It is valid to ship WildeHopps in a platonic way and it also valid to ship them in a romantic way. Both can co-exist and we can live in harmony if we can accept that people can have preferences and people interpret things different.
This is general fandom advice. If you don't like something, don't interact. Move on. Stop arguing. Please save yourself the headache 😭😭
Okay. Let's go over some of the evidence of romance in the dialogue and imagery and in anything related to the movie and talk about why it's valid to have different perspectives:
spoilers ahead ****
So.. there's:
The honeymoon imagery, Lady and the Tramp (Bella Notte) music playing on the boat when they're assumed to be having a relationship anniversary,
Not denying when they're assumed as a couple,
Judy replaying the I Love You carrot pen recording multiple times with a smitten smile,
Nick getting jealous seeing Judy talking to Pawbert and running into someone,
The heart eyed officially licensed merch,
Having the idea to disguise themselves as a married couple with a child and Nick stopping briefly to smirk at Judy while saying "our" birthday boy, ... (intentional decision made by artists)
And etc! There's way more. But let's talk about it
There still wasn't a direct message (words) communicated that they think of eachother romantically yet.
Yeah, there's non-verbal indications. But some of those things I listed can be interpreted platonically. They never specified it's a romantic "I love you," even if they're looking at eachother with flirty eyes. So where they take that depends on the people who create the movies.
On the flip side, those things listed can be VERY romantic.
But deep love is such a thing where it can be super intense, despite being platonic. So honestly, if people want to interpret this as a strong soul bond friendship where they value eachother the most out of anyone else in the world, that's also okay!!
And even when/if they get into a romantic relationship in the future, fandom exists and people can still headcanon them differently and as friends. Like.. that's the beauty of the internet. You can be creative and do what you want.
Please don't argue and yell "WHY ARE YOU SHIPPING THEM ROMANTICALLY" or "WHY DO YOU LIKE THEM BETTER AS FRIENDS" . How about we just.. stay in our own spaces and stop yelling at others 😭 ?
The Wildehopps romance side will be loud because even the crew/people making the movie ship them romantically (example: one of the storyboard artists posted art of Wildehopps marriage)
But that shouldn't take away from fans' right to think of them as friends. That's up to them! Just because a straight pairing are close friends doesn't mean you have to ship them.
And with Wildehopps romantic shippers, don't invalidate their feelings either and say "they're not canon so you can't ship them!!!" Or "there's no evidence" .. If we did want to talk about canon evidence.. there is a lot of it, if you've ever analyzed film/tv. There's evidence for platonic and romantic.
Putting that aside, People ship without evidence all the time. What do you think shipping is??? The amount of queer ships I've made up with barely any hints of romance is hard to count. LOL
Slow burns also exist. Not every relationship has to be fast. As a person on the ace spectrum/and possibly aro spectrum myself, that's a really weird thing to invalidate romantic chemistry based on how fast it progresses.
People value friendships and getting to know someone deeply before developing feelings and pursuing romantic relationships.
That's all I wanted to say because some of these arguments are ridiculous. Let's just be kind to eachother and ship or friendship who we want!! Have a goodnight!!