>>82323515Reminder that this is mostly speculation
>>82323430>Can you tell me more about this?Zootopia started out as Seven Seas, with a rabbit explorer called Jack Savage. This was the pitch, but they were all interested in the city instead. I think it was called Sun City.
So now they focused on Sun City, where the protag is a fox, Nick. He went into a lot of changes, like how he was a spy or a detective then to a police I think. He would be framed for something, and an eager bunny would always chase after him. There is also the concept of shock collars, where the collars would detect too much emotion (excitement, anger, etc) and zap the pred.
Later on they made Nick into an arcade owner, where it's hidden from authority but open to predators. It's a place where Nick can illegally remove the collars and preds can go wild. Something happens in it and he gets framed. Judy chases him.
Somehow the story doesn't seem too tight for the directors, so they went to Pixar for advice. Pixar's (was it Up or Finding Nemo's director?) comment was that the city seems too bleak, and he doesn't want to root for Nick to fix the city but he wants him to get away from it. So the directors and writers rearranged the story, making Judy the protag so viewers can see the city through her eyes as well, while Nick would offer the cynical view. The collars were also dropped.
You should check out
http://www.matthiaslechner.com/zootopia.html and other artists' tumblrs, the director's faq in Disney's facebook, and the Making Of video (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hiu3qJi0aPY)
