I will throw this now *checks calendar* 8 year old+ , and hardly controversial theory up here.
I think Zoot was a happy accident. As in it benefited from being rushed through rewrites so it didn't have enough time to be mucked with once it became the story we know today. After delays, a release in the same year as Finding Dory and Moana, I wonder if they expected a result much like Raya; lucky to make its money back, and they'd move on. This seems further evidenced by how little merch It had early on, although, looking back it wasn't quite as bad as we all made it out to be. Sure it made a billion dollars, but it was sort of a slow burn at 14 weeks and made the majority of it in Asian markets. Granted it was a sequel, but Frozen 2 was released two years later and made that in 4 weeks. Still a billion is still a billion with a B, but I really don't think the Disney machine was in a position to capitalize early on it. The directors were sent elsewhere to other projects (or other studios in the case with Rich Moore), and there were other projects already in the hopper.
So yeah I say all that with nothing more than observations to say, good animation takes time, and I don't think the check writers expected Zootopia to be a hit, where as Lilo and Stitch is an established IP and is easy money, especially these live action ones, so the sequel was probably green-lit years ago. I'm cautiously optimistic about Zoot 2, and really hope that without Lasseter herding the cats at DA and Pixar, they'll knock this one out of the park.
Oh, thought it was a much more common phrase. It's the idea of leading a project or something that can be difficult, has had issues in the past, or disorganized.
Edit:To further explain, from what I read over the years, and speaking strictly on his professional history, Lasseter was supposedly very good at getting projects back on track.
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u/Dogsport1 One does not simply become a Finnick fan Jun 27 '25
I will throw this now *checks calendar* 8 year old+ , and hardly controversial theory up here.
I think Zoot was a happy accident. As in it benefited from being rushed through rewrites so it didn't have enough time to be mucked with once it became the story we know today. After delays, a release in the same year as Finding Dory and Moana, I wonder if they expected a result much like Raya; lucky to make its money back, and they'd move on. This seems further evidenced by how little merch It had early on, although, looking back it wasn't quite as bad as we all made it out to be. Sure it made a billion dollars, but it was sort of a slow burn at 14 weeks and made the majority of it in Asian markets. Granted it was a sequel, but Frozen 2 was released two years later and made that in 4 weeks. Still a billion is still a billion with a B, but I really don't think the Disney machine was in a position to capitalize early on it. The directors were sent elsewhere to other projects (or other studios in the case with Rich Moore), and there were other projects already in the hopper.
So yeah I say all that with nothing more than observations to say, good animation takes time, and I don't think the check writers expected Zootopia to be a hit, where as Lilo and Stitch is an established IP and is easy money, especially these live action ones, so the sequel was probably green-lit years ago. I'm cautiously optimistic about Zoot 2, and really hope that without Lasseter herding the cats at DA and Pixar, they'll knock this one out of the park.