Zootopia (location)

Zootopia is the urban eponymous city and the central location of the 2016 Disney animated feature film of the same name.

Background
Zootopia is described as a "modern, civilized world that is entirely animal", meaning it is a world where humans are nonexistent, and anthropomorphic animals thrive in their place. Originally a mammal watering hole thousands of years prior, Zootopia grew into a city built by animals, for animals. Unfortunately, Zootopia is, similar to the human world, plagued with prejudice. Small and weak animals, especially prey animals like rabbits and sheep (though predators are not excluded from this, as the city's prejudice against foxes is often demonstrated for example) are often underestimated by large herbivores and predators, such as elephants and tigers. The prey animals, especially the small ones, are often seen as weak and find themselves being underestimated and underappreciated. Predators are often viewed as loud, arrogant and violent by the prey, who make up 90% of the population. In spite of this, the city holds the mantra of "In Zootopia, anyone can be anything", coined by the city's noble head, Mayor Lionheart, who has worked on a project known as the Mammal Inclusion Initiative that, in theory, provides all species of mammals high-ranking opportunities in every part of Zootopian society.

To accommodate the residents of each district's environmental requirements, Zootopia's districts feature artificial climate zones. For districts with opposing climate zones, there are massive walls separating them designed to ventilate the air temperatures between the two environments, similar to air conditioners. Zootopia also features an extensive train system for all sizes of mammal, including a smaller section for rodents to board safely from larger animals.

Development
During story development, there were other districts in the city of Zootopia that were developed but not used in the film. These include Outback Island, The Meadowlands, The Nocturnal District, The Burrows, The Canals and Happytown. The Burrows may have been a precursor of Bunnyburrow, and Happytown (actually a slummy district) seems particularly geared toward the darker, more dystopian versions of the story that were later abandoned.

Some existing cities in the diverse world of Zootopia had to get cut out of the film, although some remain on the map, as seen in the film. Those include the Meadowlands, which is all sheep; an Australian district named Outback Island; the Nocturnal District, a city of caves. —classes of animals also not present in the film —as opposed to Zootopia's all-mammal population.

Districts
Zootopia is divided into several districts. Their names are as follows:
 * Sahara Square
 * Canyonlands*
 * Tundratown
 * Polar Strait*
 * Little Rodentia
 * Rainforest District
 * Downtown
 * Savanna Central
 * Meadowlands *
 * Canal District *
 * Marshlands*
 * Nocturnal District *
 * Outback Island *

* These districts were confirmed in supplementary materials, but were never mentioned or explored in the film.

Trivia

 * 90 percent of the city's population is prey animals.
 * In ecology, this is called the Rule of Ten: for every predatory animal, there must be ten times as many prey animals to sustain them.
 * According to the filmmakers, the carnivore citizens do not eat other mammals because the dietary supplements for them are fish, plant protein and insects since bugs are not sentient.
 * Zootopia's currency features deer on dollar bills (a pun on "buck" being a homonym).
 * In early drafts, the city was home to an illegal amusement park called "Wild Times", which was owned and operated by Nick Wilde. Though the park was scrapped from the film, it was legitimized with an alternate background in the sequel book, The Stinky Cheese Caper.
 * In one of the deleted scenes, when Judy looks at Emmet's information, one of his credentials includes the United States flag in the bottom right corner. Even though it is a deleted scene, it confirms Zootopia is based in the U.S.