5 Foreshadowing Tips With Zootopia

Zootopia is a fantastic movie on several levels. Firstly, its brilliant way of addressing intersectionality and secondly, its foreshadowing, which is today's blog topic. Foreshadowing is a technique that sets up or prepares the readers for a reveal later on in the story.

There may be spoilers, but hopefully you've already watched this epic movie and this is no problem.

1. Foreshadow early.

Don't be a sloth when you foreshadow.

Source: Giphy

One of the most important aspects of foreshadowing is to do it ASAP. In Zootopia, the conflict is foreshadowed in the opening scene! Of course, you don't necessarily need to start this early because it might not work for your story like it works for Zootopia. What matters here is weave a clue to set up something in later scenes. In Neil Gaiman's Masterclass Article, he states:

The closer to an event foreshadowing is placed, the less effective it usually is. In fact, foreshadowing immediately before an event can act as a “spoiler” for the reader. Instead, make sure foreshadowing takes place long enough before the event or ending that it is not fresh in your readers’ minds. This will give your readers even more joy when they comb back through your story to find the breadcrumbs you left.

Generally, I have two guidelines.

1. Foreshadow all major points before the 50% mark. 
2. Major points should be foreshadowed before minor points.

How Zootopia Does It 

Let's look at some of Zootopia's foreshadowing placements for the main conflict. From the very first scene, the story already foreshadows the main conflict through Judy's play on the history of predator vs prey. Intersectionality is reinforced a few scenes later in a introductory exchange Judy and Clawhauser when Clawhauser calls Judy cute which she replies saying, "Ooh, uh, you probably didn't know, but a bunny can call another bunny cute, but when other animals do it, it's a little..."

There's also this piece of gold after Judy chased Duke Weaselton and reclaimed the bag of stolen goods. These goods seem like "mouldy onions" but Judy insists they are "a crocus variety called Midnicampum holicithias" which not only foreshadows what's causing the problem but also a throwback to her farming background and plant knowledge. And this is only Zootopia's set up.

2. Scatter the foreshadowing.

Scatter like the sprinkles on this donut!

Source: Giphy

You'd want to start foreshadowing as early as possible, but you also don't want to overdo it. Not only will this just be plain annoying, it can also place too much emphasis on the foreshadowing and give away the reveal.

Instead, spread out the "breadcrumbs" over the story. Let's say in a murder story, you might need to foreshadow the killer, the murder weapon and the motivation. One scene might foreshadow the murder weapon and the killer, the next the motivation and finally, just the killer.

Mix up different aspects that need to be foreshadowed and sprinkle them across several scenes. Generally, the same element of the same aspect shouldn't be foreshadowed in one scene. By this, I mean don't mention that the killer has brown gloves and in the same scene say that Character X has brown gloves without explicitly saying that X is the murderer.

A way to bluff foreshadowing is to place different emphasis levels on the same foreshadowed aspect. For example, there's a direct confrontation with Gideon Grey then by a whole conversation about fox danger followed by a moment where Judy is about to leave her fox repellent behind but decides to take it anyway.

How Zootopia Does It 

Zootopia foreshadows one aspect per one scene. The following will be just the first seven scenes. 

• Scene One foreshadows the main conflict. 
• Scene Two foreshadows Judy's obstacle with foxes and her determination
• Scene Three reinforces Judy's determination. 
• Scene Four foreshadows the antagonist, particularly their reason for doing it. 
• Scenes Five reinforce Judy's conflict with foxes. 
• Scene Six hints back at Judy's fox conflict.
• Scene Seven reinforces the main conflict by showing stereotypes and prejudice. 

The main conflict starts on the first scene and there's a six scene gap between the next bit of foreshadowing. Of course, there's a buffer with the antagonist foreshadowing in between, but at the time, we wouldn't know that as first time viewers. 

3. Foreshadow subtly.

Isn't that sweet?

Source: Giphy

The point of foreshadowing is to hint at the reveal without actually saying what the reveal is. Hence, your foreshadowing should be subtle. Generally speaking, the bigger the reveal, the smaller the emphasis on the foreshadowing should be. 

A key point is how much emphasis you place on it. There's heavy emphasis placed on intersectionality in two separate scenes which works because it's the what of the main conflict. Intersectionality plays a big part in Zootopia but it's not a reveal so having heavy emphasis makes sense. It's still foreshadowing because it doesn't explicitly say that the conflict is about predator vs prey. 

However, there's little emphasis on how the antagonist is always brushed aside by the big guy. It's just one thing that is made to seem like it's just part of the characters. This works because it's the how of the conflict. 

How Zootopia Does It 

If you've watched the film, you'd know that the real reason for predators turning savage is because of the blue flowers. But these bulbs are introduced in two different ways.

The first time it's mentioned is after Judy reclaimed the bag of stolen bulbs from Duke Weaselton. Chief Bogo calls it a bag of "mouldy onions" and Judy immediately responds that they "are a crocus variety called Midnicampum holicithias". But this exchange happens under the guise of Bogo reprimanding Judy for not doing her job. In fact, the scene quickly transitions to Mrs Otterton's missing husband which distracts us viewers from the answer while leaving enough time for us to absorb the info. 

The second time it's mentioned is much later when Judy and Nick are on the verge of solving the Otterton case. Manchas has this line, "There was no warning. He just kept yelling about the Night Howlers. Over and over, the Night Howlers!" Here, the viewers are paying a lot of attention. Of course, the Night Howlers are going to stick out as a Big Clue. This is a neat red herring, the most popular type of foreshadowing. 

4. Foreshadow in different ways.

We're all different!

Source: Rebloggy

If you foreshadow in the same way all the time, it's gonna become predictable. And even worse, boring. You don't want that, but it's super easy to avoid this because there's many ways to foreshadow. 

Some ways to foreshadow include:

• Dialogue. There's a lot of freedom with using dialogue as a foreshadowing method. You can play around with casual remarks or blatant hints. If a character said early on as an attempt at humour, "I'll die to save you" and ultimately does die, that's solid dialogue foreshadowing. 
• Description. This happens whenever you describe something, whether it be the setting, the character or what not. Usually, it happens in conjunction with each other. Typically, you think of something like Character X wore brown gloves and with the payoff, There was a pair of brown gloves on the couch.
  However, descriptions could also include literary devices like metaphors and similes. For example, let's say a story has a cat as the bad guy, the cat purred like a bad guy. No award winning prizes here, but you get the point.
• Actions. This is when a character or object does something. Maybe there's no wind, but the bushes rustled. Maybe a town is known for its spectacular lighting, but one globe flickers.
• Character traits. When there's a particular trait belonging to a character, it can be used for foreshadowing. If a character is partial to cake, it could foreshadow their eventual demise because of their weakness. If a character is always wearing a hoodie, it could foreshadow that they're hiding something underneath it. 
• Weather. Using weather to foreshadow usually means abstract foreshadowing. Dark storm clouds might gather to foreshadow that something bad will happen.

How Zootopia Does It 

Going back to the list in the second tip, here's how the movie foreshadowed.

• Scene One foreshadows the main conflict by an event.  
• Scene Two foreshadows Judy's obstacle with foxes through another event when she confronts Gideon Grey.
• Scenes Two and Three foreshadow Judy's determination through Judy's character traits.
• Scene Four foreshadows the antagonist, particularly their reason for doing it through actions, as Mayor Lionheart subtly and continually pushes Bellweather out of the way.
• Scene Five reinforce Judy's conflict with foxes by dialogue between Judy and her parents, her dad advocating that Judy should take a variety of fox repellent.
• Scene Six hints back at Judy's fox conflict through how Judy is about to leave her fox repellent behind but takes it anyway.
• Scene Seven reinforces the main conflict by showing stereotypes and prejudice through dialogue between Clawhauser and Judy when Clawhauser calls Judy cute but Judy tells him it's sorta rude.

5. Fulfil the foreshadowing.

This is the face I'll make if you don't.

Source: Tenor

This should be a no brainer, but oftentimes, I'll read a book and pick up this hint which was never fulfilled. It's not satisfactory. If you foreshadow something, you must make sure it has a pay off. Think of it as fulfilling a promise you made.

Say you foreshadowed that a character is going to die but doesn't, that's not satisfactory. Looking at you, Age of Ultron. If you foreshadow a character is going to die, kill that character off for everyone's sake. I can't stress enough how important it is for you to fulfil foreshadowing.

How Zootopia Does It 

Back to the bulbs, we get the bit about Midnicampum holicithius and the Night Howlers. Of course, we get the part where Judy thought the Night Howlers were wolves, but imagine if we never got the pay off scene:

Stu Hopps: Hey kids! Don't you run through that Midnicampum holicithias!
[...]
Gideon Grey: [surprised] Well, now there's a four-dollar word, Mr. H, my family always just called them Night howlers.

Things would've been very different. Now, the chasing Duke Weaselton sequence makes sense, not to mention the dialogue between Judy and Chief Bogo about mouldy onions. Because of this, it also proves that the earlier scene earns its place in the movie, maybe even forgiving Zootopia's slow beginning.

Other Thoughts On Zootopia

• I love the diversity and how it addresses some hard truths in the world. This is one of my favourite aspects of the movie.
• Judy and Nick are both amazing characters with excellent chemistry between them. In fact, I think every significant Zootopia character has these qualities. 
• Personally, I found the story set up a tad bit too long and on my rewatches, I was tempted to just skip some parts. 
• Love the many Easter eggs.
• During a bit of research for this post, I came across this comment on IMDB saying "At the beginning of the film, Judy stands up for a sheep against a fox. In the climax of the film, she does the opposite, standing up for a fox against a sheep." Isn't that awesome?

~ 

That's foreshadowing with Zootopia. If you haven't watched the movie already, you're missing out. Foreshadowing is one of its strong points. Foreshadow early and subtly, making sure you scatter the hints among the story. Keep things interesting by using different methods of foreshadowing. Most importantly, fulfil the foreshadowing.

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