Pettopia

Pettopia is the spin-off prequel to Finding Meow-Meow. It released November 7, 2016 by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios.

## Synopsis

Taking place before Finding Meow-Meow, Zoe Trent travels to the city of Pettopia to make her dream of becoming a cop come true. Teaming up with sly mongoose, Sunil Nevla.

## Plot

Zoe Trent is a little dog with determination to become the first dog on the police force. Despite Zoe being the academy valedictorian,  The Chief doubts her potential and delegates her to parking duty. On her first day, she is hustled by a con artist mongoose duo, Sunil Nevla and Finnick.

Zoe abandons parking duty to arrest Duke Weaselton, a weasel who stole a bag of crocus bulbs known as *Holicithias-Knick Knack Patty wack give a dog a bone modern major general I know the kings of england*. She successfully does so, but is reprimanded by Bogo when she turns him in. As he is reprimanding her, an otter named Mrs. Otterton enters Bogo's office pleading for someone to find her husband Emmitt, one of fourteen predators who have gone missing. Bogo is forced to let a volunteering Zoe take the case when Assistant Mayor Ericka Clemmington praises the assignment and informs Mayor Leodore Lion. He gives Zoe 48 hours to find Emmitt on the condition that she must resign if she fails.

Deducing that Sunil was the last to see Emmitt, Zoe blackmails him into assisting her by covertly recording his confession of tax evasion. Sunil reluctantly agrees to help Zoe and they partner with Penny Ling, Vinnie Terrio, Russel Ferguson and Minka Mark to solve the case. They get the plate number for the limo he was in and investigate.  They track Otterton to a limousine owned by crime boss Pepper Clark, who reveals Otterton went "savage"—reverted to a feral state—and attacked her chauffeur Manchas. At his home, Manchas mentions Otterton yelled about "Night Howlers' ' before the attack. Manchas himself then turns savage and chases the pair. Zoe saves Sunil by trapping Manchas and calls the ZPD for help, but Manchas disappears before they arrive. Bogo demands Zoe's resignation, but Sunil defends Zoe and they move on.

Zoe and Sunil then travel to the City Hall to access the city's traffic cameras. They discover Manchas was captured by wolves, who Zoe surmises are the "Night Howlers". They locate the missing predators—who have all turned savage—imprisoned at Cliffside Asylum, where Lion is secretly imprisoning them while attempting to determine the cause of their behavior. Zoe records video of Lionheart discussing the plot with her cell phone and reports him to the ZPD; Lionheart and the asylum staff are arrested for false imprisonment, and Clemmington becomes the new mayor.

Zoe gives a speech about how predators may be reverting back to their savage ways. Sunil is hurt by the speech and deserts Zoe. Zoe feels terrible about how predators are being treated and resigns. Back at home she becomes a bone farmer and overhears about her flowers being called Night Howlers. Zoe pieces together the clues and reunites with Sunil to solve the case. They talk to Weaselton who confesses selling night howlers to rams using them to make preditors go savage. They sneak into the secret lab and try to bring the evidence to the police station. Zoe, Sunil and the others obtain the serum as evidence, but before they can reach the PPD, Clemington confronts them in the Natural History Museum, revealing herself as the mastermind behind a prey-supremacist conspiracy to frame predators as dangerous and savage. Clemmington retrieves the evidence after Sunil refuses to abandon an injured Zoe. She shoots Sunil with a serum pellet to make him attack Zoe and makes a call to the PPD, but the pellets she is using are revealed to have been replaced with blueberries by Sunil. Zoe then baits Clemington into openly declaring her role in the attacks and records the confession just as Bogo and his deputies arrive at the scene.

Ericka is arrested for her treachery, while Lionheart publicly denies knowledge of her plot and defends his imprisonment of the savage predators as a necessary precaution to maintain public safety. The savage animals are freed and cured and Zoe rejoins the PPD. Sunil, Pepper, Russell, Vinnie, Penny Ling and Minka graduate from the Pettopia Police Academy as police officers and become Zoe's partners. But later they are picked up by a young Dr. Twombly and taken to the Littlest Pet Shop/Dental Office. A post-credit scene reveals them after the events of Finding Meow-Meow still in their bags trying to escape.

## Reception

### Box Office

*Pettopia* made over 1,2600 at the the Box Office. It is the third Pixar film to gross over $1 billion worldwide, behind *Toy Story 3* and *Finding Dory*.

## MPAA rating

Unlike Finding Meow-Meow this film is rated PG by the MPAA for Mild Action, Language and Rude Humor.

## Cameos

* Bye N Large and Triple Mint Gum appear in the animal shelter.
* The Pizza Planet Truck appears when Zoe first arrives in Pettopia.
* A113 appears on the back of Zoe's phone.
* A poster of Jackson Stormm from *Cars 3* appears in the city.

## References to *Finding Meow-Meow*

* Zoe got her paw hurt by getting it cut on one of the museum exhibits.
* Blythe started working at the Littlest Pet Shop/Dental Office on Valentine's Day.
* The way the pets blackmail Weaselton into telling them about the darts is similar to Cattella blackmailing the crab into telling her and Meow-Meow where Carl is.
* The name of Gideon Gold's sidekick is Arnold, which was also the name of the pigeon that almost swallowed Carl and Cattella.

## Trivia

* This is Pixar's first spin-off film and their second Prequel, after *Monsters University*.
* This is the sixth Pixar film to display the words "The End" at the very end of the film, after *A Bug's Life*, *Finding Nemo*, *Finding Meow-Meow*, *Ratatouille* and *Finding Dory*.
* This is the fourth Pixar film to be featured on Disney's As Told by Emojis, after *Finding Nemo*, *Finding Meow-Meow* and *Finding Dory*.
* This is the first Pixar film composed by Thomas Newman not to be directed by Andrew Stanton.
* This is only the third Pixar film released in November not to be released on Thanksgiving weekend, after *Monsters, inc.* and *The Incredibles*.
* Zoe's first design as a kid was with glasses and braces.
* Sunil has a way bigger speaking role in this then *Finding Meow-Meow*.
* This is the seventh Pixar film to have a Post-Credit scene, after *Finding Nemo*, *Finding Meow-Meow*, *Cars*, *Brave*, *Monsters University*, and *Finding Dory*.
* This is the only Pixar film released in the 2010s to be released in November not to be released on a Thanksgiving weekend.