How did Disney come up with Zootopia?

[DodgerGirl]

I must admit when I first heard about Zootopia I got so excited because I love mystery shows and movies and when Zootopia debuted in theaters I became obsessed and for Easter that year I got the Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps plushies in my Easter basket that year and my birthday party was even Zootopia themed and Judy Hopps was my favorite character of Zootopia because she reminded me of my cousin because my cousin was a police officer like Judy Hopps. But I had a big crush on Nick Wilde and because of Zootopia I became a Jason Bateman fan and I never knew how Jason got the role of Nick Wilde because if you look at Nick Wilde he is actually Jason Bateman as a fox and they put a lot of Jason Bateman in Nick when they created Zootopia. I finally got to watch Zootopia with my father while my mom was shopping and I think they modeled detective shows like Dragnet and Mannix to create Zootopia and I also found it shocking that Shakira voiced the pop singer Gazelle and I think they modeled Gazelle after Shakira as well. What was the idea for Disney's Zootopia? I sure hope a second part is released with a new actor voicing Finnick

 

[Giraffe_Zen]

The Disney (and Pixar for that matter), animators usually make the character look in some way like/model them after the voice actor or at least try to. Most if not all of the characters in Zootopia look like their voice actor---for instance Bellwether looks like Jenny Slate as a sheep lol.

 

[DodgerGirl]

I think Disney decided to make Zootopia was because they wanted to see how successful it would become. I think Zootopia is one of Disney's movies that they wanted to make a mystery themed animated movie after they created The Great Mouse Detective in 1986 and they repeated the same thing with Zootopia. I can't even figure out how J.K. Simmons got the role of Mayor Leodore Lionheart because J.K. Simmons fits the role of Mayor Lionheart perfectly and considering how Mom and I discovered J.K. Simmons after seeing him in Law And Order this role is J.K. Simmons's finest cartoon voiceover role. But I think why Shakira was chosen to play Gazelle was because Disney wanted a famous singer in Zootopia and I think they modeled Gazelle after Shakira herself and Shakira not only played Gazelle she also sang the Zootopia anthem Try Everything and it's a cool song. But I think who really is the real star of Zootopia was Jason Bateman because prior to Zootopia Jason was already the star of the FOX sitcom Arrested Development and I think Jason Bateman really got the role of Nick Wilde because he knew he was on his way to becoming a voice actor for Disney movies and Gennifer Goodwin became a big voice actress for Disney due to her role as Judy Hopps and Gennifer really is full of sassyness as Judy Hopps. I think Disney has a lot of plans for Zootopia and if a sequel is made Zootopia II will be a strong winner if it's made

 

[leiaorgana]

Ginnifer Goodwin was already playing Snow White on ABC’s Once Upon A Time so she was fairly well known for that when she got cast as Judy Hopps.

As for the film itself, Zootopia is a very on the nose allegory for systematic racism and was about teaching kids about what being prejudice is and how not to “judge a book by its cover” and how to be a positive change in the world.