When “Zootopia” was released in the U.K. several weeks after its successful introduction in the U.S., international theatergoers enjoyed the same exact story of Officer Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde, and the other residents of the town. However, instead of “Zootopia,” it’s entitled “Zootropolis.”
While some have speculated that the name change was to avoid copyright issues with the Givskud Zoo Zootopia, located in Denmark (via Irish Times), Disney officials never confirmed or denied this. Rather, a spokesperson simply stated, “In the U.K., we decided to change the U.S. title ‘Zootopia’ to ‘Zootropolis’ to merely allow the film to have a unique title that works for U.K. audiences.”
Because the U.K. version includes a voice-over only of the word “Zootropolis” every time a character says “Zootopia,” rather than the cast re-recording the entire line, many fans felt annoyed. On Reddit, u/Tobs74 wrote, “The lip syncing is still synced to ‘Zootopia’ while everything else is fine and Gazelle pronounces it very slowly, so makes that even worse.” u/TheCampfireGamer was in agreement, complaining, “I watched the normal version but in the EU on TV it’s the ‘Zootropolis’ version and every time it said ‘Zootropolis’ I got a little more triggered.”