Originally, the film revolved around Nick Wilde. Test audiences said that they had a hard time connecting with him emotionally, and found themselves drawn to Judy Hopps, so the story was changed.
Animators decided upon Judy's purple eye color because they thought the rest of her gray fur markings were too dull, particularly for a main character. Purple was chosen to represent her energetic and optimistic personality.
Chief Bogo's name is taken from the Swahili word "mbogo," meaning buffalo.
The pirated DVDs that Duke Weaselton is selling are movies with word plays to other Walt Disney Animation Studio features. Examples are: "Pig Hero 6" (Big Hero 6 (2014)), "Wrangled" (Tangled (2010)) and "Wreck-It Rhino" (Wreck-It Ralph (2012)). He also claimed to have movies that haven't been released yet, which were "Meowana" (Moana (2016)), "Floatzen 2" (Frozen II (2019)), and "Giraffic" (Gigantic). These were intended to be foreshadowing of future projects of Walt Disney Animation Studios. Moana would be released later that year. However, Gigantic was shelved a year later and eventually canceled due to creative problems. Frozen 2 released on November 2019.
According to Nick's employment application form, he is 4 feet tall, weighs 80 pounds and his special abilities are "night vision, excellent sense of smell and business savvy". Also, when asked if he has a criminal record, he checked "yes" then crossed it out and checked "no."