WMGs by people who have not yet seen the movie, based on trailers and other pre-release hype, go here.
- It's more than likely going to be a family-friendly movie, but it'd be pretty damn awesome if you were right.
- While the first two trailers played up the comedy aspects of the movie, the last trailer shows some drama with Judy struggling against the Fantastic Racism, and some really heartfelt moments between her and Nick. This being Disney, some Tear Jerker moments (and possibly the Disney Death of a character) are inevitable.
- Looks like it's Confirmed, based on the sheer amount of scenes listed on this movie's Tear Jerker page.
- Well... the movie has its share of sad moments, but calling it "heart-wrenchingly sad" is pushing it, especially considering that it has a Happy Ending.
- Jossed. It has some sad scenes here and there and it carries a serious subject (racism in society), but it's overall in tone much more merrier than Big Hero 6 or Frozen, which were downright depressing in some parts.
- Sorta confirmed. They carefully talk about how the city has to accommodate each different animal with their different needs and wants (a small residential area for rodents, specialized drinks for giraffes). And there's this big racial commentary regarding different species and how they're treated based on the species' stereotypes (bunnies are small and mild so they can't be police officers, foxes are sly and cunning so they can't be honest citizens...). It's certainly much more thought up than your typical World of Funny Animals.
- Perhaps things like poultry and seafood exists, otherwise where do they get the meat in this universe? I mean, there are carnivores living among the animals, they gotta eat something.
- Maybe the film's setting is a Veganopia?
- Or there are non-sentient animals used for food and possibly pets. Or only vertebrates are sentient with insects and other invertebrates being used as food for carnivores and omnivores.
- Jossed, the only seen animals in this movie are mammals.
- Then again, since rabbits are being established as Explosive Breeders, it may also be a case of her parents going overboard trying to find a unique name for her.
- You make that sound like a bad thing.
- Jossed. Her first name is Judy. She is also no longer a lieutenant, the script having changed to her being made a meter maid because no one thinks a rabbit is capable of doing anything else.
- He'll be playing a petty crook named Duke Weaselton. More details here.
- It's a possibility, but I hope you're wrong about this. The last thing Zootopia needs is a dated reference.
- Jossed. But Zootopia has a lot of references that would possibly make it dated in a few years: selfies, iPhones, and Shakira are some of the few "modern" things that appear in the film.
- Self-portraiture is a form of art Older Than Dirt. It's not likely that selfies - a form of self-portrait - would become dated in a few years. And iPhones as well (they're the most popular brand of smartphone and have been for a decade; they're not likely going anywhere in the near future, either).
- The song IS referenced, though, in... the movie's official Spotify playlists. So is "Never Gonna Give You Up."
- The confirmed cast includes a cape buffalo, a fennec fox, and a yak, which are all species you don't see that often in media.
- Confirmed. The cast is varied between common-seen animals and rare ones (gazelles, buffalos, yaks, fennec foxes...).
- Something like probably running a 'not-drug cartel' that makes special 'not-steroids' that they'll sell to other weak animals and if the character is about to get caught, he/she will inject a huge dosage into his/her own body and become a giant hulking beast.
- Fennick the fennec fox has a major chip on his shoulder based on his cutesy species being discriminated against. Maybe it will be him.
- Alternatively, it will be Assistant Mayor Bellwether, a cute, pushed-around sheep. See further details below.
- Confirmed. Assistant Mayor Bellwether is the villain of the movie.
- Also, the prediction that a "drug" plays an important role in the Big Bad's Evil Plan is Confirmed. However, instead of turning small cute animals into One-Winged Angel, it turns mammals into feral savages.
- Jossed.
- Doubt it. The last thing Disney needs are dozens of lawsuits from angry mothers whose kids were a little too curious with Google Image Search.
- Jossed. Not one use in the film. Thank you for playing.
- Do you really think they'd have put in something that contentious as well? Given the great issue of perception in the furry fandom, the last thing a company making a movie to appear to kids is include something they will search for and very much upset parents.
- Adding on to this, Disney will take things one step further and make the mouse villain a full-on Evil Counterpart of Mickey Mouse. Mortimer Mouse might already exist, but he's an obvious slimeball. This mean mouse would have Mickey Mouse's charm and manners, but none of his morality.
- Semi-confirmed: a cute shrew is featured as a mafia boss, and at first he does look like a mouse (or like the rats from Ratatouille). Whether he's really the main villain or simply an innocent suspect is yet to be confirmed.
- Jossed. The main villain is Assistant Mayor Bellwether. The shrew mafia boss, Mr. Big, has nothing to do with the main conflict, and eventually becomes an ally to the heroes.
- Well, it's confirmed that the Mayor's design was based on Mufasa, so you might be right on that one. The movie also references Robin Hood, for that matter.
- It would probably play out like having one of the predator animal cops being a Jerkass to Judy throughout the whole film, and after she and Nick find incriminating evidence that points it all to him/her, it turns out to be a setup and Judy says that he/she isn't going to get away with this, *name of the predator cop*! But after a Wham Shot and or Wham Line later, we see the character they assumed was the villain is tied to a chair and beaten up.
- We already have a confirmation that the kind of career options you have are based on preconceived notions about your species and that this forced Judy into a meter maid position so maybe.
- Confirmed.
- Jossed. While their animal attributes are mentioned/shown — Judy can hear an expired parking meter from a block away and Nick puts "excellent night vision" on his job application under "Talents" — it's their intelligence, not their species, that's of importance to the plot.
- Jossed.
- Although Gazelle's probably going to be placed on the good alignment than anything else, the friend or idol decision might be between her and Judy.
- Actually there are many clues that indicate Gazelle will not be placed on the good alignment; see the WMG several paragraphs below.
- Jossed, but Bellwether puts the heroes in a position where she'll make Nick try to eat Judy.
- Considering the Japanese trailer has Nick saying (via voice-over) "I used to have a dream, too..." this looks incredibly likely.
- Confirmed: Nick originally wanted to be a Junior Ranger Scout, but preconceptions about foxes made the other scouts drive him away.
- Confirmed. He gets the closest of all of Disney's woobies for us to feel genuine sadness for.
- Again I must ask, what is it about Haruhi that WMG loves so much? Why all this "X person is Haruhi?"
- Or, maybe it will turn out that he can move really fast when he needs to, hence his name.
- And when he finally shows up to save the day, a few riffs from the Flash Gordon theme by Queen will play. He'll save every one of us, indeed!
- Jossed. After the DMV scene, the next time we see him is at the end of the story in a speed gag. He has no bearing on the plot beyond running the plate.
- I did get one thing right, though - he can go really fast, just not on foot like I was expecting.
- Jossed.
After Big Hero 6 having Police Are Useless when they dismiss Hiro, Disney could probably go the extra mile and show that even police aren't always good. It's 2015 and I think Disney can take a chance to teach children that you can trust police forces but that you shouldn't trust EVERY single police officer. Or that not all police officers or forces are using their authority for good. Could also help to show that corruption in the police force is a very real thing.
Possible ending scenario: Chief Bogo gets exposed and arrested and they need a new police chief. What better way to end Judy's journey on becoming a police officer than having her rise to the rank of the police chief of Zootopia? Plus, female chief of police. Goes to show that there are good cops and bad cops. The end. (Although I can already see the Unfortunate Implications that arise from this...)
- Jossed. However, the real villain does have some cops helping her, so the "Dirty Cop" trope was used.
- Were they actually "Dirty Cop"s or were they just dressed up as cops? I don't remember seeing any of them in the police station at any point during the movie.
- Some people in favour of this theory created this picture◊ (spoiler for Frozen).
- Jossed. He's just as sweet as he seems.
- Jossed and confirmed. Judy stays on the force, and Nick becomes her partner.
- Jossed. The Hate Plague was actually the cause of a flower used to repel pests from crops, but it makes animals go crazy when they make contact with it.
- Jossed.
- Alternatively, it might hit Judy instead. Less of a problem, but it would give Nick an opportunity for moral/character development. (Provided that The Power of Love is a viable cure.)
- Confirmed, more or less: Bellwether doses Nick with what she thinks is the plague, but it turns out he's just pretending to be infected.
- Not impossible, but not very likely either. With the massive success of Frozen, Disney knows that animated musicals sell well again, so they would play up the musical aspects in the advertising. However, Shakira's character Gazelle will undoubtedly sing a song or two in the movie.
- Jossed. In fact, "Try Anything" is the only new song.
http://spaceprincesslevi.tumblr.com/post/136447600520/zootopia-spoilerstheory
It speculates that Gazelle is actually the one spreading the plague (or at least organizing it) that's turning the Zootopians feral. Several WMG's above speculate that the villain ins someone we would not suspect, and her unassuming appearance does make her fall on the category. And if this is really the case, then her song "Try Everything" might actually be a cleverly hidden villain song, and the title is using exact words: She really wants to try everything like being Zootopia's supreme ruler (or something ?).
And also, it's about time we had a female villain again! The last female villain we had was Mother Gothel back in 2010.
- You may be onto something, as well, given The Law of Conservation of Detail. It's a little suspicious that an apparently ordinary pop star gets so much billing and a big-name celebrity voice actress, as if she's not the villain, it seems unlikely that she'd play that big of a role, let alone enough to get a big flashy musical number with backup dancers onscreen.
- If she is, indeed, the villain, she may pull a Wounded Gazelle Gambit, pretending to be the victim rather than the mastermind - which would double as a clever Stealth Pun.
- And let's not forget the latest trend in Disney villains: a comic authority figure, a wise mentor, a handsome prince? It's not unreasonable to suspect the celebrity might be more than just a big name to slap on the poster.
- Further building on this: that facility in the trailer looks less like a holding cell and more like a secret lab where the virus is being manufactured, given the secretiveness, and the tiger? One of her backup dancers/guinea pigs.
- From same tumblr account, concept art of what seems to be an early design for Gazelle and four feral tigers with some sort of special collar (likely a control collar): http://spaceprincesslevi.tumblr.com/post/136845371125/zootopia-spoilerstheory (the image is far down).
- The collars are actually from a previous draft of the movie, in which all predators were required to wear one. They're not present in the final version.
- Jossed. She's just the Celebrity Guest Star of the movie.
- One thing is confirmed: the villain (Deputy Mayor Bellwether) is not only female, she fits the trend of increasingly unlikely villains - in this case, the bumbling, comedic ally.
- In another trailer there was at least one female in the briefing room besides Judy, an elephant. It was her birthday. The film itself might show more.
- Jossed. While one could argue that the hardships Judy goes through during the police academy training and at the precinct reflect the hardships of a woman having a masculine job, the main message is more about racism than feminism. There are already women on the force when Judy joins. In fact, Judy's supervisor in the academy is a female polar bear.
- And Judy, not Nick, will be the one affected. Come on, rabbit rebelling against Animal Stereotypes, plague that reduces Civilized Animals to instinctive behavior, it's obvious.
- Does that mean that only predators and dangerous animals turn aggressive from it, and rabbits and other harmless animals, instead, become timid and flee from their former friends?
- The stereotypically harmless animals, like rabbits, are actually not exactly innocuous.
- Confirmed for how the Hate Plague works. Jossed, sort of, for who gets "afflicted" among the principal characters. All though during the conversation that clues in Judy to what's going on, her father mentions that her uncle was exposed to an excess of the night howler their family used to keep bugs away and attacked her mother when they were children - apparently biting a chunk out of her arm.
- Jossed.
- While a neat gag, it would be a bit odd without a Time Skip. Going from new police officer to lieutenant is a huge jump.
- Confirmed! She is giving the speech to the latest batch of police academy graduates.
Now imagine a world where all animals have human or near-human-level intelligence, and have access to technology that enables them to match or even surpass the once mighty king. What do you suppose would happen if the lion stumbled upon a way to regress them to a more... manageable state? There would be no one left able to challenge his position as the top of the food chain. All it would take to stay in charge would be a show of strength and a mighty roar. No more politics, no more having to talk to those lower than him, there wouldn't even be any question.
If the Zootopians were all made feral, the lion would benefit the most. And the best part is, he can set this whole plan into motion without anyone suspecting a thing. After all, how could a noble lion possibly be anything but heroic?
- Consider this: His voice actor, J. K. Simmons, is voicing the Big Bad in another upcoming animated movie that takes place in a World of Funny Animals. Coincidence?
- Admittedly, this would be another strike against Animal Stereotypes, considering male lions are (outside of certain films) known to be lazy cats that fob off all of the work on the females.
- Actually, TLK portrays this accurately. It is mentioned by Scar that the lionesses are the ones doing the hunting.
- Jossed. As it turns out, it's his Assistant Mayor behind all this.
- I bet it's the birds. Zootopia is specifically mentioned as a mammal city. Mammals appeared at the same time as dinosaurs, but were mostly rodent-like vermin that either served as food or weren't cared about. Then the meteor came and mammals came to be the ruling class. And who birds originated from, again?
- It definitely shouldn't be the reptiles. Because the stereotype about them is that Reptiles Are Abhorrent, but the creators' purpose is to deconstruct Animal Stereotypes.
- Confirmed. While the initial conspiracy is that animals are disappearing, it's to try to hide an even bigger one- one to make people think that predators are dangerous, potentially berserk creatures who can devour you at a moment's notice.
- Jossed; he's even worse than he first appears. He's not just a petty crook, he's supplying Bellwether and company with (some of) the night howlers.
- Also, not the most productive bulb in the farm; as a predator, he's working for a scheme that ultimately harms him. He's just too greedy to realize that.
- Played with- while from what we see the sloths are pretty slow, Flash street races for fun.
- This will be dealt with later with the explanation that even though some stereotypes may be right in as far as basic physical qualities go, the animals each have something that makes up for it i.e. Judy has her speed, and the sloth could become a Chekhov's Gunman later. Judy also looks set to realise that she has her own prejudices against predators.
- Blink and you miss it scene from the trailers; Judy is seen looking a little nervous next to a large tiger on a train. The scene in the trailer makes it look like she's just upset from the missing mammal case, but you can bet in the movie it demonstrates early signs she has her own prejudices against predators.
- That last part is confirmed; Judy's Innocently Insensitive remarks about predators lead to a Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure with Nick.
- Jossed, essentially. The 'emotional' line is a one-time thing, and the sex of characters is never brought up at all. The film focuses more on species preconceptions, ignorance and bigotry, much akin to racism.
- This is a detective movie, after all, so no wonder we speculate so much about who could be behind the crimes. The entire world having a giant conspiracy against Judy would certainly be an unexpected twist.
- I, the OP, imagined it more like this: Everyone, including Judy, has their own evil plan, leading to a Gambit Pileup of epic proportions! Probably going to be jossed, but wouldn't this be hilarious?
- Definitely jossed, but the premise is great Fanfic Fuel!
- Cointerpoint for a confirmed-ish: Almost all of the main characters who aren't hate plague victims are various diameter dickholes through at least character establishment, but some go all the way. Even Judy winds up as the large-diameter variety in the mafia interrogation scene with Weaselton. Though, given the odds of this churning out a massive franchise of canon, I'd say just from the events in this movie, everyone's got a lot of dirt on everyone else. Heck, if Zootopia's laws work like the real world, then, Hopps and Wilde are screwed if Weaselton goes to the media about their mafia connections, kept in check only by mutually assured destruction at the hands of Mr. Big.
- Definitely jossed, but the premise is great Fanfic Fuel!
- And considering how everyone is expected to follow the stereotypes, this might just create a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
- Jossed. It looks like any other part of Zootopia, just miniaturized to the point that even Judy is strong enough to stop buildings from toppling over.
- Not 100% Jossed. It didn't get much screentime, and while it looked normal on the surface, that doesn't mean that the lack of police presence hasn't had effects, it just means these effects are not super-obvious.
- Jossed. They do investigate a nudist colony, though.
- Judy's neighbors in her apartment building are two male antelopes living together. Make of that what you will.
- Or they could just be heterosexual roommates. Those exist.
- Probably jossed; though while not seen, it seems unlikely that their apartment isn't also a single-room studio sharing a bathroom like Judy's is. The two also have the same hyphenated last name during the credits and are not the same species Could possibly be adoptive brothers, but that wouldn't really stop much given the implied incest in The Lion King. If they pushed the rating slightly harder, rather than the Office Space Apartments conversation through the wall, they could have just gone at it to remove all doubt and still driven home the shabbiness of the housing.
- Also, Courage is not a "recent" cartoon.
- Or they could just be heterosexual roommates. Those exist.
- Well, they certainly won't allow Song of the South like, for the rest of human existence.
- Well, it is true that the topic of racism is a tad more sensitive than the subject of homosexuality...
- And as society progresses, racism is becoming less and less accepted, while homosexuality becomes more and more accepted.
- On the other hand, the main problem with Song of the South is that it doesn't have enough racism in it to satisfy modern sensibilities regarding the South. That was why the NAACP came out against it.
- Well, it is true that the topic of racism is a tad more sensitive than the subject of homosexuality...
- Both of the above are Jossed. There are no openly gay characters in the movie. The only characters whom we know a sexuality for are probably Judy's parents and the Ottertons.
- And Nick and Judy, of course.
- In the credits Judy's "loud neighbors" are listed as having the same last names, and they're both male and different species (of antelope), which implies that they are either a married gay couple, or adopted siblings.
- There's still time for Clawhauser. He either is the most secure metrosexual ever, or going to be seriously surprised if someone thinks he's straight if it comes up later in the franchise. Haven't seen someone sneeze that much glitter since Sterling Archer in Honeypot...
- On the other hand, in a film about not stereotyping people, isn't saying that "Clawhauser acts stereotypically gay, thus he must love men," kinda missing the point?
- Jossed. Lionheart never goes feral, but he's falsely imprisoned for masterminding the Hate Plague, leaving Bellwether (the real villain) free to replace him.
- Entirely possible, given The Reveal. The Hate Plague is a serum made from Night Howlers — a type of flower. Mr. Otterton, if you examine his file when Judy reads it, is a florist.
- Jossed. It's not suggested he's the first, and the Hate Plague turns out NOT to be a contagious disease.
- Jossed. The club has been open for a long time, it's only goal is to be a nudist club, and the "Feral Selves" bit is artificially induced via precisely targeted chemical weapons.
- They certainly both look like the dancers.
- The tiger on the subway that frightens the bunny mom is one of the dancers, too.