With only four months until it's released (at the time of writing this), Disney is starting to push marketing for the studio's upcoming animated feature, Zootopia. The new animated movie takes place in a city where animals “from the biggest elephant to the small shrew” exist in a society that bears more than a passing resemblance to the real world we live in - save for the fact that there's not a single human to be found.
While Zootopia features an all-star voice cast - including Jason Bateman, Ginnifer Goodwin, Idris Elba, and Octavia Spencer - Disney is centering its latest round of marketing for the film around parodies of the year's most popular movies. As 2015 comes to a close, it's fun to look back at all the film that came out during these past twelve months. As such, Disney has released a batch of Zootopia movie posters that put the animated film's characters in the roles of the biggest titles to hit theaters this year.
The latest Zootopia posters are just all around cute and clever, put simply. Say what you will about Disney, but the studio is a good sport about parodying itself here too, by releasing one-sheets that poke fun (via alternate movie titles based on animal-related puns) at such 2015 releases as Cinderella and the fast-approaching Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens. Other titles referenced here range from popular Universal Pictures films - Jurassic World, Straight Outta Compton, and Fifty Shades of Grey to be exact - to even the critically-acclaimed low-budget sci-fi flick, Ex Machina.
Zootopia is very much a family-friendly movie by the look of it, so it's somewhat curious that Disney's marketing team didn't parody any of the bigger family-friendly movies that were released during 2015 like Minions, Inside Out, and The Good Dinosaur. Regardless, these Zootopia posters (see below) are certainly worth a look:
Zootopia is from co-directors Byron Howard (Tangled), Rich Moore (Wreck-It-Ralph), and Jared Bush (Big Hero 6). They are responsible for a few of the most recent Disney hits, so it's easy to see why Zootopia is one of the most anticipated movies of early 2016. It follows Officer Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), a small bunny rabbit who enlists in a police force made up of bigger and tougher animals. While she's eager to prove herself, she joins forces with a fast-talking con-artist fox named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) to solve a high-profile case.
Just telling from all of Zootopia's posters and trailers, it seems that there will be a lot of animal puns. It also seems just as kid-friendly and playful as your typical Disney animated fare - though the Mouse House is known for having a few surprises with their animated offerings, and that may also prove to be the case here.
NEXT: Zootopia Trailer
Zootopia opens in U.S. theaters on March 4th, 2016.
Source: Walt Disney Animation Studios