# Zootopia deleted scenes, the story it could have been.



## Bloodhowl (Apr 18, 2016)




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## Endless/Nameless (Apr 18, 2016)

Thank you for sharing!!


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## Strangeguy32000 (Apr 18, 2016)

I hope some of the deleted sequences are on the Blu-Ray. I'd love to see what the story was gonna be before the rabbit became the primary protagonist.
If only just voiced storyboards of the excised scenes


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## Somnium (Apr 18, 2016)

The collars would have had made this movie so much batter!


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## Txtbooksh (Apr 18, 2016)

I'm glad that they decided to take the collars out because to keep that storyline would be like telling people that it's ok to put use shock collars on dogs? Yeah, good call Disney.


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## Bloodhowl (Apr 18, 2016)

Endless/Nameless said:


> Thank you for sharing!!



No problem


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## Phoenix-Kat (May 5, 2016)

The thing with the shock collars reminds me of this boarding school for autistic kids, which doesn't use collars but does have kids rigged up to shock devises. 
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/controversy-over-shocking-people-with-autism-behavioral-disorders/


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## Dolphanatic (May 5, 2016)

It's not hard to see why the focus of the movie was changed to Judy Hopps. When you try to introduce Zootopia from Nick's perspective, it gave away far too much far too soon. To use Star Wars an an example, it would've been like if the original trilogy was told through Obi-Wan's point of view. He already knows who Darth Vader is and that he's Luke's father, he knows that Leia is Luke's sister. He knows who Yoda is and how small he is, and he is already knows everything there is to know about the Force. There's no room for development when your main character knows too much. It just makes everyone less relatable to the audience. By telling the story through Luke's eyes (or Judy's, in the case of Zootopia), all the big reveals and plot twists hidden until the proper time, allowing us to learn about the world along with our main protagonist and better understand the character's motivations on a more personal level. In The Empire Strikes Back, for example, we're all shocked along with Luke when it's revealed that Darth Vader didn't kill his father, but that he *is* his father. This famous plot twist would have completely fallen flat on its face if we were already told this in the opening exposition of A New Hope. Instead of feeling for Luke, we would be facepalming and shouting "It's about time you figured that out!", not thinking about what he's going through. Pacing and perspective are extremely important in storytelling and I'm so glad the writers at Disney realized that when they were making Zootopia. Had it stayed the way it was originally going to be, I doubt Zootopia would have been nearly as good of a movie as it is, nor do I think it would have been even remotely close to the phenomenon it has become.

In addition to this, there was originally to be a subplot about the predators being required by law to wear "tame collars" (devices that would send a painful shock to the wearer if he or she showed any signs of "savage" predatory instinct). While it's not an entirely flawed concept, it's the way in which it's integrated into the story that ruins it. By making it yet another means of the prey to oppress the predators, it becomes nothing but a distraction from the heart of the issue, which is the ongoing distrust that prey have toward predators in general. It's this simple unspoken distrust between predator and prey that's not only more serious, but far more believable and relatable. Simply put, the whole subplot is redundant. It distracts from the far greater conflict that the film is supposed to revolve around. I don't really care if it would've made the story "darker". What matters is how well the story is told, not how much extra unnecessary "darkness" is shoehorned in.  A good story is only as dark as it needs to be. Nothing more, nothing less.

That being said, since it was the execution of the tame collars concept that was the problem and not the initial concept itself, I actually think the it could be integrated into a sequel if done right. For example, in the story I've been working on in my head for the past couple months, the one responsible for creating and mandating the collars is a *predator*. This would put a completely new spin on the story, as it would bring the conflict to a far more personal level, delving deep into the antagonist's inner turmoil. Because of what we saw in the first movie, we as the audience naturally assume that a prey animal must be the one behind it all. But the fact that it's actually a predator instead brings the audience to question their own tendency to assume things about others. Because this predator believes deep down that predator and prey animals can never fully live in harmony, he even wears a tame collar himself, just in case he finds that he can't truly control himself. Self-control, self-acceptance, and accepting others for what they are would be among the many major themes that the movie could explore in great detail, thanks to this new twist on a seemingly would-be redundant story.

So to all the people who say "the original plot would've been better", answer me this: Was the backstory and character development we got for Nick Wilde not already sufficient enough? Would we still want to root for Judy if we hadn't seen her struggle to get to where she is when she crosses paths with Nick? Would we still want to see Judy and Nick overcome their differences and get together if we had known next to nothing about Judy's upbringing and personal dreams and ambitions? Would so many of us still ship them as eagerly as we do now? Would we have even wanted to see Nick get along with Judy if she was introduced as overtly self-righteous, ignorant, and oblivious to what the oh-so-poor, oppressed predatory minority has to go through, despite constantly seeing them being forced by the oh-so-privileged, evil prey majority to wear torturous mind control devices on their necks in plain sight, making Judy a totally unlikable idiot instead of a strong role model that kids and adults can both relate to? Would that not have forced us to believe a very destructive stereotype about an entire group (that group being the prey animals) and made the main conflict entirely hypocritical at its core? Would the moral not have been cringe-inducingly preachy, forced, and painfully politically correct if it was about how the majority needs to "check their privileges", so to speak, and simply stop being racist toward the minority, implying discrimination only goes one way and is always our fault, thus endorsing victim blaming, to a degree? Would seeing Judy realize and overcome her prejudices have been nearly as relatable if she hadn't dealt with being on the receiving end of discrimination herself? Would Judy's coming clean and apologizing to Nick for the what she said about his fellow predators being inherently dangerous by their nature and tearfully confessing her biggest weakness have been nearly as endearing as it is in the final version of the movie? Finally, would we feel the same sense of accomplishment when all is sorted out, as it was in the *real* Zootopia? I know I wouldn't say "yes" to any of those questions.

Long story short, the fine folks at Disney Animation Studios made all the right calls when it came to changing the story to its final version and I'm very thankful they put that much time, thought, and effort into making Zootopia the fantastic movie it is today.


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## Strangeguy32000 (May 5, 2016)

I'd still like to see storyboards of what would've been.


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## Dolphanatic (May 6, 2016)

Strangeguy32000 said:


> I hope some of the deleted sequences are on the Blu-Ray. I'd love to see what the story was gonna be before the rabbit became the primary protagonist. If only just voiced storyboards of the excised scenes.



Don't worry. It's already been confirmed for the Blu-Ray special features. Needless to say, there's definitely a lot of interesting content that was scrapped from the movie.


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