Disney really nailed it when they made Zootopia. There’s a lot going on in this movie, and in this case, that’s a good thing. Zootopia may be a simple buddy cop story, but the way it’s done is what makes it stand out. Whether you like the movie or not, you have to agree that this was an ambitious movie and it what it did well, it did really well.

I think what’s so impressive about Zootopia is the animation and design of the city. There’s so much detail in every scene that you could pause it and find new elements you didn’t notice before. This is a great movie to re-watch and find new things in the background. The sheer creativity of this movie alone makes it incredible.

What Zootopia also does well is that it addresses some rather charged themes that we’ve been dealing with in the world. It gives us a good reminder to not judge others simply based on their race, their background, or any other preconceived notions. We’re all people who are trying to live this crazy life, and we should be helping and encouraging each other, not tearing each other down. It’s a simple lesson, but it’s one we can all stand to remember.

But Zootopia isn’t a perfect movie, and there are some plot holes and mysteries that never got addressed. With a movie that deals with a rather creative and complex world, it makes sense that we would have a few questions.

So here are 20 mysteries and plot holes that Zootopia left hanging. Let’s bring on the confusion!

20 How’d She Come Up With This Plan?

Via: starryoak.deviantart.com

The way the Night howlers affects animals is pretty interesting. And the fact that Bellwether managed to weaponize these flowers is impressive and scary. But here’s the question: how did Bellwether discover Night howlers?

How do people not know about these flowers? 

It seems to be fairly common knowledge with farmers that Night howlers have unpleasant effects, but no one else seemed to know about them. So how did Bellwether figure it out? Did she use to be a farmer? And for that matter, why didn’t Judy know about these plants? Her parents use them, and she seems to be fairly knowledgeable about farming. It is a bit of a mystery that doesn’t really get addressed in the movie.

19 What’s Going To Happen To This Guy?

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Mayor Lionheart is an interesting character. He is very much a politician and most of his motivation is keeping his image good. The guy isn’t necessarily bad, and you can tell he cares about Zootopia, but his motivations aren’t all that pure. But what exactly will happen to this former Mayor?

We know that Lionheart was responsible for essentially taking the predators that went savage in order to try and figure out what happened before word got out. And we know that he went to jail for that. But what happened after? Did his sentence get reduced? Did he try for politics again? We never really find out.

18 He’s Got All The Power

Via: artstation.com (Boris Campistron)

Zootopia has all sorts of interesting residents, and one of them is definitely Mr. Big. This little arctic shrew seems to be a major crime boss in Tundra Town. With just one word, he can make you his friend, or he can “ice” you. For one little shrew, he has a lot of power.

But how did Mr. Big come into this power? Did he inherit the “family business?” Did he build the empire himself? And how does he maintain all of this power over creatures that are quite a bit larger than him? It’s a bit of a mystery that doesn’t really get explained. Granted, we probably don’t need to know the details, but it would be interesting.

17 That’s A Big Family To Support

Via: dorkly.com

It’s a fact that Judy has a lot of siblings. Like, over 200 siblings. And that does fit in with the whole rabbits having a lot of children. They make quite a few jokes about it in the movie. But here’s the question: how on earth do her parents support that many kids?

We know that Judy’s parents are farmers, but farming isn’t exactly a lucrative business. So, we’re not sure how they’re supporting themselves, much less a bunch of little bunnies. Though I guess if you have a bunch of kids helping out on the farm, that’s pretty helpful. And their farm is pretty huge. Maybe these bunnies know something we don’t.

16 She’s A Disappearing Fox

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While we know a bit about Judy’s family, we know next to nothing about Nick’s. We do get a reference to Nick’s mom when he was a kid. And we know that the two were pretty close while Nick was growing up. But where is she now?

It would be amazing to see Nick's mom.

Seriously, is Nick still close with his mom? Does he see her often? Does she still live in Zootopia? Is she even alive? We know so little about this lady, and it looks like we’re not going to find out anytime soon. Which is a shame, because I would love to see Judy meet Nick’s mom.

15 Who’s Your Daddy?

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So, we do know very little about Nick’s mom. But we know even less about his dad. In fact, I don’t think Nick ever even mentions his dad. And he didn’t seem to be in the picture during Nick’s childhood. So, we all have to wonder what happened?

Did Nick’s father pass away? Did he leave Nick and his mom? Maybe he’s a criminal and is currently in jail. All we can guess is that Nick doesn’t have much of a relationship with him, considering he doesn’t ever talk about his father. But you can’t help but wonder what he’s like and what happened?

14 That’s Quite The Transformation

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When we first met Gideon Grey, he was a bullying kid that actually attacked Judy. This little fox had some rather violent tendencies and proved to be a real jerk. But when we see him years later, he’s mellowed out a lot, and even apologizes to Judy. In fact, he turns out to be a pretty nice guy.

But the question is what happened to change Gideon? What made him go from the rather violent kid to a successful and kind businessman? We could chalk it up to maturity, but I think something more happened. But we’ll probably never know what exactly caused this impressive transformation.

13 What Do They Eat Now?

Via: youtube.com (Rayan Channel)

The big thing in Zootopia is that everyone has evolved from the predator-prey dynamic to a more peaceful society. So, we can assume that the predator animals have agreed to not hunt and eat prey animals. While that’s great for the prey, the question is what do the predators eat now?

Did evolution include a change in diets? 

Most predators are carnivores, which means they can only eat meat. If they don’t eat other mammals, what do they eat now? Did they come up with a meat substitute? Do they eat something else? It’s a question that the movie never really addresses. But it is something to wonder about.

12 A Lot Has Happened In This Short Time

Via: disney.wikia.com

In the movie, Judy is given 48 hours to solve the case of the missing otter Emmit Otterton. This is what starts her adventure with Nick. And a lot happens in that 48 hours. But the question is how did all those events take place in that short period of time?

There do seem to be a few inconsistencies with the timing. And it seems a bit unrealistic that everything happened in that short amount of time. Plus, how did Nick and Judy go for basically two nights without sleep? That’s impressive. A few things don’t quite add up in the timing, but we can probably just chalk it up to movie logic.

11 That’s Some Impressive Evolution

Via: USA Today

The big thing about the mammals of Zootopia is that over time they evolved to become more peaceful. Before, the world was savage, full of predators hunting prey. But then over time, things changed, and the animals became more sentient and enlightened.

But here’s the question: how exactly did these animals evolve? Was it similar to how humans evolved? Are there huge historical events that happened that we don’t know about? What helped predators to change their hunting ways? That’s a mystery that the movie doesn’t really go into, but we’d love to know more about. Zootopia history would be very interesting.

10 He Got In Too Deep

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We know that Mayor Lionheart had taken the predators going savage and locked them up in a research facility in an attempt to figure out what was going on before the city found out. So, we know that this politician had gotten involved in the whole missing predators case.

But the question is how did Mayor Lionheart get involved in the first place? How did he find out that the predators were going savage? Did he get information from the police? Was it an accident? The movie doesn’t explain how the lion got involved in this whole mess in the first place.

9 This Is One Strange Friendship

Via: tvhland.com

It’s funny that Judy manages to get on the good side of Mr. Big, the well-known crime boss, by befriending his daughter. And in the end, it not only saves Judy’s and Nick’s lives, but it helps them figure out who was really behind the missing predators case.

Judy's friendship with the crime boss's daughter is a bit dubious. 

But here’s the question: how were the police okay with Judy working with a well-known crime boss? That seems a bit iffy and unethical. The fact that they were just fine with it is a bit weird. But maybe Judy never told them about her strange connection to the crime lord. It would explain a couple of things.

8 Her Reasoning Is A Bit Weird

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It was a bit of a surprise when it turned out that Dawn Bellwether was the one behind the predators going “savage.” Her idea to frame predators and turn prey against them is a pretty messed up plan. But her motivations don’t make a ton of sense.

Bellwether’s thing was that she was looking out for the “little guy” and saying that predators are just too overbearing. Her focus seemed to be on size, and yet there are some huge prey animals out there too. And aren’t there a lot more prey animals than predators? So, what’s the problem? Her reasoning isn’t very solid.

7 This Otter Leads An Interesting Life

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Out of all the missing predators, the one we get most familiar with is Emmitt Otterton, the guy that Judy is assigned to find. And while Judy is retracing Emmitt’s steps, we learn quite a few interesting things about this mild otter. For example, he frequents a “naturalist” club, and he does work for the biggest crime boss in Zootopia.

The question is how on earth does Emmitt know Mr. Big? How did he end up working for this guy? He doesn’t seem like the type of guy to be associated with the mob. But there’s definitely more to Emmitt than meets the eye, and I would love the hear the story of how he became the florist for Mr. Big.

6 We Need To Know More About This Little Fox

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When we first meet Nick, he’s working a scam with a Fennec fox named Finnick. And based on their interactions, the two have been working together for a while. But while we get to know Nick better throughout the movie, we know next to nothing about Finnick.

Seriously, what's Finnick's story? 

What’s Finnick’s story? How did he become a criminal? How did he and Nick meet? Is he older than Nick? And how did he react when Nick became a cop for real? We never find out any big information on this little fox, and it’s a shame because Finnick is a pretty interesting guy. I’d love to learn more about him.

5 He Doesn’t Seem Like Police Material

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You can’t help but love the ever cheerful Clawhauser. This cheetah is the front desk jockey and he just adores his job. But here’s the big question: how did Clawhauser get on the police force in the first place?

We know this cheetah is not in very good shape. Yes, he is doing mostly desk work, but wouldn’t he have had to pass a physical at some point to be on the force? And there’s the whole police academy, which we saw was pretty brutal. So how did Clawhauser do it? Was he in better shape at one point? Did he pull some strings? We may never know.

4 She Really Got Him

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The way Judy gets Nick to help her out on the missing Emmitt Otterton case is that she basically blackmails him, using the fact that he hasn’t been paying his taxes for years on the income he makes. It’s a great move on the hustler. But here’s the question: how did Judy get a hold of Nick’s taxes?

Either Judy was guessing that Nick hadn’t paid his taxes, or she somehow got a hold of his tax forms. Considering she wasn’t in the system yet, that wouldn’t be easy to do. Though maybe she got access to the paper forms. Either way, it’s impressive that she got them in the first place.

3 No Feathers Or Scales Anywhere

Via: maui.hawaii.edu

We know that the mammals of the world of Zootopia have evolved to become sentient, peaceful creatures. And with that comes a wide variety of mammals, which is pretty cool. But there’s one thing we can’t help but wonder: what about the birds, fish, insects, reptiles, and other animals?

Are mammals the only animals in this world? 

Did any other groups of animals besides mammals evolve? Do they even exist in this world? If they do, are they non-sentient animals? If they are sentient, why didn’t we see any? Do the carnivores eat fish and birds instead of other mammals? There’s a lot of questions here that never got answered in the movie.

2 Money, Money, Money

Via: zootopia.wikia.com

Zootopia is a huge city full of all kinds of animals doing all types of work. So with that, you have to assume that there’s some kind of system that works for each animal. But how exactly does the economy work?

Considering an elephant has to eat a lot more than a mouse, do they get paid more? Are there multiple economic systems for the different animal types, or is it all one centralized system? If it’s one system, how does that work? Do rodents get paid less? Or does everyone get paid the same? It would be nice to know how it all works.

1 There May Be More Between The Two

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By the end of the movie, Nick and Judy go from reluctant allies to ZPD partners and friends. You can tell that by the end, these two are incredibly close. But here’s the big question a lot of fans wonder: are these two just friends, or is there something more going on?

A lot of fans are convinced that Nick and Judy are a couple. The movie is pretty vague about their status, so it could go either way. Though if they were romantically involved, that would cause a problem for them being ZPD partners. But it would be interesting if the two were a couple, since we haven’t seen any interspecies couples in this movie.