own?
- In hindsight, the Night Howler plot is extremely flimsy and relies on the ZPD not figuring things out ahead of time (as well as completely ignoring any testimony Dr. Honey Badger might have given). The chaotic press conference indicates that nothing like it has ever happened in Zootopia before, and it runs for as long as it does because no one realized how similar the effect is to Night Howler ingestion. (This is apparently so common-knowledge in Bunnyburrow that the Hopps and Grey families - prey and predator - knew about it. That being so, why wouldn't it be in medical literature as a drug that causes severe psychosis?)
- But the most blatant part is how Bellwether is the one who would most directly benefit from Lionheart getting arrested for kidnapping and imprisonment. She also seems to have immediately and easily transitioned into being the new Mayor, with no lingering backlash.
- And then there's the Bellwether's arrest. It's subtle, but...
- A) The response time appears to have been 75 seconds or so from when Bellwether makes the emergency call. This is unusually short, especially if it's supposed to be unexpected.
- B) The responding officers consist of SWAT(?) members, uniformed officers, and Chief Bogo. Keep in mind Bogo's office is on the third floor, and he still managed to arrive with the rest of the officers.
- C) It was a silent response. The cops seem to sneak up on the sheep and are in unusually relaxed positions (even though Bellwether was holding a weapon of some kind the entire time). That does not happen with an "officer down" call.
- That scene is far more consistent with an Engineered Public Confession situation rather than an accidental one, even if there were already officers responding to the train car's destruction (which would be a call to the fire department anyway, not the police).
- ...which means Judy might not needed to have record the confession at all. That's just icing on the cake.
Theories About Clawhauser
Zootopia is all about defying stereotypes, so it would make perfect sense for a character who acts so much like a gay stereotype to not actually be gay at all.
Clawhauser was Bellwhether's next target.
- Doug is ordered to attack a Cheetah with the Night Howler darts. Clawhauser is Cheetah, and what better way to spread more panic than demonstrate that the friendliest face of the ZPD could go feral?
- This would have gone very badly for Zootopia, since his poor diet would immediately be taken for the cause.
Bogo and Clawhauser are fans of Gazelle for completely different reasons.
Now, this theory
does rely a bit on stereotypes, but hear it out:
Clawhauser's obsession with Gazelle can be seen as a play on how many gay men admire pop divas like Madonna or Barbra Streisand, assuming that he's gay. Bogo, on the other hand, could just be enjoying her for the reasons a lot of straight men admire pop divas (seeing as how Gazelle is played by sex symbol Shakira), assuming that he's straight or at least bi. Their mutual love of her is just a coincidence.
- Given the movie's penchant for subverting stereotypes, it would be hilarious if both those statements were true, but for opposite characters than expected.
- I Am A Gazelletarian? (She's his natural prey, so maybe the can't-hurt-a-fly Clawhauser has some subconscious cravings...)
It can be assumed he used to have that slender body that cheetahs are known for. So what happened? He gained weight due to stress eating; most likely a result of social prejudice (to bring him further into
The Woobie territory, he was also ridiculed by his own brethren for being a fan of Gazelle - his family if not most of the cheetah demographic do not get along with gazelles for obvious reasons).
- This makes sense, since he probably couldn't have gotten onto the police force to begin with if he was always that out of shape. And there are plenty of alternative possibilities in addition to those you listed for why he got so out of shape.
Maybe he used to be a patrol cop but got reassigned to a desk job after an injury, and for some reason he wouldn't or couldn't take painkillers so he just constantly guzzles sweets to distract himself from the pain.
A dark interpretation might be that he witnessed something horrible and traumatizing in the line of duty and requested a transfer to a desk job after that, and eats to distract himself from the horrible memories (although either this, or your social bullying explanation, would turn him into a Stepford Smiler, since they're not really compatible with his cheerful friendly demeanor unless it's just a facade). - It doesn't even need to be that dark. There's a reason that so many high school jocks struggle with weight as adults - sometimes athletic people have terrible diets but since they work out all the time they remain trim. It's possible Clawhauser always ate tons of donuts but when he was on the force he worked out and then chased down suspects and the like and burned off all the calories, but then got moved to desk duty either for an injury (which could be as innocuous as tearing a muscle or damaging a joint jumping a fence) or just because it fits his personality better he stopped working out, but kept eating the donuts and put on the weight.
Clawhauser is autistic
Yes, a lot of his personality traits fit for gay. However, a bunch of them are also signs of autism.
- Clauhauser's voice has a nasal affect to it, something that's more common in autistic people.
- His emotions tend to run high and low. He's often either bubbly or morose, even when it's something relatively minor. Also, his moroseness to finding out 'cute' is offensive to rabbits might be proof that he's used to screwing things up on the social end of things, so the shame goes a little deeper.
- He has intense interests. He spends a good amount of time showing an app to a perp just because it has his favorite singer in it and he's over the moon when he finds out that his chief just has the same app as him. Intense interests are a hallmark of autism.
- He sometimes has a hard time interpreting people's meanings or reading their body language.
- He exhibits executive dysfunction: has a hard time following through with most tasks after outside distractions.
- Most of these would also apply if he had ADHD.
Clawhauser is the ZPD's Torturer.
No, he doesn't engage in
Cold-Blooded Torture, but he plays that Really Extra Nice Cop to the point that the perp looks at the Bad Cop and goes "Can I talk to you about what I did at that robbery the other day? Please? This guy's creeping me out." I mean, that one wolf that had been arrested is forced to listen to Clawhauser talk about Gazelle, who is best described as the greatest singer of their generation, and he's unable to do anything to get the cheetah to stop talking, while the other officers watch him. In fact, the funny part is that Clawhauser doesn't even need to know that he's the place's torturer.
Clawhauser is actually far more competent than he looks.
- He'd almost have to be. Bogo would have fired him loooooooong ago if he really was as much a stereotype as he looks.
Theories About Finnick
Finnick is Nick's half-brother
It is possible that Finnick could be his half-brother. We as an audience don't know too much about Nick's backstory other than he was bullied by the Junior Ranger Scouts for being a fox. They are both foxes and seem to have known each other for years.
- They are unlikely to be biological half-brothers, because Nick is a red fox and Finnick is a fennec fox. Although the two species are closely related, they are still distinct enough to not hybridize.
Finnick secretly likes wearing the elephant costume.
Don't tell Nick!
- The fact that he keeps sucking on the pacifier all day, even when he doesn't need to keep up the baby guise anymore, at least implies that he enjoys it.
Finnick didn't how dangerous the missing mammals case was going to be
It was obvious that he'd ditched Nick because he was still mad about having dress and act like a baby in public. He didn't know that he unintentionally put his friend in danger. He thought it was going to be one of those talking to mammals and boring paperwork cases. He probably felt a little bad when he reunited with Nick later on since Nick almost died a few times. It seem like that they talked to each other after that awkward press conference and that's why Nick's seemed so chilled during the reuniting scene with Judy and why Finnick knew where Nick was.
Finnick and Nick don't like each other.
Finnick's threat to bite Nick's face off seems far too serious to be a joke, and he enjoys it quite a bit when Nick gets his comeuppance from Judy. Given that they never show any signs of genuine friendship, they're
Vitriolic Best Buds at best.
- Finnick might even owe Nick money, which explains why he takes a role he loathes without an even share of the profits.
Theories About Mayor Lionheart
Mayor Lionheart is secretly the reincarnation of
Lionheart.
Lionheart (from Warriors) died before becoming leader. What if he was reincarnated into this universe as a mayor and actual lion?
- I was thinking the same thing when I Learned what his name was!
Before the crisis, Zootopia was a literal place where the lion laid with the lamb
The lion was
Lionheart and
the lamb was
Bellwether.
You are welcome. That "World's Greatest Assistant Mayor" mug Lionheart gave to Bellwether was not bought; it was actually given to Lionheart before he gave it to her
While Lionheart's attitude towards Bellwether in the movie might (humorously) justify how he would just buy some random mug and edit it before giving it to her as maybe some cheap Christmas gift or something, what if that mug was previously an actual gift given to Lionheart by his children, given that it says "World's Greatest Dad"? And then something happened to said children, that in order to forget the pain, Lionheart decided to dump the mug, and just so happened to think about giving an appreciation gift to Bellwether in a severely misguided/half-assed attempt on appreciating her as well as so that he won't have to be reminded of the tragedy upon seeing the mug?
Lionheart was bullied as a child
Partly because everyone else in the film was, but there are a few other things. As a whole, Lionheart appears to be a sort of appeaser, trying to cover anything that might make him or other predators look bad, out of fear of stereotyping. This means he's familiar with prejudice, and a possibility is that he's been a victim of it. Also, as an
Embarrassing Childhood Nickname, Lionfart ain't a hard one to come up with.
- Well, that would explain the scars on his face.
The "World's Greatest Assistant Mayor" mug and 'Lionfart' are connected.
This plays on the idea that both Lionheart and Bellwether were bullied in their earlier years. Lionheart and Bellwether start out working together pleasantly, pulling in a united vote. However, as the two become further acquainted, as well as with the Mammal Inclusion Initiative, Lionheart's true colors start to bleed out. While he works on his 'signature legislation', he keeps dumping work on Bellwether and taking out his frustrations on her, calling her 'Smellwether'. Bellwether eventually gets more and more resentful, eventually calling him 'Lionfart' when she thinks he can't hear. This nickname gives Lionheart a flashback to when other kids called him that, and he flies into a rage at Bellwether. This in turn causes Bellwether to go into a flashback about when she was pushed around even worse, possibly even a panic attack. After a while, once his temper cools, Lionheart feels his conscience pricking him, and he gives Bellwether the mug as an apology, or part of one. Whether this is blatantly insincere, too little, too late, or a patch job on a shredded tire, I'll leave as supposition, but that event serves as the active catalyst for Bellwether to begin her plan.
Theories About Gideon Grey
One or both of the sheep kids getting bullied by Gideon at the beginning grew up to work for Bellwether.
Foxy Loxie is a close relative, perhaps a cousin, of Gideon Grey.
...and witnessing her infamous
Mind Rape shook him to the core and convinced him that,
if that's what being a bully got you, then he would never do it again (granted, Foxy Loxie didn't
deserve what she got, making Gideon
Right for the Wrong Reasons).
The reason that Gideon Gray doesn't hang around with Travis anymore as an adult is because the latter never outgrew his
Jerkass personality.
- There seem to be subtleties in the acting (esp. facial expressions) of the bullying scene that would support this. Gideon appears to be rather unhappy, making him comes across as a troubled boy who's acting tough to try and make himself feel better. Travis, on the other hand, has no such indications and seems to be quite happy with the situation, thus coming across as a bona fide asshole who genuinely enjoys being malicious.
Given their apparently completely different reasons for behaving the way they do, it makes sense that Travis would be much less likely than Gideon to outgrow his unpleasant behavior.
Gideon has dyslexia.
Several times throughout the film, Gideon makes several language-related errors, such as using two superlatives, mispronouncing DNA, and generally displaying a tendency to use simpler words and terms. Dyslexia isn't only related to reading, it can also affect speech as well. Maybe this is part of the reason for his self-doubt, and he came to terms with it in therapy?
Gideon was expelled after scratching Judy
At the beginning of the film, Judy appears to have moved on from when Gideon clawed her, if the 'no big deal' way she talks about it is any indication. However, she honestly seems surprised by Gideon's appearance in Bunnyburrow and he takes the opportunity to apologize to her. It's possible that's the first time since the incident that the two had seen each other, and it's not hard to imagine that Gideon had to move in order to get into another school.
Theories About Mr. Big and Fru-fru
And unlike the
original character, he's a
Nice Guy who doesn't want anything to do with the
family business.
Mr. Big has connections in the ZPD... besides Judy.
The original mafia style groups evolved out of necessity to keep the peace where the official authorities can't, Mr. Big plays that role in little Rodentia. As such his business has an unofficial deal with the police, Mr. Big keeps his dealings to nonviolent crime and in return he keeps the peace in little Rodentia without outside interference since the police can't normally enter that area of the city without causing lots of collateral damage. Judy is the exception to the rule because she didn't know but proved herself to be both driven by a sense of justice, fulfilling the role Mr. Big had to regardless of danger to herself which he respects even if he wasn't happy it meant going after him so openly, and saving his daughter which made him like her in general enough that he gives her unofficial permission to investigate in his sphere of influence when something too big or too twisted to handle alone comes up.
I mean,
just look at it, it doesn't really seem to be attached to her head at all.◊ Also it's
huge — even Gazelle's hair can't compete with it in terms of how far it is from any natural hair formation on their respective species. And the kicker is that
it's not even the same color as the rest of her fur, setting it even further apart from
every other case in the film of an animal having something resembling human head hair. Now the only question is:
in a world without humans, where did they even get the idea for a wig that looks like that?- A large head of hair draws more attention to the face. They may have gotten the idea from horses and male lions. Putting on a wig or extensions may be a way to draw more attention to one's face.
Mr. Big wasn't really going to kill Nick and Judy anyways.
Most real-life criminal organizations will not, knowingly, kill a cop - that just brings the fuzz down upon them, and could potentially turn the public against them. Thus, Judy would be safe from being killed. After all, odds are that the precinct knows that Judy was at the Limo Service, and if Mr. Big is the owner of the place, he'd be an instant suspect. Also, since Judy is a cop, it would be a bad idea for Mr. Big to kill Nick in front of her, as she'd be an eyewitness, and thus bring the police down upon him and his group.
What Mr. Big was going to do is this:
1. Drop the pair into the ice bath to chill for a while.... maybe thirty minutes or so, but not so long that the pair would freeze to death, but certainly feel the effects of the cold.
2. After bringing the pair out of the ice bath, he'd have the polar bears knock them on the top of the head, knocking them out.
3. The pair would be dropped off at the local hospital by the bears, who would have the following cover story - "We were inspecting an alarm at our business when we found a crashed 'Jokemobile', and saw the pair huddled together, trying to stay warm." They might add a bit more, like say that Nick was trying to use his larger size to protect Judy from the worst of the cold, or that Officer Judy was trying to keep the civilian Nick's stomach warm, or something that would be heartwarming.
4. Mr. Big, upon seeing the "Jokemobile", would criticize Chief Bogo for not providing his officers with adequately heated vehicles, and all that sort of stuff.
In short, Mr. Big would see that he and his bears would look like heroes, who were in the right place at the right time, and had saved the pair from freezing to death. As for Nick and Judy trying to say what really happened, it has been known that cold and head injuries cause people to see and hear things that didn't happen.
- Let's up that one: Mr. Big never killed someone (would Judy be so cold to make herself have the blood of Weaselton on her hands? As a cop?). "Icing" is exactly what is says - let the victims freeze a bit to intimidate them. Aaaand it's a family movie!
Theories about Gazelle
Gazelle is only a stage name.
Given the world Zootopia is set in, the
A Dog Named "Dog" trope would be in poor taste. Really, it's like name your kid "Girl" or "Human." Gazelle's real name, however, isn't that far off:
Elle.
- Entirely possible. But, to be fair, "Guy" is an actual name in our world, which is almost the human equivalent of A Dog Named "Dog".
- "Guy" the slang came after "Guy" the name due to the Gunpowder Plot, however there are names that mean simply "Man" and "Woman": Adam and Eve.
- This Tweet from Rich Moore, her name ISGazelle.
Gazelle is a male-to-female transgender.
She has
long horns like a male gazelle. She transitioned, but her horns did not shrink.
The above WMG exists in-universe as an unconfirmed rumor spread by celebrity gossip magazines
After all,
they do that sort of thing in real life all the time.
Gazelle is MtF transgender and that knowledge is an
Open SecretEveryone knows she's trans, it's just not brought up and everyone accepts her.
they're all mildly speciesist at best, not transphobic. Gazelle's humanoid body proportions are due to plastic surgery
Come on, she's a celebrity! It's not unlikely she's had a bit of surgery.
- Her having male horns might also be because of surgery (assuming she isn't transfeminine and/or intersex)
Gazelle wears fake long horns as part of her stage presence
Another possible explanation as to why
she has longer horns than most female gazelles. Given that she's a singer/performer, and the only scenes of her are public appearances (including the scene where she appears on the news), it's possible that the fake horns are a costume piece of some kind.
Theories About the Sloths
The sloths at the DMV are not actually slow, but are just pretending to be slow to screw with everyone
The sloths at the DMV all got together and agreed to harness their species stereotype to pull off an epic troll on the public. This is supported by the fact that Flash is secretly an illegal street racer, as if he was as slow as he usually acts his reaction time would be too slow for that to be possible.
- Flash is a three-toed sloth; three-toed sloths can move shockingly quickly when they're under stress. Very likely he races so he can experience life at the same speed as other animals.
Flash's full name is "Flash Flash"
When Nick addresses him as "Flash Flash, Hundred-Yard Dash," the "Flash Flash" part is his full name, not simply one name repeated twice.
- Jossed. His last name has been revealed by Jared Bush to be "Slothmore".
Theories About other ZPD officers
Officer Francine Pennington/Trunkaby was on probation before Judy arrived.
The first day, Bogo calls out Francine and she looks visibly terrified before he tells her Happy Birthday. It's possible that she'd been placed on probation, since Bogo calls her name out when passing out 'big' files, but not several other officers, suggesting that she's assumed some importance in the organization.
Officer Bob Johnson used to be a teen idol of some kind
He just looks so freaking young! Especially when Francine is called out at the beginning. As a minor note, he's the one arm-wrestling a polar bear. Possible sign of trying to assert dominance over people who think he's just a pretty face?
Officer Wolford is rich
I'm pretty sure that a sheep bodysuit isn't standard ZPD equipment. Thus, he probably paid for it out of his own pocket. Given ZPD starting salary only pays for garbage accommodations, that probably wasn't a salary. Thus, he probably has money from before he became a ZPD officer, possibly inherited or from a prior career. Personally, I think of him as being from old money, a shipping family going back to the horse trade (they've since improved). His family wanted him to become a lawyer, something that would give him a safe and comfortable life, but he wanted to be a police officer, so he went through the academy.
Two of Gazelle's Dancers are moonlighting ZPD officers
- There are two Tiger police officers, who both look exactly like Gazelle's male dancers.
- There is already fanart suggesting this.
Officer Snarlov and Mr. Big's bodyguard Koslov are related.
They are both polar bears with Russian-sounding names. One being on the police force and the other working for the Tundratown Mafia, they are not on very good terms with each others.
Theories About Other Characters
Prince Hans's animal incarnation is now a pastry chef in Zootopia.
That's why there's a sign saying "Hans's Pastry Shop" in Little Rodentia.
The Oryx-Antlersons are step-siblings
They don't behave like a married couple and seem too young to be married. They are most likely step-siblings and changed their surnames so they'd match their parents who hyphenated.
Weaselton wasn't Doug's first supplier
It seems a little strange that Bellwether would hire a thief to steal night howlers from florists. It's also a little strange that she knew of one random person who had an idea about what she was doing. It's possible Otterton was snooping around and got caught, but what if he was Doug's first supplier? Doug buys the night howlers off of him. Since they're a class C botanical, Otterton sees some authorization (which Doug could certainly get) and the transaction is done. Soon, the primalizations happen, and Otterton starts forming a theory. He refuses to sell to Doug and tries to get Mr. Big's protection. This obviously fails, leading Doug to find another source.
- How would Otterton even learn of the savage incidents, in order to form this theory about the flowers he was selling? Thanks to Lionheart's skilled cover-up, all the public knew was that predators were going missing, not that they were going insane, so it would be hard to connect that to flowers.
The ram journalist at Judy's press conference is Doug.
When Judy gives the press conference about the missing mammal case, there's a ram who looks exactly like Doug, who asks Judy whether only predators can go savage. Maybe it
is Doug, who is in the crowd by Bellwether's request, disguised as a journalist, to make Judy say anti-predator statements with some well-directed questions.
- Even if it's not Doug, it seems highly probable that he was working for Bellwether, given the fact that she was shown to have many other ram minions. Honestly, that the ram journalist was part of the conspiracy seems so probable that it almost seems outside the realm of WMG, and more in the realm of Rewatch Bonus.
- Confirmed by Rich Moore.
Judy's Uncle Terry never recovered from his nighthowler poisoning.
It seems as if nighthowler poisoning lasts indefinitely until the antidote is administered, and the newscast at the end seemed to imply that the antidote used to cure victims of Bellweather's plot was newly-developed in the aftermath of the crisis. Naturally, a high-profile epidemic is going to attract a lot more high-end medical research than a few scattered cases...
At this point it was too late to restore Terry's mind, since he'd already been rotting in a padded cell for decades before they finally developed a cure, and there was probably nothing left to restore.
As for how Judy could have not heard of it before if it was such a life-changing event, well... Judy probably has a lot of uncles, and they probably don't like to talk about that one very much.
- Unlikely. Stu and especially Bonnie speak of it like it was a funny little anecdote, which is very unlikely for an event that put a brother into a mental hospital for life. It's also hard to believe they would continue to use Night Howlers for casual pesticide purposes if all it took was a family member eating one out of curiosity to basically end their life, especially since they don't seem to advertise that fact to their family members.
Emmitt Otterton is an immigrant from Hydropolis*
Visiting Mystic Springs Oasis helps remind him of home.
Nani actually DOES remember Emmitt Otterton
Her curtness is because she is trying to meditate in solitude & so ignoring Judy's questions.
The only thing that's different between versions is which one is on duty at the time the news is being broken.
Jerry Jumbeaux Jr's family history.
In 1882, Marcel Jumbeaux was doing mime on a street corner when he was discovered by showbear P. T. Bearnum. Bearnum invited him to join his traveling circus. Marcel's act was a blend of traditional mime, juggling, acrobatics and occasional clown antics. He was billed as "Jumbo the Circus Elephant". Marcel married a female elephant who had traveled with the circus as clean up crew and had some kids. Bearnum was selling concessions at his circus and ice cream was popular if pricy. (The machines of the time were hand cranked.) Marcel's image was used to advertise the ice cream. Posters and statues of Marcel in clown costume holding an ice cream cone are collector's items to this day. Marcel's oldest son, Gerard, had quite an interest in the making of ice cream and would often help in the making and selling, perfecting and inventing some recipes. He also came up with the idea of using electricity to crank the ice cream machines, increasing production.
Another clown, a fox who billed himself as Fluffo, partnered up with Marcel to do a few acts together and they were good friends even when the show was over. One day, as the circus was getting ready to pack up for the next town, Fluffo got his foot stuck in the train tracks and a train was coming. Marcel dived in and saved his friend, being struck down and killed himself. Gerard blamed Fluffo and tried to sue him, but it was ruled an accident. Fluffo quit his job with the circus and was never seen again. Bearnum tried to smooth things over by paying for Marcel's funeral and letting Gerard have full rights and ownership of the ice cream business. Gerard took what was offered, but vowed never to trust a fox again. He went back to the original spelling of the family name and opened up Jumbeaux's Ice Cream Parlor. Some ancestor of Jerry Jr. along the way added more food items, making the place more of a cafe, but the ice cream is still the most popular thing on the menu. Gerard's great to the nth power grandson, Jerry Jr. has the same hatred of foxes his father taught him.
The Woodchuck Bully's the only Junior Ranger Scout that's against Nick
When Nick was explaining his traumatic backstory about the night he joined the Junior Ranger Scouts, he gets muzzled by the scouts, under the orders of the Woodchuck Bully. However, if you look at the scene where the Woodchuck Bully calls Nick dumb for believing the scouts will accept him into their troupe, the Hippo member was the only one that wasn't giving Nick the evil glare, but instead was glaring at the
Woodchuck Bully. Implying that the Woodchuck Bully was the only one against Nick joining the troop and the other four members were following the former's orders.
◊ Also it's huge — even Gazelle's hair can't compete with it in terms of how far it is from any natural hair formation on their respective species. And the kicker is that it's not even the same color as the rest of her fur, setting it even further apart from every other case in the film of an animal having something resembling human head hair. Now the only question is: in a world without humans, where did they even get the idea for a wig that looks like that?