The creative team behind Zootopia took a bold approach to making the iconic film, as proven by their decision to disregard direct orders from Disney’s powers-that-be.
Released in 2016, Zootopia is one of Walt Disney Animation’s biggest modern successes. The film — which follows Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), a rookie rabbit cop, teaming up with a con-artist fox named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) to solve a citywide mystery — earned praise for its world-building, humor, and social commentary, not to mention over $1 billion worldwide and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
We’re now just days away from the release of Zootopia 2 (2025). This sees Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, who are now partners, go undercover to track down Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan), a seemingly villainous pit viper.
We’ll have to wait and see how this film stacks up against its predecessor (although hopefully it fares better with fans than Zootopia: Better Zoogether, the new show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom).
However, if the team took a similar approach to its predecessor, we’re in for another raucous adventure.
‘Zootopia’ Creative Team Forges Its Own Path
As per a recent interview with writer and chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Jared Bush, part of Zootopia‘s charm comes down to the fact that they went against Disney’s suggestions.
Speaking to SFX Magazine (via Film News), Bush revealed that Disney tried to cap the number of puns in the first film.
“I do love a pun,” Bush said. “On the first film, we got a note that said, ‘You can have a total of five puns in this movie.’ This is absolutely true. It was early on. We disregarded that note and put a billion in there.”
This will apparently be the case with Zootopia 2, where the audience will see plenty of signs for reimagined versions of iconic brands.
“You’ll see a ton of advertisements and brand labels,” Bush said. “It is aggressive and we love it.”
He also revealed that a love of puns runs strong in the creative team at Walt Disney Animation. “I think there are a lot of people at Disney who love puns,” he said. “Cory Loftis is our production designer. He also loves them and he’s in charge of all the signage you see in-world.”
Apparently, the most iconic pun in Zootopia 2 – which hits theaters on November 26 – will come while Nick uses a streaming service, wittily called HuluZoo.
Are you excited for Zootopia 2?
