Good thing. There's at least one fan comic out there I've read that I enjoyed simply because it incorporated the earlier story concept of predators being controlled by prey as a nightmare Nick had one night he had to phone Judy early in the morning just so he had reassurances that something like that would never happen. It looked like the way I would've ended a graphic novel of the alternate world version of Zootopia based on that script.
Want more? I actually have some funny ones.
That might be part of it but I think MLP is popular with that crowd is they managed to accidently copy a similar formula to slice of life moe anime which are really popular with neets. (At least that's a theory I have since if you look at the bronies they often used to be big fans of the likes of Lucky Star and Azumanga Daioh)
Sheep vs ram? Or maybe they felt the eyes would give away the twist since they eyes they gave her made her appear less threatening
Sometimes it's a design choice. It is interesting when noting how many of these characters all get the same round eye look (Nick technically would have something resembling feline eyes the way fox's eyes are for instance). Animation has always made it easier to suspend realism when it comes to how eyes are drawn on any spieces that lean towards caricature. Incidentally, when the animals appear "savaged", their eyes start to turn more animal-like in those scenes (especially Otterton).
Oh yeah, the eyeshine thing. That was really cool. Also helped me catch the twist at the end.
It's a pretty standard artistic technique, and not just for furries. Female characters have exaggerated baby-like cuteness, large eyes, and symmetrical features, in addition to things like larger hips, good posture, and a narrow upper body, while male characters slouch, have defects, smaller eyes, and more realistic proportions, or they tend to be more deformed and cartoon-like, depending on the art style.
Nick's eyes certainly gave it away if you were careful enough to spot it like I had.
It's certainly something that is very basic in designing animals in animation of this sort where males tend to stockier build while female tend to feature thinner physiques, curves, eyelashes and so-on. I will give this movie credit for not going too far with the way female characters are often designed (especially at the Mystic Springs Oasis since I couldn't tell which was which unless they spoke or were addressed to such as Nangi the elephant), females still get the usual eyelash treatment, but so do some of the males like Nick, though they tend to appear rather trimmed or short enough to go unnoticed.
This is why I kinda wish the shock collars and Nick's dad were left in, but it's nice to see a doc. that laid it out for us at least.
