Director: Jared Bush, Byron Howard
Writer: Jared Bush
Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan
Synopsis: Brave rabbit cop Judy Hopps and her friend, the fox Nick Wilde, team up again to crack a new case, the most perilous and intricate of their careers.
It’s easy to be cynical about what The Mouse has been offering as of late and is going to offer in the future for audiences (read: endless sequels, cash-grab remakes, and The Mandalorian and Grogu), but Zootopia 2, a second installment of a popular film seemingly released much later than expected, is genuine fun. It’s a vibrant, dazzlingly animated adventure that keeps moviegoers on their toes through intricately staged action sequences that retain immense emotional power throughout. Thus, it’s hard to have a more negative posture to the film when what’s on screen is simultaneously terrifically moving and bracingly exhilarating, something I haven’t felt from a Disney animated movie (outside of Pixar) since 2021’s Encanto, which was directed by the same duo of filmmakers that brought us this sequel.
Waiting nine years for the sequel to one of Disney’s most lucrative movies (an Oscar-winning one at that) seems like a massive gamble. Yet, Zootopia 2 is so much better than it has any right to be, especially after the nearly unwatchable “chopped and screwed” Moana 2, a planned television series hacked to bits to fill a feature runtime and make a billion dollars. Zootopia 2’s plot may not be as inspiring or inventive as the first. Still, there’s enough here to hold our attention, especially when what’s on screen consistently blows us away visually and isn’t afraid to delve deep into the connection (or lack thereof) between rabbit cop Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and her sidekick, thief-turned-cop Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman).
After an incident on their last case leads them at odds with one another, the two must put their differences aside when they discover a conspiracy connected to their previous case, involving descendants of Zootopia’s founder, Ebenezer Lynxley, specifically its patriarch, Milton (David Strathairn), son Pawbert (Andy Samberg), and a mysterious snake only known as Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan in his best post-Oscar win performance in a feature film, after two back-to-back duds with Love Hurts and The Electric State). It’s more thoughtful than expected, and much darker, too (though with its PG-rated limitations), unafraid to discuss themes of corruption in an actively meaningful way than most films that deem themselves “political” and say nothing of the current bleak times we live in.
That said, it’s harder to discuss some of the film’s broader developments without spoiling. However, what’s interesting about directors Byron Howard and Jared Bush’s approach to Zootopia 2 is how they elevate some of the more obvious plot threads with textured emotional urgency. The stakes feel tangible because the core relationship at the heart of the picture deepens in meaningful ways and never repeats what was established in the first. Of course, you get some obligatory cameos and references to the 2016 picture (it is, after all, par for the course for sequels), including one that left me a very sour taste in the mouth (and you’ll probably know which one, there’s no self-deprecating nature to this appearance). Yet, everything around these sections works amazingly well.
The animation is strikingly detailed and jaw-dropping on an IMAX screen. Specific action scenes, including a chase inside a never-ending water pipe, will take your breath away, as Howard and Bush move their camera (and characters) inside and outside the pipe, following its strong currents and stretching and squashing their characters in ways that harken back to the early days of animation as a pure artistic medium. The stakes feel genuine because we end up caring about the fractured relationship between the protagonists more than the revolving door of characters who appear to either guide Judy and Nick, or give them support, such as beaver podcaster Nibbles Maplestick (Fortune Feimster), who sadly doesn’t work.
Even the sense of alchemy between Judy and Gary feels wobbly, because the film doesn’t spend much time with the snake for the bulk of its runtime, preferring to make him an elusive figure who’s part of the mystery both Nick and Judy must solve, rather than an integral character until a reasonable hour into the movie. That said, the filmmakers compensate by expanding its emotional heft during the climax, where one actually fears for the animal’s lives in ways I didn’t expect coming from Disney, who once traumatized children but are now afraid to give them lasting PTSD (understandably so, but kids’ films used to have an edge we don’t get anymore, probably for legal reasons).
It helps that the already-solidified kinship between Judy and Nick is deeply human, and anyone can latch onto their differences, whether internal or external, regardless of whether they’re a younger or older viewer. Kids will undoubtedly appreciate some of the movie’s more physical (and visual) humor. They will likely be dazzled by its bevy of creative action, which consistently gives Zootopia 2 a pulse and finds its own rhythm within the literal and figurative labyrinthine plot it develops. Similarly, adults will enjoy a movie that never talks down to its child audience and understands they will be able to grasp some of its deeper themes on inclusion and accepting people’s individual differences.
In short, it’s a movie for everyone, and one that families will undoubtedly enjoy this Holiday weekend, far more than the dreary Wicked: For Good. The thing is, and most importantly, children’s movies must instill some form of wonder, awe, or at the very least tickle their imagination a bit. Wicked: For Good’s murky cinematography prevents the movie from defying gravity and filling the younger generation with images they’ll think about, or at the very least enjoy watching. Zootopia 2 is filled with one imaginative setpiece after another, even if some of its parts (and overstuffed ensemble) aren’t as refined as the first movie. With that being said, it doesn’t much matter when Bateman and Goodwin haven’t lost a step in their vocal turns as Wilde and Hopps, and Idris Elba is still a riot as Chief Bogo, although his presence here is more limited than in the prior installment.
The movie is also unafraid to make direct references to movies kids are far too young to be watching, complete with key musical patterns you do not expect to hear in a children’s film. The thing is, this is stuff adults love to see, while children will understand these references much later down the line, and perhaps develop an affinity for cinema with gateway films such as Zootopia 2, priming them for stuff that will either terrify them, blow their minds, or maybe both. With such a sincere gesture like the one found in Howard and Bush’s film, it’s hard to be cynical about a movie that wants us to feel like we’re kids again. I saw the vision, and I hope the third one won’t come out in nine years from now.
