‘Zootopia 2’ review: More fuzzy fun

It’s just as politically flummoxed as the first film, but a strong cast and even stronger heart make Zootopia 2 an improvement over its predecessor.

Zootopia 2 was inevitable. When Zootopia was released in 2016 it became the second-most successful animated film Disney had ever released. To this day, it’s still the only non-Avatar film to cross $1 billion at the box office without being a sequel and/or remake and/or adaptation of a book/comic/ride/doll/fairy tale/video game/real-life disaster. And with Disney having recently discovered that Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars no longer offer guaranteed box office success, the studio is fully recommitting itself to sequels and remakes. Will it work? No. Yes. Sort of. Nostalgia isn’t actually a reliable business practice, though Zootopia 2 should do just fine as far as shareholders are concerned.

Zootopia 2 picks up just a week after the conclusion of the previous film. Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) have achieved minor celebrity status for their role in taking down a major conspiracy. They’ve also become wildly (heh) overconfident. Which is why, in their first official mission as partners, they disobey multiple direct orders and accidentally foil a major sting while leaving a trail of property damage in their wake. Their public goodwill all but squandered, Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) takes them out of the field and forces them into couples counseling. But Judy believes she’s found the clue to another conspiracy, so she continues to investigate in secret and forces Nick along.

Her hunch pays off in the form of Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan), the first reptile to be seen in Zootopia in a century. He’s either plotting to attack old money Milton Lynxley (David Strathairn) and his children (Andy Samberg, Macaulay Culkin, and Brenda Song) or he’s trying to right a longstanding wrong. Judy, ever the believer in underdogs, immediately assumes the latter. But Gary’s escape make her and Nick fugitives, and the Lynxleys are going to use their power over the police and Zootopia’s new mayor Brian Winddancer (Patrick Warburton) to make sure the duo winds up dead. Forced on the run and with no allies other than a conspiracy theorist podcaster, they must track down Gary and unravel a conspiracy as old as the metropolis itself.

There’s a conspiracy in the animal kingdom! Again!

The chemistry between Goodwin and Bateman is still the main draw. Smartly, Jared Bush’s screenplay never lets the new characters or the myriad of twists and turns distract from the relationship between the two leads. Their partnership, while easy to root for, is not actually based on the sort of things that make long-term relationships thrive. So the film never lets action, tension, or humor take the spotlight long enough for viewers to forget the ways in which the leads still need to grow. It’s exciting to watch the relationship struggle and grow to match the plot.

The buddy cop film may no longer be in its heyday, this critic has seen enough of them to know most are content to hammer out the character dynamics in the first film and let them stagnate in the sequels. So it’s extremely refreshing to see an entry in the genre that spends just as much time as its predecessor (probably more, actually) in developing that relationship.

But the film also tries to confront ideas about corruption and wealth that it doesn’t have the guts to actually follow through on. The movie shows police officers and government to be wildly corrupt, yet always coming around to the good side at the last possible moment. Shakira can do a flying elbow drop on a police officer in retaliation for his treatment of innocent civilians but they can party together a few scenes later because don’t worry! That’s the sort of bygones we let be bygones.

An excellent (and extremely large) cast.

Ke Huy Quan is always a delight, so it should be no surprise that he excels here. The Oscar-winner feels perfectly at ease among the stacked cast. Judy’s willingness find Gary mid-crime and believe him without hesitation feels like something that was done because Bush couldn’t think of way of a better way to start the second act. Thankfully, Quan’s balance of clumsiness and charisma makes it easy to gloss over. Strathairn and Samberg are outstanding additions to the cast. Elba is still outstanding despite significantly reduced screentime. And pretty much every character people loved from the first film returns for at least a cameo.

Speaking of cameos — Zootopia 2 has one of the most impressive lineups of cameo appearances this side of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Around the World in 80 Days. There are plenty of bigger names appearing for a single scene (Quinta Brunson, Danny Trejo, John Leguizamo) but amount of A- and B-list stars who show up and deliver a single line is utterly bizarre.

Dwayne Johnson. Josh Dallas. Auliʻi Cravalho. Ed Sheeran. Bob Iger (really!). Tig Notaro. Michael J. Fox. Anika Noni Rose. Robert Irwin. Josh Gad. Cecily Strong. June Squibb. Rachel House. Stephanie Beatriz. Jean Reno. Blake Slatkin. Just to name a few! Have you watched a movie or listened to a song released sometime in the last 25 years? There’s a very real chance someone involved spent thirty minutes in a recording booth for Zootopia 2 and laughed all the way to the bank.

A return to form for Disney’s animation.

Disney’s recent animated outings have included the beautiful but directionless Strange World and the visually dull Wish and Moana 2. If you’ve been watching any of the studio’s direct-to-streaming animated features, it’s even worse. So it’s extremely heartening to see that Zootopia 2 looks as good as it does. The world feels lived-in. Characters feel real. Colors are vibrant. This especially pays off in the film’s several chase scenes, but smaller character moments are also plenty interesting to look at. There’s little reason to believe Disney will keep it up with every release, but it’s nice to know the studio can still put out something that looks this nice.

Aside from the aforementioned fuzziness surrounding Judy and Gary’s initial meeting, the biggest flaw is how clumsily the film handles its political messages. To be fair, it still manages to be an improvement over Zootopia in this regard. The first film has animals as a rather unsubtle allegory for racism, but is still full of jokes targeted at specific animals. Which meant anyone who thought about the messaging for more than a few seconds would have to balance the cheery animation and characters with the fact that most of the film’s humor was the in-universe equivalent of racist jokes. That awkwardness is still present here and it is still awkward. Though, notably, it’s far less prevalent. Considering the plot itself means the racial allegory is even more prominent, I’m willing to call this one a win.

Strathairn’s performance is so excellent in large part because Zootopia 2 doesn’t need us to believe he can be redeemed. Unfortunately, his various henchmen are afforded little in the way of stakes because the film can never successfully manage confronting serious corruption while still maintaining that these sorts of things can be instantly resolved with an apology. This never manages to be as awkward as the political messaging of the first film. But it’s still incredibly clumsy and especially distracting in what should be some of the most significant scenes.

The bottom line.

Anyone who was able to make it through the first film shouldn’t have too much trouble looking past this, though. Especially when taken alongside the film’s undeniable strengths. And it’s worth giving credit to the Zootopia franchise for at least trying to tackle these issues when most Disney films don’t care. We can and should expect better. But the strength of the cast and script make this one of the stronger films the studio has released in some time. Hopefully the sign of better things to come for Disney animation.

Zootopia 2 is now playing in theaters everywhere. Watch the trailer here.

Images courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures. Read more reviews by Brogan Luke Bouwhuis here.