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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here! As you know, I absolutely loved Zootopia,
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and each time I watch the movie, I find something new to enjoy.
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But because of the way animated movies are made, there's often tons of incredible stuff
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that the animators work on which doesn't make it into the final movie.
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So, in this video, I'm going to be taking a look at the dozens of amazing deleted scenes
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and rejected ideas from Zootopia that hit the cutting room floor.
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And a quick warning that of course there are spoilers ahead, so if you want to avoid any
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spoilers, click here for my spoiler-free review or come back after you've seen the movie.
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Just before I get started I've got another fantastic copy of this gorgeous hardback book
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The Art of Zootropolis to give away. All you have to do is subscribe and leave
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a comment about the deleted scenes on this video.
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To give you an idea of what you can look forward to in the book, there's tons of amazing concept
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art, sketches, and information that give an incredible peek into the making of the movie.
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First up is the movie's opening scene which sets Judy up to become a police officer in
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Zootopia although in a different way than we see in the final movie.
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The alternate opening is set in Woodlands Elementary School rather than at the Carrot
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Days Festival and has Judy practising a song with her classmates while their teacher Mrs
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Armadillo accompanies them on the piano. Judy's friends each sing a line about what
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they want to be when they grow up, but when it comes to Judy's turn, she won't sing that
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she wants to grow carrots. This opening establishes how animals are stereotyped,
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for example, Sally the squirrel sings that she wants to sell nuts and the Rory the racoon
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sings that he wants to drive a trash truck. But Judy proves she's capable of other things
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when Bobby Catmull the cougar cub is about to fall out of a tree.
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Judy grabs Mrs Armadillo's laser pen and gets Bobby to chase its light down the tree to
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safety. A police offer then arrives and gives Judy
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a Junior ZPD badge and says she should become a police officer.
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And when Judy's classmate scoffs that she's just a bunny, the officer replies "This is
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Zootopia where anyone can be anything", a moment which echoes what Judy does and says
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to Finnick later in the final movie. Other elements from this alternate opening
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scene also appeared in a slightly different form in the final movie.
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Bobby Catmull appears as the cougar who creates the various sound effects during Judy's performance
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at Carrot Days and Mrs Armadillo is the landlady at Judy's apartment complex.
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And the scene in the alternate opening which features a deer being mock-attacked by a predator
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as part of the rehearsals for the school's show mirrors both the dramatic scene Judy
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performs with fake blood in the opening of the final movie and also the final movie's
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climactic showdown when Nick fakes turning savage to catch Bellwether.
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Since Zootopia came out, there've been tons of fans shipping Judy and Nick, and an incredible
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amount of fan art on just that subject. So, shippers of Nick and Judy everywhere will
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likely love this next deleted scene I'm going to talk about which features Nick meeting
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Judy's parents and her dad assuming that Nick is Judy's boyfriend!
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The scene would have appeared in the movie just after everyone's favourite fox and bunny
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team escape Manchas who's gone savage. In the scene, Judy and Nick arrive at her
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very pink apartment which prompts Nick to question Judy's description of where they
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were going as a 'safe-house'. Judy's reply that it's a 'safe house, with
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a space in the middle, a house that is safe' is a fantastic riff on Nick's earlier words
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to Judy that he was not falsely advertising the Redwood he sold the rodents as it was
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actually 'red wood with a space in the middle, wood that is red'.
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Judy's family have come to the big city to pay her a surprise visit, and when Judy's
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father first sees Nick, he asks her to pass him the fox-taser, and then worries that Nick
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is her boyfriend. The family also discovers that Judy is a meter
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maid, not a real cop as she'd led them to believe, so her father demands that she leave
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Zootopia and return home with them, but Nick steps in to defend her.
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In the final movie, this moment was replaced with Chief Bogo rather than her father trying
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to make Judy leave the police force.
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There are some really amazing designs for Judy's family home in Bunnyburrow that didn't
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make it to the final movie. The huge size of Judy's family and house was
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going to be a major feature of the film with over 200 bunnies running around.
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In fact, originally, Judy's family was so large that her father couldn't even remember
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her name! Also, the family home was going to be centred
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around a constantly-in-use kitchen and a dining area that rotated slowly allowing new hungry
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bunnies to take the place of bunnies who'd already finished eating.
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And The Bunnyburrow district was also going to feature more of the Totoro-inspired buildings
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we only saw briefly in the final film at the Bunnyburrow train station.
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During the chase through Little Rodentia, you might have spotted a billboard for the
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fast food restaurant Chez Cheese. In an early draft of the movie, Finnick would
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take the drive-thru orders making use of his giant ears while Nick worked cleaning the
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cheese filters. In that version of the movie, Clawhauser was
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also a delivery cheetah for the restaurant, making deliveries to the district's rodents.
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Chez Cheese was going to tell the story of how Nick and Finnick met.
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The movie's co-director Jared Bush has said this was his favourite deleted location and
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that he'd love to see a short film featuring the fast food joint.
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Another fast food joint which didn't appear was Bug-Burga which is where Zootopia's predators
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would go to eat. Because predators don't eat other animals
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in Zootopia, to get their protein they eat insects, so Bug-Burga served up "grasshopper
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shakes, cricket chips and cicada burgers." There is a tiny reference to Bug-Burga in
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the final film in the scene where Nick is leading Judy through an alleyway shortcut
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and there are some Bug-Burga fast food boxes littered on the ground.
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Originally, there was going to be more of Nick's backstory explored in the film, including
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a scene where we get to see Nick as a cub with his father.
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It's a touching moment where Nick's father goes with his son to pitch a business idea
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for a loan so he can start his own family tailoring shop called Suit-topia.
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The scene wasn't used as it was part of the initial idea for the film where the story
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was told from Nick's perspective as the central character, rather than through Judy's eyes.
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We know Nick has always had an entrepreneurial mind with his pawpsicle business, but in an
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early version of Zootopia, just like his father, Nick went to the Zootopian banks to pitch
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a business idea, but Nick's idea was for an entertainment venue called Wild Times.
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In a scene which was actually voiced by Jason Bateman, Nick explained his idea to all of
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the city's bankers, who just happened to all be prey.
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It's a funny scene where Nick visits banks like Lemming Brothers, Borrow Burrow, JP Mare-Gan
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and Slothoman Brothers, and gets rejected every time.
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Eventually, Nick ends up visiting the polar bear gangster boss Koslov who loans him the
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money.
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The designs for Wild Times were well-advanced before the idea was abandoned.
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Wild Times was an indoor arcade where predators could let their instincts loose a little.
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The amusement park featured a huge range of games and rides.
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For example, there was a roller coaster called the Roar-A-Coaster where predators could roar
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and be themselves. By the way, there's a glimpse of what might
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have been the building for Wild Times in the scene where Judy goes to find Nick by the
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small stone bridge.
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Koslov, who Nick takes a loan from to finance his Wild Times arcade, did appear in the final
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movie as the polar bear who carries Mr Big in his hands when Nick and Judy have been
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caught by Kevin and Raymond. In earlier versions though, he ran the mafia
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in Tundra Town and he owned a restaurant called Koslov's Palace which served as a front for
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his shady operations. The design of the interior of Koslov's Palace
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used warm colours to contrast with the icy blue and white of the cold exterior.
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The scene we see in the final movie of Nick and Finnick hustling Judy into paying for
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their Jumbo Pop is a much revised version from an earlier version of the movie.
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That early alternate scene in Jumbeaux's Café shows Nick claiming that his son has a condition
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called "pachydermiopathy", which according to Nick means that his son thinks he's an
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elephant. Nick and Finnick put on a hilarious performance
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with Nick begging the ice cream parlour owner not to break his son's heart when he refuses
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to serve him what he wants, and then to cap it all Nick claims he left his wallet at the
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orphanage. Nick senses Judy's fallen for his scheme,
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so lays the sob story on even further, which ends in Judy pulling out her cash to pay.
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It's still very funny as it displays Nick and Finnick's con-man skills although Judy
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probably comes off a bit more naïve and silly in this version.
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In the final movie, after Judy discovers she was hustled by Nick, she goes back to her
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apartment feeling really fed up, and gets a call from her parents who discover she's
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just a meter maid. There's an earlier and longer version of this
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scene where we see Judy travel back to the apartment on the subway, getting squashed
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by two larger animals. In this version, after discarding her microwaved
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carrots for one, she goes to call her mum, but stops herself.
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However, the phone accidentally dials and she ends up talking to her parents and her
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grandfather who's very prejudiced against foxes.
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In this version, her parents don't realise she's just a meter maid which makes Judy feel
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guilty for hiding the truth from them. It's a much sadder version of the scene than
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the one in the movie and ends with Judy curling up on her bed among her cuddly toys.
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By the way, Judy's grandfather "Pop-Pop" is the rabbit we see at the train station in
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the final movie, the one who bears a very close resemblance to Carl from Up.
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There's a deleted scene in which Judy starts her investigation into the missing otter,
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Emmet Otterton, by using the office and computer of an elephant cop who's away on vacation.
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It's a fun scene where Judy has to use her agility to use a computer that's way bigger
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than she is. The scene was edited out of the final movie
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to keep the film's pace up and to show Judy getting her lead on Otterton by working more
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closely with Clawhauser.
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Designs for a rough biker-style bar for sheep were developed although the location didn't
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make it into the final film. The bar was called The Cloven Hoof and it
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was set in a sleazy part of town. It's likely that we would have seen Doug and
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other bad sheep like Jesse and Woolter hanging out here.
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The filmmakers also had plans for a Nocturnal District, which was going to be an area of
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caves underneath the city where nocturnal animals like bats would live.
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In the end, Zootopia's story didn't require the location so the idea wasn't fully developed,
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however, it might be linked to the Bat Eyewitness figure who appears together with Clawhauser
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in Zootopia character packs, and who is described as visiting Clawhauser at the police station
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quite frequently as he often witnesses crimes.
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The Meadowlands is another district that we never got to see properly.
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It's basically a broad grassland area where the sheep and grazing animals live.
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We did get a tiny peek at the edge of the Meadowlands though, as the Cliffside Asylum
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was just on the border. In an early draft of the movie, there was
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a sheep conspiracy where sheep would disguise themselves as wolves to deliberately incriminate
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predators, making them look dangerous. If you'd like to find out about one of the
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sheep characters, called Wooly, who used to do this, then check out my video on Zootopia's
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Deleted Characters.
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Another location that didn't make it into the final film was Outback Island, which was
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home to Australian animals such as kangaroos, koalas, platypuses and dingos, who all together
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were known as "Outbackers". This location was cut as it didn't fit the
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main story, although it does appear in the book "Zootopia: The Stinky Cheese Caper (and
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Other Cases from the ZPD Files)."
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There was an additional scene at the Natural History Museum which was cut from the film
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due to time constraints. The cut scene featured Bellwether making a
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speech to Judy about the origins of Zootopia. Those origins relate back to a painting which
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if you're extremely eagle-eyed you can glimpse in the museum as well as at the subway station.
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The painting shows lions and zebras shaking paws and agreeing to predators and prey living
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in peace. While giving the speech in this scene, Bellwether
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looks out at and talks about the fountain in the square which represents the watering
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hole around which the animals bonded when they declared peace.
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Although we do get to see the Palm Hotel and Casino on the train ride Judy takes into the
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city when she arrives, there were also extensive designs and scenes storyboarded inside the
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hotel that did not get used. The design of the hotel was inspired by super-luxurious
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hotels in Dubai, and Gazelle had a penthouse apartment at the Palm hotel.
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A scene with Judy and Nick falling down the side of the hotel while escaping from a ram
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was storyboarded but dropped in favour of the scene in the Rainforest District where
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Judy and Nick fall through the vines while escaping from the savage Manchas.
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An earlier version of the movie's action-packed finale was set in a large stadium called Zootennial
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Stadium. There was going to be a spectacular Olympic
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Games-style opening show called Animalia which showcased the history of Zootopia.
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It was going to feature Gazelle, who's a prey animal, performing with her predator back-up
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dancers. And there were going to be flying squirrels
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and pigs, and animals shot out of confetti cannons.
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And that huge show would have acted as the backdrop for the movie's climactic showdown.
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The film did, of course, end with Gazelle performing with her tiger dancers at a pop
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concert, but that was after Judy and Nick had already caught the baddies.
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The final version we see in the movie was a cool way to show off the movie's credits.
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So guys, do you think any of those deleted scenes or ideas should have been in the final
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movie? And what would you like to see in a Zootopia
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sequel? I can't wait to hear your thoughts in the
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comments below. And don't forget to subscribe and comment
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for your chance to win this beautiful Art of Zootropolis hardback book.
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If you enjoyed this video, check out my other Zootopia videos including 7 awesome characters
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who were deleted from the movie, 25 things you didn't know about the making of Zootopia,
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and also coming shortly I'll have a brand new easter egg video.
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You'll be able to find all them right here in my full Zootopia video playlist.
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Thanks for watching and see ya next time! Yippee-ki-yay movie lovers!