Yippee ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here.
Zootopia is finally coming out on Blu-ray and DVD, so I wanted to take a look at some
of the characters who were deleted from the final cut of the movie.
I'm gonna breakdown who they were and how they would have fit into the story.
Just be aware that if you haven't seen the movie yet, there will be a few spoilers, so
if that bothers you, check out my spoiler-free review here.
Honey Badger was a female friend of Nick's who believed in the conspiracy theory that
sheep were secretly running the world.
Honey lived in a bunker that was fitted out with some hilarious anti-sheep weaponry ranging
from shearing scissors to a hedge trimmer and from waxing strips to a golf bag filled
with fireworks.
In real life, honey badgers are very fierce animals and Honey's character was designed
to appear unstable.
She had different sized eyes and went around with stained clothes and food in her hair.
Some early concept art shows some of the funny conspiracy theories that Honey believed about
sheep.
And given that, in the end, we find out that Bellwether's actually the villain, maybe Honey
did have a point after all!
Honey's character wasn't completely lost to the movie though as she turns up as Dr Madge
Honey Badger, the doctor doing research for Mayor Lionheart on the imprisoned predators
at Cliffside Asylum.
The Gerbil Jerks were a pair of annoying gerbils from Little Rodentia who used to aggravate
Nick by deliberately running over his tail in their little red car.
And every time they did that, Nick would get a shock from his tame collar which predators
had to wear in early drafts Zootopia.
The tame collars were designed to keep predators under control and I'll talk more about them
in my video on Zootopia's deleted scenes and rejected concepts, which you can click right
here to watch.
Koslov, the polar bear who carries Mr Big into the room where Nick and Judy are waiting,
has a 5-year-old son called Morris.
Morris actually appears in a deleted scene called "The Taming Party" which is a right-of-passage
ceremony in which young predators receive tame collars.
The scene features an emotional and tender moment when Koslov gives his son Morris his
tame collar which signifies his son's acceptance into Zootopian society.
As he celebrates at the party, Morris gets shocked by the collar.
Actually, Cory Loftis, the movie's character art director has said that Morris is the deleted
character he misses the most.
Morris's look was deliberately designed to make him appear innocent in comparison to
his gangster polar bear father Koslov.
Doug the ram started life as a character called Wooly who also worked for Bellwether, but
at her office rather than in their Breaking Bad-style lab.
Wooly was also a villain who managed to disguise the fact that he was shredding paperwork by
looking like he was eating paper out of cans.
Also using a corset and overcoat, Wooly would disguise himself as a wolf, making him a clever
twist on the phrase 'a wolf in sheep's clothing'.
By the way, at the end of the final version of the movie, that phrase actually does come
to life when Bogo tells the wolf police officer Wolford to put on a ram's mask to go undercover.
The Razorbacks were an elite tactical police team that would be deployed in the event of
predators getting out of control.
They were named "Razorbacks" after the North American term for a wild boar or hog.
And just like wild boar, the Razorbacks had the ability to sniff out predators and so
were sometimes also called "Sniffers".
During Zootopia's development, the team had lots of different ideas for a goat character.
Eventually, these culminated in a character called Mabel The Old Goat who was created
as a meter maid partner for Judy.
The scene that was storyboarded but didn't make the cut was rather amusing and featured
Mabel telling Judy to keep up the good work as in 50 years she could look forward to being
promoted to Mabel's position!
Originally, Bellwether wasn't going to be the movie's villain.
Instead, directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore planned to have a pig as the film's baddie.
The reason for their initial choice was that pigs are said to be very smart animals.
This villainous pig was going to be called Mayor Swinton and she was designed to be both
extremely clever and smartly dressed.
So, guys, what do you think about the deleted characters and would you like to have seen
any of them in the movie?
And who's your favourite character in Zootopia?
Let me know in the comments below.
Just to let you know, coming up I'll have a cool giveaway for this awesome The Art of
Zootropolis book on my next Zootopia video, so make sure you're subscribed to see that!
In the meantime, you can check out my Zootopia playlist below including my 25 things you
didn't know about Zootopia, my full easter egg guide to the movie, and my five favourite
moments from the film.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!