The Studio Note Zootopia's Creators Immediately And Completely Ignored

"Zootopia" couldn't be considered anything other than a gargantuan success for Disney upon its initial theatrical release. Now only was the animated film about anthropomorphic animals living together a $1 billion hit at the box office, it was the highest grossing original movie of 2016 period. And while the Mouse House inevitably took advantage of the film's popularity via a whole bunch of merch and theme park attractions, the studio was unusually slow to expand the property on-screen. Indeed, it would be another six years before viewers got to spend a little more time in this world thanks to the short Disney+ series "Zootopia+" in 2022. Nearly a decade after the first film, though, "Zootopia 2" is finally becoming a reality, and with it comes a slight changing of the guard.

Jared Bush helped build "Zootopia" from the ground up, having co-directed the 2016 film with Byron Howard and Rich Moore while also co-writing the screenplay with Phil Johnston (director of "Ralph Breaks the Internet" and Netflix's animated Roald Dahl adaptation "The Twits"). With "Zootopia 2," Bush is not only sharing directing duties with Howard once more, he's also credited as the sole screenwriter. And if there's anything to look forward to, of course, it's the animal-related puns. That also makes it all the more ironic that Disney's top brass actually tried to limit the amount of wordplay during pre-production on the first "Zootopia." As Bush recalled in an interview with SFX Magazine:

"I do love a pun [...] On the first film, we got a note that said, 'You can have a total of five puns in this movie.' This is absolutely true. It was early on. We disregarded that note and put a billion in there."

If there are indeed a billion puns strewn throughout "Zootopia," then I doubt we'd ever catch them all. But to Bush's credit, he sure snuck in a whole bunch. Some are blatantly front and center, like the hometown of Officer Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) being Bunnyburrow, as well as her iPod playlist consisting of songs from Fleetwood Yak, Guns N' Rodents, and Mick Jaguar. Most, however, take the form of all animal variations on well-known logos in the background of the movie. Some of the best ones are for businesses such as eBray, Itreea, Mousy's, Trader Doe's, Zuber, and a poster for a concert by the Roaring Stones. The film's marketing team even put out a cheeky selection of "Zootopia" Oscar parody posters for that year's Best Picture lineup.

Everyone's mileage will vary, but I'm someone who loves the sting of a good pun. In the words of Marge Simpson, I just think they're ... neat. I'll even go a step further in saying that they're absolutely necessary, especially with a movie like "Zootopia" (which presents so many easy opportunities to play around). My way of thinking is that the groan or look of disappointment on someone's face is so much more satisfying than the laugh itself. Give me your contempt!

Now that Bush is the Chief Creative Officer over at Walt Disney Animation Studios, I have to imagine that we're only going to get a whole lot more puns in the upcoming sequel. He should have prodded the mouse even further by releasing the movie as "Zoo2pia." Given the context of "Zootopia 2," that would snake some real guts.

"Zootopia" is currently streaming on Disney+. "Zootopia 2" opens in theaters on November 26, 2025.