Disney’s Zootopia Renamed Zootropolis

For the second time this week Disney have announced that another of their upcoming films, animated adventure ‘Zootopia’, has undergone a name change.

With ‘Tomorrowland’ now under the guise of ‘Tomorrowland: A World Beyond’ in the UK and various other European countries, ‘Zootropolis’ is now the name for the 2016 movie we once knew as ‘Zootopia’.

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But why the name change? Is someone else challenging Disney in the courts? Is the name confusing for audiences? There’s even a murmur that the film title — the namesake of U2′s 1993 music album — is the issue, but that’s not been confirmed.

According to Disney, it would appear none of the above are to blame. They stated: “In the UK we decided to change the title to ‘Zootropolis’ to merely allow the film to have a unique title that works for UK audiences.”

There’s no denying that this reasoning seems, well, totally unnecessary, but if legal proceedings were in place, it’d be unlikely that they’d go public about it. It does seem strange that this name change is specifically for the UK release, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense as there’s no logical point behind it.

The film will of course remain the same, which is directed by Byron Howard (‘Tangled’). So far there’s very little revealed about the production, with no voice cast announced at time of writing. It’s pitched as an action-adventure animation, following the exploits of a fast-talking fox that goes on the run after being framed for a crime he’s innocent of committing, so has an interesting premise at least.

‘Zootropolis’ is released in the UK on 25 March, 2016.

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Picture credit: Disney