Nine years ago, Disney released Zootopia. Starring Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman as bunny-fox duo Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, “Zootopia” was a massive critical and financial success. Because of this, “Zootopia 2” comes with really high expectations, and I don’t believe that they totally met them.
After solving their big case in the first movie, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are now full partners in the Zootopia Police Department. Together, they work to keep Zootopia safe and running smoothly, even though not every group of animals is fully accepted in the city. One of those excluded groups is reptiles, who have been kept out for over 100 years.
The story picks up when Judy and Nick catch a snake named Gary (Ke Huy Quan) stealing an old journal that belongs to a wealthy lynx family. This small incident leads them to uncover a much bigger plot connected to Zootopia’s past. As they follow the clues, they begin to learn hidden truths about how the city was actually built by reptiles instead of lynxes, like the citizens were told. The deeper they investigate, the closer they get to being captured and destroyed by the Lynx family. This pressures their partnership and forces them to face hard truths about society, the city, and each other.
My favorite aspect of the movie was the world building and how they expanded the Zootopia universe. In the original, one of the best parts is getting to see the makeup of the city and how the animals coexist. I love how they further emphasize how the city is structured and the social classes within it, introducing completely new districts to Zootopia like the Marsh Market, Sahara Square, and most importantly Tundratown. All of these details make the world feel bigger, more connected, and more alive. It adds depth to the story and makes the setting something very intriguing, instead of just being a backdrop that revolves around the main characters.
The side characters in “Zootopia 2” were also a big strength. The characters were a strong aspect of the original, as specific side characters like Dash (Raymond S. Persi), Mr. Big (Maurice LaMarche), and Officer Clawhauser (Nate Torrence) emerged as fan favorites.Those characters were brought back in “Zootopia 2” which was pretty cool to see, but I believe that the new characters they introduced were even stronger. The other cop duos that the protagonists met in partner therapy, such as the Zebros or Officer Grizzby and Officer Dillon were super funny, even though they didn’t necessarily contribute to the plot very much. The side characters who did contribute to the plot were also awesome. Nibbles Maplestick, voiced by Fortune Feimster, was easily the funniest character in the movie. He also was essential to the plot and Judy and Nick definitely wouldn’t have ended up victorious without his help. It’s rare to see an actually useful comic relief character in a kids movie, but they pulled it off perfectly with Nibbles.
What I didn’t like about the movie was how much plot armour they gave Wilde and Hopps. There were tons of moments where they faced certain death or got caught by the City, but miraculously evaded it with a last second acrobatic escape or some absurd stroke of luck. The most prominent examples of this were when the anti-venom that they needed to save Judy tumbled down an icy ledge and randomly stopped millimeters away from plummeting hundreds of feet to the ground, or when Dash’s car drove out of absolutely nowhere at the last second to deflect the tranquilizer dart from Judy and Gary. These moments made the good guys feel invincible and like there was never any actual threat. It was especially frustrating because there were no glaring moments like this in the original.
Another big flaw that holds the movie back is how complex it is. Though there were many childless adults and teenagers in the theatre, the film’s target audience is still children. Despite the demographic being kids, they still make the movie extremely complicated and convoluted, and I don’t think there’s any way that 8-year-old me could’ve successfully comprehended or enjoyed it. Even someone who is smart enough to understand the movie would still be confused if they took a five minute bathroom break. There were certain places they went to and things that they did that felt super inexplicable and like they strayed away from the main premise. If they would’ve cut it down to only the important aspects and skipped over a few things, I would’ve enjoyed the movie a lot more.
The character Pawbert had a lot of potential, but was poorly executed. I think that if they would’ve leaned into why he is treated the way he is or what he did to deserve this, then he would’ve been intriguing and a character that you really want to see succeed. Instead, they just reveal everything important about him with like 25 minutes left. Despite not liking Pawbert, I thought Andy Samberg did a really good job as him and his tone shift.
I definitely preferred the first movie to this one. I think that it had a much more grounded plot and that “Zootopia 2” tried too hard to one up the original. I think that Judy came off as much less likable in this movie. She becomes super dismissive of the other characters and doesn’t care about their input. In the first film this came off as empowering, but it just felt stubborn and rude. Because of this, I didn’t find myself rooting for her quite as much.
What did improve from the first movie was the animation. I think that the extended time that they took on the sequel compared to the original helped a ton, and everything just looks crisper and more detailed. This was one of the prettiest animated movies that I’ve ever seen and all the background designs were super cool. There were tons of little easter eggs and tiny details that I appreciated a lot.
Though nothing is confirmed, “Zootopia 2” is performing extremely well in the box office and knowing Disney, it’s really likely that they are going to end up making a third film.
I have plenty of gripes with this movie. It had a strong “sequel feel” to it, and I don’t think it would hold up well as a stand alone film. Regardless, I still enjoyed the movie for the most part. All things considered, I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who saw and enjoyed its predecessor.
