Zootopia is a reminder to writers everywhere that shitty first drafts are a totally natural part of making something great. Much has been made of the many drastic revisions made to Zootopia‘s script during the writing process, although changes like that aren’t uncommon for animated features—Pixar in particular has been pretty open about how frequently they return to the metaphorical drawing board for films. But, maybe because Zootopia‘s final form is such a subtle look at complicated topics like inclusivity and privilege, fans seem very interested in how this movie in particular was written, re-written, and re-written again in order to make it so effective.
A team from Fusion shadowed production on Zootopia for two years, and has now released a 45-minute documentary, Imagining Zootopia, that offers some fascinating insight into production. In addition to revealing more about what revisions were made to the script and why, the documentary also shows that Zootopia was the result of Disney Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter and director Byron Howard’s desire to recapture the magic of Disney’s ‘talking animal films.’ Not surprisingly, the 1973 Robin Hood was a huge inspiration.
What did it take to bring the world of ‘Zootopia’ to life? Fusion spent two years with the production team of Disney’s smash hit film. In ‘Imagining Zootopia,’ you will travel with the team to Africa to explore the animals in their natural habitat and find out how the storytellers and animators dealt with the very real themes of prejudice and bias.
(via Collider)
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google+.
