Duke Weaselton

Duke Weaselton is a supporting antagonist in Disney's 2016 animated feature film Zootopia. He is a smart-mouthed weasel, who works as a two-bit crook.
==Background==
The proclaimed "Duke of Bootleg", Duke's main source of income is the sale of pirated DVDs. He is a career criminal, though, and will just as quickly pickpockets or work for clientele, as his allegiance is to money before anything else.
Duke appears to be an affiliate of Zootopia's underworld, having known Mr. Big and Nick Wilde prior to the events of the film. He receives little respect, however, and uses his sharp tongue as a defense mechanism. Nevertheless, he utilizes his size and swiftness to become an elusive criminal.
Tufts of fur can be seen missing from the pelt over his stomach, indicating scars. This suggests he's been stabbed or otherwise wounded in fights with other members of Zootopia's underworld.
===Official Description===
:Duke Weaselton is a small-time weasel crook with a big-time weasel mouth who tries to give Judy the slip during a police chase.Oh My Disney: "Meet the Characters in Zootopia"
===Personality===
As his name suggests, Weaselton is snide, conniving, and greedy, and is perfectly willing to betray others or engage in illegal activities for a few bucks more. However, compared to the ruthless Bellwether and morally ambiguous Lionheart, Weaselton's crimes are considerably more small-time and the worst action he commits are bootlegging and petty theft, making him more of a crook than a mastermind. He doesn't seem to engage in harmful activities, but stole toxic flowers to assist his employer's goals (as he was a hired hand, however, it's highly likely he was told nothing of the dangerous capabilities) solely because he was promised money, which he himself claims is "the one thing he can't refuse".
Weaselton is shown to have a dry and insulting sense of humor, referring to Judy Hopps in degrading terms throughout their chase, such as "cottontail" and telling her to "have a donut" while kicking a large donut in her path as a reference towards the stereotypes of cops loving donuts. He carries himself in a prideful manner, arrogantly correcting Judy when she mispronounced his name. Like most criminals, Weaselton has a strong dislike towards police officers as he refused to say anything to Judy about the case she was working on and chastised Nick and Mr. Big simply for helping a cop.
It is also implied that he is cowardly, shown by the way he frantically and rather desperately ran away when he was being chased by Judy throughout Little Rodentia. This may not be true, however as he found the courage to continuously gloat towards the rabbit when he had the upper hand or seemingly lost her, but this trait only surfaces when he is certain he has the advantage in a situation. He also had the nerve to berate the fearsome Mr. Big for working with a cop, even going so far as to call him a "dirty rat", despite the fact that he was being intimidated with death at the time by the crime boss.
===Physical appearance===
Duke is a slender weasel with brown fur, cream muzzle and underbelly, dark brown nose, and red eyes. He wears white, sleeveless shirt and black shorts with red-and-white stripes.
==Appearances==
===Zootopia===
On Judy's second day of parking duty, a shop owner frantically tells Judy that someone just robbed his store. This gives Judy the opportunity to show her talent at being an actual police officer. Judy chases after the suspect, revealing himself later to be Duke Weaselton. Needing to escape, Duke heads into Little Rodentia, successfully getting away with his duffel bag. Nevertheless, Judy continues the chase. After a brief getaway, Judy manages to hurl Duke backward, making him lose his momentum. As Judy approaches him, Duke snarls "Have a donut, copper!" before kicking a donut sign towards her. Judy successfully dodges it, but it is now hurling towards a shrew who is crossing the road. Judy successfully saves the shrew from getting crushed, and uses the donut sign to capture Duke, and turning him in at the ZPD. Unfortunately, Chief Bogo isn't pleased with Judy, since he believed the items Duke stole were just moldy onions, helped little by the fact she caused a panic in Little Rodentia over the "onions". His irritation over the incident was so great that he blew up at her when Judy tried to correct him in the true nature of the stolen items as flower bulbs that her family uses on their farm.
Later in the film, Judy discovers that the flowers Duke stole are nicknamed "night howlers", and the flowers contain a toxin, that, when exposed to or consumed by mammals, turns them savage. Realizing that the person Duke stole them for was likely using them deliberately on predators, Judy and Nick confront Duke, who is selling bootlegged films to pedestrians. Judy and Nick demand answers for why he stole night howlers from the store. When he refuses to cooperate, the duo takes Duke to Tundratown's most feared crime boss, Mr. Big, to interrogate him. On the verge of getting iced, Duke fearfully admits he was planning to give the night howlers to a ram named Doug in exchange for the one thing he is unable to resist: money. He tells them of Doug's whereabouts and also warns them that Doug is the complete opposite of friendly; he's unfriendly.
Duke is last seen attending Gazelle's performance at the end of the film dancing, then noticing some animal's money sticking out of their back pocket, steals it out of their pocket, and then quietly dances away.
===Disney Parks===
A free-roaming animatronic of Duke developed for Shanghai Disneyland's City of Zootopia land was presented at a grand opening event, though is still undergoing further testing for further public appearances. This animatronic Duke, presenting himself as a tourism ambassador for the city, is able to push a cart that serves as a portable stage for him that he is able to lift himself on top of by pulling a cord lowering a small backdrop.
==Trivia==
*Duke's name is a pun on the Duke of Weselton from Frozen, another antagonistic character voiced by Tudyk, and the mispronunciation "Weasel-Town" by which the Duke was often called. This is referenced later on in the film.
**Ironically, Duke hates being called "Weselton" instead of his actual name.
**Both names are possibly plays on jazz musician Duke Ellington, or military leader Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
*In the Latin American Spanish version of the film, as with many other characters, his last name is changed to "Roedríguez", a play on the words "Roer" (gnaw) and "Rodríguez", a very common Latin American last name.
**Another is to avoid his last name being mistaken to the Duke of Weselton's Spanish pronunciation being similar to "Weaselton" in the Latin American dub of Frozen.
*The pirated DVDs that Duke sells are all Zootopia versions of various Disney animated movies, as well as hints to future movies including: Wrangled (Tangled), Wreck-It Rhino (Wreck-It Ralph), Pig Hero 6 (Big Hero 6), Meowana (Moana), Giraffic (Gigantic), and Floatzen 2 (Frozen II).
**The Wrangled parody features a horse resembling Maximus dressed as Rapunzel.
**This potentially breaks the fourth wall, even mentioning that he's selling films "that have not yet been released", which are Moana, Gigantic, and Frozen II.
**Gigantic is the only one of these films that was ultimately cancelled.
*The part when he kicks the donut sculpture at Judy and says, "Have a donut, copper!" is likely a reference to the stereotype of police officers often eating donuts.
*Duke serves as a foil to Nick. Both are con artists whose species are stereotyped to be sly and untrustworthy. Both of their species are also natural enemies to rabbits, reflecting their mean spirit towards Judy (a rabbit). Both have also gotten on Mr. Big's bad side which nearly resulted in both being iced: Nick by selling Big a skunk butt rug, and Duke by nearly killing Big's daughter with the giant donut. However, Nick eventually realized that he can be more than what he is stereotyped to be by opening up to Judy and later quitting his con man occupation to become a cop as well as reconciling to Big. Duke serves an example of what Nick could have become if he had never joined Judy in finding Otterton and ended his con artist ways.
==Gallery==
===Screenshots===
Zootopia Duke running.png|Weaselton on the run
Zootopia (film) 23.png
Duke Bag01.jpg
Duke Bag02.jpg
Waiting The Bag.jpg
Duke Catches Bag.png
Have a Donut 06.png
Have a Donut 07.png
Have a Donut 08.png
Have a Donut 09.png|"Have a donut, copper!"
Duke Smug Smile.png|"Come to papa."
Zootopia Catching Duke.png
Zootopia-disneyscreencaps.com-3574.jpg|Pop goes Weaselton!
Zootopia Smug Duke.png|"Hey, if it isn't Flopsy the Copsy!"
Zootopia - Duke Weaselton.jpg|"It's Weaselton! Duke Weaselton!"
zootopia-disneyscreencaps.com-9795.jpg|"And I ain't talkin', rabbit."
Duke mocking Judy.jpg|"And there ain't nothing you can do to make me."
zootopia-disneyscreencaps.com-9809.jpg|Weaselton screaming in terror as Mr. Big's bodyguards attempt to ice him.
zootopia-disneyscreencaps.com-9815.jpg|"You dirty rat! Why're you helping her? She's a cop!"
zootopia-disneyscreencaps.com-9838.jpg|"Alright, alright, please! I'll talk! I'll talk!"
Zootopia Interrogating Duke.jpg|"I stole them Night Howlers so I could sell 'em! They offered me what I couldn't refuse...money."
Zootopia-disneyscreencaps com-11613.jpg|Weaselton (along with Lionheart and Otterton) in the credits
Image-zootopie-plus-19.jpg|Duke in Zootopia+
Zootopia+ - 1x03 - Duke the Musical - Duke Money.jpeg
===Miscellaneous===
Duke-Weasleton-Zootopia.jpg
Duke.png|Duke Weaselton in Disney Crossy Road
Judy Hopps Weselton Figures.jpg
AlanTudykCharacters.jpg|Duke with other characters voiced by Alan Tudyk
Duke Weaselton - Small-Town Crook lorcana.jpg
==References==
ar:دوق ويسلتون
de:Herzog von Pitzbühl (Zoomania)
es:Duke Roedriguez
fr:Duke Weaselton
pl:Dan Łasica
pt:Duke Doninha
pt-br:Duke Doninha
Category:Weasels
Category:Characters
Category:Neutral characters
Category:Males
Category:Zootopia characters
Category:Animated characters
Category:Anthropomorphic characters
Category:Characters in the Disney animated features canon
Category:Disney characters
Category:Thieves
Category:Adults
Category:Henchmen
Category:Disney Crossy Road characters
Category:Characters who break the Fourth Wall
Category:Characters in video games
Category:TV Animation characters