Taking a look into the world of Zootopia with Disney animators, Renato dos Anjos & Chad Sellers #‎ZootopiaBluray

**Disney provided an all-expense paid trip for me to cover this event, all opinions are 100% my own **

To learn more about the animals  and what goes into making the world of Zootopia, I recently sat down with Renato dos Anjos head of animation on Zootopia & Chad Sellers animation supervisor on Zootopia to learn more. Have you ever wondered what goes into making the animals you love in this movie? Well it turns out there is a lot of hard work and many hours (years really) to craft an amazing movie like Zootopia.

To get up close to the animals the animators went on several trips to study animals up close and in person. From visiting the San Diego Safari to visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom to get as much information as they could to get the right feel for the animals in the animation. They even brought animals into the office when they could, like rabbits and sloths. When they wanted an even more authentic view of animals they planned a trip to Africa! Now that is really paying attention to details, to travel all the way to Africa, to get a better animation that is pretty cool.

According to, Renato dos Anjos “Multiple species were needed to get the proper behavior. Each animal is specific to its species. We had to study how an elephant behaves versus how a mouse behaves. Why does this animal move this way”? “Animals move in herds and we wanted to have the species move together in crowds. The drawings each have their own personalities”. 

Chad Sellers believed that “Getting up close to the animals helped the process of animating”.  Within a day of going to Africa the perception of the movie changed dramatically, the ways the animals behave in the wild effects their behavior… In Africa there were babies everywhere!  And this gave the animators the idea to add so many babies in Zootopia to give the movie a more real feel.

How was it making the animals human like, but still an animal just the same?  For this film Chad Sellers learned “How to study animal behavior, how to convey that is an animal not a human. For the moose we would keep his arms stiff and bring his mouth to the food.  For the wildebeests, they are not the brightest.. In the film they are put in situations when the animals are in their natural behavior. Like when the wildebeests are crossing the street in a herd. The characters in Zootopia, were evolved but we were still holding on to that animal feel”.   

For Renato dos Anjos, “The weirdest thing was when the animals lost their clothes!  Nick was difficult to not look too human. We had to keep his arms close to his body, he did not have equal properties, we did not want him to seem human. The elephant and giraffe on two feet were the most challenging, to not look like a human in a suit”.  Overall to me it is very impressive how these animators got these animals to look “natural” in clothing, and living in a city. 

What kind of challenges did you have for the character Clawhauser?  Chad Sellers, said “We studied cheetahs for Clawhauser, we wanted to get the looseness and the look of a cheetah even though Clawhauser was not ready to run like a cheetah, maybe after a donut… maybe… The more weight he has.. you have to keep the clothes on his body moving”.  


According to Renato dos Anjos  “Clawhauser took a village! It is so difficult to do on a computer, there are different departments to work to get the look right, you just have to trust that the next department will get the look right. We have to be mindful of the fur and the markings on the animals”. 

 

I have a fun fact for you all! Did you know that there is a hidden mickey in on the right cheek of Clawhauser? Be sure to be on the lookout next time you watch Zootopia! Zootopia will be avaiblane on DVD and Blu-Ray on June 7^th, pre-order your copy today! 

Be sure to stay social with Zootopia:

Visit the official Zootopia website here: http://movies.disney.com/zootopia

Like Zootopia on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyZootopia

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Visit Disney Animation on Tumblr: http://disneyanimation.tumblr.com/

Buy it: 

Preorder Zootopia online or purchase a store near you on 6/7!

Zootopia is available on Blu-ray and DVD on June 7^th!

Disclosure: The reviews and or opinions on this blog are my own opinions . No monitory compensation was received. I was not required to write a positive review. Your experience may differ. The opinions I have expressed are my own I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsement and Testimonials in Advertising .