Anyone who thought “racism was solved” at the end of Zootopia missed the point. Considering that Trump won the election several months later, it’s safe to say that most people didn’t take the message to heart. For all the progress made since the civil rights movement, Zootopia reflected how little we’ve changed as a species. Almost a decade later, the first film is as relevant as ever, making a sequel more than welcome. Zootopia 2 reminds us that prejudice and political corruption may never go away, although that doesn’t mean the little guy should stop trying to make a difference. It does so with clever writing, immersive environments, and timely themes that don’t just feel like a rehash.
Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) are partners now… well, work partners, at least. It’s still a little ambiguous as to whether or not there’s a romantic spark between these two, but we’ll let DeviantArt handle that for now. Judy and Nick find themselves tracking Ke Huy Quan’s Gary, the first snake to surface in Zootopia in years. It’s not a coincidence that Gary slithered by just as Zootopia is on the verge of its 100th anniversary. The Lynxley family is revered for starting Zootopia, making it possible for animals to co-exist. Gary argues there’s more to the story, however. In any case, blue snakes are probably about to become popular pets.
Based on the setup, I initially feared that Zootopia 2 may repeat too much. Predators were the targets of racial (or I guess animal) profiling in the first movie. Would Zootopia 2 simply recycle the same social commentary, but with reptiles this time? While prejudice is still an important theme, directors Byron Howard and Jared Bush, the latter of whom wrote the screenplay, touch upon different facets of us vs. them. Zootopia 2 is more about cultural appropriation and how entire civilizations have literally had their contributions paved over. The powerful will try to vindicate this as progress, when in reality, it’s the eraser of the past.
The film explores gentrification in ways that all ages can identify with. Like its predecessor, though, Zootopia 2 puts just as much passion into the comedy, animation, and characters. Not just Nick and Judy, whose chemistry is still on par with the best buddy cop movies, but also supporting players like Fortune Feimster as a conspiracy theory beaver, Andy Samberg as the black sheep/lynx of his family, and good old Patrick Warburton as the most bumbling horse put in a position of power since Caligula’s. Look it up. There are also too many cameos to list here, although Michael J. Fox as a fox named Michael J. is a standout.
After Wish spelled out all of its in-jokes to the audience, Zootopia 2 thankfully understands how to effectively intersperse Easter eggs. They’re just the icing. The cake is another well-crafted detective story with twists, turns, and heart. In an age where Disney is constantly going back to the IP well, Zootopia is one franchise that warrants revisiting. Not merely because of its urgent subject matter, but during a period when everything feels kind of hopeless, it’s just comforting seeing Judy and Nick again.