Case Study: Zootopia
Zootopia can also be used to illustrate some elements of the story cycle.
the genre-establishing in-medias-res cool action scene to establish genre and tone:
A dangerous savannah! Animals fighting! Predators and prey!
a zone of comfort, the mundane world
"Blood! Blood! And... death." Judy, our protagonist, humorously hams up a fake death scene, as part of an elementary school play explaining the rules of this universe.
Animals is people now. Predators and prey are at peace!
We're in Bunnyburrow, a small carrot farming town way off in the corner of nowhere, and we meet Judy Hopps, our main character.
something isn't right, call to action
Judy wants, more than anything else, to be a police officer.
Judy's parents remind her that that is dangerous, and a terrible idea.
She protects some of her classmates from a bully who reminds her of the predator/prey divide, developing Judy's fantastic racism.
Despite being smaller than the rest of the police force, Judy eventually excels with the sheer power of her force of will and graduates police academy as the valedictorian.
We meet Mayor Lionheart and Deputy Mayor Bellwether.
crossing the threshold into the new and exciting
Judy takes the train into the huge metropolis of Zootopia.
gaining knowledge, tools, and allies
Joining the police force, Judy is assigned to parking duty, which quickly turns out to be a depressing and demeaning chore.
She gets hustled by Nick, a fox who is also a local con-man.
Butting her nose in to a missing persons case through sheer stubbornness, Judy manages to get the hard-nosed Chief to let her try to solve the case, by putting her career on the line and agreeing to an insanely short deadline.1
Realizing that Nick was near the initial scene of the crime, and with nobody else to help, Judy recruits him to help with the case.
this is a bad career move, do not do this.
adapt to the new world
Judy and Nick chase the details of the case, getting to have a short adventure in some of the exciting biomes teased by earlier shots of Zootopia.
Something is causing predators to go feral and attack people!
Oops, they become friends. Nick reveals his characters' dark secret, he's a distant conman because of fantastic racism.
Chasing the thread to its conclusion, they find a secret lab where Mayor Lionheart has been holding feral predators. He's at least responsible for the missing persons!
mastering the new world, false victory, the goal achieved
Mayor Lionheart is arrested, Judy is commended as a full-fledged police officer. Nick even considers joining the police.
the cost becomes apparent, gathering troubles
In a press conference about the events, Judy is a little bit too blase about the problem being predators' bloodthirsty nature, disgusting Nick, who points out Judy's own fantastic racism then leaves.
Whoops, it turns out the fear of predators "going feral" has unlocked a wild new level of fantastic racism in Zootopia. Predators become second-class citizens.
the darkest before the dawn, return to the familiar, a hope spot
Depressed by her negative impact, Judy quits the force and returns home to sell fruit and vegetables.
While manning the family fruit stand, her childhood bully returns and apologizes to her, accidentally revealing a key detail: local plants are a toxin that cause madness!
This is a vital clue! Judy, excited, rushes back to the city to save the day!
Judy must re-enlist Nick to help her. She apologizes. Nick decides to help.
the grand showdown, climax and apotheosis
They demonstrate their mastery of the new world very quickly: having navigated this case once, they're both confident and effective right away. Throwaway joke characters from the earlier investigation get some more screen time.
They very quickly discover a secret lab where the plant is converted into a toxin that can be fired as a paint-gun dart. Someone has been paying the lab techs to target predators!
This re-contextualizes so much stuff about the plot!
Action happens, Nick and Judy barely escape the secret lab with the evidence that they need to save the day!
the twist, betrayal, everything falls apart
Deputy Mayor Bellwether is (inexplicably) here to help, so long as Judy hands her the evidence.
Judy, suspicious, runs. Bellwether, the ringleader all along, orders her execution.
After a short chase, Nick and Judy end up together in a pit.
Bellwether delivers a villain monologue, explaining her plan to use fantastic racism as a ladder to political power, and shoots Nick with the serum.
the darkest before the dawn, return to the familiar, a hope spot
Nick, crazed by the serum, kills Judy.
the grand showdown, climax and apotheosis
"Blood! Blood! And... death." Judy humorously hams up a fake death scene.
The serum was actually blueberries. The death scene was faked to record Deputy Mayor Bellwether's villainous monologue.
master of both worlds, returning and becoming whole
Bellwether is arrested. Nick joins the police. Nick and Judy get to cruise around in an unnecessarily militaristic police cruiser, credits roll.