https://youtu.be/NJizUGG0Veo

https://youtu.be/3QjvZRLrqfM

Hey, guys! Here's another Zootopia article for you! This should be a shorter one than usual. No promises, though. I'm hoping to make this less than 1,000 words. *Crowd snorts* Yeah, yeah, I know that every time I seem to give this goal for myself, I seem to still be well over it by a good bit. But to be honest, I write these articles at a length that I feel is natural and won't feel or sound choppy.

Today's topic will be about something that's probably one of my biggest pet peeves in Zootopia (one of only a few, as Zootopia is solid-gold perfection itself): Wolves and their blasted howling!

Now, I get it, wolves howl; it's in their nature, and it's realistic. But not to where it gives the protagonists a VERY convenient method to get past them to reach the abandoned building.

I mean, LOOK at this!

Gary was about to find Nick with his SNIFFER! Only for him to be stopped by who? . . . 

By a BUNNY! Who doesn't even SOUND like a wolf! Wolves would know the difference between a wolf howl and a howl attempting to sound like a wolf by other creatures (or humans, if they had existed, which they don't, because they're a myth). ;-)

Yet what happens instead? . . .

Gary, the dingo that he is, must be hard of hearing, because he starts thinking that it's a wolf howl, without thinking of the fact that the howl was literally right behind him, and begins HOWLING! 

And not only does he start howling -- oh, no, he's not the only one . . . 

His buddy Larry and every other wolf in the area starts howling, without even wondering why there's a Howl to begin with, or who started it, or maybe even considering having a few Wolves to keep watch while everyone takes part in a Howl randomly and spontaneously with no warning. If I was one of the Wolves, I'd be alarmed and be alert, expecting an intruder to come by to take advantage of this, because the Howl come out of nowhere and I doubt this is a regular occurrance when they're on the job (like now). 

But, no, this doesn't happen. Every single Wolf guard is taking part in the Howl, eyes closed, noses up, and ears pulled back. Which does what? . . . 

That's right -- allows Nick and Judy to be able to cross the ENTIRE bridge -- an exposed and open area, mind you -- without getting spotted or found out, allowing them to get into the building and find all of those missing mammals.

Look at them! Look at their smug faces! Stop smiling! That wasn't an accomplishment! That was exploitation and manipulation of the storyline! X(

This is what confuses me the most. How are they able to do this without the staff in the hospital and Mayor Lionheart hearing it and checking it out? That'd be a serious security hazard.

And then look at this:

See Nick's position? Good. Now look at this next picture.

What would be Nick's location at the the Sniffing Scene would be in Larry's line-of-sight. He just has to glance to his left like what he's doing now. Nick's fur is RED. I'm sure he'd be able to spot it. 

Even if he didn't, wouldn't he have spotted him from the corner of his eye as he tries to stop Gary from howling? Maybe Gary's bulk would've blocked him? Even if it did, I'm sure that Larry still would've smelt him at this range. Gary did. Which brings up another question:

Gary was just about to find Nick's location when Judy, a BUNNY, and being just behind him at that, began howling to distract him. I'm sorry, but in real life, wolves don't get that distracted. If they smell something, they're going to find the end of that scent trail. Wolves have GREAT hearing and smelling abilities. So the fact that Judy and Nick were able to get through an entire security unit of Wolves through distracting them with howling is absurd and a Deus Ex Machina. 

And Nick calling them "dumb-dumbs" is very offensive. They're not stupid. They're WOLVES. 

*Long pause when a thought strucks him* I need to stop before I run off on a tangent about the intelligence of wolves, which is an entirely different topic from what I'm writing now.

Anyway, to be fair, Disney didn't have a lot of time to find a realistic way for Judy and Nick to get through to the building, since the scene needed to be quick and straight-forward. That, and, Disney being Disney, wanted comedy and so used these poor Wolves to be the butt of their terrible jokes. And, despite the lesson about stereotyping creatures, Disney just couldn't stop themselves from using stereotypes all over the place in their story. And the wolves howling is just one of them.

<><><><><><><><><><>

The Problem With the Howling (and Why I Have a Problem With It):

From what we see in the film, these Wolves are a security detail. Whether they're the security detail for the Mayor or for the hospital isn't known -- though I would hazard a guess that they're the latter. It is possible that they could've been a hired security detail from a private security firm that the Mayor could've paid for, I guess, as they wouldn't ask questions nor would stick their excellent-smelling noses where they're not supposed to. 

If this is true, then that would mean that in order for these Wolves to be part of a security firm, they would need a reputation of reliability -- which means that they wouldn't be howling spontaneously and leaving their charge (if it's a building or area) vulnerable to penetration by intruders and tresspassers. If Wolves did that continuously, then nobody would be hiring them. At all. 

Now, would they not howl at all? I don't think so. My guess is that Wolves make great security guards because they work as a pack, or group, and work together as a team. Almost like Military Police, or SWAT, or something. My guess is that if they howled at all, it's if the members of the pack are covering large tracks of area to patrol and need to howl once-in-a-while like security details do today with their radios:

"Checkpoint One -- clear!"

"Checkpoint Two -- clear!"

and so on and so forth.

They could also howl to summon the other Wolves in the area like an alarm signal or a distress call so that the other Wolves can know what's going on and move towards the hot spot. It would be more effective than using the radios. 

However, this being said, due to the secretive and top-secretly-sensitive nature of their assignment and the small area of their charge, they not only would have no need to howl, but they would not be allowed to use this technique or else the covert operation would be discovered and the Mayor would've been caught before missing mammal #5.

I mean, seriously, look at this:

The wolves (Larry and Gary, I'm assuming) are howling after capturing a Night-Howler-drugged Manchas. I doubt they're letting nearby wolves in their unit know of their success, as judging from what passed between them just before they howled, it looked like they were saying: "Should we howl a victory howl?" "Yes, old chap, let's!" and then howling. This is stupid and would've given their position away. It's actually a wonder how they haven't been discovered earlier if they've been doing this since they've been hired.

Which is why I think Disney was adding another stereotype into the movie literally for the sake of grins and giggles.

Fact of the matter is that if these Wolves did this constantly when they should be guarding, then nobody would be hiring them . . . because it would be seen that wolves are unreliable and a security hazard and would never use them as security guards or goons.

Cheese and Crackers, if they did this, then they wouldn't even be allowed to be part of the police force or the military, much less as security. Or anything, really. They'd be viewed as impulsive, disorderly, and disruptive with their howling. 

And with that small space of square area, I doubt they'd be able to do that without SOMEBODY within the hospital hearing it and reprimanding them for it. Unless, of course, the hospital was sound-proof and the roar of the waterfall muted the howls? Again, I'm not an expert at this sort of thing, so if somebody would either confirm or correct me on this, I would appreciate it.

These Wolves are security, and they're going to act professional. They're not howling now, are they? No, because that would be stupid. In fact, they look mad that somebody pulled a fast one on them. I mean, I'm sure they've put two-and-two together between somebody howling, causing a universal Howl, and then an intruder suddenly coming in? Yeah, they're going to be miffed.

Yeah, they definitely look miffed.

Even I wouldn't mess with them. lol XD

<><><><><><><><><><>

Conclusion:

So to end this, I'm going to conclude and assume that the howling-wolf stereotype is merely for comedy and irony reasons than for realism. Not to mention that Disney needed to move the story along due to time limits.

However, this doesn't necessarily mean that Security Wolves never howl. It's possible that they howl to keep in communication over large spaces of space to guard, or as distress/alarm signals when any intruders or disturbances come into play. But it is of my opinion that it is highly unlikely that they would've howled at the hospital that they were guarding due to the small square area they had to patrol as well as the need of secrecy of their operation and the essential priority of keeping their movements and missions on the hush-hush. And their howling during that scene was both unnecessary, stupid, and would never have happened.

In fact, it's my belief that this scene was an exaggeration made by a ZNN journalist. And we all know how Hollywood LOVES to exaggerate things. Zootopia is probably a dramatization of true story events and they wanted to make the security wolves look bad.

Anyway, that's my take on this. What do you guys think? Plausible? Not plausible? What are your views on this scene?

Now, am I possibly trying to explain away something that's an animation and isn't supposed to be realistic and I'm just working myself up over nothing?

Yes. Yes, it's possible.

Do I care? No. No, I do not.

Why? Because this is what makes writing these articles so fun! XD

*Looks at word count* Sweet cheese and crackers! I'm well over 2,000 words!!! How did THAT happen?! O_O

Just like what I've been saying at the beginning: I give myself a limit, and I go well over. Oh well. There was a lot to discuss concerning this scene. Or maybe I had a lot to discuss about this scene because of this pet peeve of mine of my precious wolf beans being shed in an unsatisfactory light. lol XD

Anyway, sorry for the long length and I hope you guys still love me and still want to follow me despite my love for writing long articles? *blushes* ^_^

But before I end this, why don't we see them burst through the door again?

Ah! I never get tired of seeing that. I love wolves! ^_^

Anyway, I love you guys! You are clever bunnies. ;-)

It's been a hustle, sweethearts! ;-)

- Noctus Fury

<><><><><><><><><><>

Word Count: 2,280 words

<><><><><><><><><><>

Date Published: 03/25/19