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Nick Wilde, voiced by Jason Bateman, left, and Judy Hopps, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, return for Zootopia 2.DIsney/The Associated Press
Zootopia 2
Directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard
Written by Jared Bush
Featuring the voices of Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman and Ke Huy Quan
Classification PG; 108 minutes
Opens in theatres Nov. 26
Critic’s Pick
Zootopia, Disney’s pun-ridden parable about a bunny cop and her sly fox of a partner, premiered in early 2016. It was a simpler time, sort of: Donald Trump was not yet president. An economy-pausing pandemic was the stuff of doomy fantasy. The police were a reasonably uncontroversial part of a functioning society, depending on who you asked.
But life looks different now than it did a decade ago. We as a culture have become more comfortable talking about the hard stuff – police brutality, systemic racism and political malfeasance, for instance – and it follows that today’s media for children has some obligation to reflect the world in which we live.
Enter Zootopia 2, which sees the anthropomorphic Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) re-evaluate their platon-ish relationship with each other – and with policing as a means of creating positive change in the world.
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Dr. Fuzzby is voiced by Quinta Brunson.Disney/The Associated Press
It’s still a Disney movie – you won’t see a cartoon bunny chant “ACAB” or fling her police badge into a garbage fire – but the film’s politics are surprisingly nuanced. Within its first 10 minutes, Zootopia 2 takes aim at the can’t-we-all-just-get-along zeitgeist of the first film, which somewhat clumsily used animal species as a stand-in for race.
In the sequel, screenwriter and co-director Jared Bush takes an exacting look at the policies and logics that prop up the film’s titular city. Why does there exist an underclass of rodents, including the oh-so-memeable Mr. Big, who, yes, appears for an encore? Why aren’t there any reptiles in this world – has society given them a bad rap? Wait, that bear just ate a fish – is the fish sentient like everyone else, or is there a subclass of animals bred to be food? Is that a launch pad for the inevitable third film in the franchise? Much to consider.
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Bush’s script sees Judy and Nick address these questions – as well as real-world problems of gerrymandering and old-money political influence – against a backdrop of non-stop action that introduces a host of dandy new characters. Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once) is Gary De’Snake, a serpent tasked with uncovering Zootopia’s true history in order to save his family; Patrick Warburton, meanwhile, is the city’s new mayor, a BoJack Horseman-esque stallion.
The rest of co-director Byron Howard and Bush’s cast is a who’s-who of comedy talent – Quinta Brunson and Andy Samberg are notable additions to the Zoo-niverse – alongside returning favourites Idris Elba as police chief Bogo and Shakira as the glamorous Gazelle.
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Ke Huy Quan voices Gary De’Snake, a serpent tasked with uncovering Zootopia’s true history in order to save his family.Disney/The Associated Press
And, of course, it wouldn’t be a Zootopia film without a veritable stable of animal puns: Need to find a video? Consult EweTube. Want to stream a movie? HuluZoo. Who’s the CEO of Disney? That’d be Bob Tiger. (Who, yes, is voiced by the real Iger.)
You’d be forgiven for going into Zootopia 2 with low expectations – Disney’s reputation wasn’t built on its sequels and remakes. But the film is impressive on a number of levels: It preserves the believe-in-yourself mythos of its predecessor, but smoothly addresses the problems baked into Zootopia’s overly sunny portrayal of local government. It doesn’t regurgitate old jokes, but builds on them, and even makes them funnier. Never does the film feel like it’s beating you over the head with its morals, but you might leave the theatre feeling a little better about the world we live in than you did when you arrived.
And listen: Did I expect one of this year’s most compelling will-they-or-won’t-they plot lines to unfurl between a rabbit and her fox cop friend? I did not. But the enemies-to-friends-to-guess-we’ll-find-out-in-the-next-movie arc is a classic one for good reason – and in this case, it’s sure to be a hit with everybunny.
