Night of the Zoopocalypse (originally titled as Night of the Zoombies) is a 2024 animated supernaturalcomedy horror film directed by storyboard artists Rodrigo Perez-Castro and Ricardo Curtis (who also served as storyboard supervisors of the film while Perez-Castro served as its design supervisor), written by James Kee and producer Steven Hoban; inspired by a concept by one of the film's executive producers and Hellraiser creator Clive Barker, loosely based on his unpublished short story "ZOOmbies".[6] The film follows a group of animal survivors in a zoo trying to survive a zombie outbreak when a virus carried on a meteor turns various zoo creatures into slobbering mutant zombies.
It premiered at the 57th Sitges Film Festival on October 7, 2024, then being released in France by Apollo Films on January 29, 2025, Belgium on February 19, 2025, and in the United States and Canada by Viva Kids and Elevation Pictures on March 7, 2025, receiving positive reviews.[7]
Plot
Gracie, a young timber wolf, lives with her pack at Colepepper Zoo, a massive animal theme park located in western Canada. The pack's paranoid Gramma Abigale trains them for any upcoming "disaster" and warns them to never trust the other animals. The pack witnesses a new animal being transferred to an enclosure just as the zoo closes for the day.
That night, a meteor crashes through the zoo, landing at the Kuddle Korner petting zoo, where a white rabbit eats it and is infected with a virus. Gracie escapes her damaged enclosure to investigate the crash, where she encounters the rabbit incubating in a giant pod. A zombie arm emerges from the pod and attacks her, but she escapes, only to come face to face with the new animal, a gruff mountain lion named Dan, who instinctively attacks her. Both of them are tranquilized by the oblivious zookeeper, who puts them in the vet station overnight.
Meanwhile, the rabbit emerges from the pod as a “Gum-Beast,” a zombified mutant with gelatinous skin. The rabbit, dubbed "Bunny Zero," spreads its infection across the zoo. Gracie, Dan, and four other animals - Xavier, a factitiousred ruffed lemur; Felix, an egotistical proboscis monkey; Frida, a feisty capybara; and Ash, a sarcastic ostrich - escape being infected. They are attacked by Fred, an infected gorilla and Felix's abandoned partner, prompting them to split up and flee into the utility tunnels.
Gracie decides to head back to her enclosure, and forces Dan to protect her on the way in exchange for the zoo card key. Along the way, they meet Poot, an uninfected baby hippo, who joins them on their journey. They arrive at the enclosure to find that the rest of the pack has already been turned. Meanwhile, the others find themselves in the gift shop, where they agree to stay for the night. Nevertheless, tensions rise within the group, which leads to a brawl that results in them accidentally powering on the entire zoo. As the Gum-Beasts attack, Felix abandons his group to find the card key, while Gracie, Dan and Poot are attacked by Fred, who merges with an infected giraffe into a monster which infects Dan. The Gum-Beast Dan attacks Gracie until he is seemingly cured by being submerged in a security office sink filled with soap and water. Afterwards, Dan leaves with the card key, coldly rejecting Gracie's idea to team up with the others.
At the gift shop, Gracie and Poot reunite with Ash, Frida and Xavier to cure the Gum-Beasts, while Felix steals the key from Dan. Felix is attacked by a swarm of infected tree frogs, only for Dan to rescue him to reclaim the key. Felix successfully appeals to Dan for the card key but is infected by the tree frogs before he can even use it. Meanwhile, Gracie and the others plan to cure the Gum-Beasts by luring them into Dan's enclosure and flooding it with soap and water. Dan returns to help the group, and the plan seemingly succeeds. However, the Gum-Beasts instead merge into a gigantic amalgam, which absorbs everyone but Gracie and Dan, who flee into the gift shop, shortly before the amalgam destroys it.
Dan and Gracie are attacked by the infected Poot, who accidentally activates a snow globe with a built-in music box and returns to normal. Gracie recognizes the music box's melody as the Zoo's theme song, which plays at the clock tower every 7 O'Clock, and recalls that the radio played the same song when Dan was cured. She realizes that the song itself is the cure and decides to activate the clock tower. After the amalgam absorbs Dan, Gracie rushes to the clock tower herself, while Poot distracts the amalgam. The Gum-Beast Felix tries to ambush Gracie, but she activates the clock tower, and the song destroys the amalgam and returns the other animals back to normal.
In the aftermath, Fred forgives Felix for abandoning him, Ash and Xavier become best friends, and Abigale & the rest of the pack start trusting the other animals. Dan leaves the zoo for the wild but gives Gracie the key just in case she decides to join him.
David Harbour as Dan, agruff mountain lion who is determined to return to the wild, which slowly alienates him from Gracie and the others. He is temporarily infected by the mutants.
Scott Thompson as Ash, a sarcastic and skeptical ostrich who is always annoyed by Felix's selfishness but has a soft spot for Frida and Xavier, the latter of whom he later becomes best friends with.
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Felix, an egotistical and selfish proboscis monkey who arrogantly thinks he is the only mature one of the group. He is temporarily infected by the mutants.
Pierre Simpson as Xavier, an eccentric, movie-obsessed red ruffed lemur. He later becomes Ash's best friend.
Bill, one of Gracie's brothers, who is also assimilated by the mutants.
Heather Loreto as Frida, a fiery, Spanish-accented capybara who is also irrtated with Felix's selfishness.
Security Guard
Kyle Derek as Fred, a gorilla who lives in the monkey area with Felix. He is later infected by the mutants.
Christina Nova as Poot, a childish baby pygmy hippopotamus who is mostly oblivious to the situation and the danger the mutants pose.
Bryn McAuley as Bunny Zero, a rabbit who, after accidentally eating the meteorite, becomes the deranged leader of the mutants.
Mutant
Carolyn Scott as Gramma Abigale, an elderly timber wolf and Gracie's paranoid grandmother who trains the pack for "disaster." She is later infected by the mutants.
Scott also voices the Colepepper Zoo Announcer when it's closing time at the zoo.
Rob Tinkler as Maynard, one of Gracie's brothers, who is also assimilated by the mutants.
Roy, one of Gracie's brothers, who is also assimilated by the mutants.
Mutant
Monkey
Joey
Joshua Graham as Hank, one of Gracie's brothers, who is also assimilated by the mutants.
Production
In Spring 2014, the original idea from Clive Barker was a graphic novel aimed at adult audiences and would follow a child who gets trapped in a zoo during a zombie outbreak. When the idea was shifted to the animated feature by Copperheart Entertainment, the story of it changed to focus on how the final version looked and putting a focus on a wolf and a mountain lion working together to stop a virus from infecting the zoo animals into gummi mutants, making the zombie animals less mature-stylized to make them undead while balancing out the family humor of the film.[9] In 2015, Steven Hoban announced that Clive Barker's short story "ZOOmbies" had been optioned for a feature film.[10][11]
Animation and design
The film was initially to be animated by Tangent Animation and Mac Guff under its original title Night of the Zoombies; however, with Mac Guff still intact, production was shifted to the Montreal-based studio L'Atelier Animation, who animated the film alongside Mac Guff's Brussels facilities.[12][13] While Storyboard and pre-production was provided at the Toronto-based studio House of Cool while character design was provided by the Iranian artist Hadi Tabasi.[14] During production, the choice was made to only give some of the animals a realistic fur texture as a creative decision to show the difference between the mutant and normal characters, as well as a way to cut costs. The choice was also made to give the film a low-budget horror film aesthetic, which was accomplished by using lighting and fog.[15]
Music
Dan Levy was brought on to compose the score for the film. The soundtrack was released on January 29, 2025, during the film's release in France.[16] Included in the soundtrack are two versions of an original song within the film, "Goodbye", which was composed by Levy and Yorina Bosco with lyrics by George Axon, Ed Roth, and film writer and producer Steven Hoban.
Release
Night of the Zoopocalypse had its premiere on 57th Sitges Film Festival on October 7, 2024, and was released in the United States and Canada by Viva Kids and Elevation Pictures on March 7, 2025. In February 2025, before the film's release in the US, Viva Kids announced a UK distribution from Cantilever Media, under Kazoo Films, following their successful partnership from one of their films, The Amazing Maurice (2022),[17] and will be in cinemas at the UK on October 24.[18] The film went on digital April 4, 2025 one month after the film's release.[19]
Reception
The film received a 91% rating of over 32 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics consensus reads, “Night of the Zoopocalypse delightfully threads the needle as a child-friendly introduction to horror, delivering a gentle amount of good scares while dazzling the eye with its neon hues.”[20]
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