Zootopia now open at Shanghai Disneyland, take a look inside the new land
Shanghai Disneyland officially opened Zootopia on Dec. 20, 2023, featuring a trackless dark ride, character encounters, and architectural details.
The grand opening of Zootopia at Shanghai Disney Resort represents the finish line of a seven-year creative process. The land is Shanghai Disneyland’s second expansion since the park opened in 2016. The first was Toy Story Land in 2018.
“We hope our guests can really feel the vibrancy and vitality of this land,” said Xu Chang, producer at Walt Disney Imagineering.
Artists from Imagineering and Walt Disney Animation Studios collaborated to build Zootopia. Some of these creatives shared backstage insight into the project through press materials and a behind-the-scenes video.
Grand Opening of Zootopia at Shanghai Disneyland
In honor of Zootopia welcoming its first guests, Shanghai Disneyland horticulturalists transformed the floral arrangement at the park entrance into Judy Hopps’ likeness.
Disney CEO Bob Iger attended the Zootopia grand opening festivities. “For 100 years, The Walt Disney Company has been entertaining, thrilling, and inspiring audiences and fans through exceptional storytelling that transcends generations and geographies,” Iger said. “Our popular ‘Zootopia’ film continues to delight fans across the globe, especially in China, and we’re excited to give guests at Shanghai Disney Resort the chance to interact with the stories and characters they love in innovative new ways when they visit this spectacular new land.”
Zootopia: Hot Pursuit
A trackless dark ride called Zootopia: Hot Pursuit anchors the expansion.
Rather than retelling the movie, Zootopia: Hot Pursuit takes place after the events of the film. Onboard, guests encounter Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde, and Gazelle as Audio-Animatronics figures.
Many other Zootopia citizens appear within the attraction via newly created animation (for example, Gazelle’s background dancers in the photo below).
Jared Bush co-directed (under directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore) and co-wrote (with Phil Johnston) the original “Zootopia” film, which debuted in 2016.
While visiting the grand opening of Zootopia in Shanghai, Bush noted, “All the animation you see here is actually done by the same animators at Walt Disney Animation Studios that worked on the original film.”
Stuart Calder is the principal show mechanical engineer at Walt Disney Imagineering Shanghai. He noted that modern technology allowed Imagineers to integrate different types of media into Zootopia: Hot Pursuit.
“We can take the ride motion and perfectly synchronize it to the projected media,” Calder said. “We can take the animated figure and take sound and lighting and orchestrate it all together to create a really wholesome, rich experience for our guests.”
Meet the Residents of Zootopia
In addition to the characters guests can see within the Zootopia: Hot Pursuit attraction, other creatures inhabit the walkways and rooftops of Zootopia itself as guests wander the land.
“Zootopia Park Apartments” is a streetmosphere show taking place outside, among the windows above guests’ heads. Characters like Flash, Duke Weaselton, and Fru Fru appear in puppet form to converse with one another, and with guests below.
Explore Zootopia’s Details
No matter when guests visit Zootopia, they just so happen to arrive on a very special day (within the lore, anyway).
“When you go through the land, it’s a celebratory day. It’s Zootopia Day,” said Dustin Schofield, senior creative director of Walt Disney Imagineering. “It’s a day where predator and prey live together in harmony. There’s no turmoil on the surface. It’s all very colorful and bright and fun. We wanted it to feel alive and active, and really create that vision that Judy Hopps first had in her head when she arrived here.”
Roger Gould is the creative director of creative legacy at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He has a long history of being a bridge between the artists who create Disney (and Pixar) animated movies and the Imagineers who build those movies’ worlds in three dimensions within Disney theme parks.
Of Zootopia at Shanghai Disneyland, Gould said, “The movie’s directors, the art directors, [and] the production designers all collaborated with Imagineering to help teach them what makes Zootopia feel like Zootopia, and they totally captured it.”
Recalling the development of the “Zootopia” film, Bush said, “We really tried to create a world where the tiniest shrew could live here and the biggest elephant could live here, so to walk through this land where you really feel those size differences … is something you could only do in [a] Zootopia land.”
Bush’s favorite details that guests can look out for? An upside-down toilet for bats, as well as the streets’ multi-scale crosswalk signals.
In creating Zootopia, Imagineers continued Iger’s vision for Shanghai Disneyland to be “authentically Disney, distinctly Chinese.” The Disney CEO coined the phrase during the development of Shanghai Disney Resort. Learn more about this thematic connection and how Imagineers applied it to Zootopia in our recent story.
From Idea to Grand Opening
According to Gould, Imagineers approached Walt Disney Animation Studios seven years ago with the idea to build Zootopia in Shanghai. That timeframe would indicate the conception of the idea sometime in late 2016, just a few months after the “Zootopia” movie debuted.
Disney announced Zootopia’s imminent arrival at Shanghai Disneyland in January 2019. Construction began in December 2019, went vertical in June 2020, and topped out in December 2020 (seen below).
Now, here in December 2023, it’s open for guests.
“I started thinking about these characters over 12 years ago,” Bush reflected, standing in front of an Audio-Animatronics figure of Officer Clawhauser, a character in the film and in the land. “Clawhauser is someone that was in my head 12 years ago. To see him in real life— when I walked in this room, I started to tear up.”
Celebrating Zootopia
During the land’s grand opening, a free-roaming, Audio-Animatronics version of Duke Weaselton appeared for gathered media. Duke “interrupted” a presentation by Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences.
This version of Duke was a one-time-only presentation, according to journalist Scott Gustin, and will not appear to the public within Zootopia at Shanghai Disneyland.
In contrast, Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps now appear in a new pre-parade viewable to all guests. The pair takes to the streets of Shanghai Disneyland prior to performances of Mickey’s Storybook Express.
Guests can also enjoy new food themed to Judy and Nick’s home, like the “pawpcicles” from the film. Several of these items are available park-wide, not just in Zootopia. “Pawpcicles,” for example, can be found not only at Zootopia Market, but also at Ballet Café, Sunnyside Market, and outdoor vending carts. For a full list of Zootopia-themed food and where to find it, check out our previous story.
The ‘Zootopia’ Legacy — and More on the Way
“Zootopia” debuted in theaters in March 2016, going on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. The film made over $1 billion at the box office worldwide.
Upon its release, our editor-in-chief, Matt Roseboom, wrote in his “Zootopia” review, “It’s a great film the whole family will love. Make plans now to take the train to Zootopia, you won’t regret it.”
In 2022, a series of short films under the banner of “Zootopia+” released on Disney+.
Earlier this year, Iger announced a full-fledged “Zootopia” sequel is in development at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Bush is part of the team bringing the city to the screen once again.
At Destination D23 2023, D’Amaro confirmed a future “Zootopia” attraction for Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The experience will replace “It’s Tough to be a Bug!,” a 3D film based on Pixar’s “A Bug’s Life” that debuted with the park in 1998. “It’s Tough to be a Bug!” is currently still open, residing inside the park’s Tree of Life icon. Disney has not announced a closing date.
Details and concepts for the “Zootopia” attraction at Animal Kingdom were still being finalized at the time of D’Amaro’s announcement. The executive said one concept involved visiting different biomes represented in the movie (shown below). For the time being, Disney’s word is a “Zootopia” attraction will open in this space. The premise of that experience, though, has not yet been publicly announced.
That news — along with further breadcrumbs about the future of DinoLand U.S.A. being tied to Indiana Jones and “Encanto” — seemingly dispelled the possibility of an entire “Zootopia” land opening at Animal Kingdom, as D’Amaro had previously implied at D23 Expo 2022.
