Leodore L Lionheart

> In Zootopia, anyone can be anything!
>
> Lionheart's slogan

**Mayor Leodore Lionheart** is a male lion and a supporting character in *Zootopia*. He is the longstanding mayor of Zootopia.Template:Animal-CharacterFile:Profile - Leodore L Lionheart.PNG

## Official Bio

*Mayor Leodore Lionheart is the noble leader of Zootopia, who coined the city’s mantra that Judy Hopps lives by: "In Zootopia, anyone can be anything."*

## Physical Appearance

Lionheart is a large, imposing lion with golden brown fur. He has brown eyes, a large black nose, a big chin, and long whiskers. Lionheart wears a pale blue business shirt and a red tie; over this he wears a deep blue business suit. Lionheart is able-looking and muscular, with a wide chest and strong paws with white claws. It is clear he carries himself with dignity and pride, showing off his magnificence with every step, from his long, lashing tail to his thick, golden mane.

## Personality

Lionheart's core personality is difficult to determine for two reasons: First, as a consummate politician, his words and public image do not always lineup with his actions. Second, the bulk of the movie's time in Zootopia covers the 2-3 days that Judy spends trying to solve the missing mammals crisis and we only have a few glimpses of him during that time. Since Lionheart is secretly responsible for sequestering the mammals at Cliffside Asylum, it's unknown how much the stress of this endeavor is affecting him.
To the citizens of Zootopia, he presents himself as a charming, noble and inspiring leader who desires to make sure that all mammals are treated equally within his city. However, we also see that he displays a certain amount of pompousness, sarcasm, and impatience.
He is the founder of the Mammal Inclusion Initiative that is intended to provide all mammals with an equal opportunity to pursue any career they desire. While this seems to present a balanced and fair-minded individual, we also see that he treats his Assistant Mayor as little more than a secretary giving her an office in the boiler room, calling her the demeaning nickname of "smellwether" and off-loading a tremendous amount of his workload upon her.
He champions Judy at her graduation as a shining example of his Mammal Inclusion Initiative but also mugs for the camera to the point of shoving Bellwether out of the way. He assigns Judy to the highly public posting in District One but without apparently consulting with ***Chief Bogo*** as to where she would actually be the most useful.
This makes it difficult to determine if he has ideals that he truly believes in or whether it's all simply political posturing used to gain popularity and voters.
However, we do see that Lionheart does have concern for the safety of Zootopia citizens. When predator mammals start going savage Lionheart somehow learns about this before the ZPD and takes the initiative of hiring a team of elite wolf guards to capture those mammals and take them to Cliffside Asylum to prevent a public panic and ensure that they won't be able to harm anyone while they look for a cure.
However, imprisonment without due process is illegal and as time rolls on without a solution in sight, Lionheart is showing signs of stress. When he is directly advised to come forward due to the urgency of the situation, he realizes his career would be threatened and decides against it.
In the film's closing moments, he admits that imprisoning the savage mammals was a "doing the wrong thing for the right reason" scenario leaving it unclear if there was real personal regret on display or simply a politician's sound bite.

## Role in the Film

 File:Lets See Those Teeth.png
Lionheart first appears during the ***graduation ceremony*** of Judy Hopps from the ***Zootopia Police Academy***, praising her as a shining example of his Mammal Inclusion Initiative as the first rabbit police officer. Noting Judy's impressive record, Lionheart assigns her to Precinct One in the city center. However, he apparently did not consult with Chief Bogo about this prior to making the announcement leaving the police chief with some resentment towards Judy. As the photo ops begin, Lionheart rather rudely pushes Bellwether aside and takes photos with Judy.

 File:Clear my afternoon.png  Zootopia is in the middle of big case of missing mammals with Lionheart and ***City Hall*** putting a great deal of pressure on the ZPD to find them. Unbeknown to anyone, these missing mammals had gone "off-the-rails crazy" and somehow Lionheart learns about this situation before the ZPD and takes matters into his own hands. To avoid a city-wide panic, he has assembled a team of mercenary wolf guards to patrol the city and capture the crazy animals, imprisoning them in an ***old asylum*** on the outskirts of the city to keep them from harming others and to try and find a cure for their condition.

 File:And you can't tell me why.png  Lionheart visits the asylum to meet with Dr. Badger for an update and expresses his frustration with the doctor's lack of progress. She responds that they may need to start considering the patient's biology as the only ones affected are predators whose behavior has turned savage. It appears that this is the first time Lionheart realizes that all the patients are predators but when he is advised to inform the public of this dire situation, Lionheart refuses as he realizes that, as a predator himself, the public would react badly to him as their mayor and potentially ruining his career. He also tells Dr. Badger that Chief Bogo is not aware of the situation and he wants to keep it that way.
Unknown to the duo, Judy and Nick are hiding in a nearby cell and Judy is recording their conversation on her cell phone. An ill-timed call from Judy's parents alerts Lionheart and Dr. Badger who summons the guards and triggers a lock-down of the facility. Fortunately, Judy and Nick are able escape by flushing themselves down a toilet which allow them to notify Bogo about this illegal situation.

 File:Lionheart-arrested.PNG
The asylum is raided that night by the ZPD, and Lionheart is arrested along with Dr. Badger. As Bogo and Judy take him away, Lionheart protests his arrest, explaining that he was trying to protect the city, though Judy unsympathetically accuses him of just trying to protect his job. Lionheart warns Judy that they still don't know why this is happening and the safety of Zootopia is at risk. His plea is ignored and the mayor is subsequently removed from office with Bellwether, being promoted to take his place.
Lionheart's fears prove to be correct. The news that predators are the only mammals going savage causes the tension and fear between predator and prey citizens to escalate. Over time, even more predators fall under the mysterious affliction, leading to public attacks.

 File:Lionheart Breaks Silence.png
In the end, however, it is revealed that the predators had turned savage because of a psychotropic drug created by Bellwether's henchman from unique flowers called "Night howlers", as part of her scheme to alienate predators and allow prey to gain power.
After Bellwether is thwarted, Lionheart disavows any knowledge of her plan and fully acknowledges that he did falsely imprisoned the animals at Cliffside. He again professes that he was just trying to protect the city and confidently declares his actions as a "classic, 'doing the wrong thing for the right reason' kind of a deal".
However, he was arrested for his illegal actions as he is last seen reading a *Fancy Cat* Magazine in his cell and talking to someone off-screen during Gazelle's concert. Since this scene takes place after Nick goes through police academy training and joins the ZPD, it means that, for the past year, Lionheart has been in jail awaiting trial or been convicted and sent to prison yet, despite his previous concern about losing his reputation, he now appears rather unfazed by his fate.
A sequel comic, ***Skunk Appreciation Parade**,* shows that he is later released from prison and reinstated as Mayor indicating that he paid his debt to society, was never convicted, or he was able to successfully appeal and overturn his conviction.

## Role in Literature

#### *Judy Hopps and the Missing Jumbo-Pop*

While not having an actual role in the book, Lionheart makes a cameo on the Zootopia Express, along with his niece, Dandy. Ernie, who thought that Dandy had *his* Jumbo-pop, is disappointed to see the lioness cub and her uncle.

#### *Skunk Appreciation Parade*

Mayor Lionheart begins the first annual Skunk Appreciation Parade by cutting a ribbon with a giant pair of scissors. Later in the comic, Nick Wilde snatches the scissors out of Lionheart's paws to help Gazelle on her runaway float.

## Trivia

* Lionheart is the 52nd mayor of Zootopia.
* According to ***The Essential Guide***, Lionheart likes "*voters* and *a happy atmosphere in the city*" and dislikes "*losing elections*".
* Lionheart's position as mayor originally went to ***Mayor Swinton*** in early versions of the film.
* Lionheart is the only lion in the film to not have a generic character model.
* Lionheart claims that he invented the slogan *"anyone can be anything"*. This conflicts with young Judy Hopps who says the founders of Zootopia invented this slogan, however, the filmmakers have directly stated that Lionheart "coined" the slogan. This means that Lionheart has been Mayor for over 15 years.
* Lionheart has small scars on his nose; in real life, a male adult lion would obtain these scars from fighting with other lions over territory and pride members.
* When designing Lionheart, Disney animators looked to and got inspiration from Mufasa in Disney's *The Lion King.* It is also possible that certain features about him, such as his name, personality and appearance, were also inspired by King Richard the Lionhearted from another Disney film, *Robin Hood*.
* Lionheart's first name is a combination of "Leo" and "Theodore".
* Lionheart having the aid of Bellwether is most likely a reference to the Biblical passage "The Lion and the Lamb".
	+ ***Rich Moore*** has said that it is a bit of a reference to the old saying *"March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb"*.
* At the Cliffside Asylum scene, Mayor Lionheart and Dr. Madge Honey Badger talk about the savaged animals. Dr. Madge mentions biology and Lionheart responds, "What do you mean, 'biology'?" In the *Junior Novelization*, which is also a deleted scene, he responds, "Biology, doctor? Spare me!"

## Relationships

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## Quotes

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## Gallery

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## References

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1. ↑ Disney Website
2. ↑ USA Today
3. ↑ StitchKingdom
4. ↑ Rich Moore via Twitter, May 8th, 2016