Behind every film, animated or live action, there has to be someone with that first flicker of light that says, “what if we did a story about…”. In the case of Disney’s upcoming animation feature, Zootopia, that first lightbulb moment came from Byron Howard, who pitched the idea of animals living in a big city to John Lasseter. As Howard tells it, John loved the idea so much that he picked him up and spun him around in the air. Lasseter then made Howard promise to make this film unlike any other before it. Now, here we are just days before Zootopia is set to open in theaters everywhere, and from what I have seen, they definitely kept their promise to John.

While in Orlando last week as a guest of Disney Studios, we got a chance to sit down with the directors to hear more about how they created the characters, the world and the story of Zootopia. Check out what they had to say!

The research started at Walt Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which is where we were at (Animal Kingdom Lodge)

Byron Howard: This was one of the first places that we came. Like after we pitched the idea of the movie, what we start with is research. And we talk about in a lot of these presentations. And the fact that this company has this amazing animal preserve, which is honestly, it is the best in the world. Like if you look at the animals they’re in herds. They’re moving around these amazing environments that feel like a real African environments and Asian environments.

However, in order to get a better look at how animals live, John Lasseter sent some of the team to Africa, and it changed them all

Byron Howard: We went back to LA and told. John Lassiter about our findings here. And he said, that’s amazing. But the next step you guys gotta do is actually go to real Africa and we’re like, Africa? And he’s like, Africa. And he sent us. We took 14 of our leadership over there. Africa was a life changing experience for us all. I think all of us came back honestly changed. We’ve been a lot of [places] – we’re very fortunate with these jobs because they send us on terrific places all over Asia and Europe and South America. But Africa, for me, I had never been any place that kinda changed you down to your core. Because you’re stepping into an environment that has been the same for 40,000 years. I’d only been to zoos where I’d seen like two zebra at a time. And then – you know, 30 feet away from us were 200 zebras. Or 50,000 wildebeest. And- and being as close to lions as- as we are to you guys in the front row. And just to see nature, like full on nature right there. It really made us feel like, okay, if we’re gonna do this movie, we’re gonna do it right. And we came home just full of all this information and this great passion, for what we’re gonna create with Zootopia. And I think that’s why the crew dug in so much. We geeked out on all this stuff. And it came across in the film because our crew cared so much.

On creating a story about tolerance and acceptance in a way kids and adults could understand

Rich Moore: It was important to us that Judy’s kind of journey, and her as a character, a child could relate to her. We knew if this is a story about discrimination and being put in a box, by other people, then Judy has to have a moment where that happened to her. That’s why we chose that. It was at the hands of a bully when she was young. You know, as a little girl. And a little bunny, because, unfortunately, I think that adults and children can relate to those moments. Unfortunately, I think that all of us have had those moments. Some more than others, but it’s relatable. So, that’s why we chose to have that happen to her as a child. It kind of became very relatable to both a child and an adult of what this movie was about.

The Sloths at the DMV came from their head of story and they have discovered the DMV woes are universal

Byron Howard: Our head of story, Jim Reardon just threw out this idea… ‘Well, how about sloths working for DMV?’ You know, that could be a funny scene. And it was kinda one of these things where everyone was quiet for a moment. And thought — this hasn’t this been done before? You know, it seems like such an obvious joke or situation.

Rich Moore: And we quickly went to the Internet and like, ‘sloth at the DMV.’And – No, no, no, no. Oh, my God. I think we found something that hasn’t been done yet!

Byron Howard: And again, to keep it on a level that a child could it. That to them they’re watching Judy who’s in a hurry at the mercy of a sloth — who’s slow. But then for the adult, it’s like, oh, yeah — I know the DMV. That’s happened to me. And then also we wondered, well, is this universal around the world? Do they have the DMV? Do they have any thing? And I am happy to report the frustration with red tape and bureaucracy is well known everywhere.

You know who else loves sloths? Kristen Bell…so guess who makes a cameo? Here’s how it happened.

Rich Moore: She loves sloths. Did you see that clip from Ellen? Where she was like breaking down? We said, we have one line from this scene…God, do you think she would do it? And we were trying to figure it out, because it would be perfect if she did the voice. We’re talking with our casting director, Jamie Roberts, and we were talking about, well, how do you go to someone like Kristen Bell and present like this idea, will you do one line that is literally words two words? You know? We’re thinking, like, okay, how do we approach Kristen with this idea and Jamie said, “Why don’t I just text her? Right now. I know her. You know? Forget this, we’re going about this the wrong, let me text her. Let me ask her”. She literally kind of, you know, “Kristen, would you like to play a sloth that has one line in the movie?” Then five minutes later, we got talking about something else. And then Jamie said, oh, by the way, Kristen just texted back. She’s in.

Zootopia opens March 4th and is rated PG.