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  • Disney's latest animated movie takes us to the mammal-centric city of Zootopia, where

  • a con-artist fox and a rabbit rookie cop team up to crack a mysterious case of missing mammals.

  • I'm Jan and this is 25 fun facts you probably didn't know about Zootopia.

  • To get inspiration for the character of rookie rabbit police officer Judy Hopps, the filmmakers

  • not only visited a wildlife rescue centre, they even had live rabbits in the studio!

  • And observing those real-life rabbits really did help the animators, for example, they

  • noticed how rabbits' ears often turn towards a sound before they do and how and when their

  • noses twitch.

  • For the outfits Judy wears, the animators took cues from survivalist gear, the kind

  • of clothes worn by Navy SEALs, as well as leg protection worn by racehorses.

  • As for the violet colour of Judy's eyes, that was actually chosen after the animators decided

  • Judy's grey fur was too dull and needed a little purple adding to make it pop so it

  • reflected Judy's sparky personality.

  • When they were creating the character of scam-artist fox Nick Wilde, the filmmakers were inspired

  • by actor Cary Grant, and for Judy Hopps they channeled characters such as Superman and

  • Leslie Knope from TV comedy Parks and Recreation.

  • Although voice actors for animated movies typically record their parts separately, for

  • their lead roles as Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, Once Upon A Time star Ginnifer Goodwin and

  • Horrible Bosses star Jason Bateman recorded as much of their dialogue as possible together

  • which helped them get great chemistry between their characters.

  • As a reference to help them animate the scene where Nick Wilde tries to eat a teeny tiny

  • piece of cake, the artists filmed Disney and Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter

  • using a tiny fork to eat a very small slice of cake off a little coin!

  • After meeting pop star Shakira who plays Zootopia's own pop star Gazelle, the animators made revisions

  • to the design of her character. For example, Shakira suggested that Gazelle

  • should be curvier, so the artists made her hips bigger.

  • They also made Gazelle's eyes darker, her lashes longer, her hair wavier, and gave her

  • an outfit similar to one Shakira wore for one of her performances.

  • Officer Benjamin Clawhauser was initially going to be called Hugo and some original

  • concept art shows him wearing an Hawaiian shirt very similar to the one Nick Wilde wears

  • in the final movie.

  • The filmmakers wanted to make sure that each of the movie's animals was based on their

  • real-world behaviour. So, they spent 18 months researching a variety

  • of animals, finding out how they interact, socialise, and build communities in the wild.

  • They spoke to experts from all over the world and visited Disney's Animal Kingdom, San Diego

  • Zoo Safari Park, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

  • And they even spent two weeks in Kenya learning all about animal personality and behaviour.

  • The filmmakers' research also helped them decide which roles to give to each animal

  • in the world of Zootopia. For example, they found out that cape buffaloes are tough and

  • relentless, so they opted to make Zootopia's chief of police a buffalo.

  • During their trip to Africa, the filmmakers noticed that whenever they drove by a herd

  • of buffaloes, the buffaloes would stop what they were doing and fix them with their gaze.

  • That gave the animators the idea to give Chief Bogo that same stare when he looks at Nick

  • Wilde.

  • The filmmakers named the head of the Zootopia Police Department Chief Bogo after the Swahili

  • word m'bogo which means cape buffalo.

  • According to Art director Cory Loftis, when they were designing Bogo, the filmmakers researched

  • police officers who are also bodybuilders and discovered that they could not fasten

  • the top button on their shirts, so they took that idea for Chief Bogo.

  • Because Assistant Mayor Bellwether is a sheep, the animators decided that all of her six

  • outfits should be made of wool! And on her orange skirt, you'll even spot

  • a scissor pattern, which represents shears!

  • For the scene where Nick Wilde touches the big tuft of wool on Bellwether's head to see

  • how soft it is, the artists had to create new technology as touching fur is normally

  • something they tend to avoid as it's especially complex in computer-generated animation.

  • Speaking of fur, each mouse you see in Zootopia has around 400,000 strands of hair, which

  • is the same number of strands that made up Elsa's hair in Frozen!

  • And, in case you're wondering what that means for the larger animals, well, a giraffe has

  • 9.2 million hairs!

  • For the design of Mayor Leodore Lionheart, the animators took inspiration from Mufasa

  • in Disney's The Lion King. And they used technology they'd developed

  • when making Frozen to animate his huge mane of hair.

  • The clothes worn by the Ottertons are another example of the level of detail the animators

  • went to when they were designing the animals' outfits in the movie.

  • The Ottertons wear thick fisherman-knit sweaters with little fish on them.

  • Early on in the animation process, Disney story artist Raymond Persi recorded a temporary

  • voice track for the character of Flash, who works at the DMV, aka the Department of Mammal

  • Vehicles. But the filmmakers and Chief Creative Officer

  • John Lasseter loved Persi's performance so much that they decided to keep it for the

  • final film.

  • According to the filmmakers, to design Zootopia, they had to 'think like animals'!

  • In other words, because the city of Zootopia was built by the animals who live there, the

  • animators began by asking themselves, given the same technology and knowledge as humans,

  • what would a mammal metropolis look like if it were made by animals?!

  • The design of cities from around the world also inspired the animators.

  • As well as looking to New York and London, artists were equally inspired by Russian architecture,

  • which you can see in the onion-shaped domes of Tundratown.

  • And Madrid's Atocha railway station was the inspiration behind the interior tropical garden

  • at Zootopia's train station.

  • The idea for Sahara Square, which contains sand dunes as well as buildings shaped like

  • sand dunes, was influenced by Monte Carlo and Dubai.

  • Because many desert animals are nocturnal, the animators designed lots of night-time

  • activities such as casinos as well as a huge palm-tree hotel with an oasis around it.

  • Savanna Central, which is Zootopia's central hub and home to the city's police department,

  • train station and city hall, was partly based on Disneyland's hub-and-spoke design.

  • Advances in technology allowed the filmmakers to create incredibly detailed environments

  • including over 500,000 trees in the city's Rain Forest District, each of which has around

  • 30,000 leaves on it!

  • Now, who's your favourite character in Zootopia and why?

  • And what are your favourite Disney movies? Tell me in the comments below!

  • So, guys, if you liked this video, do also check out my Zootopia movie review here and

  • I'll have an Easter Eggs video here shortly. I always appreciate your likes, shares, and

  • comments on my videos. And if you fancy loads more Disney and Pixar videos, do please subscribe!

  • Thanks for watching and see ya next time. Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!

Disney's latest animated movie takes us to the mammal-centric city of Zootopia, where

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