Here’s the original text of the petition:

Zootopia is a movie made by Disney pixar that is about furries. Furries are an Internet subculture Who are fans of anthropomorphic animal characters And they bring them to life in any way they can; In costumes, illustration, roleplay and animation. Anthropomorphic means like human But not entirely quite human. So animal mascots or animal cartoons Are the kind of characters I mean to refer to And every furry has a character like this. A character that they identify with And that’s their furry identity. Yes that’s who they are to the furry community. But thats not all of it.. Some people (not me) like to make porn or “yiff” about furries. They are even doing this to ZOOTOPIA. The one chance disney gave us to make our spotlight in the world and people are making porn of it so then people will think that furries are nothing but sex freaks. Theyre ruining their own chances and ours as well. Pleas sign this petition to put an end to zootopia porn. I can’t stress this enough. We can’t mess this up. It may be the only chance weve got to show the world that we have dignity and arew normal people.

While the petition may have been made partly (or entirely) in jest, there will surely be further criticisms about the amount of pornographic content related to the film in the months ahead. In truth, this isn’t a “furry” issue; this type of material exists for virtually all animation project nowadays, animal-centric or otherwise. In fact, there’s a memetic Internet “rule” — Rule 34 — that describes this phenomenon, and it basically boils down to, “If it exists, there is porn of it–no exceptions.”

But Zootopia is a unique case; the characters are anthropomorphized in such a way that has resulted in a flood of pornographic fan art. In relation to Zootopia, Illumination’s upcoming The Secret Life of Pets, another film with a large animal cast, has thus far generated a mere fraction of the adult-themed fan art. There’s an interesting thread on Reddit with commenters discussing what makes Zootopia especially furry-friendly. The original poster began by asking, “Is it just me, or is Zootopia suspiciously furry. Like not just trying to be a cartoon about anthro animals, but a cartoon specifically targeted for FURRIES.”

That thread raises an interesting question: To what extent are Zootopia’s filmmakers aware that they are stoking an adult community of fans? Unlike earlier animal-centric Disney films like Robin Hood and Chicken Little, which skewed young, the gags and settings of Zootopia appear to be deliberately targeted at a broader, and more adult, audience.

While the overall tone of the film remains family-friendly, there are plenty of elements in the early footage that are not strictly aimed at kids. The latest trailer, for example, includes not just a Godfather parody, but a scene in which Judy and Nick stumble upon an animal nudist resort. An earlier trailer took place entirely in the animals’ equivalent of the Department of Motor Vehicles. And much could be said of the film’s Gazelle character, a hyper-sexualized pop star in the vein of the character’s voice actress, Shakira.

So, while Disney may not be actively encouraging an adult fandom surrounding Zootopia, it would appear that they are intentionally attempting to attract an older crowd with mature and titillating content. This is likely the key factor that will cause teens and adults to engage with Zootopia in ways that they probably won’t respond to the rest of 2016’s crop of animal cartoons like Norm of the North, The Angry Birds Movie, and The Secret Life of Pets.

(Top image: Artwork drawn by Electrixocket)