– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

The animated hit Zootopia won a boatload of awards and critical acclaim, and for good

reason — the movie was pretty much fantastic from start to finish.

But that doesn't mean it was an easy path to success:

"Fine, then we’ll have to do this the hard way."

From creative shake-ups late in the game, to a few… interesting moves during the marketing

campaign, here's the untold truth of Disney's Zootopia.

Darker early draft

The world of Zootopia wasn't always quite so cheery.

It was reported that an early draft of the script presented the city as "broken," with

a veneer of utopia but a "dark dystopian truth underneath."

The problem?

Well, this version of Zootopia didn't really feel like a place a person would actually

want to visit, and the studio worried viewers wouldn't connect to the city if it wasn't

a place they fell in love with.

They backed off that approach, which led to the vibrant and gorgeous Zootopia we ended

up getting.

​Kristen Bell’s slow cameo

Actress Kristen Bell is a bit on the quirky side, and apparently one of her greatest obsessions

is sloths.

This obsession became very public when her husband, Dax Shepard, surprised her with the

news that a sloth would be at her birthday party.

And she was so excited that she had a complete emotional meltdown.

"Are you so sad that one's coming to your party?"

"I'm so excited."

The video of the actresses freak out quickly became a viral sensation.

It was such a big deal that word got back to the Zootopia team, and they reached out

to Bell for a cameo as the voice of the lady sloth, Priscilla.

Shifting protagonists

The story at the heart of Zootopia is fairly unique for a Disney flick, and it turns out

that it actually changed a lot during the latter part of production.

Instead of telling the story from the perspective of do-gooder Judy Hopps, the original story

largely took place from the viewpoint of the wily fox Nick Wilde.

Director Byron Howard explained that the story took a "huge shift" midstream, because it

was hard to actually like Nick.

Howard also made it clear that he wanted audiences to start to fall for Nick at the same time

as Judy does, and that proved difficult when he was presented as the hero from the get-go.

Global newscasters

For the most part, Zootopia was pretty much the same film no matter which country or market

you watched it in.

But there was one subtle change that most people didn’t even know about: the animal

newscaster.

Disney tailored the character to animals that were popular and a good fit for each country.

In the U.S. and Canada, we saw a moose.

In Japan it was a tanuki.

Australia got a koala, and in China it was a panda.This is cool thing to do, but most

people would never even have noticed it unless they went on a worldwide tour of Zootopia

viewings.

Shakira’s curvy demands

This is a Disney movie, after all, so of course it had to feature a catchy musical number.

That fell to real-life singer Shakira, who voiced the animal pop star Gazelle and gave

us the hit song "Try Everything."

But Shakira also had some pull when it came to her character's look.

The early drawings of Gazelle were apparently very skinny, so Shakira asked the designers

to give her character some curves.

Disney obliged, and we ended up getting a Gazelle whose hips were incapable of telling

falsehoods.

​Nick's middle name

In Zootopia, the sly but loveable fox Nick's full name is actually Nicholas P. Wilde.

But what the heck does the "P" stand for?

Director Byron Howard revealed Nick's middle name is officially "Piberius," which is a

subtle nod to Captain James Kirk's middle name, Tiberius.

But how alike are these two characters, really?

"It’s called a hustle sweetheart, and I’m not the liar - he is."

"Hey!"

"Now look Krako, we're taking over the whole, uh, ball of wax.

Now, you cooperate with us and maybe we'll cut you in for a piece of the action."

Now that you mention it, Nick does have a bit of that same roguish charm.

Car talk

The team behind this film took their world-building responsibilities seriously, to the point of

bringing in automotive design legend J Mays to help develop the concepts for the different

designs that all these various animal species might drive.

What would a giraffe's car look like?

Or a hippo's SUV?

Those were the types of questions the filmmakers put to Mays.

The designer took his job seriously and made sure that each of the vehicles seen in the

film properly represented the animals they were carrying.

A sense of scale

The design team used accurate scales to excellent effect for some amazing action set pieces

in Zootopia, but even more went into those scenes than most may have realized.

Every single animal represented in Zootopia is made to scale, meaning the rabbits match

up just like they should when standing beside a lion, and a giraffe really is that much

bigger than a fox.

That design work even makes it into the world itself, with different areas and buildings

designed for specific types of animals.

Disney Easter Eggs

A Disney movie about a world of walking, talking animals is a veritable playground for Easter

eggs, and this one took full advantage.

It would take a while to name them all, but here are a few.

The calendar hanging on the wall in Chief Bogo's office features a shot of San Fransokyo

from Big Hero 6.

Another scene features two elephant kids ice skating in Frozen outfits.

And several Disney flicks get the spoof treatment on the weasel’s bootleg DVD cases.

The backlash

At this point it’s not really a secret to anyone that while the movie is a lot of fun,

Zootopia also tells a very poignant story about racial messaging, nature over nurture,

and the way we judge others.

"It may have something to do with… biology."

But that high-minded approach to a kid's movie didn't sit well with everyone.

Zootopia was met with a bit of a backlash once the film became a major hit, with some

pundits calling it a "muddled mess" and accusing the film of taking itself too seriously.

We aren’t sure how founded these complaints really were as Zootopia definitely had no

trouble receiving acclaim come awards season.

A furry frenzy

Though Disney films are typically marketed to families, the studio took a very sneaky

route to promote Zootopia to one very specific subculture: furries.

If you don't know, furries are folks who like to dress up as animals and… well… get

together to have a good time.

Apparently, Disney contracted a marketing firm to promote the film to furry fan groups,

with a plan to encourage them to tweet and share their own photos using film-specific

hashtags.

"Yes, Twitter exploded.

Twitter s--- itself."

Disney never actually acknowledged the play, but the paper trail definitely seemed to prove

it was true.

Regardless, the film was a huge hit.

So, umm, maybe it worked.

Funnily enough, this isn't the first time talking animals have had a clash with the

law on-screen:

"My friends call me 'Sexy.'"

"Oh, lucky you."

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Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
acclaim /əˈkleɪm/ B2	noun - public praise or approval verb - to praise publicly
fantastic /fænˈtæstɪk/ A2	adjective - extraordinarily good or great
success /səkˈses/ A2	noun - the accomplishment of an aim or purpose
creative /kriˈeɪtɪv/ A2	adjective - relating to or involving the imagination to create something
dystopian /dɪsˈtoʊpiən/ B2	adjective - relating to or denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice
vibrant /ˈvaɪbrənt/ B1	adjective - full of energy and life
cameo /ˈkæmiəʊ/ B2	noun - a brief appearance or role in a film or play
quirky /ˈkwɜːrki/ B2	adjective - characterized by unusual behavior
viral /ˈvaɪərəl/ B2	adjective - becoming popular through social media
protagonists /prəˈtæɡənɪsts/ B2	noun - the main characters in a play, novel, etc.
unique /juˈniːk/ A2	adjective - being the only one of its kind
shift /ʃɪft/ A2	noun - a change in position, direction, or emphasis verb - to move or change position
subtle /ˈsʌtəl/ B1	adjective - delicate or understated
curvy /ˈkɜːrvi/ B2	adjective - having an attractively full, rounded, or undulating shape
hustle /ˈhʌsəl/ B2	noun - energetic activity verb - to move quickly
scale /skeɪl/ A2	noun - a ratio of size in a drawing, model, or map verb - to climb up
accurate /ˈækjərət/ A2	adjective - correct in all details
judge /dʒʌdʒ/ A2	verb - to form an opinion about noun - a person who decides cases in a court of law
racial /ˈreɪʃəl/ B1	adjective - relating to race or pertaining to a specific race
backlash /ˈbæklæʃ/ B2	noun - a strong negative reaction to something

Key Grammar Structures

• The animated hit Zootopia won a boatload of awards and critical acclaim, and for good reason — the movie was pretty much fantastic from start to finish.

  ➔ Past tense with modifiers (boatload of, pretty much) for emphasis in narrative description

  ➔ The sentence uses the past tense (won, was) to describe past events, with idiomatic modifiers like "boatload of" and "pretty much" adding conversational emphasis.

• But that doesn't mean it was an easy path to success.

  ➔ Causative structure with mean + infinitive and past tense for contrast

  ➔ The phrase "that doesn't mean" introduces a contrast, with the base form verb "be" implied, and "it was" in past tense showing a contrary state.

• This version of Zootopia didn't really feel like a place a person would actually want to visit.

  ➔ Negation with adverb (really, actually) in subjunctive-like structure for hypothetical

  ➔ Negation ('didn't') combined with adverbs "really" and "actually" modifies the verb, creating a sense of irony or contrast in a hypothetical scenario where people might desire something.

• And she was so excited that she had a complete emotional meltdown.

  ➔ Past tense with intensifier (so excited that) leading to result clause

  ➔ The adverbs "so" and "excited" with "that" link the cause (excitement) to the result (complete emotional meltdown), illustrating a dramatic outcome.

• Instead of telling the story from the perspective of do-gooder Judy Hopps, the original story largely took place from the viewpoint of the wily fox Nick Wilde.

  ➔ Prepositional phrases (from the perspective, of the viewpoint) for contrast and description

  ➔ "From the perspective" and "from the viewpoint" are prepositional phrases showing alternative angles, with "instead of" providing direct contrast.

• Disney tailored the character to animals that were popular and a good fit for each country.

  ➔ Past tense with relative clause (that were popular) for specification

  ➔ The relative clause "that were popular" modifies "animals", specifying which ones, with the past tense "were" aligning with the action "tailored".

• The early drawings of Gazelle were apparently very skinny, so Shakira asked the designers to give her character some curves.

  ➔ Adverb of manner (apparently) and result clause (so...asked) in sequence

  ➔ "Apparently" conveys uncertainty or source, linking to the "so" clause where the result (asking for changes) follows the initial description (skinny drawings).

• What would a giraffe's car look like?

  ➔ Conditional would + infinitive in question form for hypothetical scenario

  ➔ The use of "would" with the base verb "look" poses a hypothetical question, imagining a scenario not currently real but posed for creative discussion.

• It would take a while to name them all, but here are a few.

  ➔ Conditional would + infinitive for polite understatement or estimation

  ➔ "Would" softens the statement, suggesting that naming all Easter eggs would be lengthy, used for politeness or to set expectations before listing some.

• These were the types of questions the filmmakers put to Mays.

  ➔ Inverted subject-verb for emphasis in relative structure

  ➔ The structure "These were the types of questions" uses inversion after "that" implied in cleft sentences, emphasizing "questions" as the focus for rhetorical effect.