Bryan Alexander

USA TODAY

Pity the Gerbil Jerks of Zootopia.

Fans of the animated Disney hit, which has made more than $1 billion at the box office worldwide, never saw the rambunctious twosome onscreen — nor characters such as the Old Goat, a sheep-to-wolf transformer or tough Razorback cops.

Directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore cut them from the all-animal metropolis in the final version of Zootopia. Even the most sophisticated animal society can be a cruel world in Hollywood.

But the deleted creatures will star as extras on Zootopia's Blu-ray and digital HD release Tuesday.

“Just because these characters aren't in the movie doesn’t mean we don’t love them,” Howard says. “We want people to know how fun they were.”

The directors placed 64 animal species in Zootopia. But a major story switch changed the film’s primary protagonist from Nick Wilde, the con-artist fox voiced by Jason Bateman, to Judy Hopps, the first bunny in Zootopia's police force (Ginnifer Goodwin). This killed off some of the Nick-centric world.

“We had these characters whose sole purpose was to make Nick’s life more difficult,” Howard says. “These had to come out to make room for Hopps.”

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That included the Gerbil Jerks, two unapologetically mean-spirited mammals driving a tiny Italian sports car who would appear out of nowhere, run over Nick’s tail, giggle and high-five each other. The Gerbil Jerks were a hit in initial screenings.

"The Gerbil Jerks were trust-fund gerbils that had nothing better to do than harass Nick,” Moore says. “We were getting laughs with these guys, but with the story turned to Judy’s point of view, they didn’t fit.”

The Razorbacks, an elite police force, also didn't fit into the retooled world. Fearfully called Sniffers for their sense of smell, this buzz-cut crew kept pressure on Nick, but had to go. Another Nick story line featured his discovery of a villainous sheep called Wooly who disguised himself as a wolf with the aid of a powerful corset (to hold in excess wool) and a shady lupine costume.

"He was a literally a sheep in wolf’s clothing,” Howard says.

Even the feeble Old Goat couldn’t make the cast after the directors tried her out in various roles in early versions of Zootopia.

Old Goat seemed to have found a home as a walker-wielding meter maid Hopps meets on her first lowly assignment.

“The Old Goat was supposed to be a vision of Hopps’ future if she didn’t get out of that job,” Howard says. “But we felt she was gilding the lily.” The Old Goat, too, was digitally sacrificed.

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But the directors don’t fret about the deleted characters' well-being. They're in a better movie place.

"They are the stars of their own movies somewhere, where they get lots of screen time and a beautiful close-up," Moore says. "Somewhere, these characters are the Anna and Elsa of their own movies."