This very funny, and very likable holiday treat from Walt Disney Animation Studios was partly inspired by co-director Bryon Howard’s love of Disney’s 1973 Robin Hood , which replaced familiar human characters with talking animal counterparts.
In theory, Zootopia’s residents have evolved past distinctions of predator and prey, which might explain the small matter of cartoon biology: Whether tiny mice or hulking rhinoceroses, all animals have front-facing eyes, upright postures and opposable thumbs — a throwback to the delightful character design featured in Disney’s “Robin Hood” (1973), which reimagined a human world populated entirely by animals, integrating characteristics of each species into the ways different creatures move.