Zootopia 2 Review. The best sequel in the world?

Nearly 10 years after the release of the original, Zootopia 2 has finally seen the light of day. The sequel to one of Disney’s most successful animated films seemed to be anticipated almost immediately after the first part came out, but production dragged on. Now the film is available to everyone, and I’ve already watched it to share my impressions. In short, for kids it’s an excellent project, but kids are unlikely to read my reviews. Everyone else, however, should lower their expectations just a bit. Why? I’ll explain in detail.

Let’s start with the visuals. If anyone doubted it, Zootopia 2 looks fantastic. Disney still has enough money for its animation to feel like one of the most advanced on the market, if not the most advanced. All the facial movements of the cartoon animals are so readable and expressive that it’s impossible to stay indifferent. That said, compared to the original, there don’t seem to be that many differences. And yet almost 10 years have passed. Surely, if you watched both films with a magnifying glass, the difference would be noticeable. We won’t be doing that.

Zootopia 2 is exactly what you imagine it to be: bright, gleaming with hundreds of effects and the most advanced animation software. Watching the world is a pure pleasure. That’s settled, and we won’t come back to it.

By the way, the film was released in 3D, but personally I didn’t notice much depth. Only in a couple of moments did wearing the glasses feel justified. I’m willing to assume this is an issue with the aging equipment in my local theater, but if you’re considering the viewing format for some reason, you really don’t need to worry. Standard 2D delivers roughly the same experience.

And now we get to the main point: the story. The story is unexpectedly NOT what holds the film together. It’s not bad and is even engaging in places, but if you’ve seen the first part and some other Disney films, you’ll predict all the “unexpected” twists down to the second about 10 minutes into the movie.

The team of the sly fox Nick and the extremely law-abiding overachiever bunny Judy once again has to crack the case of the century and chase another MacGuffin in the form of the diary of the creator of the animal city’s climate control system. If anyone forgot, Zootopia is divided into zones, allowing different species to coexist nearby. Sure, an adult viewer might have questions about what predators and herbivores eat, but that’s just a narrative convention you had to accept back in the first film. And once again, we have a "not-so-obvious" villain, just like in the original. Although this time there is still a difference. There’s more than one bad guy now. The second is introduced right away and doesn’t hide. And yes, the true antagonist is strong only because of their unexpectedness and fully fits the archetype of such villains in Disney films. Seen one, seen them all.

Very little time has passed since the events of the first movie, so the new cop partners haven’t yet gotten used to working together. They approach problems differently, which naturally creates an extra layer of conflict and fertile ground for amusing situations. Because of this, at the end of the second act the heroes will, of course, split up, only to reunite in the middle of the third act, spend a couple of minutes talking through their issues, resolve everything with the magic of friendship or love, and defeat whoever needs defeating.

You might ask, "Is it really that banal?" And I’d answer that it is, but that’s not necessarily a drawback. To be clear, Disney has had problems with original ideas lately. When the "House of Mouse" tried to create something new, the result was either half-baked or a socio-political statement shoved in the audience’s face in the most trivial way possible. Zootopia 2 also contains some ideas that intersect with the real world, but it knows a sense of measure. As a result, most average viewers might not even want to notice them. An unexpected restraint for modern Disney, and judging by the box office, a justified one.

The new film is the safest possible sequel in the best traditions of Sony’s console games, meaning it’s the same thing, just a bit more. Everything that was funny in the original remains funny, the amusing characters that turned into memes over the past 10 years will definitely appear, the number of locations will increase, and the hidden hints at a closer relationship between Nick and Judy will become even more frequent. The creators know their audience perfectly and don’t try to surprise them with something radically new. And that’s probably exactly what successful modern family cinema needs: a simple animated film with cool characters who crack jokes and ultimately defeat evil.

However, if you dig a little deeper, it becomes clear that the entire plot is a chain of such fantastical circumstances that it’s simply impossible to believe in them. The villain is obvious the moment they appear on screen, and the main gimmick and "twist" is essentially the antagonist’s stupidity. They had the opportunity and, more importantly, the resources to solve all their problems, but for some reason didn’t do so for several decades.

You can also think about how caricature-like an entire family of villains looks, where there simply aren’t any members who think differently. For many generations. At the same time, the hidden villain and the "official" one never interact or coordinate their actions throughout the runtime, yet suddenly it turns out that both possess the same information. It’s hard to explain without spoilers, so let’s refer back to the climate-control inventor’s diary. It contains a secret that supposedly only one villain character knows, but in the end it turns out that both do. And if both know, why didn’t anyone destroy the diary or eliminate that very secret? Again, they had the opportunity and the resources. Pure idiocy.

And yes, I’m not going to treat the film simply as a kids’ cartoon and therefore give it universal discounts, because Zootopia 2 was made not only for children. Some references and jokes clearly won’t be understood by viewers under 25. If the creators are embedding ideas and morals, however modest, I want them to be delivered logically and without narrative shortcuts. We’re not watching a cartoon for preschoolers, after all.

The conflict between the bunny and the fox and their colleagues is also extremely unnatural. Absolutely everyone at the precinct doubts Judy for not even a second and chases her for most of the runtime. None of the police officers ask uncomfortable questions or try to разобраться what’s really going on. They even shoot at her with lethal intent. But the main thing an adult viewer will notice is the resemblance of the "official" villain, the lynx entrepreneur, to another well-known American entrepreneur. Just like the lynx, he holds fairly right-wing views regarding migrants, that is, snakes in the version of Zootopia 2. Yes, it’s not presented head-on, and huge thanks to Disney for that, but missing such obvious parallels is extremely difficult.

At the same time, the cartoon is performing excellently at the box office, and people don’t get tired of writing that it’s the best sequel in the world, full of plot surprises. Without irony. Audiences like it, and that can’t be ignored. That’s why I’ll repeat once again: the story is fine. Not a diamond, but proven formulas still work more or less. It’s much better than Moana 2, which was basically just a compilation of several TV series episodes. Here we have three acts of a cohesive story, though to be blunt, the bar wasn’t set very high. The years spent on production clearly weren’t about writing and rewriting the script. The formula for success turned out to be indecently simple, something Disney forgot in its pursuit of tolerance.

What Zootopia 2 truly thrives on is interpersonal relationships. And when I say relationships, I mean the main duo of the fox and the bunny, because there really aren’t any other characters here. All the rest are just functions that either help move the plot forward or exist to deliver jokes of varying sharpness.

So Nick and Judy are wonderful in most moments. There’s a tangible chemistry between them that keeps the entire structure of the new film afloat. The fox is ironic enough to smooth over the bunny’s irritating workaholism and righteousness almost all the time, but unfortunately not always. The creators rightly decided that the relationship arc of the main characters couldn’t end on the note struck at the finale of the original. Yes, Nick got on the straight and narrow and joined the cops, but he still hasn’t changed internally, and Judy has plenty of her own issues. There was definitely room for development, and it was used. However, at times what we’re shown veers a bit in the wrong direction.

From a borderline joker, Nick has become as “friendly” as possible. If he jokes about Judy, the jokes aren’t hurtful and aren’t even sharp. Overall, this is understandable since they’re good friends, but what happened to the fox’s attitude toward everyone else is unclear. In addition, over time a conflict emerges that can be very simply described like this: Judy wants to stick her nose into every barrel, regardless of rules and subordination, while Nick just wants to do his job calmly and keep a low profile. And the further it goes, the sharper this clash of interests becomes. Nick constantly gets in trouble because of Judy, and on top of that the bunny blames him for the failures of her crazy ideas. By the middle, the heroine starts to get a bit irritating, but at the end of the second act something strange happens.

It seems like everything is leading toward Judy being the one who finally understands Nick’s values and finds inner balance within herself, since it’s obvious that the two of them have problems because of her. But suddenly it’s the fox who takes on the role of the wrong character, who realizes everything, again. As if he’s still that crook from the first film.

By the logic of the cartoon, the fox isn’t heroic enough, and therefore he’s at fault for not supporting his friend, even though he did everything she wanted, even at his own expense. This ends with the fox and the bunny, at the start of the third act, spending two minutes verbalizing everything that bothers them, which in theory should show the ambiguity of both characters, but honestly the fox feels more realistic and understandable. On top of that, all this voicing of internal problems is a rather childish approach. It’s like you accidentally wandered into someone else’s therapy session. It feels like the characters’ realizations could have been shown more subtly and through concrete actions.

Still, the rest of the time the duo handles its task perfectly and complements each other excellently. The creators are surely aware of the many discussions about the possibility of the fox being paired with the bunny, so they lean into the theme fully. There are couples-therapy sessions cleverly disguised as partner training courses, numerous languid looks, and compliments. In the finale, the two characters even confess their love to each other, but as partners. In promotional trailers even before the film’s release, shots regularly appeared of Nick and Judy walking with a stroller, which only further fueled audience interest. The upside is that despite all the hints, the relationship still remains, first and foremost, a friendship. Another example of excellent restraint.

With other characters, things are less positive. Besides the numerous figures added purely for jokes about animal behavior, there are two secondary animals: a snake and a beaver woman. The former was shown back in the trailers, so his appearance wasn’t a surprise. The snake… well, he’s just there. Despite the controversial nature of this species in Zootopia’s lore, the snake almost immediately tells Judy that he’s a good guy. Let’s skip the moment of why the character even started explaining himself to an unfamiliar aggressive bunny. He remains that positive all the way to the end. There are no distinctive traits or added depth here, unlike Nick and Judy themselves. At the same time, the snake isn’t very often the butt of jokes, which is good, otherwise he would’ve been annoying.

Even less attention is paid to the beaver woman. Here she is, a typical joke character, whose every line is tied to humor one way or another. Personally, she didn’t really annoy me, but I can imagine there are viewers who are already pretty tired of this archetype. At the same time, the heroine seriously moves the plot forward in a couple of moments, but gives nothing to the story as a personality, so she doesn’t stray far from the other function-animals.

As for fan service, you’ll get exactly what you expect. Remember that funny little godfather with the big polar bears? He’ll show up for a couple of minutes to help, and viewers will once again be invited to laugh at his size and the huge ring that must be kissed out of respect. And there was also the sloth who became almost a symbol of the first film. Well, of course he’s here too and will help at the right moment, creating yet another joke about the contrast between sloths’ speed and their driving style. Just like in the original. Even the previous villain gets a couple of seconds. Overall, all of this isn’t bad. It makes the world feel more cohesive. Even if you understand the functional reasons for adding certain references to the source material, you accept them as a given. Completely new characters are just as colorful as the old-timers, though without depth. Effort was clearly minimized on them so as not to distract the viewer from the central pair.

On the other hand, the creators allowed themselves a homage to The Shining, which was an unexpectedly pleasant surprise and once again proves that the cartoon wasn’t made just for kids.

Zootopia 2 can be called a typical safe sequel. That’s both its flaw and its strength. As I said at the very beginning, kids will be absolutely delighted. Older viewers might get bored, but not so much that they’ll regret the time spent. Disney seems to have understood what the audience actually wants from it, and the massive box office should help settle the matter once and for all. If there are more projects like this instead of the recent Snow White, Little Mermaid, and other agenda-driven junk, I, along with many other viewers, will only be happy.