Hey guys, it's Jan here. As you know, I just love spotting Easter Eggs
when I'm watching movies, and Zootopia, or Zootropolis as it's also called, was full
of lots of fun Disney and other pop culture references.
So, I've collected all the easter eggs and references I could spot in this video.
I'm sure you'll have caught other cool ones too, and I'd love to hear about those in the
comments below! Just before I kick off, I've got an awesome
giveaway thanks to our friends at Chronicle Books, so if you'd like the chance to win
this gorgeous hardback book The Art of Zootropolis, make sure you subscribe and comment about
your favourite easter egg on this video. For more details and ways to enter the comp,
check out the Gleam link in the video description below!
And to give you an idea of what you can look forward to in the book, there's tons of beautiful
concept art, sketches, and information that give a wonderful peak into the making of the
movie. Ok, as always, a quick reminder there are
spoilers ahead, so if you're not ready for that, check out my non-spoiler review of the
movie right here!
The movie Dumbo gets a reference in the name of the ice cream parlour owner who is called
Jerry Jumbeaux Jr., a nod to Dumbo's real name "Jumbo Jr."
At the Mystic Springs Oasis, there's a group of bears scratching their backs on some palm
trees just like Baloo does in The Jungle Book. When Nick pretends to go savage in the museum
and rips apart a deer, the deer looks a bit like Bambi, and on one occasion Judy also
thumps her foot like Thumper from Bambi. Disney's 1973 film Robin Hood, which is director
Byron Howard's favourite childhood movie, gets a number of nods.
The design of Nick Wilde is similar to Robin Hood and both foxes have a friendship with
a rabbit. Mayor Lionheart's name is a reference to Robin
Hood's King Richard, who was historically known as "Richard the Lionheart", and there's
a bit of a joke about his name when Bellwether says she once called him "Lionfart"!
By the way, Mufasa from Disney's The Lion King was the inspiration for the design of
Mayor Lionheart in the movie. The design of assistant mayor Bellweather
took cues from the sheep in the Disney short film Lambert the Sheepish Lion.
And don't you think Mrs Otterton bears more than a passing resemblance to Rapunzel in
Tangled, which was directed by Zootopia director Byron Howard?
Judy's vine swing in the Rainforest District as she and Nick escape from Manchas is a nod
to the classic Tarzan swing, and that whole chase scene also calls to mind a similar scene
with Sabor, Kala and baby Tarzan in Disney's animated Tarzan movie.
In Little Rodentia, Aunt Cass's San Fransokyo café "Lucky Cat Café" from Big Hero 6 appears
next to Mousys department store. And let's not forget the hidden mickeys!
Some of the spots on Clawhauser's cheek form a hidden mickey and on the movie poster, just
next to Mrs Otterton, there's a Zebra carrying a little Mickey.
There's also a hidden mickey in three stones that are set in a column.
You can see it over 20 minutes into the movie when Nick and Judy are walking together and
Nick is making fun of Judy's dreams to move to Zootopia.
Frozen writer Jennifer Lee also contributed to the story of Zootopia, so it's no wonder
there so many nice easter eggs to this Disney favourite.
First off, the character of Duke Weaselton is voiced by Alan Tudyk, who also voiced the
Duke of Weselton in Frozen. And in Zootopia, the sneaky weasel corrects
Judy for calling him "Weselton" saying his name is "Weaselton", which is a funny twist
on the way the Duke in Frozen complains about his name being mispronounced as "Weaselton".
And after Weaselton gets thrown next to the Big Donut by Judy, we get a little glimpse
of Hans's Pastry Shop in Little Rodentia! Kristen Bell who voices Anna in Frozen has
a cameo as the voice of the sloth Priscilla who works with Flash at the DMV, which is
especially funny because Kristen is just crazy about sloths, in fact she even had one come
to her 31st birthday party! Over in Tundratown, you can glimpse a pair
of cute little elephants wearing similar clothing to Elsa and Anna.
And Frozen's upcoming sequel gets a shout-out as "Floatzen 2", the title of one of the bootleg
DVDs that Weaselton sells at his street stall. The crafty weasel has some other funny Disney
titles for sale too like Pig Hero 6, Wrangled, and Wreck It Rhino, as well as Meowana and
Giraffic, which are shout-outs to Moana and Gigantic!
There's also a fun dig at Frozen when Chief Bogo says to Judy, "Life isn't some cartoon
musical, where you sing a little song, and your insipid dreams magically come true. So
let it go." And there's another easter egg for the hit
song on Judy's music playlist. When she goes to play Gazelle's "Try Everything", one of
the other titles on her track list is "Let It Goat"!
The other song titles are also Disney easter eggs. There's "Part of Your Wool" a nod to
the Little Mermaid song "Part of Your World, "Ara-bunny Nights" a spin on "Arabian Nights"
from Aladdin, and you can't quite see the whole title of this one as Judy's paw is in
the way but there's a title which begins "Can you Feed The …", which is likely a play
on Elton John's "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" from The Lion King.
And Judy's playlist has a load more musical puns with names of singers and bands like
"Fleetwood Yak", "Fur Fighters", "Guns N Rodents", "Hyena Gomez" and "Kanine West".
The filmmakers have also slotted in some clever Disney inside jokes.
The road crossing of Vine and Tujunga in the Rainforest District is a reference to the
name of the Disney warehouse Tujunga where the Zootopia animation team worked while Disney
Animation Studios was being renovated. Judy's cell phone carrier is PB&J; which as
well as being a play on AT&T, is a nod to the Disney TV animated series PB&J Otter.
And the design and look of Zootopia has parallels
with Disney's Tomorrowland which itself was based on a section of Disneyland.
Zootopia is also laden with references to other movies.
Judy's given 48 hours to solve the case, just like the buddy cop movie 48 Hrs. with Eddie
Murphy and Nick Nolte. Emmet Otterton's name was inspired by the
children's book and muppet TV special Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas.
And when Duke Weaselton calls Judy 'flopsy the copsy' at his bootleg DVD stand, it's
a reference to the rabbit character Flopsy in the children's book The Tale of the Flopsy
Bunnies by author Beatrix Potter. The way Weaselton holds on to the stolen bag
when he runs from Judy and the way he's animated is reminiscent of Scrat from Ice Age.
When Judy's chasing after Weaselton in Little Rodentia, it causes mayhem, as she's a giant
in comparison to the tiny mice scurrying around her feet, which calls to mind Attack of the
50 Foot Woman and other monster movies like King Kong and Godzilla.
And when Judy brings down the giant donut on Weaselton, the way it's shot recalls Lard
Lad in The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror VI, which sees Lard Lard comes to life in the
segment called "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores", which itself is a parody of the movie Attack
of the 50 Foot Woman. Oh, by the way, the sign for Thigmo Taxis
in Little Rodentia is a pun on thigmotaxis, which describes the behaviour in mice of wall-hugging,
which often occurs as a response to anxiety, just like these terrified mice do as Judy
and Weaselton stomp through Little Rodentia.
One of my absolute favourite bits of the movie is the extended reference to director Francis
Ford Coppola's 1972 movie The Godfather. Not only does the arctic shrew mob boss, Mr
Big, sound like Marlon Brando's Vito Corelone but he also has the same gestures, plus he's
dressed in a tuxedo with a red flower, and sits in a chair like the Godfather's, except
instead of lion heads on the arms of the chair, Mr Big has little mouse heads.
As if that wasn't enough Godfather-style shenanigans, the whole scene – complete with music inspired
by composer Nino Rota – takes place on the wedding day of Mr Big's daughter.
Nick kisses Mr Big's hand like Bonasera does in The Godfather, we get the idea of the mob
boss being disrespected, and a favour being done on the wedding day.
And, in the previous scene, Nick also spots a CD of ratpack singer Jerry Vole, which is
a play on the name of Italian-American singer Jerry Vale, who also made a cameo appearance
in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. Later, when Duke Weaselton's about to be iced
by Mr Big, Duke's line 'you dirty rat' is a verbal shout-out to actor James Cagney who
became associated with those words after saying 'you dirty yellow-bellied rat' in the 1932
film Taxi! And Duke's line 'they offered me what I couldn't
refuse: money' is a twist on the famous line from The Godfather, 'I'm gonna make him an
offer he can't refuse.' When Nick Wilde flushes the toilet to escape
the Cliffside asylum, it reminded me of Aardman's animated movie Flushed Away and it's also
a call back to Hitchcock's Psycho which was the first film to show a toilet being flushed.
The scene is also accompanied by a very Bernard Herrmann-esque Hitchcockian musical score.
And there's a strong feel of film noir and Hitchcock thriller to all of the Cliffside
scenes as well as the scenes in the Natural History Museum.
When Judy rips off her Meter Maid outfit to reveal her police costume underneath it's
a pretty clear Superman reference. In fact, when they created the character of
Judy, the animators channelled Superman and director Byron Howard has said that Superman's
compassionate qualities were an important part of building her character.
The scene with Doug's Night Howler lab is a brilliant Breaking Bad reference. Doug wears
a bright hazmat suit and mask and his two minions that knock on the door with his coffee
are called Jesse and Woolter. And the serum that Doug cooks up is blue just
like Breaking Bad's blue meth, and it also made me think of the blue flower in Batman
Begins which Scarecrow uses to create his fear gas.
The subway car also calls to mind Walter and Jesse's RV where they first set up their lab
in Breaking Bad, as well as their later underground lab.
Zootopia is also chock-full of sign and brand gags, great puns and pop culture references.
There are billboards and shop signs with plays on brand names, such as Uber which is transformed
into "Zuber" with a tagline "Migration At Your Fingertips".
Mr Big's polar bear henchmen look at a funny selfie on their Zoogle Photos account, and
Judy's smartphone has a bitten carrot logo, a twist on Apple's logo.
Other funny brand names include the magazine Vanity Fur, an eBray billboard, there's a
Molex Timepieces store for Rolex, a Snarlbucks coffee cup, and Gazelle appears on some Preyda
advertising. Nike's famous slogan "Just Do It" becomes
"Just Zoo It"; the exercise clothing chain Lululemon becomes Lululemmings; there's a
range of Bearberry clothing, there's a news reporter working for ZNN, Zootopia's CNN,
and there's also a Lemmings Brothers Bank instead of Lehman Brothers.
When Fru Fru and her friends cross the road from Mousys, which has Macy's trademark red
colours, they're carrying Targoat shopping bags with the Target logo colours.
And the first time we meet the lovable Clawhauser, he's munching on a bowl of Lucky Chomps cereal,
the Zootopia version of Lucky Charms.
Music-wise, Gazelle's tiger dancers are likely a reference to Shakira's hit song "Loca" in
which the Spanish chorus goes "Yo soy loca con mi tigre" which translates literally as
"I'm crazy with my tiger". In fact, Shakira requested that her character
Gazelle be designed with curvier hips to represent a more positive body image, but perhaps it's
also a nice reference to her hit song "Hips Don't Lie"!
Even the titles of the film's soundtrack are pop culture puns, with tracks like "Grey's
Uh-Mad At Me" for Grey's Anatomy, "Ticket To Write" a word play on The Beatle's "Ticket
To Ride", "Work Slowly And Carry A Big Shtick" is a twist on the phrase "speak softly and
carry a big stick", which is associated with Theodore Roosevelt, "Walk and Stalk" is a
pun on the 'walk and talk' storytelling technique often used by the likes of West Wing writer
Aaron Sorkin; and "Hopps Goes (After) The Weasel" is a play on the nursery rhyme "Pop
Goes The Weasel".
And there are some interesting cameos, for example the voice of the rhino Officer McHorn
is performed by Mark Smith, who is best known for starring as Rhino in the British TV series
Gladiators. The news anchor character Peter Moosebridge
is voiced by the real Canadian newsreader Peter Mansbridge.
Zootopia directors Byron Howard and Jared Bush cameo as the voices of Bucky and Pronk
Oryx-Antlerson, Judy's unsociable neighbours. Co-director Rich Moore was the voice of Doug
the Ram, and writer Phil Johnston was the voice of Gideon Grey.
The voice of Fru Fru was provided by Leah Latham, a Walt Disney Animation Studios production
supervisor, and Disney story artist Raymond Persi voiced Flash from the DMV.
And Ginnifer Goodwin's husband and fellow Once Upon A Time star Josh Dallas voiced the
character of Frantic Pig, a florist who appears asking Judy for help when Duke Weaselton steals
from his shop.
So, guys, what other Easter Eggs and references did you spot in Zootopia?
And which ones were your favourites? I'm looking forward to reading your comments
below! If you enjoyed the movie, I've got links to
my playlist here including 25 Fun Facts, Top 5 Funniest Moments, and my review.
And don't forget to subscribe and leave a comment about your favourite easter egg on
this video for a chance to win this beautiful Art of Zootropolis hardback book!
For more details and ways to enter the comp, check out the Gleam link in the video description
below! Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!