Zootopia

***Zootopia*** is a 2016 American computer-animated buddy cop action comedy film directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore. It was theatrically released in the United States on March 4, 2016.

## Plot

In a world populated by anthropomorphic mammals, Judy Hopps, a rabbit from rural Bunnyburrow, fulfils her childhood dream of becoming the first rabbit police officer in the urban city of Zootopia. Despite being the academy valedictorian, Judy is assigned to parking duty by ZPD Chief Bogo.

On her first day on the job, Judy is hustled by a con artist fox duo, Nick Wilde and Finnick. The next day, small-time crook Duke Weaselton steals a bag of Midnicampum holicithias crocus bulbs. Judy abandons her post to arrest Weaselton, and is reprimanded by Bogo. Mrs. Otterton unexpectedly barges into Bogo's office, pleading for someone to find her husband Emmitt, one of fourteen missing predators. Judy volunteers, and the city's assistant mayor, a sheep named Dawn Bellwether, praises the assignment. Bogo has no choice but to agree, but secretly orders Judy to resign if she fails after forty-eight hours.

Having ascertained that Nick was the last to see Emmitt, Judy forces him to help her by covertly recording his confession to tax evasion on her carrot pen. They track Emmitt's belongings to a limousine owned by crime boss Mr. Big, an arctic shrew whom Nick has a history with. Mr. Big reveals that Emmitt suddenly went "savage" and attacked Mr. Big's chauffeur Manchas, a black jaguar.

Upon interrogation, Manchas explains that, prior to attacking him, Emmitt yelled about "Night Howlers". Manchas then turns savage himself, chasing the pair. Judy traps Manchas and calls the ZPD for help, but Manchas vanishes before they arrive. Bogo demands Judy's resignation, but Nick reminds Bogo that she still has ten hours remaining. While leaving the scene, Nick reveals to Judy that he became a con artist because, as a child, he tried to join the Junior Ranger Scouts, but was bullied and rejected simply for being a fox.

At City Hall, Bellwether offers Judy and Nick access to Zootopia's traffic cameras. They discover Manchas was taken by timberwolves, whom Judy surmises are the "Night Howlers". Following the wolves, the duo locates Emmitt, Manchas, and the other missing predators, who are all "savage" and imprisoned in a hidden asylum. Zootopia's mayor, Leodore Lionheart, ordered their capture, and is trying to quietly ascertain the cause of their feral behavior. Lionheart and the asylum staff are soon arrested for false imprisonment and Bellwether becomes the new mayor.

Judy, praised for solving the case, asks Nick to join the ZPD as her partner. However, he angrily abandons Judy after she claims that innate predatory biology is behind the mysterious "savageness" epidemic. Judy's comments, broadcast on television, incite fear and discrimination against predators throughout Zootopia.

Wracked with guilt, Judy quits her job and returns to Bunnyburrow to manage her parent's vegetable stand. There, she learns that "Night Howlers" are actually Midnicampum flowers, which have severe, lasting psychotropic effects if ingested. Realizing that someone is deliberately using the flowers to turn predators savage, Judy returns to Zootopia and reconciles with Nick. Aided by Mr. Big, the pair interrogates Weaselton, who admits he was hired by a ram named Doug to steal the Night Howler bulbs. They find Doug in a laboratory hidden in the city subway, where he manufactures a Night Howler serum to be shot at predators via a dart pistol. Judy and Nick obtain a serum gun as evidence, but before they can reach the ZPD, Bellwether confronts them in the Natural History Museum, revealing herself to have masterminded this prey-supremacist conspiracy. The duo become trapped in an exhibit, and Bellwether shoots Nick with the serum gun in an attempt to have him kill Judy. However, the duo had earlier replaced the darts with blueberries. Judy reveals she recorded Bellwether's confession with the carrot pen, just as the ZPD arrives in answer to Bellwether's summons.

Bellwether and her accomplices are arrested. The still-imprisoned Lionheart publicly denies knowledge of her plot, and insists that imprisoning the infected predators was a "wrong thing for the right reason". With the cause of the epidemic identified, the predators are cured, and Judy is reinstated into the ZPD. Months later, Nick graduates from the police academy, becoming her partner and the first fox police officer.

## Cast

**Ginnifer Goodwin** as Judy Hopps

**Jason Bateman** as Nick Wilde

**Idris Elba** as Chief Bogo

**Jenny Slate** as Dawn Bellwether

**Nate Torrence** as Benjamin Clawhauser

**Bonnie Hunt** as Bonnie Hopps

**Don Lake** as Stu Hopps

**Tommy Chong** as Yax

**J. K. Simmons** as Mayor Lionheart

**Octavia Spencer** as Mrs. Otterton

**Alan Tudyk** as Duke Weaselton

**Shakira** as Gazelle