Zootopia 2: A fun ride through the animal kingdom

The wonderful thing with animation is you can make a sequel to a movie nine years later, and set it one week after the original. The voice actors can be older and greyer, but the little animated animals they play still look exactly the same.

Similar to Incredibles 2, Zootopia 2 is less a sequel and more a continuation. Picking up a week after Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) saved the city from a dastardly conspiracy to discriminate and imprison the city’s predators, the bunny and fox are heroes and partners on the Zootopia Police Department.

It’s a bold storytelling move that pays off well, as even though Zootopia felt wrapped up, Zootopia 2 delves into the characterisation of the two protagonists post-city saving, and gives us more of how these two very different characters would actually work together.

Judy, the act first, ask questions later bunny, with everything to prove and a rigid sense of justice that makes her put her life on the line to do the right thing, and Nick, the former con man who always has a quip in the chamber and doesn’t seem that eager to endanger himself in the pursuit of enforcing the law. 

Obviously, we’ve had millions of similar dynamics on TV and film. Still, it’s cool to see a movie that gets into the nitty-gritty and shows that opposites actually don’t work that well together if there’s no honesty and communication. 

Zoo the Right Thing

Zootopia 2 does not lose the social commentary of the original, this time focusing on land developers and their treatment of lower socioeconomic communities. It’s sort of like Chinatown, but with more hippos who are cops.

After making a mess of a smuggling sting, Judy and Nick are put into a partners-in-crisis therapy group and removed from active duty. Unable to sit on her hands, Judy finds a piece of snakeskin and makes a connection to the illustrious Lynxley family, descendants of Zootopia’s founder, Ebeneezer Lynxley. 

The arrival of Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan) and a frame job puts Nick and Judy on the run, pursued by the cops and racing the clock before the next Lynxley expansion destroys the last home of Zootopia’s hidden reptile population.

Snakes and other reptiles representing communities that are vilified and ignored form the heart of the movie, as we only need to watch the news to see communities deemed lesser are regularly abused, denigrated, and treated with disdain at every turn, usually by the higher rungs of society who use them as a neat distraction to keep their own necks from the guillotine. 

The World of Zoo-morrow

Just as in Zootopia, the world-building and neat details are incredible. Zootopia, the city, feels real and thought out, rather than just a funny idea. Expanding into the reptile world and the swamps gives the filmmakers room to build upon the rich world of the original movie and bring in walruses that double as ferries, easily offended sealion entertainers, and transport tubes filled with water that rocket citizens from one place to another.

There are also sly references to other Disney movies, and one incredible beat from The Shining that managed to be hilarious and creepy. The movie keeps the twists and turns coming, and gives the young audience credit that they can keep up with a relatively complex conspiracy plotline.

The cast is having fun, especially Jason Bateman, who gets a lot of the best lines, and Andy Samberg as the lovable black sheep of the Lynxley family. The MVP is Goodwin, as just like the first movie, she manages to balance the type-A madness of Judy with the character’s fear of failure, and crafts an outstanding performance as our bunny heroine.

Conclusion:

For the press screening of this movie, I took my four and half year old son, Gus, with me and thought it was only fair he share his review too:

It was so fun. I want to watch it 13 more times. Some parts were scary, but not too scary. I want it on a DVD so I can skip the scary bits. When I’m at childcare, I think about it and tell my friends about it. My favourite characters are the snake and the fox. It wasn’t too long because I didn’t fall asleep. It was better than Zootopia 1.