When it comes to choosing crimes for Judy Hops and Nick Wilde to investigate, maybe a good place to start is figuring out why it took nearly ten, frickin’ years to deliver a sequel to Disney’s furry-baiting, social commentary delivering, confusing fan art inspiring kickass masterpiece, Zootopia. However, while the trauma of me not being able to remember the title correctly until I realised that for some reason the film was called Zootropolis in the UK had faded (I genuinely thought my mind was failing), a new form of anxiety soon took its place the moment I heard that a sequel was finally on the way.
What if the follow-up couldn’t manage to follow up on that main, central relationship? After all, slightly creepy fan speculation aside, one of the most striking things about the original movie – even more so than the racism allegory and some Pixar-level world building – was the chemistry that cracked between Ginnifer Goodwin’s Hops and Jason Bateman’s Wilde. Could this sequel manage to equal that aspect without things getting… y’know… wild?
After cracking a massive conspiracy, Judy Hops and new member of the ZPD, Nick Wilde showed the people of Zootopia that even if your differences stretch to being a bunny and a fox, it doesn’t mean that you can’t pull together and be one, big community. However, while rookie Nick is fine basking in the fame, Judy is obsessed with seeking out another big case to cement their success and continue to prove herself.
However, after botching a sting involving anteater smugglers and being sent to couples therapy sessions due to their clashing personalities, it’s beginning to look like the superstar pairing of Hops and Wilde are just a one hit wonder in the world of law enforcement.
Despite the fact that they’re walking on extremely thin ice with their superior Chief Bogo, Hops soon becomes convinced that there’s another conspiracy lurking in her big-eyed peripheral when she becomes convinced that a snake has infiltrated Zootopia for the first time in nearly 100 years. The fact that this lone reptile spotting coincides with the Zootopia Zootenial celebrations means that something scaly is amiss and after the snake in question attacks the descendents of Zootopia founder Ebenezer Lynxley in order to steal his journal.
Apparently, according to history, all reptiles were ostracised from Zootopia after Lynxley’s partner murdered his housekeeper in an attempt to take credit for the invention of the weather walls that give the city its different climates.
With the rest of the ZPD against them and with such diverse characters as beaver conspiracy theorist Nibbles Maplestick, Lynxley black sheep Pawton and vainglorious puppet mayor Brian Winddancer in the mix both aiding and hindering them, can Nick and Judy get back on the same page to continue fighting the good fight against species inequality.
While Zootopia 2 doesn’t quite play the race card as overtly as its predecessor did, it does have to be noted that we do in fact have a kids film that’s dealing with the notion of an unfairly displaced people being demonised in this current political climate – which is pretty far out considering a large cross section of the audience is purely turning up just to see the funny animals run about, and a much smaller percentage is hoping that a bunny and a fox actually hook up. Well, while this sequel with extra slithers might not quite hit the heights of the original, it’s to Zootopia 2’s credit that it freely indulges the whims of all of the above and even throws a bone to the Nick 4 Judy contingent by having them masquerade as a married couple early in the film.
With a bigger plot in play and Nick now part of the force, the tone of the film now plays more like a typical buddy comedy rather than the candy coloured, Ellroy-esque, noir that powered the original and while the stakes get appropriately big – like, revising a hundred years of history big – the sprawling plot doesn’t quite service the central pairing as much as you’d want. Similarly, some of the new characters don’t really hit the spot as well as you’d hope, with Ke Huy Quan’s Gary De’Snake acting mostly as a single fanged exposition machine that bangs on about family more than Dominic Toretto after a couple Coronas and Fortune Feimster’s redneck beaver simply isn’t as funny as the film thinks she is. Saying that, there’s vast amounts of joy to be derived from Patrick Warburton’s preening, Fabian-maned, former action stud turned ineffectual mayor.
However, when it comes to the near unending stream of puns, jokes and near-peerless worldbuilding, Zootopia 2 is going to prove to be tough to beat.
Sure, the plots themes feels suspiciously similar to things we’re seeing on the news these days, but that doesn’t mean you can’t guffaw at a signpost announcing “Gnu Jersey” or a catering company called “A-Moose Bouche”. Does this scorched earth approach to deploying dad jokes sometimes overwhelm the complex plot? Well obviously – this is Zootopia 2, not LA Confidential – but we also have to consider that the target audience is more than happy to watch the fluffy leads get into a series of frantic chases and maybe not quite so invested in reptile genocide and the wealthy making land grabs while they have city representatives nestled in their pockets.
Despite the fact that having characters meet for the first time is usually more fun than having them already be friends, get into a tiff, and then make up again, Goodwin and Bateman still manage to generate that crazy chemistry once again to stand out within the noisy traffic of the complex plot, infinite gags and a sizable amount of callbacks and there’s even some moments, when the plot gets at its darkest, that chances of a child-traumatising mortality event worrying rise to Toy Story 3 levels. But if it sounds like I’m dumping on the sequel, I can assure you that Zootopia 2 (why not Zoo2pia, you cowards?) is a great example of family aimed animation that isn’t afraid to both get incredibly silly (The Shining reference is sublime) and tackle some truly pressing concerns while still being mature enough to admit you can’t “cure” racism with a single happy ending.
While Zootopia 2 can’t quite juggle everything with the assured finesse of the original, this belated second case for Hops and Wilde still makes you wish we were actually on film number three by now. However, with the reintroduction of reptiles to the already immense world building, one has to wonder if the diverse duo will be looking into mysteries involving birds and fish some time soon – or at least sooner than 9 years.
Animal cracker.
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