Judith Laverne Hopps

“*When I was a kid, I thought Zootopia was this perfect place where everyone got along and anyone could be anything. Turns out, real life's a little bit more complicated than a slogan on a bumper sticker. Real life is messy. We all have limitations. We all make mistakes. Which means―hey, glass half full!―we all have a lot in common. And the more we try to understand one another, the more exceptional each of us will be. But we have to try. So no matter what type of animal you are, from the biggest elephant to our first fox, I implore you: try. Try to make the world a better place. Look inside yourself and recognize that change starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with all of us.*”―Judy Hopps' speech near the film's conclusion
**Officer Judith Laverne** "**Judy**" **Hopps** is a female rabbit and the main protagonist of *Zootopia*. She is the daughter of Bonnie and Stu Hopps and is a member of the Hopps family.

## Background

### Official Bio

*Judy Hopps is the first bunny ever to join Zootopia's police department. Determined to prove herself, Judy jumps at the chance to crack a case, even if it means teaming up with a con artist fox.*
### Personality

“*In Hopps' animation, we tried to celebrate both her rabbitness and her female nature. She's a tough bunny, but she's still feminine. She's sweet, but she's not weak. And when she's on high alert, her natural rabbit instincts take over - ears and nose twitching, foot thumping.*”
―Kira Lehtomäki
Judy is fiercely optimistic and independent. Since childhood, she had harbored a dream to become a police officer, solely for the opportunity to help those in need and make the world a better place. She cares deeply for the well-being of others, and would be more than happy to offer a helping hand to them; this includes her family, friends, Mrs. Otterton's despair over the disappearance of her husband, and even Nick Wilde. She has a large heart, and although she tends to keep her emotions under control—and even under wraps—a majority of the time, she is capable of expressing her true feelings in a genuine, powerful light. This is mostly seen with Nick, whose feelings and companionship she highly values, motivating her to prevent her own ambitions from harming others.

Due to being a rabbit, a species unassociated with such a high-stakes occupation, Judy faced continuous doubt and underestimation from those around her, from her parents to local bullies. Nevertheless, she used her opposers as a means to increase her determination and became progressively more insistent on reaching her goals than ever before with each naysayer; she believed in the importance of always trying and making an effort to reach your goals, no matter what. Her goal was to eventually become a resident and local officer of Zootopia, a city where predator and prey supposedly live together in peace and harmony (unlike the burrows), believing she will be quickly accepted amongst her peers and neighbors in spite of her species. Unfortunately, she was too idealistic for her own good in this regard. She found herself unprepared to face the negative aspects that lie within the city upon her first residential day, leaving her to fall victim to bigotry, stereotype, and manipulation.

However, her optimism and determination to be a police officer tends to lead her to be, at times, overzealous, overconfident, and impulsive. As a parking enforcement officer, she gave 201 tickets to anyone whose cars had been in a parking meter too long (including herself) before noon just to show up Chief Bogo's doubts about her, arrested Duke Weaselton for stealing (even though parking enforcement officers cannot arrest someone, which was disclosed from a furious Bogo), and had nearly gotten herself killed on multiple occasions during her first case.

Despite the odds, Judy remains optimistic and determined, adapting herself to the environment of Zootopia and those around her to build up both the way she presents herself and pursue her goals. She is clever, kind, and resourceful, which proves to be her greatest asset. She tarnishes the stereotype of a "dumb bunny", being intelligent enough to outsmart professional con artist, Nick Wilde, several times. Months of training at the Zootopia Police Academy has also left her tactical, with an impressive amount of physical prowess. During times of chaos, she can quickly take charge of a situation by concocting an efficient plan on the spot, being daring enough to take dangerous chances, in order to potentially end the day victorious. More often than not, Judy comes out successful as a result of this.

From childhood, Judy has held the belief that predators and prey should be treated equally and made attempts to refrain from acting on bigotry herself. However, due to her childhood experiences, having been bullied by a fox, Judy has a mild fear of predators (mainly foxes), whether she wanted to admit it or not; so much so that it manifests as unintentional prejudice itself. After being pestered into taking a canister of fox repellent during her move from Bunnyburrow to Zootopia, Judy made the conscious decision to keep the canister by her side for a majority of the film. When she first spotted Nick snooping about the streets, she immediately assumed him to be in the midst of a scam, following and nearly assaulting him with the canister all due to the fact that he was a fox. When it appears that Nick was merely an innocent civilian looking to buy ice cream for his son, she felt ashamed of her bigotry, which caused her to overcompensate in hopes of redeeming herself, wanting to be progressive and unbiased while hypocritically claiming others to be otherwise; this would ultimately make her a pawn to Nick's scams, in the end, while simultaneously teaching her a valuable lesson reflecting both life, and herself.

The events of Judy's first few months in Zootopia would ultimately blossom a more mature, practical, diligent, and legitimately progressive individual. Through her experiences, she discovers the downside of having an overly idealistic mentality carry you through life, and that the world can be a problematic place, filled with issues such as prejudice and stereotype, learning that all mammals—be they predator or prey, foxes or rabbits—can be victims of bigotry, even when it is unintentional. No matter the species, all animals having feelings, hopes, and dreams, all of which can be destroyed by preconceived notions and constant underestimation. As such, all should strive to live and accept one another for who they are inside, and not the stereotypes they have been labeled as by society. Even with this new outlook on life, Judy would still contend to the method of trying. Using her success and experiences as proof, she implores those around her to make an effort to see beyond stereotypes, to prove your worth and reach your goals in spite of all that may go against you, with the belief that these positive actions can ultimately lead to a better world, becoming the physical representation of Zootopia's meaningful motto "Anyone can be anything."

## Physical Description

Judy is a young rabbit with a lithe build and round face. She is covered in gray fur with a lighter shade on her underbelly up to her muzzle and on her paws. She has large purple eyes, a pink nose and inner ears, and long ears with black tips.

Judy owns three police uniforms: Her uniform during her graduation, her parking enforcement officer uniform, and her rookie uniform. The initial uniform worn at the graduation was navy blue with sleeves, a high collar, and pants with a gold chain and sewn ZPD patches on her shoulders. She also had a darker tie and a belt filled with various paraphernalia. After Nick graduated into a police officer, the uniform became her official ZPD outfit.

Her rookie uniform consisted of dark blue pants, a blue shirt, a Kevlar vest, and black coverings around her wrists and ankles. She also had metal knee pads on her pants and a black Kevlar belt with a silver buckle. The uniform is made of neoprene, allowing Judy to work in different types of weather. Judy's parking enforcement officer outfit was worn over the aforementioned outfit and consisted of only an orange vest with neon yellow lines and a blue hat with a blue band that contained the parking enforcement officer emblem on it.

When working as a carrot farmer, Judy wore a red-striped pink flannel shirt with rolled up sleeves and blue jeans and wore a beige sun hat.

## Biography

“*I want you to remember this moment the next time you think you will ever be anything more than just a stupid, carrot-farming, dumb bunny!*”
―Gideon Grey to Judy
In the community of Bunnyburrow, young Judy has been dreaming of becoming a police officer in the city of Zootopia, where anyone can be anything as proven by a play she and her friends perform at the Carrot Days Festival. Her parents Bonnie and Stu, try to dissuade Judy from following a risky goal and encourage her to become a carrot farmer with the family instead. At the farm fair, Judy confronts a young fox named Gideon Grey picking on prey children; Judy demands he give the kids their tickets back. Gideon simply mocks the young rabbit and shoves her to the ground, to which Judy retaliates by kicking him in the face. Angered, Gideon claws Judy's cheek, drawing blood, and derides her, snarling that she will never be anything more than a "stupid carrot-farming dumb bunny." After Gideon leaves without knowing she got the tickets from him, Judy becomes inspired to prove Gideon wrong.

### Adulthood

15 years later, Judy joins the Zootopia Police Academy. At first struggling with the course demands, she gradually becomes stronger and graduates as valedictorian and the first rabbit officer for Zootopia's police. Because her occupation is in the city, Judy prepares to move to Zootopia. Bonnie, Stu, and the rest of her family all say their goodbyes to Judy at the train station, with Bonnie and Stu accepting the path she is taking, but they warn her of the dangers of predators in the city, including foxes, and give her a canister of fox repellent just in case.

In Zootopia, Judy finds a home in the Grand Pangolin Arms Apartments. Optimistic and excited to start her first day on the police force, Judy enters Zootopia Police Department and finds a large number of predator animals in the force. At muster, Chief Bogo disregards Judy's impressive academy record and places her on parking duty, not willing to acknowledge her as a real officer just because of her species. Despite this, Judy is determined to make the best of her new position and, thanks to her hearing, is able to detect every meter on time, processing 200 tickets by noon (201, including giving a ticket to her own vehicle).

During her time at work, she spots a shady fox sidling into Jumbeaux's Café and follows him, suspicious of his motives. There, she discovers that the fox simply brought his son there to get a jumbo popsicle for his birthday and is ashamed of her bigotry. However, Jerry Jumbeaux, Jr. refuses to sell him an elephant-sized treat on account of his being a fox. Judy interrupts the argument by pointing out potential health violations, convincing Jerry to sell the popsicle (with Judy paying for it) to the foxes.

The fox introduces himself as Nick Wilde and thanks Judy for helping him, with Judy admitting that she believes foxes like him should not be treated as sly or crooked. But while filing tickets in Sahara Square, she spots Nick melting the Jumbo-pop down into "pawpsicles" with his son. Following them throughout the city, Judy discovers Nick's "son" to actually be an adult hired fox named Finnick, who helps Nick sell the pawpsicles to lemmings before recycling the sticks as lumber to mice construction workers for an additional price.

When Judy confronts Nick, he stumps her by revealing permits for his actions. He is quick to deduce her fears and insecurities, warning her that Zootopia is not a paradise and predicting her inevitable failure and return home. And as a fox that had managed to trick her, Nick concludes that she should know what kind of position she is in because of the animal she is and nothing will change that. As a self-assured Nick leaves the bunny in shock (and with her feet in wet cement), a depressed Judy returns to her apartment with her hopes of being accepted on the police force dented.

The next day, Judy continues to do her job, but is increasingly depressed as she only succeeds in aggravating animals with parking tickets. As she dejectedly asserts to herself that she is a real cop, she is alerted to a crime courtesy of Duke Weaselton, who had robbed a floral shop. Ecstatic, she removes her parking enforcement officer garb and pursues Weaselton, taking the chase into Little Rodentia. She apprehends the crook with a sign made of a large donut, rescuing a young female shrew in the process (not to mention complimenting her hair), and delivers him to the ZPD office. Upon her arrival, a furious Bogo confronts her on abandoning her post, insisting that a parking enforcement officer is all she is qualified to be.

Just then, Mrs. Otterton arrives at Bogo's office, desperately seeking someone to search for her missing husband Emmitt; Judy volunteers for the challenge, much to Mrs. Otterton's joy. Bogo, outraged, fires Judy, but a talk with Assistant Mayor Bellwether forces him to assign Judy the case. He makes a deal that she solve the case in 48 hours, or else she will resign.

As Clawhauser provides Judy with the case file on Emmitt, Judy realizes that Emmitt had bought a pawpsicle from Nick on the day of his disappearance and confronts Nick. Using a carrot pen with a recording function, she tricks Nick into admitting to tax evasion to blackmail him into aiding her investigation.

Nick brings Judy to the last place he saw Emmitt, the Mystic Springs Oasis, which to Judy's horror and discomfort is a naturalist club. The receptionist, Yax, mentions that Emmett was last seen jumping into a limousine and provided the plate number. Having no authority to run a plate, Nick takes Judy to the Department of Mammal Vehicles, to seek the assistance of his friend Flash. To Judy's dismay, Flash and his co-workers are all sloths. After some frustration with the sloth's slow nature and Nick telling Flash a joke, they obtain the plate number, identifying which company the limo belonged to. Upon stepping out of the DMV, Judy is dismayed to find that night had already fallen.

The pair locate Tundratown Limo Service where the limo was parked. But, to Judy's annoyance, it is locked, and she lacks a warrant to search the place. Believing his debt to her paid, Nick asks for the recording, but Judy casually tosses her pen over the fence, tricking Nick into climbing over and thus giving himself a trespassing violation for additional blackmail, also providing Judy "probable cause" to search the premises, which she thinks is helping plenty.

When they locate the limo, they discover the back compartment riddled with claw marks, thinking that Emmitt was attacked. Nick soon realizes that the limo belongs to Mr. Big, Tundratown's most feared crime boss. Before they can get out, a pair of polar bears find them and take them directly to Mr. Big, whom Judy discovers is a actually a small arctic shrew. When Mr. Big addresses Judy, Nick tries to prevent her from revealing that she was a cop, but she directly accuses Big of being behind Emmitt's disappearance. Scorned, Mr. Big orders the pair "iced", but before the polar bears could drop them into a pool of icy water, his daughter Fru Fru―the same shrew Judy saved the previous day―arrives, reminding her father that he had promised not to ice anyone at her wedding and recognizes Judy.

Fru Fru tells her father what Judy did for her, resulting in Big sparing Judy and Nick's lives. In gratitude, Mr. Big kisses Judy on both cheeks and invites her and Nick to Fru Fru's wedding.

During the wedding dinner, Mr. Big explains that Emmitt was his florist, who was coming to tell him something important but, en route, suddenly went savage and attacked his chauffeur Manchas, a black jaguar. Judy and Nick go to see Manchas at his home in the Rainforest District for questioning. The traumatized jaguar describes the attack and mentions that Otterton had been yelling about "Night howlers", but before he can reveal anything else, Manchas suddenly turns savage himself and chases the pair. Judy calls for backup as they reach a lift drop-off. Before Manchas can reach Nick, Judy chains the jaguar's leg to a pole as the duo escape.

Falling from the rainforest trees, the pair become entangled in a series of vines as Bogo and reinforcements arrive. Judy leads Bogo to Manchas, insisting that the case is bigger than she thought, only to find the jaguar has mysteriously disappeared. Bogo demands Judy to resign, and she nearly does, but Nick takes a stand, scolding the ZPD for deliberately setting Judy up to fail and insisting they still have 10 more hours to solve the case. As the pair leave the Rainforest District in a gondola, Judy learns from Nick that he was bullied by prey animals as a child just for being a fox and resolved to live out the "sly fox" stereotype so as to never be hurt that way again. Judy's attitude towards Nick softens significantly.

Nick soon realizes that the traffic cameras may have captured how Manchas disappeared, and the pair consult Assistant Mayor Bellwether, who had earlier promised to help Judy. Reviewing the footage, they learn that a pair of wolves captured Manchas and trace their truck to Cliffside Asylum. As they infiltrate the facility after distracting the guards, they find all the missing predators, including Emmitt and Manchas, are imprisoned there, having all gone savage. The duo then discover Mayor Lionheart to be keeping the savage predators imprisoned and their existence concealed from Bogo to prevent public panic, and by extension, the loss of his reputation. Judy uses her phone camera to record Lionheart's admission, but their presence is given away when her cell phone starts abruptly ringing, as a result of her getting an inconvenient call from her parents. As Lionheart summons the wolf guards, Judy uses a toilet to flush herself and Nick to the outside. With her evidence intact, Judy calls the ZPD, who raid the asylum and arrest Lionheart.

Later, before attending an important press conference, Judy offers Nick a chance to join ZPD, stating that she would like him as a partner. But when it comes her turn to speak, a pressured Judy describes the savaged mammals' condition as them reverting to their natural instincts. Nick is outraged at her public insinuations and confronts Judy after her address. When the argument gets heated enough for Nick to angrily demand to know if she feels threatened by him, Judy unthinkingly and fearfully assumes a defensive posture against him. This reflexive act along with Judy's canister of fox repellent, seemingly confirms her bigotry against foxes to Nick, who angrily walks out on her offer.

As time goes on, more cases of predators going savage begin sprouting across Zootopia with no known cause or cure, resulting in fear and discrimination from the prey population. As Judy watches the chaos her actions set in motion, she eventually declines to become the face of ZPD despite Acting Mayor Bellwether's request, saying that even though it is what she wanted, her attempts to make the world a better place had only broken it. Brokenhearted, she resigns from the force.

Two months later, Zootopia is divided, Judy has returned home to Bunnyburrow and rejoined the family business as a carrot farmer, just as Nick had predicted when they first met. One day, she meets a much more mature Gideon, who has since partnered with her parents. Gideon apologizes to her about bullying her during their childhood, to which Judy accepts. Subsequently, Judy notices some flowers her parents had been growing to protect their crops. As Stu explains that the flowers have severe psychotropic effects on mammals, Gideon also reveals that the flowers are nicknamed "night howlers".

Realizing she was wrong regarding the savage predators, Judy takes her father's truck and returns to Zootopia. With help from Finnick, Judy tracks down Nick and admits that she was wrong about predators. As Judy becomes visibly upset, tearfully apologizing and condemning herself as "just a dumb bunny" for her words and actions believing he can hate her forever after they set things right, Nick opens up, forgives and comforts her. Their friendship is reconciled, and their investigation is renewed.

Recalling that Duke Weaselton had stolen a bunch of Night howler bulbs when she first arrested him, Judy and Nick confront him, demanding to know who he was stealing the flowers for. When he refuses to cooperate, they take him to Mr. Big, who threatens to ice him unless he told them what they wanted to know. During this time, Mr. Big designates Judy the godmother of his future grandchild, whom Fru Fru is planning on naming Judy in her honor.

Using Weaselton's information, the pair track down a ram named Doug, who is cultivating and weaponizing Night howlers at a secret lab hidden in an abandoned subway car. Entering the lab, they spy on Doug, who mentions during a phone call with his mysterious client that he "hit a tiny little otter through the open window of a moving car". These words and the sight of photos of all the "savaged" predators on Doug's transit map, make Judy realize that the reason why Otterton, Manchas, and all the other predators went savage is because Doug shot them all with the night howler toxin via a dart gun, completely unnoticed. As two more sheep arrive, Judy takes the opportunity to steal the subway car, hoping to get the evidence to ZPD. As the sheep give chase, they spot an oncoming train about to collide with them, so Judy knocks one of the sheep onto a track switch, diverting the car onto a different track. Unfortunately, the car is going too fast, forcing the pair to abandon ship, resulting in it crashing and bursting into flames. However, Nick reveals that he retrieved a case containing the dart gun and its night howler toxin ammo.

As they cut through the Natural History Museum to get to the ZPD, the pair encounter Bellwether, who insists on taking the evidence. Suspicious as to how Bellwether knew of their whereabouts, Judy and Nick try to leave, only to find a large, sinister-looking ram blocking their way. Realizing Bellwether is the true mastermind of the conspiracy, Judy and Nick try to flee, but Judy accidentally cuts her leg on a tusk display. Judy gives the case to Nick so he can get it to Bogo, but Nick refuses to leave her behind. As Bellwether and her ram henchmen close in, the pair use a stuffed bunny as a decoy and they run for the exit, only to be knocked into a pit by the big ram. Bellwether then shoots Nick with the dart gun, causing him to apparently go savage, and frames a call for help to the ZPD.

While trying to evade Nick, Judy asks Bellwether why she was doing this. Bellwether elaborates on her plan to divide predator and prey so the latter can take over Zootopia. When it seems like Nick was about to kill her, it turns out it was all an act; they had secretly swapped the dart gun's ammo with blueberries from Judy's parents' farm. With Bellwether's monologue recorded on Judy's carrot pen, the reunited ZPD prey and predator arrive and arrest her.

Later, Judy is reinstated into the ZPD. She is thanked by Mrs. Otterton for having found (and cured) her husband, watches the peace she has returned thanks to her actions, and months later, speaks at Nick's police graduation ceremony and later takes him on as her partner. During role call and briefing, when Bogo seemingly assigned them to parking duty even after everything that had happened, he admits he was kidding, and assign the pair to hunt down a road racer zipping through Savanna Central. As they roll out on their first assignment, they apprehend the road racer and, to Judy's shock and Nick's amusement, discover he is none other than Flash.

During the credits, Judy, Nick, and the Zootopia populace dance at a concert performance of "*Try Everything*" by Gazelle. She dances to the music and glances over at Nick, who is simply standing. She playfully bumps him to get him to dance, to which he complies.