Zootropolis: 24 Easter Eggs & References You Probably Missed

9. The Most Obscure Star Trek And Star Wars References Ever

Nick Wilde James Kirk Zootopia.jpg
Disney

If you weren't paying lots of attention, you might have missed the small, funny detail that Nick Wilde was named in homage to a Star Trek captain. His full name is Nicholas Piberius Wilde, a nice, but strange nod to Star Trek's James Tiberius Kirk. Director Byron Howard has confirmed that one.

And there's also a similarly obscure Star Wars reference, as confirmed by Rich Moore:

€œThere€™s a nod to Star Wars when Judy is trying to get the train car moving. She turns on the power, and the car dies, and she gives it a whack à la the Millennium Falcon, and it comes back to life, à la The Empire Strikes Back. There€™s all sorts of film references. We layer it all in. We spent years doing the movie, so we had time to do it!€

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