'Zootopia 2' fun facts

The second chapter of the film – which features 178 unique characters representing 67 different species to be voiced by renowned actors – picks up from Judy and Nick navigating their new police-partners dynamic, and discovering new things about each other in the process.

Expanding the world of Zootopia required artistry and innovation on a massive scale:

• There are more than 50,000 characters in the desert festival scene.

• In total, the film features 178 unique characters representing 67 different species.

• Look development artists crafted fur and hair for dozens of animals, from nearly 570,000 hairs on Nibbles Maplestick to more than 9.6 million hairs covering each giraffe.

• While a typical Disney Animation film totals an average of 1,600 shots, Zootopia 2 totals more than 2,000.

• 697 total crew members worked together to create Zootopia 2.

• There are 71 voice cast members.

• Gary’s design and animation was inspired by famous snakes of past Disney Animation films such as Kaa from The Jungle Book, Sir Hiss from Robin Hood and Juju from The Princess and the Frog.

• Early animation tests of Gary’s character performance were hand-drawn by legendary animator Eric Goldberg, famous for animating characters like Genie (Aladdin), Phil (Hercules) and Louis (The Princess and the Frog).

• One of the most technically complex challenges the crew faced was the creation of Gary’s 3,000 sculpted 3D scales—there are nearly 450 on his head, 160 on his belly (ventral side) and nearly 2,400 on his back (dorsal side).

• The Zootopia 2 Effects Animation team created a new a scale authoring toolset called

Scute, which allowed for interactive scale placement, growth containment, scale footprint and profile shaping — helping to create an art-directed yet believable look for the movement of his individual scales.

• Not only is the frying pan that Nick hits Gary with at the Lynxley Gala the same frying pan that Rapunzel used in both Tangled and Once Upon a Studio, but all three shots were animated by the same artist: supervising animator Adam Green

• For the climactic chase scene through the water tubes with Gary,

Judy and Nick, there was no existing animation reference or simulation technology, so the Zootopia 2 cinematography team made their own! The team built tubes, filled them with water and tested shots inside the filled tubes with a real camera. New technology was created to simulate dielectric material, which helped the art directed light to pass through the glass and water in a believable way.

• The production design team was inspired by a terrarium when creating the color and light

design for the Reptile Speakeasy, using red and magenta to evoke the feeling of heat

lamps.

• Scenes such as Marsh Market and the Reptile Speakeasy are packed with gags and Easter

eggs – all the result of collaboration, ideas and creativity from teams and individual artists across multiple departments.

Among the film’s extensive voice cast are some very familiar names for Disney fans:

• From the Moana films, Auli‘i Cravalho (Moana) voices the Anti-Venom Pen, Dwayne

Johnson (Maui) voices Zeke, Rachel House (Gramma Tala) voices Gramma Taller and David

Fane (Kele) voices Truffler.

• From Encanto, Stephanie Beatriz (Mirabel) voices Bloats, Wilmer Valderrama (Agustín)

voices Higgins and John Leguizamo (Bruno) voices Antony.

• The Walt Disney Company Chief Executive Office Bob Iger voices Zootopia meteorologist

Bob Tiger.

• Disney Legend Anika Noni Rose, the voice of Tiana in The Princess and the Frog, voices

Squeal of Fortune Mouse.

• Disney Legend Josh Gad, voice of Olaf in Disney’s Frozen films, is the voice of ZPD’s

resident IT mole, Paul Moldebrandt.

• Voice of Kronk in The Emperor’s New Groove and star of the fan-favorite Soarin’ attraction at Disney Parks around the world, Patrick Warburton, voices Mayor Brian Winddancer.