#zootopia meta

[funny-little-owl]

I’m sorry, Jason Bateman, but the award for the most lethal “Love you, partner” goes out to Nick’s Brazilian VA, Rodrigo Lombardi 👌🏻

Everyone who stayed until the very end at my screening was a puddle when this scene came on. Brazilian Judy included. Oh, that bunny folded hard. That little "mmm" too? We eating good here, I won't lie.

PS: If you're interested in knowing all the ways I feel like WildeHopps is already canon in Brazil (JUST my personal take, don't come for me), I have an extensive thread on Twitter explaining some translation choices that made Zootopia 2 undoubtedly more romantic for our audiences. Might update it again soon!

[recsspecs]

I actually love it when movies have references to the production

[the-bar-sinister]

Hey, I recently heard the news that Pawbert is about 30 years old, what can I say? I thought he was 24, haha, but I don't care anyway, although it does change your perception of him when you find out he's about 30, for example, it's no longer easy to blame Pawbert's mistakes on his young age, it's also terrible that domestic violence continues even when he's 30, he's deeply involved in it …

But that's not the point, Jared Bush, one of the creators, recently started a question on Twitter (I don't use Twitter; it's blocked in my country, I learned this from Reddit, so it's not entirely accurate), we learned a few things, Pawbert deliberately bumped into Judy and spilled a drink on himself to see if she knew anything about the book, he's also much more evil than we think, plus he's an infantile man, as Jared himself said

I'm glad to learn more about him, but I also … there's something I don't like. Jared doesn't seem particularly thrilled with Pawbert's sudden popularity, it feels like he deliberately aged him up and so on to make us like him less, Jared treats Pawbert more like a spoiled brat than a tragic villain and victim of violence, that would be true, but only in relation to Pawbert's original concept, where he was truly more of a cartoon villain, this attitude has also been noted on the Zootopia subreddit, so, it's not just my guesswork, it's sad, I was hoping for Pawbert's redemption, I didn't expect him to be a full-fledged character in the third installment, but I thought we'd get a glimpse of him getting better, after that, I have little hope

Honestly, this is the first time I've seen a tragic male villain hated, more often than not, the fandom pities them and turns a blind eye to their crimes, Pawbert has that, but his criticize, which I'm glad about, but not hate him, "critics" (haters) actually wished him the electric chair and other nasty things, I wondered where all this hatred came from until I heard that there was some kind of contest recently called hottest furry/or furry Husband of 2025, Sonar from Dispatch was there, and his fans were unhappy that Pawbert came out of nowhere and took first place, even though Sonar was closer to winning, this explains the dislike for Pawbert a little, overall, it's a shame to see this attitude towards Pawbert, he deserves criticism, but not this, and honestly, I don't care that he's 30 years old and that he's a childish man who turned out to be worse than we think, Jared didn't manage to make me stop loving him, honestly, it turned out the other way around, haha, I love evil and childish men with a tragic backstory 🐾💚

Honestly, I'm genuinely surprised to learn that people didn't realize he was 30 to begin with.

I came out of the movie assuming he was in his thirties. (And I also assumed he bumped Judy on purpose XD) I think I just have a darker impression of him in general than a lot of people. I also love evil and childish men with tragic backstories. 🤝

[void-tiger]

There’s a lot to be said about the local predator flourist feeling safer to bring the conspiracy he accidentally stumbled upon to the mob boss (who already treats him well) than to the local law enforcement (who are already searching for several missing predators, and have about half the force being predators).

It also says a lot about the Ottertons: did Emmit’s wife not know about her husband’s connections to the mob? Did she know but didn’t approve? Did she already try to go directly to Mr. Big for help but got turned away, and then went to the ZPD as a last resort?

[anditjustmadeherkind]

[k-she-rambles]

But Nick at police academy though.

Nick isn't like Judy. Someone tells Judy she can't do X because X has never been done before, she tries anyway. Not just tries, but works her tail off for a 110% try.

This exists on the weird border between character trait, choice, and habit. Importantly, it exists separately from other people's expectations of her. She's internally motivated, challenges and sets goals for herself, and comes to her own conclusions.

Nick, on the other hand, is externally motivated. He tends to live up or down to other people's opinions of him (that one's at the border of choice, habit, and character, too).

The fact that Judy believes that Nick would make a good cop (ie, aspire to be honest and brave, vs sly and untrustworthy) Means A Lot.

So police academy is going to be tough. A lot will be expected of him (good), but he'll also face prejudice from some of his fellow recruits who think he can't (or shouldn't) make it.

I just think it would be a 5+ month trial by fire for his decision to live up to his potential rather than expectations.

He'd come out of the academy with a way better knowledge of himself.

Also, any contact he'd be allowed with Judy would be So Important.

[k-she-rambles]

I mean, you can see Nick's attitude towards Judy change as he realizes she's facing prejudice from her police co-workers.

Up to that point, from his perspective, Judy is the antagonist. The cop with something on him, the blackmailer with a can of fox repellent on her hip and dogged determination to solve a missing persons case with a comical lack of resources.

The moment he realizes she's been pressured by her larger and more powerful higher-ups into staking her life's dream on solving this (and doing it WITHOUT the resources a rookie of another species would have gotten) is the moment he decides to help her of his own will.

He sympathizes. He steps in to defend Judy from prejudice that he's faced, gives Bogo and the other officers a scathing verbal shaming, and escorts Judy to the tram car with a very pointed "Officer Hopps."

(And note how Nick talks down to them, on their level: "Well, it's no wonder she had to get help from a fox," he says, both mocking and highlighting the disrespectful and racist tone they've just taken with him and implying that, according to their metric, Judy must have been desperate.)

(Also note: Nick steps in to help Judy defend her dream...after having said that she's foolish for trying, and before revealing that he lives down to other people's prejudice because it's safer.)

But, my point was, you can see Nick coming to all these conclusions onscreen, and Zootopia is a really good movie.

[k-she-rambles]

Zootopia thoughts about Nick and humor.

So, I'm still thinking about what an interesting character beat Nick's sense of humor is. He's not goofy funny, he's funny funny, if you get what I mean. And he's consistently funny --not just teasing, but making funny observations throughout the film.

He's got a sense of comedic timing that seems to stem from being observant. He uses it to be a jerk to Judy at the beginning of the film (for example, walking her towards the wet concrete when he notices that she's backing towards it).

But he also uses humor in other ways. He's good at using humor to lighten the mood after a heavy conversation. After he tells Judy about his experience with bullying and racism as a child, he lightens the mood with a mock traffic report about what he sees out the skycar. But his tone is gentle, not trying to downplay what's just happened --just, it's time to move on.

(Judy, initially, has a hard time moving on from the conversation, taking his humor as flippancy/covering up discouragement. That's consistent with her character: Judy takes "anyone can be anything" really seriously, and seeing someone with a low veiw of their own potential distresses her.)

The other time we see Nick use humor to lighten the mood is after Judy's tearful apology --"You're just trying to steal this pen," he says gently, and Judy giggles and makes a grab for it.

(And then there's the "You should have your own line of inspirational greeting cards, sir." exchange, a joke which instantly endears the new guy to the rest of the chuckling cops in the room and makes it a consistent point that Nick is not afraid of the chief --to tell him he's wrong and to tease him.)

I guess my point is that I can't put my finger on another Disney animated character who's funny. Not "funny because they're a stick in the mud" or "funny because they're goofy", or "funny because something funny has happened to them", but funny as a character trait.