Zootopia

About

Zootopia is a 2016 Disney 3D computer-animated comedy film set in a world populated by animals who poseess the level of intelligence comparable to that of humans. The main story follows Judy Hopps, a bunny rookie police officer, and Nick Wilde, a fox con artist, as they attempt to solve a missing persons case together. Since its announcement, the film has been widely discussed online due to its appeal to the furry community.

History

Production

In August 2013, The Walt Disney Company announced the production of Zootopia, described as a 3D animated comedy film taking place in a modern-day world where different animal species peacefully coexist without humans.^[3] Marketed in the United States with the tagline “Welcome to the Urban Jungle”,^[4] the film heavily emphasizes both the social relationships between different members and species of the animal kingdom and the urban environment that they inhabit.

Marketing

On June 11th, 2015, the first teaser trailer for the film was unveiled via Walt Disney Animation Studios’ YouTube page, followed by the releases of second teaser trailer on November 23rd and the official theatrical trailer on New Year’s Eve in 2015. On December 10th, 2015, Disney shared a series of Zootopia-themed posters parodying some of the most notable films of the year (shown below), which generated a lot of buzz in the blogosphere and social media.

On February 26th, 2016, just a few days before the 88th Academy Awards ceremony, Disney showcased a parody montage trailer in honor of the 2015 Oscars-nominated films (shown below).

On March 1st, BuzzFeed^[14] and Gizmodo^[13] reported that Disney has been strategically marketing the film to the furry fandom through a digital marketing firm, citing screenshots of the company’s outreach emails in which it asks various furry groups to promote the film on Instagram and Twitter.

Release

In February 2016, the film was released in select European countries, including Belgium, Spain and France, while its release date in North America is slated for March 4th, 2016.^[5]

Reception

Zootopia has received overall positive reviews from the critics. It has received an average of 81% from IMDb with over 6,000 user reviews.^[8] It drew a 9/10 rating from IGN,^[9] which praised it for its world-building and message of breaking stereotypes. Metacritic’s critic review average gave Zootopia 78 out of 100, based on a total of ten critics’ reviews.^[10]

Online Presence

Zootopia’s official Facebook account^[6] has garnered over 330,000 likes, while its Twitter account has gotten over 37,000 followers and 40 likes.^[7]

Fandom

Search queries for the keyword “zootopia” returns over 3,500 instances of fan art illustrations on DeviantArt^[1] and more than 190,000 results on YouTube^[2], as well as several hundreds of posts on Tumblr^[11] and Pinterest.^[12]