ZOOTOPIA 2 -- Furgettable

Review by Adam Donato

Oh the fall from grace that Disney Animation Studios has experienced in the past decade. They used to be the class of animation, but now they are hit or miss. Three of their last four original movies have been critical and box office flops. Their last three sequels have been huge box office hits, but aren’t widely well received. They haven’t had an undisputed overall hit since, well, 2016 when Zootopia and Moana were both home runs. Luckily, Zootopia 2 was planned as a sequel all along, whereas Moana 2 was a converted Disney+ show. Zootopia had their own Disney+ show with ten minute episodes focused on favorite side characters from the movie. The first Zootopia movie made a billion dollars and won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, which is a disgustingly high bar to reach. Can Judy, Nick, and company recapture the magic with another fun buddy cop adventure?

An unnecessary Zootopia sequel is somehow less offensive than most other Disney cash grab sequels. There’s a new case this time around that further challenges the relationship between the two leads and explores different settings in this animal world. The relationship drama is totally just going through the motions. One of the big jokes is just them eloquently explaining their deep seeded personal issues, which just acts as a lazy substitute for actual character development. There’s really only one new location that is explored. The whole story is about how there’s a snake in Zootopia for the first time in forever so one of the locations they go to is this swamp like terrain where reptiles can live on the down low. Feels like a missed opportunity to not explore more places to make this world feel even bigger and make this movie feel more epic.

Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman are back together again to collect another paycheck. Their dynamic is nowhere near as fun this time around. The big new addition to the cast is Ke Huy Quan as Gary De’Snake. He does a great job voice acting here due to his infectious personality and signature voice. Comedian Fortune Feimster also shines as Nibbles Maplestick, a beaver who helps our heroes on their journey. Two new additions that were disappointing are Andy Samberg and Patrick Warburton. Both are veteran voice actors, which makes their inclusion just feel lazy as they’re not doing anything new here. 

The story of this sequel feels like it retreads the themes from the first movie. In the first movie, the themes about racism felt much more effective. Especially since there it directly involved our main characters whereas the case this time around isn’t personal for our heroes at all. The reveal of this film is blatantly obvious right from the jump. It also just feels haphazardly thrown together at the end. There’s that shot from the first teaser trailer of a hooded figure towering above our heroes and that’s not a scene in this movie. Feels reminiscent of Frozen II where the movie wasn’t finished until right before the deadline. 

In every single way, Zootopia 2 is inferior to the first movie. A phoned in sequel that would be a good television season, but falters as a proper follow up to the first film. There’s a high floor as there’s plenty of silly animal puns and fun adventure sequences to keep family audiences happy. It’s a cute enough watch, but not one that adults can revisit like the first movie was. It’ll be lucky to get a Best Animated Feature nomination, but will likely still crush at the box office. It’s safe to wait for this one on Disney+ if you’re not already a fan. 

Zootopia 2 is in theaters on November 26. 

Rating: 3/5