Zootopia
| Zootopia | |
|---|---|
| Park | Shanghai Disneyland |
| Land / area | Zootopia |
| Type | Themed land |
| Opened | December 20, 2023 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering
|
| Status | Operating |
Zootopia is a themed land at Shanghai Disneyland, based on Walt Disney Animation Studios' 2016 animated film of the same name. Opened on December 20, 2023, it is the first — and so far only — Zootopia land in any Disney park, and it recreates the mammalian metropolis of the film as a working city street that guests can walk through. It is the eighth themed land at Shanghai Disneyland and the park's second major expansion, following Disney·Pixar Toy Story Land in 2018.[1]
History
The land was developed over several years by Imagineering in close collaboration with the filmmakers at Walt Disney Animation Studios, including the film's directors and writers, so that buildings, businesses and jokes from the film could be rebuilt at full scale alongside new material created for the park. Disney described the project as the world's first Zootopia-themed land when it unveiled the land's creative details in September 2023. After cast and invited-guest previews, Zootopia opened to the public on December 20, 2023, and quickly became one of the park's most popular areas, drawing long waits for its single ride.[2]
Attractions
Zootopia: Hot Pursuit is the land's only ride and its centrepiece. Housed in the Zootopia Police Department, the trackless dark ride recruits guests as rookie police officers and sends them with Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde after the escaped Bellwether, who has kidnapped Gazelle on Zootopia Day. The chase passes through the film's districts — the ice of Tundratown, the streets of Sahara Square, Mystic Springs Oasis and the canopies of the Rainforest District. Those districts exist inside the ride; the land itself is a single city neighbourhood rather than a set of separate district areas.
Zootopia Park Apartments, along Mane Street, is a walk-past entertainment piece: residents including Mr. Big and Fru Fru, Flash the sloth, Yax, Koslov and members of the Hopps family appear at the windows of their apartments, brought to life with advanced puppetry, chatting with each other and sometimes with guests below. A Zootopia Police Department Recruitment Center invites guests to find out which police role would suit them.
Design
Guests enter along Mane Street, the city's main thoroughfare, lined with storefronts built at wildly different scales — rodent-sized doorways beside entrances tall enough for giraffes and elephants — because the city is meant to serve animals of every size. The same idea runs through the details: drinking fountains at several heights, benches in several sizes, and architecture decorated with animal motifs, from zebra stripes and cheetah spots to sloth-claw shapes. Listening points include the Beaver Dentist, where patients can be glimpsed through the window, and the Hibernation Hotel, where sleeping bears can be heard snoring.
Mane Street leads to Savannah Central, the civic plaza where Judy Hopps first arrived in the city in the film. An office tower there carries the Zootopitron, an oversized screen playing animated advertisements for Zootopia businesses. At Zootopia Central Station, a metro train periodically glides past behind an upper-level stained-glass window, picking up and dropping off unseen animal commuters. Two high-rise towers rise above the show building of Hot Pursuit, extending the skyline over the land.[3]
Dining and shopping
Jumbeaux's Café, recreated from the ice-cream café in the film, serves sweet treats including paw-shaped popsicles modelled on the film's Pawsicles, chocolate marshmallows and the Big Donut favoured by Officer Clawhauser. Zootopia Market is a cluster of four colourful shacks parked in the street, selling drinks, corn-flavoured popcorn from Hopps Family Farm, cotton candy and popsicles. Fashions by Fru Fru, at the entrance to Mane Street, is the land's shop, owned in the fiction by Fru Fru and stocking more than 200 themed products, many exclusive to the land.