In the Disney blockbuster “Zootopia,” vulpine protagonist Nick Wilde gets away with conning his fellow mammals and not paying taxes — but this week a Chinese 4-year-old finally brought him down.

According to state tabloid Global Times, a “Zootopia” enthusiast surnamed Zhao created a 1.8-meter-tall statue of the cartoon fox entirely from Lego blocks.

The statue took three days and 10,000 Lego bricks to complete. It was also valued at 100,000 yuan (over $15,000), which makes the fact that it lasted less than an hour before being destroyed by a rogue 4-year-old especially painful.

Zhao had rushed to finish the statue in time for a promotional event on Sunday at the Wanda Plaza shopping center in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. Children had been posing for photos next to the Lego fox, but guards asking them not to touch Nick weren’t enough to keep him in one piece, as the 4-year-old accidentally pushed the statue over.

The boy’s parent apologized, and Zhao, who works at a training school for young children, said he didn’t blame the boy for the accident and would not seek compensation from the family. But some Weibo users were far from satisfied with this outcome, asking, “If just saying sorry is enough, why do we need law?”

Children destroying art and generally behaving badly is not a new phenomenon in China.

On May 21 China Central Television posted a video on YouTube of two young boys inside a roped-off area at the Shanghai Museum of Glass manhandling “Angel Is Waiting,” a sculpture of wings constructed from glass fragments, as their adult chaperones recorded the carnage on their cellphones.

The artist, Shelly Xue, opted not to restore the piece and its ripped-off left wing, and instead renamed the damaged piece “Broken.” Although there has been no word on whether the museum asked for compensation or is pursuing legal action, it has installed a video screen next to the sculpture playing a looped video of the incident.

On May 5 Zhang Jingshuo, a curator at the National Zoological Museum of China, posted photos on his Weibo microblog of trash strewn about public areas at the Beijing museum after it was visited by a primary school class on a field trip. He said the students “treated the museum like a garbage dump” and “need to be taught to be respectful.” The school later issued a public apology on its own Weibo account.

Zhang Yiwu, a professor of Chinese literature and culture at Peking University and no relation to Zhang the museum curator, told Sixth Tone that younger parents have very different educational philosophies compared with previous generations. “Generally speaking, post-’80s parents care more about a child’s personality and are less strict on controlling their behavior,” he said.

However, despite generational differences, Zhang still believes that when it comes to educating children, some old-fashioned methods are still among the most effective. He said parents, for example, should develop a set of strict rules and start enforcing them early in life.

Weibo user “M-Noodle,” commenting on the roles of the reckless child and bad parenting in the Lego fox’s downfall, quipped, “If there are no old brats, there will be no young brats.”

Another Weibo user helpfully suggested: “Please don’t restore the exhibit. Name it ‘The Disappeared Nick.’ Then next to it, play a video of the kid pushing the sculpture over.”

Despite a journalism professor lambasting the film as a vessel for Western propaganda, “Zootopia” has seen widespread success in China, grossing $235 million at the box office and inspiring countless products and spinoffs.

Additional reporting by Cai Yiwen. With contributions from Guo Quanzhi.

(Header: Sino Images/VCG)