I should have known something was up when Disney put a sexy fox (voiced by Jason Bateman) front and center in their new animation film Zootopia, giving me serious Robin Hood flashbacks. (It's basically a universal truth that everyone had a crush on Robin Hood the fox growing up, don't deny it.) Well, if you started flirting with secretly dirty thoughts about this new fox every time you saw a Zootopia ad, that might actually be the point.
Zootopia may be a children's movie, but Disney is catering to the adult community with a niche (but probably bigger than you think) group: furries. And it seems this is no longer just a joke speculation. Buzzfeed got ahold of an email that someone from Allied Integrated Media sent to a furry meetup group, asking them to promote the hell out of their movie on their socials:
Hello Furlife,
Many have even speculated that there was a team of furries on the Zootopia production team, so Disney could include scenes that cater very specifically to that crowd. Others have caught Disney animators slyly faving tweets. Plus, this tweet from one of the film's animators is very telling:
if you're all going to watch #Zootopia all dressed up, do send some selfies and pics my way! The animators want to see :)
Does this ruin or make Zootopia for you? And how will this affect this weekend's box office numbers? And will The Secret Life of Pets also take this marketing route?
