Flasz On Film

Synopsis: Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde’s fledgling partnership is pushed to the brink when a mysterious pit viper crashes Zootopia’s centennial gala, triggering a scandal that turns the duo into fugitives. Their investigation uncovers a long-buried conspiracy about the city’s true founding—and forces them to confront both personal insecurities and the legacy of prejudice woven into Zootopia’s history.

Nine years after the original release of Zootopia (or Zootropolis, depending on where you hail from) the time has come to return to this magical metropolis where predators and prey animals live in fragile harmony and where Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are about to propel themselves onto their next buddy cop adventure. In a tacit acknowledgment that “nearly a decade” counts as “effectively tomorrow” at the House of Mouse and the Pagoda of the Hopping Lamp—after all, it took nearly fourteen years for The Incredibles to gestate a sequel and it, nearly thirteen for Finding Nemo to decide it wanted to head out to find Dory, nine for Moana to do some more island hopping—Zootopia 2 assumes we have all recently rewatched the original as it takes off almost literally when the previous movie finished. Which is a bit odd, all things considered.

And in many respects, it seems quite fitting to launch off the predecessor because both in terms of tonality, types of humour and plotting, Zootopia 2 is an experiment in more of the same… which, again, is fine if you found its familiar Pixar-adjacent mechanics of “what if X had feelings” particularly endearing. Even though we are treated to an adventure exploring previously untouched areas, everything about this movie feels perfectly predictable. It is all a calque of what Pixar folks have fine-tuned over the years. The world-building once more teems with animal-based puns, cute and superficially creative mimicry of the real world that utilizes the central fauna-specific mechanic fills our field of vision and the movie at its core once again focuses in on a fundamentally relatable character dynamic between that unlikely duo of an overachieving rabbit and a too-cool-for-school fox outcast.

Furthermore, just like the original 2016 movie, Zootopia 2 places quite a bit more trust in its young viewership in terms of their ability to follow the plot, which involves—yet again—conspiracies, twists of fate and a boatload of movie references (like The Shining towards the end) clearly aimed at the adult in the room. Hence, despite clearly attempting to capitalize on the well-established Pixar storytelling workflows, this Disney project has quite a bit more in common with Dreamworks productions which are typically more at home with the fundamental concept of entertaining the adults trapped in the cinema together with their kids using a medley of popcultural and movie references their offspring are unable to get. Think of Shrek movies or The Secret Life of Pets here and you’ll get the picture. While they are unequivocally fun for youngsters, owing to character design, colorful world-building and frequent visual gags, their success is mostly reliant on converting adults into fans.

However, in a mission of this sort, the balance to be struck is vanishingly fine. Not every CG-animated movie can succeed like The Incredibles and The Incredibles 2 did in the past when it comes to generating true four-quadrant homogeneity with a movie that rides dangerously close to being too intense for younger viewers. The success of those movies lay predominantly in the fact that both adults and kids effectively responded to the same elements, which is not the case for Zootopia 2. This is a conglomeration of two movies, one of which is clearly designed to entertain kids and the other to keep grown-ups away from their devices. Kids will giggle at walrus puns and lose the plot when stuff gets intense while adults will hopefully appreciate cultural sight gags and buddy cop lore.

Consequently, while it is all fine and dandy, Zootopia 2 just doesn’t have the X factor that flagship Pixar movies would germinate without much effort. It is a perfectly acceptable family day out, but something tells me that it won’t occupy much mental real estate in the minds of those who choose to head out to see it. Even though it is likely to become a stunning box office success–after all, the original did rake in over a billion dollars in ticket receipts—Zootopia 2 is simply just OK. The movie does not attempt to reinvent the wheel and banks on the viewers remembering some of the most memed gags from the original, like the sloth who rides like Dom Toretto or the possum mafioso and his family. Still, as much as the action, the world-building and the colorful aesthetic are all competently (and predictably so) executed on, this movie never takes a swing and opts for the safety of tried-and-true dramatic beats and familiar twists.

In the end, Zootopia 2 doesn’t add up to enough to write home about and settles for comfortable familiarity the original had as well. It’s one of those movies that you will have fun with in the moment, you might chuckle a few times at some of its bad puns (the new horse mayor and stuff he has to say come to mind) and you will exit the cinema having heard a new Shakira song. So, despite the fact that it wants to function as Disney’s animal-based response to The Incredibles 2, Zootopia 2 is the same predictable and quaint ersatz that the original Zootopia was. Only with a different plot and new puns.