Zootopia 2 has crossed an all-important milestone. It broke some Chinese box office records, becoming something of a cultural phenomenon.
Like Harry Potter before it, the film has inspired legions of children to desperately want to own one of the animals featured in it. Whereas Harry Potter had kids begging their parents for owls, Zootopia 2 is inspiring people to buy extremely dangerous, venomous blue snakes. These snakes are also known as pit vipers.
This explosion in ownership interest of a thing that will absolutely kill you when provoked can all be blamed on Gary De’Snake, a new character to the Zootopia universe voiced by Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan, who you might remember from Everything Everywhere All At Once, or, going further back, as Data in The Goonies and as a Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Zootopia 2 is China’s highest-grossing foreign animated film ever. Gary became an instant hit across the world, with his design appearing to be inspired by the Indonesian pit viper, a snake that in real life, will not think twice about killing you to save itself. Not that it matters. It’s pretty, it was funny and charming in the animated movie, so therefore some people must have it.
Zootopia 2 Is Apparently Fueling a Pet Snake Craze in China
CNN spoke with Qi Weihao, a 21-year-old reptile lover from Jiangxi province. Qi, thanks to a lack of impulse control, bought an Indonesian pit viper days after seeing the movie. He says the movie made reptiles feel less like “creepy oddballs” and more like misunderstood animals deserving respect.
Qi already had some experience with snakes, so it’s not like he was diving headfirst into a world he knew nothing about. Still, it’s a bit risky to own a thing that might decide on its own that it’s time for you to die.
CNN also reports that Chinese e-commerce sites saw a spike in searches and prices for the snake, with some listings offering shipping despite regulations banning the mailing of live animals and toxins, of which the Indonesian pit viper is both.
It’s not technically illegal to own a pit viper in China. Still, state media and regulators are trying to pump the brakes on the whole phenomenon before one or several people die due to a combination of obsession and a lack of common sense.
Just because the thing was cute and charming in a movie doesn’t mean it makes a good house pet, especially when the thing is a giant living syringe filled with poison. By early December, just weeks after the movie became a sensation, major platforms were pulling listings for the snakes.
All this is part of a larger trend in China: the exotic pet industry is booming. This is especially true among Gen Z, with snakes making up over half of all reptile pets being snatched up. So Zootopia 2 didn’t invent the trend, but it most definitely amplified it… and accidentally made it worse.
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