Sloth in Zootopia rises to fame in China

(CHINADAILY) The sloth in Disney's latest animated hit, Zootopia, has become a social media sensation inChina, where the film is dominating cinemas.

As of Wednesday, Zootopia had raked in more than 824 million yuan ($126.3 million) in boxoffice sales since its debut on March 4, according to ticket sales site maoyan.com.

The new movie is expected to beat Kung Fu Panda 3 to become the highest-grossinganimated film in China. Meanwhile, Flash the sloth is fast becoming an Internet celebrity in hisown right.

The department of motor vehicles in Zootopia is staffed by sloths, the world's slowestmammal, a sly jab at inefficient government workers.

Ascenefrom**Zootopia . [ Photo / Mtime*]*

Pictures of Chinese netizens mimicking Flash's dopey facial expression are making therounds online. Animated gifs, known as "stamps", featuring the character have also beenshared across instant messaging app WeChat.

"Flash the Sloth has stolen the spotlight from the film's two main characters!" said userLeleTiantian on microblog Sina Weibo.

For most Chinese, Zootopia is the first time that they have even seen a sloth, but people noware keen to know more about these animals.

China News published a series of sloth photographs taken by its photojournalists based inAmerica as well as stories on the animal on its social media accounts, receiving tens ofthousands of "likes" from netizens.

At the Beijing Zoo, the American animal enclosure, which has several two-toed sloths, hasbeen very popular in recent days.

"I could just watch these creatures all day! They are so cute," said another Weibo user Yykii.