Posted in: Disney, Kaitlyn Booth, Movies, Review | Tagged: zootopia 2

Zootopia 2 Review: A Welcome Return to Form for Disney Animation

Zootopia 2 can't quite soar the heights of the original film, but a sequel being better than the original is extremely rare.

Zootopia 2 doesn't quite hit as hard as the first one and meanders a bit with its story, but it's a solid entry from Disney Animation that doesn't treat the youngest in the audience like they're stupid.

Directors: Jared Bush and Byron Howard
Summary: 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.

To say that the first Zootopia resonated with audiences would be an understatement. It's a member of the billion-dollar box office club, and it wasn't even released in 2018 or 2019. While the idea of using the predator/prey dynamic to explore the idea of segregation, racism, xenophobia, and judging people before you know them isn't a new one, Disney took that concept and polished it to a perfect, beautiful shine. It was smart and didn't treat anyone in the audience like they were too stupid to understand complex concepts. Disney liked the idea enough that a series of shorts was created on Disney+, which didn't make much of an impact one way or the other, but we all knew a sequel was inevitable. Zootopia 2 is once again exploring the idea of different animals receiving different treatment simply because of their species, but instead of the predator-prey dynamic, it's reptiles in general that are getting the short end of the stick.

The reasons why different types of animals are accepted or aren't appear to be somewhat arbitrary and an aspect of this world that you need to just sort of roll with. However, both Zootopia and Zootopia 2 have done an excellent job of building out this city and making it feel lived-in. The entire concept of the city is the film's primary focus, with significant plot points centered on how the city was built. Things become a bit muddled in the middle of the story as the plot becomes increasingly complicated. The first film had the same problem in that when you focus on a conspiracy and a mystery, things are going to get messy, but how well you keep them from getting out of control is the sweet spot. Zootopia 2 does lose its footing a bit with too many twists and turns, but things come together in the end in a very satisfactory way.

What was smart was that this film recognized the element that made the first film work was the budding friendship between Judy and Nick. This time around, we are seeing them not long after Nick has graduated from the police academy, and they are working as partners. While they might complement each other well, they do have very different ways of approaching even the most basic aspects of life. It leads to tension that feels very natural for anyone who's been one half of a Type A and Type B friendship. Both Jason Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin do an excellent job of bringing these two characters to life. Their back and forth is so seamless that you would think they recorded in the same booth, rather than separately. This time, they are assisted by Gary, voiced by Key Huy Quan, who runs around as the first snake to appear in Zootopia in a very long time. Quan's voice makes Gary immediately sympathetic and design, with the big eyes, immediately tells the audience that this isn't the bad guy. The movie does some neat little things with Gary as a snake.

Some of the other supporting characters that make an impact are Nibbles Maplestick, voiced by Fortune Feimster, a conspiracy theory beaver who helps Judy and Nick several times throughout the film. He's maybe around a bit too much, but he's funny enough that it's not a dealbreaker, and "conspiracy theory beaver" is a concept just ridiculous enough to fly by. Mayor Brian Winddancer, voiced by Patrick Warburton, is a weird hybrid of Ronald Reagan and Dwayne Johnson, and is another example of how good design and the right voice really help make a character memorable. In terms of the villains, revealing too much about them would give away some of the twists, but they are the least interesting characters in the film.

The animation remains solid across the board, and much like Elemental, you can sense the animators' enthusiasm as they adapted various aspects of life for different animals. Those throwaway visual gags were great in the first film, and they are present again here. While they are still solid, they don't quite have the same impact as they did the first time around, because we know to look for them. However, while Zootopia 2 overall doesn't phone it in, the ones who absolutely do are Shakira and Ed Sheeran. The new song they both helped co-write for this movie has a chorus that sounds incredibly similar to "Waka Waka," the official song of the 2010 World Cup, which Shakira sang. Considering the amount of talent between the two of them, the new song, Zoo, should be much better.

Zootopia 2 can't quite soar the heights of the original film, but a sequel being better than the original is extremely rare. There are a few missteps here, but in general, this is the comeback quality-wise that Disney Animation has been seeking for a while now. While Moana 2 made a ton of money, the quality was not there, and the original animated films have been having a harder time connecting with audiences, save for Encanto, but even that didn't take off until it went to streaming. This is a return to form for a studio that was once defined by animation, yet between the missteps from this studio and Pixar, Disney is becoming more known for superheroes, remakes of animated films, and occasional bangers from 20th Century. Zootopia 2 and Moana 2 do have the leg up in that they are sequels to widely popular movies, but goodwill tends to trickle down, maybe even to the next original animated feature due out next year. 

Zootopia 2

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Review by Kaitlyn Booth

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8.5/10

Zootopia 2 doesn't quite hit as hard as the first one and meanders a bit with its story, but it's a solid entry from Disney Animation that doesn't treat the youngest in the audience like they're stupid.

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