From villain to zodiac hero: how Zootopia 2’s snake character has made the film a global hit

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yanyan Hong, PhD in Media and Film Studies, University of Adelaide

Nine years after their first adventure, Zootopia’s “dream team” are back. This time, perky optimistic rabbit cop Judy Hopps and charming fox Nick Wilde must to solve a reptilian mystery.

Zootopia 2 has won the hearts of millions since its release in late November – including in China, one of the world’s most lucrative film markets. The animated comedy has topped the Chinese box office to become its highest-grossing foreign animated film of all time.

This success signals more than entertainment; it reveals how Disney reshapes cultural symbols to appeal to different audiences. Because at the centre of the story is an unexpected hero: a blue-scaled pit viper named Gary De’Snake, who is determined to clear his family’s name and see reptiles living in harmony with other animals.

According to Disney’s chief creative officer and the film’s co-director, Jared Bush, Gary’s inclusion in the film is a deliberate nod to the Chinese zodiac year, in which the snake symbolises wisdom, intuition, elegance and renewal.

A bad rap for reptiles

From the serpent in the Bible tempting Eve, to Medusa’s venomous hair in Greek mythology, the image of the snake has long been tied to deceit, temptation and chaos. These stereotypes are even embedded in language, such as with “snake in the grass” and “snake oil”.

Even in Harry Potter, members of the serpent house of Slytherin pride themselves on their “ambition” and “cunning”.

The films we watch also reflect this. For much of Hollywood’s history, snakes have been typecast as the slithering embodiment of evil. From the hypnotic Kaa in The Jungle Book (1967), to the fanged horrors that lurk in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Western cinema has painted snakes as cold, creepy and irredeemably threatening.

Studies of animal representation onscreen show snakes are among the most consistently villainised creatures in Western narratives. So when Disney announced one of Zootopia 2’s pivotal new character would be a snake (reptiles were deliberately excluded from the first film) audiences may have expected yet another sinister entity.

Instead, Gary De’Snake, voiced by Oscar-winning actor Ke Huy Quan, is a soft-spoken, chronically misunderstood creature whose coil-tightening anxiety masks a sharp intuition and surprising tenderness.

Gary is framed as an outsider. (“No snake has set foot in Zootopia in forever.”) He is fighting not only crime, but a kind of prejudice that is easily read as an allegory for real-world discrimination against minorities.

Eastern Zodiac: snakes that charm

The first Zootopia (2016) reportedly earned US$236.1 million (about A$355 million) at the Chinese box office, which made it one of the country’s top-grossing foreign animated films at the time.

The Chinese zodiac, or shēngxiào (生肖), assigns each birth year an animal in a 12-year cycle. Someone born in the lunar year of 2025 is a snake, a symbol associated with wisdom, prosperity and clear-sightedness.

Chinese cultural tradition gives the snake spiritual depth. The serpent-bodied deities Fuxi and Nüwa are central to creation myths. They represent fertility, balance and harmony.

There are also classic tales, such as The Legend of the White Snake, which portrays serpents as capable of love, loyalty and transformation.

Disney makes use of cultural symbolism in many ways. In Zootopia 2, a scene in which Gary and his snake family hug Judy Hopps echoes the folk motif of the “snake coiled with rabbit” (蛇盘兔, shé pán tù), a Northern Chinese traditional symbol of good fortune.

Chinese viewers might view this as gentle nod to culture that is recognisable without feeling contrived.

Even Gary’s wardrobe participates in cultural bridging. His bright red scarf may appear playful to Western audiences, but in China, red is worn during one’s zodiac birth year (本命年，Běn mìng nián) to ward off bad luck and invite protection.

Cross-cultural appeal

“Glocalisation” – thinking globally while adapting locally – isn’t new for Disney. The studio has spent years refining its strategy of tailoring characters and symbols to different markets.

Australian viewers will delight to see a koala voiced by conservationist Robert Irwin (called Robert Furwin), and a scene-stealing quokka therapist.

One television news anchor character comes in the form of different animals for different regions. While North American audiences see a moose anchor (the default option for most releases), Chinese audiences see a panda, and Australians see a koala.

It’s possible Disney’s creative team even prepared for the release slipping into the new Year of the Horse. One character, Mayor Winddancer, is a stallion who enters politics following a career as an action film hero.

Feared stereotype to fan favourite

Zootopia 2 reimagines a creature that has long been feared in Western storytelling. In doing so, it highlights how Hollywood films are no longer a one-way export of Western stories, but an increasingly negotiated space of cross-cultural creativity.

Hollywood now has to speak to audiences who are culturally confident and eager to be represented – while also being wary of tokenism. The question is: can this kind of storytelling foster lasting mutual understanding?

Just as Judy and Nick’s crisis of trust in the film reminds us, “cross-species” dialogue (or in this case cross-cultural dialogue) is always fraught with misunderstanding. And for that very reason, it is full of possibility.

Yanyan Hong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. From villain to zodiac hero: how Zootopia 2’s snake character has made the film a global hit – https://theconversation.com/from-villain-to-zodiac-hero-how-zootopia-2s-snake-character-has-made-the-film-a-global-hit-271521