All cops are beasts in Zootopia 2, but then so is every single other character in this animal kingdom. Nine years after the original Zootopia, the visual and verbal comedy remains sprightly and the characters and the locales are once again conceived cleverly and colorfully. Also returning, unfortunately, is the franchise’s propensity to use inter-species chicanery as a metaphor for racism, which oversimplifies a more complicated narrative.
The outcasts here are reptiles, who were driven out of Zootopia a hundred years ago, right around the time that the patriarch of the powerful Lynxley family created the climate-control walls that allowed penguins and coyotes to live comfortably as neighbors. As Zootopia plans to celebrate the centennial, bunny police officer Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and her fox partner Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) discover that there’s a snake in town — Gary Da’Snake (Ke Huy Quan), to be exact — who’s trying to steal the Lynxley diary, containing the original blueprints of the walls, for reasons that aren’t immediately apparent.
Once again, Judy and Nick find themselves digging into a deep mystery at the heart of Zootopia itself, defying their water-buffalo boss Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) and getting into and out of one scrape after another with the help of a conspiracy-minded podcaster, beaver Nibbles Maplestick (Fortune Feimster).
Our returning leads spend most of the movie being pursued by other cops or villains or both, which allows directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard to stage some spectacular set pieces, from a car chase that threatens to take out a parade to a crumbling mountaintop resort, but the script also finds ways to examine the dynamic between try-hard Judy and reformed-con-man Nick, one that shouldn’t work but somehow does. As they spend the film delving into their own and each other’s neuroses — culminating in a breathlessly hilarious recitation of psychology-speak — and testing the limits of their friendship, Zootopia 2 allows these characters to build and grow among the chaos.
Are they meant to be platonic, or is the series building towards a romance? It’s unclear, particularly since the film doesn’t seem to take a firm stance on inter-species relationships. (The two discover Gary when they go undercover at a shipyard, pretending to be not just married but also parents of an infant in a stroller.) Wherever it winds up going, the Judy-Nick friendship emerges as one of the more complex and satisfying bits of character interplay in contemporary Disney animation.
The supporting cast is dotted with voice talent that makes the most of their brief appearances, from David Strathairn’s devious power broker (he seems to be auditioning, successfully, for his own Succession) and Andy Samberg as his bumbling son to Quinta Brunson as a couple’s therapist for Zootopia PD partners. (Patrick Warburton goes full Patrick Warburton as the city’s vain, equine action-star-turned-mayor.) While a little of Quan’s efforts to be ingratiating go a long way, Feimster proves herself most adept at sidekick-ery.
Zootopia 2 finds ways to amuse adults — including a brilliant Stanley Kubrick shout-out — while tickling kids without, miraculously, resorting to fart jokes. And while it’s the umpteenth recent film to remind us that the very rich are ruining everything, that’s a message that can’t be shared often enough; nothing wrong with the fluff hiding a fang.
Director: Jared Bush, Byron Howard
Screenwriter: Jared Bush
Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Idris Elba, Shakira, Patrick Warburton, Quinta Brunson, Danny Trejo
Producer: Yvette Merino
Director of cinematography: Tyler Kupferer (layout), Daniel Rice (lighting)
Production design: Cory Loftis
Editing: Jeremy Milton
Music: Michael Giacchino
Sound design: Jeremy Bowker, supervising sound editor/sound designer
Production companies: Disney Animation
In English
108 minutes
