



The SavageSkye Storyline



The same in text format:A while back I started working on a little article like set of images to pay tribute to Zootopia, by listing the most noticable and unique stages the story and the characters went through duringdevelopment.We know quite a few details and specifics, but most of the time we don’t know everything that would paint the whole picture of certain stages of the story development or the ties that connect them or the reasons that resulted in their creation. This article is somewhat informal somewhat theory based on interviews and concept arts by Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Cory Loftis, Nick Orsi and other great artists and writers who took part in the creation of Zootopia! Please Enjoy, and lets get right into things with:

In the early days, Byron Howard imagined a movie series about an anthropomorphic animal world and the adventures of a rabbit secret agent, Jack Savage. Not much is known about this storyline beside that it was a typical humorous and action packed take on classic spy-movies such as James Bond and that this was the idea that later grew further into the movie that we know as Zootopia. On the few concept arts related to Jack Savage we see a poster where his silhouette is shown with the silhouette of a fox, so it is obvious that the "fox-rabbit natural enemies to friends" dynamic came into the picture very early on. The only fox character associated with this storyline is a créme furred vixen, who is seen both in the underwater setting as a diver and in a city setting as a mechanic. The fandom named her "Skye" based on the name on her mechanic box, and many assumed that she is like a (unwanted)partner to Jack, who not just helps him but also creates the spy tools he is using, or a rival secret agent Jack ends up teaming up with. And so it pretty much became a widespread headcanon that Jack and Skye were the original duo that the creators started out with to tell the tale of an unlikely friendship.

The Switchboard operator and the Agent Storyline



According to the interviews the team abandoned the idea of using Zootopia’s setting for a spy-movie, however before that happened, the creative team had the idea that the narrative of these natural enemies learning to respect each other and become best friends would work better if the competent and strong spy is the predator and is aided and saved by the “meek” prey side-kick and learns to see the strength in the weaker species. So Jack Savage was changed from rabbit to fox, and Skye was turned from fox to rabbit. With her new appearance immediately came a new name, Judy Hopps and a new character motivation of walking her own path instead of falling in like with every other rabbit. Judy from this stage is speculated to be a switchboard operator, a mass job the city is using the large bunny population for. But she doesn’t enjoy it, and feel like there is some other calling in her life. That’s how she ends up in an adventure with a famous fox agent. Our fox hero’s name-change came a little later, according to Byron, when the concept of a “savage attacks” and “savage serum” came into the plot. That’s when they decided on renaming him to Wilde from Savage, and soon because on the (by now cancelled) project Gigantic which was a Disney Tangled-like rework of Jack and the beanstalk, Jack’s first name also had to change. That’s how he became Agent Nick Wilde. But what kind of adventures he and the switchboard operating bunny would’ve ended up in we may never know.

The Wilde Times Storyline



While the team was designing a new storyline instead of a spy story, they came up with an interesting idea. “What if the prey animals were still scared of predators in this society”. This small idea gave the entire setting a brand new light. In a world like that, predators would be not just mistrusted by the prey citizens they would require to wear fail-safes to ensure preys of their safety, which became the “tame-collar”. It is very interesting to see this from the outside because it just shows the very basics of how to create a right Alternative Universe story. Nick didn’t change as a character. According to the writers, he was always street-smart, bit cynical but filled with the good intention to help others. Obviously Nick could no longer be a hero like a spy or cop, or private detective, because he was not just facing the mistrust of against foxes but was also mistreated as a predator. But Nick didn’t change in the core because of the new script, the new script changed the world and the character’s personality adjusted to the new setting. His cynicism paired with the unjustified oppression made him look down at prey like Judy, but his good-will paired with him stuck in a low-life position by oppression resulted him become a con-mammal who found a way to help his fellow predators by opening a theme-park where they could secretly take off their collars, Wilde Times. Judy also evolved as a character into someone who had the city’s respect as an outstanding police officer, that had to capture Nick for something he was framed for. In her journey we see her learn of the dark side of the system she was upholding that was kept under the rug from her… or rather she just choose not to see it. And together they decide to change things. However, eventually the creative team had to face a problem. This world was filled with too much injustice for Nick and Judy’s friendship to fix it, not to mention Nick’s character was too overwhelmingly sad, and Judy wasn’t relatable by many. So the team set back to the story-board one last time.

The First Bunny Cop Storyline



With that we got on the path that lead to the creation of the movie we all love. With the setting putting predators and prey on equal level again, Nick had a chance to do good again, however the question was, “how?”. Based on some concept art it appears that Nick was intended to be somewhat of a private detective at one point, but this wasn’t probably working. Nick was cynical but in a world where he wasn’t oppressed, his cynical side had no motivation. The writers wanted to portray prejudice and how it effects everyone on an individual levels, and Nick was the perfect character to show how it can ruin someone who had nothing but kindness in his heart, and in Judy’s case how it can make you do bad things that you regret. With Nick’s new backstory of the Ranger Scouts betraying him and shattering his beliefs in goodness, Nick’s character was ready to meet his fate in the form a kind bunny that would help him become the fox he was meant to be. Judy’s character development shined in this setting, showing how prejudice can be something you carry around with yourself even when you think you don’t, and how much it can hurt someone you care about. But the problem resurfaced, that Nick’s life became too dark again and showed the bad-side of the city too soon. According to Rich Moore and Byron Howard, they switched the story perspective around on a whim, and suddenly it all worked. Instead of a story of a cynical but kind-hearted fox that meets and learns to respect a clever and helpful bunny, it became the story of a clever and helpful bunny the meets and learns to respect a cynical but kind-hearted fox. And according to the writers this switch was possible thanks to it that neither of them were the supporting character of the other. They were both the lead, as both of them became a better person thanks to each other. And so was that we got to witness the story of two individuals, who form a wonderful, unlikely friendship in Zootopia.



BUT HEY, That's just a theory, a FILM THEORY! Hope you enjoyed!



Zootopia and all it's characters and art belond to Disney

and the creative artists and screenwriters who created it including but not limited to:

Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Cory Loftis, Nick Orsi, Matthias Lechner, Jared Bush and Phil Johnston

The article and the main art pieces are made by me!



Cheers!

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Spanish translation is powered by Landsec!



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