Spoiler Alert: This article discusses major plot points, including the ending and post-credits scenes, of Zootopia 2, now in theaters.
New cops Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman) from Zootopia return.
In the film’s sequel, Zootopia 2, the two encounter a mysterious viper, Gary de Snake (voiced by Ke Huy Quan). As they try to solve the mystery of Gary de Snake, they are led on an investigation to uncover a hidden reptile population.
The film’s premise gave co-directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard the perfect opportunity to pay homage to great horror classics like The Shining and Silence of the Lambs.
Bush and Howard professed their admiration for Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film in an interview with Variety. The plot of “Zootopia 2” gave them room to flesh out their ideas.
In the film, the Lynxley family, a group of lynxes, includes wealthy family patriarch Milton Lynxley (voiced by David Strathairn), who, along with his family Cattrick (Macaulay Culkin), Kitty (Brenda Song), and Pobert (Andy Samberg), strive to keep the truth about the city’s history from coming to light.
“We had this idea that the lynx was clearly the villain, and it made sense to have this grand mansion and this huge maze behind it,” Busch said.
The idea for “The Shining” came from a very early draft. They loved the idea, but didn’t think about how difficult it would be for the animators and VFX team to pull it off. The animators not only had to build a maze with millions of leaves, but they also had to cover it with snow. Taking this idea a step further, Bush says: “So we said, ‘Instead of Nick and Judy running through it, we’re going to take a giant snowcat and smash the junk out of it.'”
All of these steps posed challenges to the visual effects team. “You have to manipulate (the animation) to destroy it,” Bush said. “You can’t just destroy whatever you want. You have to factor all the destruction into your design and figure out Snowcat’s exact path.”
Pay close attention to the end credits. The animator who worked on the Snowcat vehicle that destroyed the maze will be given full credit as the “Leader of Destruction.” Not only does Pobert create a maze and cover it with snow, but he also limps his way through it in a nod to Jack Nicholson’s character.
“We needed to animate Povert to move around in space,” Busch said.
Different animators were assigned months in advance, each given the task of working on their own shots. However, Disney animator Luai Mouraes was an avid fan of the film. The day the sequence was assigned, Mulaes showed up at the animation office wearing a “The Shining” T-shirt. He begged and said, “You have to give me this injection.”
Moulayes’ petition was successful. He was given the task of moving Pobert through the maze. “He disappeared and he came back a week later, and it was just this unhinged Jack Nicholson Pobert, and it was just incredible,” Bush says.
The first time they saw the completed scene was during the lighting review.
Howard said, “This is where you get all the effects, the animation, the grooming, the wind, the fur. As he’s limping through the maze, you see these incredible lights and shots from behind and you see snow falling. We were just excited. It’s amazing.”
The icing on the cake was composer Michael Giacchino’s score. Bush said, “He took that famous theme, and the moment you heard it you knew exactly where you were. Couple that with his incredible score and his linksley villain theme…When we were on that scoring stage, the lower brass asked, ‘How hard do you want this to hit?’ And he was like, ‘That’s all you got.’
While this scene would probably go over any child’s head, Howard says they had to keep their core audience in mind. “They’re going to think, ‘That guy’s not free, he’s a bad guy, I want our heroes to get him, and that’s all we need.'” And if that feels confusing, “a 5,000-pound snowcat is going to plow through that maze, and the kids will regain clarity.”
The Shining isn’t the only time Bush and Howard pay homage to classic horror films.
During Nick’s brief stint in prison, the pair took the opportunity to pay tribute to Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs. Bellwether is in one of the cells, and her scenes are reminiscent of Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter.
But the two knew when they had to retreat. “That scene used to be about four minutes long,” Bush says. “We played out the first scene where Hannibal Lecter meets Clarice word for word, right up to the point where he says to the guard, ‘Stay on the left, stay on the right.'” But they realized it was too much. “That’s where we need to go. And now we’ve lost our young audience.”
