Best Animated Feature Oscar-winning Zootopia is getting a sequel, meaning it’s the best chance to rewatch the ending of the first film. The highest-ranked Disney movie on Rotten Tomatoes’ list is generating buzz again due to the growing anticipation of the release of Zootopia 2. With no human characters around, Zootopia is set in a world where animals that have humanoid characteristics live in harmony. The creation of the utopia hinted at in the тιтle is credited to the upsetting of the natural order, a consequence of predators rejecting their instincts to hunt prey so they may all get along.
The protagonist, Judy Hopps, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, is the first rabbit to become a police officer in the city of Zootopia. She is wide-eyed and convinced that there is unshakable peace and unity among predators and prey in Zootopia. However, she discovers that some predators are mysteriously attacking prey, who consтιтute the majority of the city’s population, and naively suggests that they’re reverting to their natural state. After realizing how her words hurt her friend Nick Wilde, a fox voiced by Jason Bateman, she leaves the city, but eventually returns to solve the case in Zootopia‘s ending.
How Judy Solves the Case
A Coincidental Talking Point Opens Her Eyes
One of the major leads that Judy and Nick found in the case of the missing predators, who they later discovered had lost social inhibition, was the mention of “Night Howlers.” They initially ᴀssumed this was referring to wolves, who howl through the night, and broke into a secure facility to discover all the predators. This leads to the divisive press conference where Judy misguidedly offers her two cents and sends a wave of panic through the Zootopia populace by suggesting that their biological predisposition to hunt may be overwhelming the predators’ social code.
There is a kind of flower that is also referred to as a “Night Howler.”
Nick explains what she implied in her speech and walks away from her, leaving her heartbroken and disappointed in herself. That’s when she decides to leave Zootopia and join her parents on their carrot farm. However, once there, she finds out that there is a kind of flower that is also referred to as a “Night Howler.” Apparently, if the flower’s chemicals enter an animal, they lose all social inhibition, become aggressive, and indiscriminately attack people.
Judy returns to Zootopia with this newfound information, apologizes to Nick, and asks him to help her solve the case. They track down a laboratory where a ram is manufacturing bullets of “Night Howler” chemicals. Before he can leave for his next task of turning another predator dangerous, the duo intervene, unfortunately destroying almost all the evidence at hand. Before they can take their findings to the police department, the newly elected Mayor Bellwether (voiced by Jenny Slate) finds them, and they soon realize she is somehow responsible for the current crisis.
The lab in Zootopia is actually a Breaking Bad Easter egg, as the ram Ramses wears the iconic yellow jumpsuit from the show, and his ᴀssociates are called Woolter and Jesse.
After they trick her into believing Nick has been successfully turned aggressive with a bullet from the “Night Howler” gun, they easily record Mayor Bellwether giving her plans away like a typical Disney villain, just in time for the police to arrive on the scene. With these new details uncovered, Judy and Nick solve the case and end the reign of terror that Bellwether had orchestrated. If not for her hometown bully-turned-reformed-delivery-man mentioning that the flowers were called “Night Howlers,” Judy would never have cracked the case.
Why Bellwether Drugged the Predators
She Is A Bigot
Bellwether is first introduced in Zootopia as the ᴀssistant Mayor of the city, who is essentially a glorified secretary to the mayor. Due to her physical appearance and her timid nature, Bellwether is constantly underestimated and taken for granted, which mirrors Judy’s own experiences at the police academy and on the force. After years of regular abuse, Bellwether finally decided to change how the world perceives predators and create a social order where she would have the upper hand.
She hatched a plot that involved drugging all the predators in Zootopia to essentially cage them away while the underestimated prey, like her, could run the world. In her own words, “Fear always works” and so, if people started fearing every predator, she could justify putting them away and removing them from society. While her lived experiences and her feelings about being treated as an inferior are valid, her response isn’t.
Bellwether is essentially a bigot, whose discriminatory mindset is fueled by her own experiences as an ᴀssistant mayor to a lion. She refuses to believe that there can be a better way of handling the problem, and her solution thus takes the form of spreading her bigotry. She planned to drug the predators so that discrimination would become rampant, and she would be able to sadistically enjoy the incarceration of innocent predators, just like she is mistreated, despite being more competent than anyone gives her credit for.
This is why it’s important that Judy Hopps is the protagonist of Zootopia. Judy having similar workplace experiences as Bellwether sets up a dicH๏τomy between the two characters. They both allow their prejudices to get the better of them at a point in their lives, but Bellwether is a villain, while Judy isn’t, because the former never realizes the error in her ways and refuses to change her mindset. Nick and Judy’s relationship in Zootopia is important because it shows how Judy overcomes her prejudice to prioritize their bond after making a terrible mistake.
Why Nick is Essential to Zootopia’s Story
He Provides An Important Perspective
Nick Wilde is a fox, and is thus one of the predators living in Zootopia, who make up a mere 10% of the city’s population. From a young age, he has been a victim of prejudice against his species, as people have always considered him to be untrustworthy and dangerous. Nick has faced discrimination all his life, and for that reason, he is now a hustler who makes money by reselling popsicles at a price high enough to make a good profit.
The only other fox character in the film, Gideon Grey, once attacked Judy during their childhood, but is shown to have changed his ways in the future.
Judy’s first interaction with Nick involves the latter scamming her, and she is naturally inclined to mistrust him. However, through their adventure of finding the missing mammals, she discovers that Nick is a gentle, brave, and intelligent being, who even has the skills to become a police officer one day. Even though we experience most of the story through Judy’s point of view, Nick adds perspective to Zootopia through his backstory and Judy’s evolution.
In a flashback scene sH๏τ like a horror film with skewed close-up frames and a haunting use of shadows, it is revealed that Nick was once muzzled by his own friends because they refused to ᴀssociate with a predator and would never trust a fox. This provides the necessary context to the central conflict of the film, as it shows that long before Bellwether put her plan into action, predators were being perceived as a threat in the city, despite everyone’s constant insistence on harmony in Zootopia. Nick has one of the most disturbing Disney movie character backstories ever.
Without Nick, the main message of Zootopia would have been weakened.
Moreover, Nick’s journey mirrors Judy’s as they both learn to change their perception of others beyond their lived experiences and their conditioning. Nick slowly begins trusting Judy, even though prey like her have always discriminated against him, while Judy introspects about her biases, and apologizes for her comments to Nick. Without Nick, the main message of Zootopia would have been weakened, as his backstory is the first instance of predator prejudice in the film that isn’t played for jokes.
How Zootopia Tackles Prejudice
It’s A Story About Diversity & Prejudice
The central message in Zootopia is that one should stay open-minded about the world and its people, despite one’s lived experiences. Personal biases, whether born of experience or conditioning, inherently hamper the possibility of harmony and peaceful coexistence. This message is mostly delivered through Judy and Nick’s arcs, and also through the actions of Mayor Bellwether, who is the primary villain of the film.
The potency of Zootopia‘s allegory about prejudice lies in the fact that all its major characters, who are shown to be prejudiced, have lived experiences to justify their mindsets. This is a common phenomenon in the real world as well, where many people carry negative perceptions of others simply based on occurrences in their lives or the lives of their loved ones.
So, when the good characters in the film are able to look beyond their discriminatory thought processes, Zootopia makes a strong case for investigating one’s personal biases. While there have been efforts to map the prey-prejudice discourse in Zootopia to the racial tensions in America, there is no direct correspondence in the allegory, as race relations in the real world are more complicated. This is why Zootopia makes a more general case for diversity than it does specifically against racism.
The message of tolerance is delivered through the universal disdain for Bellwether’s actions and the effectiveness with which she spread hate throughout the city before she was caught. Prejudice is an inherent part of life, and it is very easy to incite prejudiced actions based on fear, but if people can prioritize harmony over that, then the source of prejudice weakens. Moreover, Zootopia‘s setting, although utopian, provides an aspirational social order where discrimination, though possible, is ultimately rejected, which the film says should be people’s approach in the real world, where diversity should be given importance.
How Zootopia’s Ending Sets Up the Sequel
Life Has Changed In Zootopia
With the current conflict resolved, the police force of Zootopia now has a new star officer – Judy Hopps. Her brilliant detective work earns her the respect of her peers and her superiors. However, she also has her partner alongside her in uniform. Not only does Nick leave his borderline criminal life behind, but he graduates from the police academy and joins Judy as her partner at work. This sets us up for a new adventure with the crime-solving duo now officially recognized as competent detectives by the police department.
The original story of Zootopia was decidedly darker and was eventually changed after the rise in prejudice and discrimination in the country. While we won’t know until the film has been released, it is possible that Zootopia 2 will tackle a similar subject, considering how bad the racial tensions in the United States are right now. Moreover, the end of Bellwether’s term doesn’t automatically cause the reinstatement of the previous mayor, and a new mayor could introduce more stakes.
Zootopia also sets up a sequel with its final scene featuring the sloth Dash, who has been speeding through the city in a sports car and wreaking havoc. It is obvious that Dash will return in the sequel, but in what capacity remains to be seen. The sloths in the DMV were fan-favorite characters, and one wonders if they might play a bigger part in Zootopia 2. There’s also the possibility of a romance between Nick and Judy that many fans are looking forward to in the sequel.
