70 Fun Facts About Zootopia

What kind of animal is Judy Hopps?

Judy is a European rabbit from Bunnyburrow, and her full name in the franchise is Judith Laverne Hopps.

Nick Wilde is what species of animal?

His partner in crime Finnick is the fennec fox; Nick is a red fox who ends up as the city's first fox police officer.

Who provides the voice of Nick Wilde?

The directors reportedly told him not to do a voice at all: 'Just do what you do. Just talk.'

Which actress voices Judy Hopps?

Kristen Bell is in the film too, but as Priscilla the sloth. Director Rich Moore described Judy as 'a little Pollyanna mixed with Furiosa'.

In which year was the original Zootopia released in US cinemas?

It came out on March 4 and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature the following February.

What is the name of the rural town Judy comes from?

In the franchise it is 211 miles from Zootopia and has a population of more than 81 million animals.

What kind of animal is Chief Bogo?

His name comes from 'mbogo', the Swahili word for the African buffalo.

Which British actor voices Chief Bogo?

He returned for the sequel in 2025 despite a schedule packed with live-action films such as Masters of the Universe.

Judy is given how long by Chief Bogo to solve the Otterton case before she must hand in her badge?

He agrees to the deal only because Assistant Mayor Bellwether is standing right there when Judy volunteers.

Who is the true mastermind behind the predators going savage in the first film?

The meek assistant mayor turns out to be running a prey-supremacist plot to seize power after years of being belittled by Lionheart.

What are the 'Night Howlers' that everyone in the film keeps mentioning?

Judy assumes the wolves are the Night Howlers before learning back on the farm that the name belongs to a psychotropic bloom.

What did Judy and Nick swap into the dart gun in place of the savage serum?

The switch lets Nick fake going savage while Judy's carrot pen records Bellwether's confession.

Mr. Big, the crime boss served by polar bears, is what tiny animal?

The character is an homage to Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone, and he even gets his own 'Godfather of the Bride' short in Zootopia+.

What is the name of Flash the sloth's workplace, based on the DMV?

The scene was the centrepiece of the second teaser trailer, released online in November 2015.

Which pop star voices Gazelle and sings the film's song 'Try Everything'?

She also voiced Gazelle in the Spanish-language dubs for Spain and Latin America.

Who wrote 'Try Everything'?

The song had first been recorded in 2013 by Fifth Harmony for their debut EP before being scrapped.

Which composer wrote the Zootopia score, in his first feature for Walt Disney Animation Studios?

He was already a Pixar regular; the score was recorded over five days in November 2015 with an 80-piece orchestra.

Under what title was Zootopia released in the United Kingdom?

Disney could not trademark the original name in several territories, partly because a Danish zoo had registered 'Zootopia' in 2010.

In Germany the film went out under which title?

A German children's book called Zootopolis, published in 2010, made even the European title too close for comfort.

Roughly how much did Zootopia gross worldwide?

That made it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2016 and only the fourth animated film ever to pass a billion dollars.

Which country was Zootopia's biggest market outside North America?

Known locally as Crazy Animal City, it became the highest-grossing animated film ever released there at the time.

Which film beat Zootopia to the BAFTA for animated film in 2017?

Zootopia still swept the Oscar, Golden Globe, Critics' Choice and Annie awards for animated feature that season.

Byron Howard's original pitch that evolved into Zootopia was a spy story about an arctic hare named what?

That project, Savage Seas, was a 1960s-flavoured James Bond riff; only its animal-city first act survived into the final film.

In early versions of the story, which character was the lead, with Judy as the sidekick?

The filmmakers flipped the roles in November 2014, deciding an optimist discovering the city's flaws made a stronger story than a cynic who already knew them.

Which classic Disney film did Byron Howard want Zootopia to resemble, with animals in human roles?

Two of the ideas he pitched alongside it were an all-animal Three Musketeers and a 'bounty hunter pug in space'.

What was the name of the fur-grooming software Disney's engineers built for the film?

Judy and Nick each carry about 2.5 million hairs; a background giraffe has nine million strands.

Where did the animators spend months studying real animals' walk cycles and fur?

They also took fur under a microscope at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County to see how it catches light.

Zootopia was the second Disney film rendered with Hyperion. Which was the first?

A new fur system was bolted onto the renderer so the animals' dense coats would look right.

Which sitcom actor voices the pompous Mayor Leodore Lionheart?

He plays a lion who secretly locks up the savage predators to protect both the public and his own career.

Duke Weaselton's name is a nod to a character from which earlier Disney film?

Alan Tudyk voiced the Duke of Weselton in that film, and here he voices the weasel who keeps getting the name wrong.

Doug the ram's two henchmen are named after the leads of which TV drama?

Woolter and Jesse are both voiced by John DiMaggio, who also plays the ice-cream elephant Jerry Jumbeaux Jr.

Which real Canadian news anchor voices the ZNN moose newsreader?

In other countries the co-anchor is swapped for a local animal: a koala in Australia, a jaguar in Brazil, a tanuki in Japan and a giant panda in China.

What kind of animal is Yax, the owner of the Mystic Springs Oasis naturist club?

He is voiced by Tommy Chong and turns out to have a better memory for detail than his yoga instructor Nangi.

Which of these is NOT one of Zootopia's climate-controlled districts?

The districts are separated by 'weather walls', which the sequel reveals were invented by a snake named Agnes De'Snake.

Which enclosed neighbourhood is built to the scale of mice and other tiny rodents?

Judy causes chaos there chasing Duke Weaselton and saves Fru Fru from a runaway donut sign.

After Fru Fru is saved from the runaway donut sign, what does she name her daughter?

She also makes Judy the godmother, which is why Mr. Big spares Judy and Nick from being iced.

According to Judy's mother, how many brothers and sisters did young Judy have?

The number only grows: the Zootopia+ short 'Hopp on Board' introduces two more much younger siblings.

The Disney+ anthology series Zootopia+ was released in 2022 with how many shorts?

Each short revisits the events of the first film from a side character's point of view, including a musical for Duke Weaselton and a film-noir spoof for Mr. Big.

Which Disney park opened the first Zootopia-themed land, with the ride Zootopia: Hot Pursuit?

It opened on December 20, 2023, as part of Disney's 100th anniversary celebrations.

Which long-running Disney's Animal Kingdom show did Zootopia: Better Zoogether! replace in 2025?

The new show plays inside the Tree of Life theater and opened on November 7, 2025.

In Zootopia 2, what kind of creature is Gary De'Snake?

Snakes had not been seen in Zootopia for a century, which is why a shed snakeskin at a crime scene sets the heroes off.

Which Oscar-winning actor voices Gary De'Snake in Zootopia 2?

His casting was announced at the 2024 D23 Expo, along with the news that reptiles would join the mammals-only city.

Fortune Feimster voices Nibbles Maplestick, a conspiracy-theorist podcaster of what species?

She lives in Marsh Market, the hidden reptile district, and later turns up in the Animal Kingdom show Better Zoogether!.

Andy Samberg voices Pawbert, the runt of which powerful family in Zootopia 2?

His father Milton, voiced by David Strathairn, is descended from the man credited with founding Zootopia.

Who co-wrote the Zootopia 2 song 'Zoo' with Gazelle's voice actress?

Both co-writers also got sheep cameos in the film, Ed Shearin and Baalake Lambkin, in a barbershop scene.

Zootopia 2 became the second-highest-grossing animated film of all time behind which movie?

It grossed about $1.87 billion worldwide and topped $1 billion within 17 days of release.

Zootopia 2 was the first Hollywood film to gross more than $100 million in a single day in which country?

It happened on Saturday, November 29, 2025, during a $271.6 million opening weekend there.

At the 79th BAFTAs in 2026, Zootopia 2 won which award?

The sequel took home the BAFTA the original had lost to Kubo and the Two Strings nine years earlier.

Finnick's lines in Zootopia 2 came from which source, since actor Tommy Lister had died in 2020?

Disney asked Lister's family for permission and dedicated the film to his memory in the credits.

A cut scene in Zootopia 2 recreated the prison encounter from which film almost verbatim?

The four-minute homage was trimmed because young viewers would not get the reference and it slowed the pace.

Which Disney executive has a cameo in Zootopia 2 as Bob Tiger, a tiger weatherman?

He is the same executive who first announced the sequel on a 2023 earnings call.

Which WWE stars voice the zebra cop duo known as the 'Zebros' in Zootopia 2?

They play Gene Zebraxton and Gene Zebrowski, one a plains zebra and the other a zebra-painted Sorraia horse.

What was Zootopia's US and Canada opening weekend gross (in millions), then a studio record?

It beat Frozen's studio record and the March animated record held by The Lorax.

Zootopia was the first Disney animated film shown in domestic IMAX theaters since which 2002 film?

It played in 365 IMAX theaters and took $5.2 million from them on opening weekend, second only to Toy Story 3 for an animated film.

Which car designer did the filmmakers consult to create vehicles for animals of wildly different sizes?

They also consulted Americans with Disabilities Act specialists and HVAC engineers to make the city plausible for mammals from two inches to 27 feet tall.

Nick makes a cameo on the OhMyDisney website in which 2018 film?

He also appears with Judy in the 2023 short Once Upon a Studio, stepping out of a picture on the wall for a group photo.

Zootopia had its world premiere in February 2016 at an animation festival in which city?

The US release followed on March 4, in formats including IMAX 3D and 4DX.

What was Zootopia's production budget?

It returned more than a billion dollars worldwide, $682.5 million of it from outside the US and Canada.

Under what English rendering of its local title was Zootopia known in China?

It became Hollywood's biggest breakout hit in China since Jurassic World the year before.

What approval rating does Zootopia hold on Rotten Tomatoes?

The critics' consensus praised its 'thoughtful, inclusive message' alongside the animation.

Gary L. Goldman, who sued Disney over Zootopia in 2017, co-wrote which sci-fi film?

Goldman said he had twice pitched Disney a live-action film called Looney about an animator who creates a cartoon named Zootopia.

What was the subtitle of the 2018 Dark Horse graphic novel Disney Zootopia?

Written by Jimmy Gownley with art by Leandro Ricardo da Silva, it was released in September 2018.

What was the name of the card game released alongside the film?

Crime Files was the mobile phone game, and Hot Pursuit later became the Shanghai Disneyland ride.

Which animated film out-grossed Zootopia worldwide in 2016?

Only Captain America: Civil War, Rogue One and Finding Dory earned more that year.

Zootopia opened second in Japan behind a film from which long-running anime franchise?

Its $4 million debut was still the third-biggest ever for a Walt Disney Animation Studios film there, behind Frozen and Big Hero 6.

An ad agency hired by Disney marketed Zootopia specifically to which fan community?

The film's cast of anthropomorphic animals made it a natural fit for the demographic.

Disney's previous big fur-animation effort was on the title character of which 2008 film?

That older software could not handle Zootopia's realistic animals, so engineers built the new iGroom tool.

What is the name of the score featurette included on Zootopia's Blu-ray release?

The June 2016 disc also carried an alternate opening and the music video for Shakira's 'Try Everything'.

In the Disney+ series Zootopia+, Mr. Big stars in a parody of which genre?

Other shorts spoof Real Housewives with Fru Fru and stage a dance contest with Clawhauser, Bogo and Gazelle.

Director Rich Moore described Judy Hopps as 'a little Pollyanna mixed with' which action heroine?

Ginnifer Goodwin said people mistake Judy's kindness for naivety.