Zootopia 2 - New Year’s Review

2024 has been, to say the least, a topsy-turvy year for Disney sequels, hasn’t it? On one end, you have Moana 2, which was meant to be developed as a limited series for Disney+. But due to complications in Disney+’s streaming content strategy, it was decided to reorganize Moana, the TV show, into a straight-up sequel to the first film. And, as I’m sure many people pointed out, there were some general inconsistencies in this movie that didn’t help it sustain itself as a feature-length sequel.

On the other hand, you have Inside Out 2, which has been celebrated as an engaging film and a genuine continuation of the original. It introduced tons of new ideas and elements that enriched the world of Inside Out and took it in different, organic, and interesting directions. As a result, it became the highest-grossing animated film from Disney. For a short while, it was even the highest-grossing animated film of all time, rightfully surpassing the live-action Lion King. Inside Out 2 earned every penny it made because it did not disappoint.

Well, I am beyond happy to report that neither did Zootopia 2.

This movie had some pretty big shoes to fill, considering that the first Zootopia was a masterclass in utilizing animal allegories to tell the story of the dangers of discrimination. And for what Zootopia 2 had going for it, parts of what it had seemed a little generic compared to the first film, yet with everything else, it amounted to a genuinely solid continuation that’s worth a trip back to good old Zootopia.

In this story, it took place exactly one week after Nick Wilde was promoted to a fellow police officer of the Zootopia Police Department. And after Judy’s latest attempt to nab one of the bad guys who illegally smuggled crates into Zootopia, she discovered a suspicious trail of evidence, starting with a van with the sign ’Amoose Bouche’ on the side and a piece of shedded snake skin, that would have led her all the way to one of the elite members of Zootopia, the Lynxley family. A centennial celebration was underway, commemorating Zootopia’s established walls, which divided it into designated ecosystems suited to each animal that lived there. And one of the main attractions at the celebration was a special journal documenting the construction and development of the walls to be erected throughout Zootopia. The journal was said to have been possessed by – of all animals – a snake that entered into negotiations with Zootopia’s founder and developer of the walls, Ebenezer Lynxley, during their construction. It had been handed down within the Lynxley family for a couple of generations before settling into Milton Lynxley’s hands.

In Judy’s attempts to get down to the bottom of this conspiracy, Judy and Nick eventually ran into arguably its main lead: a blue pit viper named Gary D’Snake. Not ’The Snake’, but ’D’Snake’. So, out of desperation to track down Gary and gain more information from him about his needs for the journal, Judy and Nick would’ve found themselves digging further into the hidden portions of Zootopia. Along the way, they were to discover mind-blowing elements of Zootopia that had literally been buried and kept under wraps for as long as Zootopia had been around. So what would they have found that linked Gary D’Snake to the Lynxley family? And the snake with whom Ebenezer Lynxley cooperated?

On the broader scale, however, that’s just one half of the story.

On a more intimate scale, Judy and Nick were both doing their best to make themselves known as productive co-partners in the Zootopia Police Department. But a little bit of such time and experience had shaped them into different people than they were at the beginning of the last film, with Judy Hopps being recognized more as a fellow ZPD team member, albeit a reckless one. Judy became more determined than ever to catch the bad guys dead in their tracks and solve whatever mysteries were afoot, even if it meant going against her code of conduct to arrange it on the ZPD’s behalf. Whereas Judy was the optimist, Nick Wilde became more of a realist. His background in smuggling and going his own way throughout the streets of Zootopia made him quite savvy about the conditions of Zootopian society and exactly what capabilities Judy had as a police officer, as did he, also as a police officer. After Chief Bogo scolded them and threatened to either split them up or lay them off, as well as there being some misunderstandings that Judy thought there were about what Bogo assigned to them, she and Nick became determined to resolve their differences and finally understand each other when they’re not busy tracking down Gary D’Snake and the suspicion behind the journal he sought.

So, would Judy and Nick have finally understood their struggles and cleared the air with each other to arrange a more stable co-partnership? And what would Judy and Nick have found that would have shaken Zootopia to its very foundations?

See, Moana 2 struggled because it was conceived as a miniseries for Disney+ that had to be rearranged as a movie at the last minute. But Zootopia 2 worked more seamlessly as a movie because it benefited from being pitched as a movie from the start.

As for the mystery? Well, because of what Judy and Nick explored in the last film – the prejudices circulating between the prey and the predators and their long-term effects throughout all of Zootopia – it made me uncertain over what kind of case Judy and Nick were about to uncover that would have been easily on par with what a widespread, high-stakes mystery it was that Judy and Nick explored in the last film. However, the hook that intrigued me and made me want to see what Zootopia 2 would have to offer was the introduction of reptiles into the Zootopian community.

Think about it. Most of the animals we have seen thus far in Zootopia were mammals. Even the prey and predators were all mammals. But it might have more to do with how we were so engaged in the prejudicial matters between prey and predators that we were able to forget that the animals living in Zootopia were primarily mammals. But with reptiles entering, or re-entering, the Zootopian community, that was bound to shake things up in terms of Zootopia’s sociological aspects. Where did the reptiles come from? Did they use to live in Zootopia many years ago, before they decided to make a comeback? What connections did they have with Zootopia if they had lived there in the first place? All those questions were the right ones to keep me intrigued in the mystery of Zootopia 2 and to see how Judy and Nick would have cracked this case after solving a huge one in the last film.

And I admit this: the more obvious portions of the mystery and who the culprits were behind the whole conspiracy were among my favorite parts of the movie.

And this is where the rest of the review will indulge in spoilers, so read at your own pace.

SPOILER ALERT

As Judy and Nick did some more digging, they discovered that Gary D’Snake was trying to steal the journal because, according to one of Judy and Nick’s other leads - a cowboy-outfit-wearing lizard named Jesus - Agnes was Gary D’Snake’s great-grandmother and the real founder of the walls that were developed throughout Zootopia. However, Ebenezer decided to take the patent into his own hands, frame Agnes for supposedly killing one of her own reptilian community, and pass her invention off as his own. Even worse, it wasn’t just a past activity; it still affected the reptilian community living in Zootopia. What’s left of the reptilian community lived in the Marshlands, which, now that I think about it, was a pretty clever commentary on animal displacement. And in commemoration of the Lynxley’s involvement in the 100th anniversary of the walls’ founding in Zootopia, they planned to extend Tundra Town into where the reptiles lived in the Marshlands.

And as for the main one responsible for this expansion, Milton Lynxley?

Well, let’s put it this way. Imagine this guy as Preston Northwest from Gravity Falls or Governor Riggs from Twisters if they were more prominent characters. That’s what this character felt like to me, especially when his intentions with the lizard communities became more apparent.

I like this for two reasons.

One, Zootopia 2 did a good job of finally introducing us to a complacent, mostly adequate villain. And after tons of movies from Disney that either had no villains or introduced us to surprise villains, this was a welcome breath of fresh air, especially after Disney blew it with King Incognito in Wish. There may not have been enough written about this character to make him very complex. However, for what he had going for him, he still served as a very slimy and greedy higher-up who would have done anything to extend his prestige in Zootopia in any way necessary. On top of that, being part of the Zootopia elite gave him ties to other parts of the Zootopia elite and extended control over the ZPD, as well as the capability to promote Brian Winddancer, an action star, into the role of mayor. So it did heighten the stakes in terms of how Judy and Nick were going to solve the case, especially since they were framed for being complicit in Gary’s theft of the journal, for they had been seen with one of Gary’s fangs stuck in Chief Bogo, even if that was by mistake. So now, Judy and Nick went from working for the Police Department to being on the run while still attempting to solve the case for the ZPD. So that already made the scenario a little more suspenseful and intriguing.

And two, what kickstarted the whole conspiracy in the first place tied back to what the first film hit out of the ballpark: its intolerance for prejudice. As I’m sure we know from the first film, it explored discrimination against prey and predators from both sides. And in this case, the prejudice was more similar to how the prey viewed the predators. A predator, a lynx, decided to steal the patten from the actual developer of the Zootopian walls, a snake. So when we think of prey, we think of them as harmless and cutesy. When we think of predators, we think of them as bloodthirsty and savage. But while there’s no general way to look at reptiles, we do know what we think of snakes when we think of them: slithery and dangerous. Hence, it influenced Ebenezer’s motivation to steal Agnes’ patent and pass it off as his own. Not only that, but it introduced a new character who’s related to the Lynxleys, Pawbert, who seemed to be a bumbling guy, but ultimately seemed to have warmed up to Judy because of his distrust for his family legacy. And for the most part, he was willing to help her and Gary out, particularly by tagging along with them and helping them make their way through some of their foes to reach their destination and get to the bottom of Gary’s investigation. However, at just the right and crucial moment, just as Judy was on the brink of making the ultimate discovery, that’s when Pawbert decided to sucker punch them with an injector filled with snake venom into Judy’s neck.

Outside of something this lethal being used on Judy catching me off guard, I was a little disappointed, at first, that the movie decided to throw in another twist villain after Disney seemingly gave up on it many years ago. But to be frank, the type of twist villain Zootopia 2 utilized here was a more refreshing kind of twist villain. Why? Because it made me think back to all the other times Disney pulled us under the rug and introduced someone who seemed like a generic good guy as a bad guy. Nine times out of ten, they were introduced as the masterminds behind the conflicts the heroes were going through. And in the case of Zootopia 2, the mastermind was already introduced in the form of Milton Lynxley.

And with Pawbert, the twist with him being a bad guy was slightly predictable. After all, as soon as I saw him go from being a bumbling guy to suddenly wanting to help Judy, I could tell, even only from instinct, that there was something about this character that was slightly off, almost like there was something that didn’t click with this character despite him seemingly coming off as a family rebel. But in this case, by the time his true colors were shown, he was a bad guy, except he was reintroduced not as a surprise mastermind but as a surprise mole. Despite seemingly trying to turn his back on his family, Pawbert tagged along with Judy and Gary to gather information on them and report it back to them in secret. But it wasn’t made out to be a lost cause like he made it seem, since Pawbert tried to win his father’s favor by gathering the information of his enemies from up close. That threw in a whole other dynamic to just how threatening the Lynxley family turned out to be in the grand scheme of things, especially when they were on the top of the food chain, so to speak.

On top of that, Zootopia 2 did not disregard how not all predators were evil or forget about the hints of prejudice from the heroes’ side.

On a few occasions, Nick admitted that he was a little averse to snakes, as he did after running into Gary. At first, it may have sounded like he was saying that to weasel his way out of the case, but the longer it went on, the more apparent it became that he meant that. It meant that yes, Nick Wilde, and not just the Lynxleys, had a bit of a prejudice towards reptiles. It reminded me a bit of how Judy felt about foxes in the last film, which led to her press confession about whether the predators going savage was biological or not, and caused a rift between her and Nick. Nick’s discomfort towards reptiles felt more minimal than the bombshell revelation of Judy’s innate prejudice, but that doesn’t mean the notion wasn’t there.

So, the arrangement of this mystery was very well played in the movie. And there’s just something about the elements of a well-established community – which, in this case, is Zootopia – going through a major sociological overhaul after the lies embedded in its DNA for a long time were made public that I find most invigorating.

As for the rest of the characters, what they brought to the table helped provide the right amount of intrigue and engagement to this picture.

To start things off, Judy Hopps was still as chipper and excitable a bunny as she was since the beginning of the first film, but like I said earlier, she did display a bout of overconfidence in her capabilities as a bunny cop. She had always gone out of her way to try to catch the bad guys or solve some cases her way, even if it began to feel out of line with what was expected of her from the ZPD. But as she later admitted to Nick, there was a little bit of low self-esteem apparent in her pursuits as a police officer because she wanted to prove not just to herself, but also to her colleagues and especially Nick Wilde, that she was more than just some ’dumb bunny’.

Nick Wilde mellowed down a bit after getting settled in the ZPD. Still, he maintained his crass personality and sense of humor when it came to reasoning with people like Judy about one’s capabilities in the field, as well as the expectations one would have for how specific scenarios would have played out. Only in this case, his personality was not as biting, if you will, as he was in the last film. As Judy’s co-partner in the police force, he was usually the more commonsensical guy who attempted to clue Judy in on exactly what all she could and should do as far as cracking the case was concerned, and to what extent they should push themselves further to ensure that the case was solved. As he said to Judy plenty of times in the movie, ’the case is not worth dying for.’

Chief Bogo, who did not have as much of a prominent role in this movie as he did in the last film, was still the hard-headed, no-nonsense police chief who always made sure to keep his colleagues in check and to ensure that things in Zootopia ran like clockwork, down to the coordination of all the police officers operating under his watch. And even though it seemed like his stance had not changed once about Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, there were a few hints in his demeanor that suggested that he was still as reasonable a police chief as he could have been underneath his hard exterior. Case in point: to keep Judy and Nick in line, Chief Bogo assigned them a special case that turned out to be nothing more than a therapy group session called Dysfunction Junction. It seemed like this was done to them out of spite. But when you look at what Judy and Nick struggled through, either together or on their own, it would eventually have left me realizing that maybe Chief Bogo knew both Judy and Nick better than they knew each other or even themselves, like he made the right call to set them on the right track as new and rookie police officers.

The rest of the supporting characters who came back from the first film didn’t have as significant a role as they did in the first film, either. Clawhauser was still your everyday, funny, lovable guy who was an excessive Gazelle fan and loved his donuts. And yes, even Bellwether made a surprise appearance in this movie, but she was basically just another inmate who was actually let out at one point with the rest of the inmates. And this was during the middle of a chase scene, I might add.

But two memorable characters from the first film made a comeback here, and what they each had to show made the most of their return.

With Mr. Big, he returned to the movie still as proud a mafia father as ever, and also a proud grandfather. But what became of his family life after his daughter married, became pregnant, and became a mother was revealed. In this case, they decided to direct their family business toward fashion. At one point, I noticed that one of the names is Gucci. I don’t know who Zootopia’s version of Gucci was, but that was a pretty clever play on words, as well as a smart usage of fashion, considering that Guccio Gucci was also Italian himself. I will admit, I expected this movie to steer this particular tribute into Godfather Part II terrain, but what came about was as unprecedented as it was inventive.

Plus, when asked about the Lynxleys, he spoke of them with dread, as if they were a rival mafia family. It suggested that the Lynxley family might have been just as vicious and competitive, if not more so, as Mr. Big and his family were. 

And another character who came back at just the right time was Flash the Sloth. Now, if you remember from the end of the first film, Flash, despite his excessively slow nature, was known to be an excessive speeder, which made for a truly solid punchline, considering how someone as slow as Flash would have surprisingly lived up to his name as a driver. And in this case, he made for a good backup for Nick at just the right moment in the climax, while also providing some good laugh-out-loud moments of his own.

But what does this say about the new characters introduced in this movie?

Let’s start with Gary D’Snake. Surprisingly, I didn’t find much to look back on regarding Gary, which is a shame, considering that he was the #1 lead in Judy and Nick’s investigation into the conspiracy surrounding the reptiles and the Lynxley family. Meanwhile, Gary was just the prime suspect in the conspiracy circulating among the reptiles and the Lynxley family. All Gary tried to do was prove his and his family’s worth to Judy and everyone else in Zootopia while also being just a good shoulder for Judy and Nick to lean on, starting with the fact that Agnes was his great-grandmother.

Yet, there were a few elements about him that I found impressive. For one thing, outside of the journal he stole, he also carried a bag full of antivenom epipens, just in case anyone he ran into was accidentally bitten by one of his fangs, like Chief Bogo, for Instance. The idea that a snake would’ve carried around antivenom epipens pretty much validated Gary’s character. That, and there were other times when he demonstrated his worth as a snake by using his heat vision to detect something in the journal that no one else could have seen. In which case, that’s where he played a pretty valuable role as the key lead in this investigation, and not just as someone tending to those who were succumbing to a cold, a venom, or anything like that. I found him to be an admirably memorable supporting character.

However, what also surprised me about Gary was that he wasn’t the only memorable new character in the movie, because, believe me, there were a lot.

And this is where Zootopia 2 excelled where Moana 2 fumbled: introducing new characters worthy of sharing the spotlight with the returning characters from the first film.

To start with, there’s a beaver named Nibbles Maplestick, who ran a podcast series online and talked a lot about ongoing events, especially concerning Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. And she also kept up to date on current events in Zootopia, such as the upcoming centennial celebration, the journal display, and the rationale for this particular arrangement. And by the time she eventually tagged along with Judy and Nick, knowing she was pretty knowledgeable about what went on in Zootopia and where to find who, she became a valuable source of information and, consequently, the second-most-trustworthy lead in the case after Gary. She was also a pretty neat sidekick who tended to get excited about what she discovered, whether it validated her suspicions or cemented what Nick and Judy meant to clear out between them. I tend to think of her, retrospectively, as the Maui fan from Moana 2 done right.

Another character I found very memorable in this movie was the stallion mayor, Brian Winddancer. When I first saw him in the trailers, I thought he was going to be a class-A egotist, the kind of guy so full of himself that he would have looked down on others, which is why I had suspicions about any discrimination from his end against the snakes, especially Gary. But while he was on the side that rebelled against the snakes, what he actually went through left me feeling a bit sorry for him. On the one side, he was an actor, the kind who you’d see as playing the action hero. But as the promoted mayor of Zootopia, he would have tried to live up to his image, as he also did as an action movie star. However, as the case was investigated further, it was revealed that he had been elected to the mayor’s office illicitly by Milton Lynxley, who had employed him to follow his and his family’s orders. And by the time you see the horse actually engage with conversations with the Lynxleys about the goings-on, there were times when I was unsure, not just of what he was going to say, but also of his allegiance to the Lynxleys, like there was an inner part of him that didn’t know if following their orders was the right thing to do. It made me curious whether he would’ve been too egotistical to break out of it, or if he would’ve known better and proven himself as the mayor of Zootopia the right way. Now that I think about it, maybe this character was meant to be Zootopia’s own version of Arnold Schwarzenegger, since he was an action star who got promoted and was equally famous as a Californian mayor.

But the most distinguished supporting character who made his debut here was Jesus. When I first saw him, I was already astounded by his cowboy attire. But what made me respect him more was his reflections on what he had seen and gone through, like he had seen the worst things a lizard could have seen with his own eyes. For what this character had going for him, there’s something about his deep voice, his serious yet thoughtful complexion, and his cowboy attire that made me look back on him very fondly, especially since what he established made him look like a totally different character from, say, Rango. That’s how well put together this character was to me. He also turned out to have a sense of humor, like when he dared Judy and Nick to eat a bowl of worms to prove themselves worthy of his respect. Other times, when he had to make a break for it, he ran on water as any lizard would have. And frankly, the way he ran across water was pretty hilarious.

On top of that, there were plenty of new members of the ZPD joining Judy and Nick’s ranks as well, and many of them stood out to me when you look at how cooperative they were as partners, even compared to Judy and Nick. I thought that the two hippos were pretty cool, as were the two warthogs, though they looked a bit like ex-gangsters. However, the zebras were the most memorable of the pairs. They always shouted out, ’zebros,’ as if they were born ready to take on any police case together, with a fierce attitude.

And of course, the voice actors did their best to give the characters such vocal prowess.

Coming back from the first film, Ginnifer Goodwin continued to master Judy’s excitability as a new bunny cop in Zootopia. But whenever she sounded a little conceited or uncertain, Goodwin helped reflect Judy’s inner insecurities with the utmost naturalness, helping hone the idea that she had more emotional baggage and inner demons than she thought she did as a bunny cop.

And with Jason Bateman, he played Nick Wilde with less sarcasm than he did in the last film. In the first film, he played him with a sheer cynicism, but here, it seemed to have cooled a bit after he was hired as a police officer. At this time, whatever he said to himself, to others, or to Judy, he probably said more as someone who’s had a ton of experience out in the streets, and this time, trying to use his skills for good rather than for selfish means.

And when it came to Nick’s co-partnership with Judy, that’s when his outer shell was starting to interfere with his true feelings, resulting in a bit of miscommunication between Nick and Judy about how they really felt about each other, if not just as co-partners in the police force. So Jason Bateman knew how to capture that designated angle of Nick Wilde in this movie, while also pushing him to new directions as his character grew, as did Judy.

The rest of the supporting actors were terrific in their roles as well.

The newcomer, Ke Huy Quan, who we may recognize as Data from The Goonies and Waymond Wang from Everything Everywhere All at Once, was excellent in conveying the right amount of emotion and concern as Gary D’Snake. Whenever you hear him play this character, you can tell that he honed his mere vulnerability as a snake and also whatever problems he may have had for the well-being of his friends, whether it be Judy or, as he thought, Pawbert.

Speaking of which, Andy Samberg was excellent at conveying Pawbert’s various facades. For most of the movie, he played him with a hint of contentment, as if he were starting to feel proud of who he said he was trying to be. He was also skillful in expressing his pride in whatever he did or said he did, whether it was to break off from his family or, as we later learned in the movie, to play dumb and also to live up to his image as a crafty Lynxley who would have gotten whatever he needed for his own benefits and that of his family.

Danny Trejo’s voice performance as Jesus lent this character more gravitas than we might have anticipated. He helped this character sound like he had seen the worst and was thus preparing for the worst, while also injecting humor that made him surprisingly flavorful.

The actress who played Nibbles, Fortune Feimster, sounded quite excitable every time she got into character. I could tell she was amping up her experience as a podcast host and basically playing her character like a borderline fangirl, if not more than just a long-time internet content creator.

Patrick Warburton flexed his vocal chops when it came to voicing Brian Winddancer. With a strong, masculine voice and his comedic pitches and hiccups, he helped him sound more insecure beneath his action-hero image and his position as Zootopia’s mayor. And by the time his allegiance to the Lynxley family was gradually revealed, I began to sense more of his uncertainties stemming from his inner conflict over whose side he’s supposed to be on. After being used to hearing him as Kronk from The Emperor’s New Groove, Joe from Family Guy, and even Buzz Lightyear from his own cartoon series, this felt like a terrific voice role for him to have taken on. I also like how he didn’t emulate Arnold Schwarzenegger too closely for his role; he made it his own, and it worked.

I also have to give props to the guy who played Milton Lynxley, David Strathairn. Whenever he played this character, he managed to do so with just enough professionalism, regality, and, above all, conniving tendencies to highlight how monstrous he was. Much like some of the best Disney villains in recent memory, he gave this character some noticeable personality through his portrayal alone.

In addition, if you thought hearing Ke Huy Quan, aka Data from The Goonies, voicing Gary D’Snake was impressive enough, how would you feel if I told you that Cattrick Lynxley, the eldest son of the Lynxley family, was played by none other than Macaulay Culkin, aka Kevin McCallister from Home Alone? Hearing him play one of the members of the Lynxley family was really surreal to think about, and it made me wonder, did he mean to follow his younger brother Kieran’s lead after watching him nail it as Roman Roy, who also came from an immoral family, from Succession?

And of course, time has been quite kind to the animation.

While the animation in the first film was stellar enough in applying the right amount of fur and details on all of the animals, here, it felt like the animators were allowed to go even further with their animation techniques and apply it to other animals in equal or even greater measure than in the first film. The fur on all the mammals still felt as consistent as ever, whether it’s on bunnies, foxes, water buffaloes, lynxes, or so on. And this time, the animators were allowed to experiment with the new animals, such as seals, walruses, and especially reptiles: the chameleons, the geckos, the tortoises, the snakes, whatever. You could feel the reptiles’ slimy or unusual textures as they went about their business. So, no animal was left unturned in terms of the animators’ attention to detail.

The animation on the backgrounds was also visually pleasing. While it was not as eye-popping as the first film, what drew me to the film’s visual style was its overall atmosphere, especially during the expeditions through the Lynxley mansion in Tundra Town. Parts of the visual design helped hone the more eclectic natures of Zootopia at large. The Copenhoofen district, anyone? Reptile Ravine? It also helped hone the more forbidding elements that crept around every corner as the heroes grew closer to cracking the case.

Do you remember what I said about the first film and how clever it was with its homages to classic properties, whether it’s The Godfather or Breaking Bad? While Zootopia 2 was pretty cheeky enough with its references to The Godfather and where Mr. Big’s family decided to go into the family business, I also ought to tip my hat to what it paid homage to with the Lynxley family. Look at what they had under their name. A large mansion in a snowy field with a grassy hedge behind it? It was clearly meant to pay homage to The Shining. Even Pawbert, after his colors were shown and he attempted to stop Nick, Judy, and Gary in the middle of their trek to prove the legitimacy and existence of Reptile Ravine, became a little more unhinged during his pursuits against them, similar to Jack Nicholson when he started to go crazy at the end of Stanley Kubrick’s film. And for what it had pulled off, I like how it was obvious enough for us to catch the resemblance, but not so over-the-top that it would have felt too blatant.

And of course, Shakira came back as Gazelle, and this time, her new song was ’Zoo’. It had a bit more of a beat and conveyed a more universal theme. Even Shakira, the singer, admitted this was what she was going for with this song, which makes sense considering that ’Try Everything’, from the last film, was more centered on Judy Hopps’ goals. What’s more, after hearing some of Shakira’s other hits outside of ‘Try Everything’, there’s something about her singing in this song that felt like she imbued more of her trademark vocals into Zootopia than before.

There was one thing I was a little confused by, though, and it’s where Gazelle expressed some hostility against the zebras – excuse me, the ‘zebros’ – when she and her fellow tiger bandmates prepared to get even with them and buy Judy and her friends more time to make it to Reptile Ravine. I wondered if that was out of a borderline prejudice against zebras or something, especially since Gazelle seemed to be accepting of every community in Zootopia in the first film. That detail came out of nowhere, unless this kind of prejudice was innate between gazelles and zebras in real life, anyway.

Plus, the name of the great-grandfather Lynxley figure, and the founder of Zootopia, was a little too on the nose. When I think of ‘Ebenezer’, I always think back to Ebenezer Scrooge.

And I’m just gonna say it, there’s something about how fish was portrayed in Zootopia, particularly in this film, that felt weird. Just as Zootopia introduced other species living alongside each other, we also see fish depicted as food or even as payment. That makes me wonder whether Zootopia held so little regard for aquatic animals. Technically, in the Marsh Lands, dolphins lived there, too, but it might have been because they were technically mammals as well.

That’s it on the off-putting elements, though.

What really shocked me in a good way was the post-credits scene. First off, Judy listened to her carrot pen, which played a recording of Nick saying, ‘I love you’ to Judy. Judging from the context in which this was said the first time, though, I’m still convinced that by ‘I love you’, Nick and Judy meant it in a platonic sense. But just as Judy was about to do her own thing elsewhere, something passed by Judy’s window, and what should happen to softly and gently land next to the carrot pen but a feather? Yep, after becoming acquainted with the mammal and reptile communities, this clued me in that there’s a bird community living around the corner somewhere. You know the movie did a bang-up job when something as simple as a feather ramped up my excitement for the future of Zootopia as a franchise.

Technically, this wasn’t the first time birds were even mentioned in Zootopia. As Gazelle sang in ’Try Everything’...

Birds don’t just fly, they fall down and get up.

But that doesn’t lessen what a resolutely game-changing moment this last shot of the movie was, nor what more there is to explore of the Zootopian community at large.

With Moana 2, the way it ended left me convinced it was begging to have a threequel. With Inside Out 2 and Zootopia 2, they each played their cards right with their storytelling finesse and earned themselves their threequel privileges.

SPOILERS END

Altogether, this movie was a terrific follow-up worthy of the Zootopia name. The characters were all very eclectic, the voice actors were at the top of their game, and the music was still excellent. The mystery, though not as layered as that explored in the first film, dipped into conspiratorial waters and remained equally as riveting. The introductory aspects and sociological introductions in this film were very appropriate and eye-opening, and it surprisingly left the door open to even further earth-shattering discoveries in Zootopia. It highlighted how, despite our familiarity with the animal kingdom, there may be more to it than meets the eye, as Zootopia would have us think.

Slither on in because you’ll find yourself having a good time.

Happy New Year!

My Rating

A low A