Why did Zootopia change newscasters based on country?

Why did Zootopia change newscasters based on country? - Group of people gathering together at protest

The recent Disney movie Zootopia has a scene with newscasters. This scene changes based on the area/country where the movie is released. Why?

Are they just representatives of animals native to those area, with changes to their personality reflecting that? Or are they meant to reflect something deeper, like parodies/references to specific real life newscasters, or real-world newscaster/regional styles?

And Why only the male newscaster?

enter image description here

Sub-question, why did France get the moose too? Moose haven't been in France since the Roman Empire era.



Best Answer

There doesn't appear to be a clear reason behind how they decided to use certain animals and broadcasters for certain reasons.

The full breakdown is:

  • In the American, Canadian, French versions, he is a moose. The moose is called Peter Moosebridge which is a reference to Canadian news anchor Peter Mansbridge, who voices him.
  • In the Brazilian version, he's a jaguar, voiced by Brazilian journalist Ricardo Boechat.
  • In the Japanese version, he's a tanuki, voiced by someone as of yet unknown (film to be released 23 April 2016)
  • In the Australian and New Zealand versions, he's a koala named David Koalabell, voiced by Australian entertainer David Campbell.
  • In the British version, he's a corgi, voiced by someone as of yet unknown (film to be released 25 March 2016)
  • In the Chinese version, he's a panda, voiced by someone as of yet unknown (film released, but newscaster cast details unknown).

Looking at each of these animals by location:

  • A moose fits the Canadian version. It obviously doesn't fit the French version, but they appear to have lumped them all together in a single release version.
  • A jaguar fits the Brazilian version.
  • A tanuki is also known as the Japanese racoon dog, so it fits that region.
  • A koala fits the Austrlian version, and, like the French with the American verison, doesn't remotely fit New Zealand, but they appear to have been given it anyway.
  • A corgi fits the British version, in particular due to Queen Elizabeth II's well known fondness for the animal.
  • A panda fits the Chinese version.

So the animals all fit at least one of the regions in which their version of the film is being released. The bigger question is obviously why were these regions put together in this way. It doesn't quite follow DVD regions, or any other pattern I can see, so for now this appears to be unknown. I'd say it's most likely that they were going to personalise a limited amount of regions and France wasn't one of them. Once they'd personalised the rest, which region did France best fit in to? The US/Canada release is probably most likely given Canada's closeness with France.


On a side note, this isn't the first time Disney has done this. Other examples of Disney altering their films for different audiences include:

Inside Out:

In Japan, the broccoli Riley despises so much is replaced with green bell peppers, where the food is far more hated by the country's children.

enter image description here

Similarly, Riley's dad dreams about hockey in some releases, and football in others:

enter image description here

Captain America: Winter Soldier:

The list of cultural things the Captain says he'll catch up on is different depending on the region, with the US, the UK, Russia, South Korea, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Australia, and Brazil all getting their own personalised variations.

Cars 2:

The Jeff Gordon voiced Race Car Jeff Govette is changed to other real life race car drivers for the areas they were released in.




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Why did they change Zootopia?

Disney wanted Zootopia to have a unique title in the U.K. Rather, a spokesperson simply stated, "In the U.K., we decided to change the U.S. title 'Zootopia' to 'Zootropolis' to merely allow the film to have a unique title that works for U.K. audiences."

What country calls Zootopia Zootropolis?

That's not a joke, Disney's official reasoning given was "In the UK we decided to change the US title (Zootopia) to Zootropolis to merely allow the film to have a unique title that works for UK audiences." Unofficially, there has been some speculation if may have been an attempt to head off a possible copyright fight ...

Who are the news anchors in Zootopia?

Anchors. The anchor on the left is a snow leopard named Fabienne Growley (voiced by Fabienne Rawley), but the anchor on the right varies between countries: In United States, Canada, France, and numerous other countries, the anchor is a moose named Peter Moosebridge. In UK, he is a moose named Moosos Alexander.

Will there be a zootopia 2?

The series is slated for release in 2022. However, with no official word from anyone at Disney, it's impossible to know whether or not "Zootopia 2" will be joining the growing franchise.



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Images: Kelly L, Kelly L, David McBee, David McBee