Jan 3, 2016

The petition calls on the artist to stop creating "Zootopia" furry porn

If a film's success is judged by how much erotic fan art it generates, then Disney has already won 2016 with Zootopia.

The film is still months away from arriving in theaters, but that hasn't stopped artists from creating loads of pornographic drawings with the film's leads - rabbit-cop Judy Hopps and scheming fox Nick Wilde - as well as supporting characters like Shakira's Gazelle and Chief Bogo. We're not linking to any of it, but suffice to say, it's not difficult to find.

There's currently a petition at Change.org started by an anonymous individual asking “furries,” a subculture of people interested in fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics, to stop producing Zootopia porn. The petition has received 223 signatures, and counting, but it seems that the individual who started it had a change of heart. In an update, the person, who identified as “Furries Against Yiff,” wrote, “[N]evermind i just looked at some of the porn and its actuially [sic] kinda hot please make more.”

Here's the original text of the petition:

While the petition may have been made partly (or entirely) in jest, there will surely be further criticisms about the amount of pornographic content related to the film in the months ahead. In truth, this isn't a “furry” issue; this type of material exists for virtually all animation project nowadays, animal-centric or otherwise. In fact, there's a memetic Internet “rule” - Rule 34 - that describes this phenomenon, and it basically boils down to, “If it exists, there is porn of it–no exceptions.”

But Zootopia is a unique case; the characters are anthropomorphized in such a way that has resulted in a flood of pornographic fan art. In relation to Zootopia, Illumination's upcoming The Secret Life of Pets, another film with a large animal cast, has thus far generated a mere fraction of the adult-themed fan art. There's an interesting thread on Reddit with commenters discussing what makes Zootopia especially furry-friendly. The original poster began by asking, “Is it just me, or is Zootopia suspiciously furry. Like not just trying to be a cartoon about anthro animals, but a cartoon specifically targeted for FURRIES.”

That thread raises an interesting question: To what extent are Zootopia's filmmakers aware that they are stoking an adult community of fans- Unlike earlier animal-centric Disney films like Robin Hood and Chicken Little, which skewed young, the gags and settings of Zootopia appear to be deliberately targeted at a broader, and more adult, audience.

While the overall tone of the film remains family-friendly, there are plenty of elements in the early footage that are not strictly aimed at kids. The latest trailer, for example, includes not just a Godfather parody, but a scene in which Judy and Nick stumble upon an animal nudist resort. An earlier trailer took place entirely in the animals' equivalent of the Department of Motor Vehicles. And much could be said of the film's Gazelle character, a hyper-sexualized pop star in the vein of the character's voice actress, Shakira.

So, while Disney may not be actively encouraging an adult fandom surrounding Zootopia, it would appear that they are intentionally attempting to attract an older crowd with mature and titillating content. This is likely the key factor that will cause teens and adults to engage with Zootopia in ways that they probably won't respond to the rest of 2016's crop of animal cartoons like Norm of the North, The Angry Birds Movie, and The Secret Life of Pets.

(Top image: Artwork drawn by Electrixocket)