sam.png by jonathantaniuchi on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

I recently saw Zootopia+ and its good. Its short but understandably so. The quality of each episode is comparable to the movie. And the VAs from the movie voice the same characters in the series. Its nuts. I have a feeling these "episodes" were ancillary media made almost completely after the movie. I'm curious why they waited 5-6 years after the movie before releasing them. Maybe they wanted to build hype for the franchise for a potential Zootopia 2? But Zootopia+ literally went under the radar. There was hardly any marketing for this. I remember when this year's D23 came out, people were hardly talking about it.

So anyway, this character's name is Sam. She appeared in the 6th episode as a waiter at a restaurant where Flash and Priscilla went to have dinner before they went to Gazelle's concert at the end of the movie. The sixth episode of the series basically explains why Flash was driving so fast at the end of the movie when Nick and Judy stopped him for over speeding.

Anyway, Sam is this example of why there's so many stories left untold about Zootopia. They can have a series where each episode follows the daily life of one random animal that lives there just to show us what kind of city Zootopia is. It could be an anthology because there's so many walks of life. Sam was just so relatable. Why do people go to cities? Its because they go there to work. Sam shows this and anyone who ever worked customer service as a waiter or a barista will immediately relate to her.

Without spoiling much, the series did reveal a few things the movie didn't. For example, Judy actually takes after her mom, Bonnie based on episode 1. Zootopia+ maintains that they're only showing the kid friendly stuff about the city but based on episode 4, they reveal that the city has legit crime. There's really dark and seedy things that happen in that city where the audience never goes to see. Lastly, the events in the movie takes place in a year. This was because when Judy became a cop, Francine was celebrating her birthday but in the 6th episode, she was still celebrating her birthday while Nick already became Judy's partner. So it makes sense. This also explains why Fru Fru was already pregnant when Judy and Nick met her again during interrogating Duke. Also, Francine's boyfriend is not an elephant. He's a hippo. They were on a date on her birthday. Interestingly enough, the series had no racist or tribal undertones at all. It was quite an improvement.

The series just makes me want to see more of this franchise. I hope Zootopia 2 is in the works. There's no confirmed information about it. Just rumors.

Sonic Prime comes out next. youtu.be/2rShZls4Ffw And the animation is amazing. I've rarely ever seen CGI animation used so creatively. Normally they're all samey when it comes to CGI for me but this one stands out in its style completely. I'm really looking forward to it.