Dive into the bustling city of Zootopia (2016), where predator and prey live side by side. Join rookie officer Judy Hopps and con artist Nick Wilde as they uncover a conspiracy threatening their world. This article provides a complete plot summary, ending explanation, and detailed look at Disney's Academy Award-winning animated hit.
Synopsis
In a modern metropolis inhabited by anthropomorphic mammals, Judy Hopps becomes the first rabbit to join the Zootopia Police Department, determined to prove that even the smallest animal can make a big difference. Relegated to parking duty by her dismissive buffalo chief, she seizes the opportunity to solve a mysterious case involving missing predators. To crack the investigation within 48 hours, the optimistic officer must form an unlikely alliance with Nick Wilde, a sly and cynical con artist fox, uncovering a conspiracy that goes far deeper than a simple missing persons case.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States |
Premiere date |
March 4, 2016 |
Running time |
108 minutes |
Genre |
Animation
Adventure Comedy |
Budget |
$150,000,000 |
Box Office |
$1,025,521,689 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Byron Howard Rich Moore Jared Bush (Co-Director) |
Produced by |
Clark Spencer |
Written by |
Jared Bush Phil Johnston |
Music by |
Michael Giacchino |
Cinematography |
Nathan Warner Brian Leach |
Edited by |
Fabienne Rawley Jeremy Milton |
Production Co. |
Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios |
Distributed by |
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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Movie Collection |
Movie Order: #01 in Zootopia Collection
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The Plot
Dreams, Duties, and the First Hustle
The story opens in a primitive jungle where savage predators hunt prey, only for the scene to fade, revealing it is merely a children's school play detailing the history of Zootopia—a gleaming, modern metropolis where anthropomorphic mammals have moved beyond their primitive instincts to live in harmony. The city is a marvel of engineering, divided into distinct climatic districts such as the luxurious Sahara Square, the icy Tundratown, the miniature Little Rodentia, and the humid Rainforest District. In the rural town of Bunnyburrow, an optimistic young rabbit named Judy Hopps finishes her play, declaring her seemingly impossible dream to become a police officer in the big city. despite her parents' concerns.
Years later, through sheer determination and grit at the academy, Judy fulfills her dream, graduating at the top of her class and becoming the first rabbit officer to join the Zootopia Police Department (ZPD). However, reality strikes hard upon her arrival. Despite the assignment being praised by Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellwether, the gruff Chief Bogo, a cape buffalo who doubts a small bunny's capabilities, sidelines her. Instead of investigating the fourteen active missing mammal cases, Judy is assigned to parking duty. Determined to prove herself, she excels aggressively, ticketing hundreds of vehicles before noon. During her shift, she notices a shady fox, Nick Wilde, walking into an ice cream shop for elephants. Suspecting trouble, she follows him, only to find he is merely trying to buy a "Jumbo-pop" for his toddler son. When the shop owner refuses service based on species bias, Judy steps in, threatening a health code violation to force the sale, and even pays for the popsicle herself.
Judy's heartwarming deed quickly sours when she discovers later that day that Nick is a con artist and the "toddler" is a grown fennec fox named Finnick. The pair melts the Jumbo-pop down into dozens of smaller "pawpsicles," sells them to lemmings for a profit, and recycles the sticks as lumber. When Judy confronts Nick, he smugly explains that while his actions are sly, they aren't illegal. He dismisses her dreams, predicting she will fail and return home, leaving her disheartened.
The 48-Hour Ultimatum
The next day, Judy's frustration peaks. While on parking duty, she spots Duke Weaselton stealing a bag of what appear to be moldy onion bulbs. Abandoning her post, she chases him through the tiny streets of Little Rodentia. She saves a small shrew woman from being crushed by a giant plastic donut Weaselton kicks at her, eventually apprehending the thief. However, instead of praise, she receives a severe reprimand from Chief Bogo for abandoning her post and endangering the city for "moldy onions." During this dressing-down, Mrs. Otterton bursts into the office, desperate for help finding her missing husband, Emmitt Otterton, one of the missing predators. Bogo dismisses her, but Judy impulsively volunteers to take the case. Bogo is furious and prepares to fire her for insubordination, but Assistant Mayor Bellwether arrives, informing the Mayor of Judy's initiative. Trapped, Bogo offers Judy a deal: she has 48 hours to solve the case, or she must resign immediately.
With her badge on the line and no resources, Judy examines the case file and notices Nick Wilde in a background photo taken moments before Mr. Otterton disappeared. Realizing Nick is a key witness, she tracks him down. When he refuses to help, Judy reveals she has done her homework: she threatens to arrest him for felony tax evasion, having calculated his unreported daily income. She records his confession on her carrot pen recorder. Trapped, Nick reluctantly agrees to assist her, leading her to the last place he saw Otterton—the Mystic Springs Oasis, a naturalist club.
Mr. Big and the Savage Turn
At the club, the yak owner Yax mentions Otterton left in a limousine and provides the license plate number. Because Judy has no access to the system, they visit the Department of Mammal Vehicles (DMV), which is staffed entirely by sloths. Despite Judy's urgency, Nick wastes time sharing a joke with his friend Flash, a sloth, consuming precious hours. They finally trace the limo to Tundratown, only to discover it belongs to Mr. Big, the most feared crime boss in Tundratown. They are captured by polar bears and brought before Mr. Big, who turns out to be a tiny arctic shrew. He orders them "iced" for disrespect, but just before they are thrown into freezing water, Mr. Big's daughter, Fru Fru, enters. She recognizes Judy as the officer who saved her from the giant donut in Little Rodentia. Grateful, Mr. Big spares them and invites them to his daughter's wedding.
Mr. Big reveals that Emmitt Otterton was his florist and was coming to discuss something important. He was being driven by Mr. Big's chauffeur, Manchas, a black jaguar. However, during the ride, Otterton suddenly "went crazy," attacked Manchas, and fled. Judy and Nick head to the Rainforest District to interview Manchas. The jaguar, terrified and sporting a fresh eye injury, describes how Otterton was yelling about "night howlers" before snapping. Suddenly, mid-conversation, Manchas himself goes savage, reverting to a feral, predatory state. He chases Judy and Nick through the rainforest canopy. Judy manages to handcuff the savage jaguar to a lamppost and calls for backup.
Chief Bogo and the reinforcements arrive, but when they reach the scene, Manchas has mysteriously vanished. Bogo, seeing this as a failure and a waste of resources, demands Judy's badge. In a surprising turn, Nick steps in to defend her. He reminds Bogo that they still have ten hours remaining on their deal and insists they finish the investigation. As they leave on a cable car, Nick drops his cynical facade. He opens up to Judy, revealing a traumatic childhood memory where he was muzzled by prey animals from the Ranger Scouts simply for being a fox. He explains that he became a con artist because he felt the world would never see him as anything other than a "sly fox," so he decided to embrace the stereotype.
The Conspiracy at Cliffside Asylum
Nick suggests checking the city’s traffic cameras to see how Manchas disappeared. With help from Assistant Mayor Bellwether, who gives them access to the city's traffic system, they discover that wolves captured Manchas. Judy realizes that "night howlers" might not be wolves, but that the wolves were what Otterton was afraid of. Following the surveillance footage, they locate the wolves at Cliffside Asylum. Infiltrating the facility, they find all the missing predators, including Otterton and Manchas, imprisoned in cells. All of them have gone savage.
Judy and Nick eavesdrop on a conversation between Mayor Lionheart and a doctor. It is revealed that Lionheart has been hiding these savage predators to prevent public panic and protect his political image, though he has no idea what is causing the condition. Judy films the confession on her phone. However, her phone rings, alerting the guards. The pair narrowly escapes, flushing themselves down a toilet to the outside river. They rush to the ZPD with the evidence. The police swarm the asylum, arresting Mayor Lionheart and those involved. Dawn Bellwether is subsequently sworn in as the new Mayor of Zootopia.
A City Divided
Having solved the biggest case in Zootopia's history and developed a genuine friendship with Nick, Judy asks him to join the ZPD as her partner. Nick is touched and happily considers the offer. However, during the subsequent press conference, a pressured Judy struggles to explain why the predators went savage. Relying on bias rather than facts, she suggests it might be "biology" and a reversion to their "natural instincts." Nick, watching from the side, is devastated. He confronts her immediately after, asking if she views him as a savage threat. When Judy instinctively reaches for the fox repellent canister on her belt during his angry advance, Nick's heart breaks. He hands back the ZPD application and walks out on her.
In the following weeks, Judy's comments ignite a wave of fear and discrimination across Zootopia. Prey animals begin to fear and segregate themselves from predators. Guilt-ridden and feeling that she has broken the city rather than fixed it, Judy resigns from the force. Even the famous pop idol Gazelle holds a peaceful protest, publicly pleading for the restoration of the harmonious Zootopia she loves, but the tension remains palpable.
The Truth About Night Howlers
Months later, Judy has returned to Bunnyburrow to work on her family’s carrot farm. One day, she encounters Gideon Grey, the fox who bullied her in childhood. Now a reformed baker and partner to her parents, Gideon apologizes for his past behavior. During their conversation, Judy's father warns some children away from purple flowers growing near the field, calling them "night howlers." He explains that these toxic flowers have severe psychotropic effects and can cause mammals to go savage instantly. Judy is thunderstruck. She realizes that "night howlers" were never wolves, but the flowers themselves, and that the savage predators in the city were likely poisoned.
Energized by this revelation, Judy races back to Zootopia. She tracks down Nick, who is living under a bridge. After a tearful apology where she admits her ignorance and bigotry, they reconcile. Nick agrees to help finish the case. They find Duke Weaselton again, who admits he had been stealing the "moldy onions" (night howler bulbs) for a ram named Doug. He reveals that Doug operates a secret lab hidden in the abandoned subway tunnels.
The Subway Lab and the Blue Serum
Judy and Nick locate the hidden lab inside a subway car. They observe Doug, a chemist wearing a hazmat suit, creating a blue serum from the night howler flowers. He loads the serum into pellets and fires them with a sniper gun into the streets above, targeting predators. This confirms that the savage outbreaks were a manufactured conspiracy, not a biological reversion. Before they can leave with the evidence, Judy and Nick hijack the subway car, attempting to drive the entire lab to the ZPD.
The plan goes awry as they are pursued by Doug’s hench-rams, Woolter and Jesse. A high-speed battle ensues on the tracks. The subway car eventually derails and explodes, destroying the lab and the evidence inside. However, Nick reveals he managed to salvage a briefcase containing Doug’s sniper gun and the last remaining serum pellets, enough to prove the conspiracy.
The Mastermind Revealed
Taking a shortcut through the Natural History Museum to reach the ZPD, Judy and Nick are intercepted by Mayor Bellwether. She demands the case, claiming she will handle it. Judy realizes something is wrong when Bellwether reveals knowledge of their whereabouts that she shouldn't have. It becomes clear that Bellwether is the mastermind behind the conspiracy, aiming to incite fear against predators to keep the prey majority (and herself) in power. Bellwether’s hench-rams knock Judy and Nick into a pit exhibit, trapping them.
Bellwether shoots Nick with the serum pellet from the evidence gun, intending for him to turn savage and kill Judy, framing a savage predator for the death of the city's hero. She calls the ZPD, feigning distress. Nick begins to growl and convulse, cornering a terrified Judy. He lunges at her, biting into her neck. However, it is revealed to be an act. The pair breaks character, revealing they had swapped the serum pellets with blueberries from Judy’s farm before the confrontation. Bellwether, furious, confesses her entire plan, claiming she will frame them just as she did Lionheart. Judy then holds up her carrot pen, which has recorded the entire monologue. Chief Bogo and the ZPD arrive just in time, having heard the confession, and arrest Bellwether and her accomplices.
A Unified Zootopia
In the aftermath, former Mayor Lionheart denies knowledge of Bellwether's plot but admits to illegally imprisoning the predators for what he claimed were the "right reasons." An antidote is synthesized, and all the affected predators, including Mr. Otterton and Manchas, are cured and returned to their families. Judy is reinstated into the ZPD, having restored peace to the city.
Months later, Nick Wilde graduates from the police academy, becoming the first fox officer in the ZPD. Judy proudly pins his badge on him, and they are assigned as partners. Their first task involves catching a speeder, who ironically turns out to be Flash the sloth. During the credits, the entire city celebrates at a massive concert starring Gazelle, with citizens of all species dancing together. Meanwhile, in prison, a disgruntled Bellwether watches the concert on TV, annoyed as her ram cellmates tap their laps to the beat of the music.
