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As far as all these Disney sequels go, I liked Zootopia 2 overall. It didn’t have the same magic as the original, but it didn’t try to. I appreciated the more emotional, character-driven story over the magical worldbuilding in the first movie.
Seal-iesly Good Writing
One of the things that was so magical about the first movie was that it introduced the viewer to this utopia and then broke that ideal in half. The viewer went right along with Judy, played by Ginnifer Goodwin, as she experienced her expectation being crushed, instead of the realities of living in a city.
In the second movie, the viewer did not expect that all the corruption was gone from Zootopia, nor did Judy and Nick, played by Jason Bateman, since it had only been two weeks in between the events of the two movies. The writers didn’t waste a second revealing even more corruption about the leaders of the city and putting roadblocks in the way of Judy and Nick getting to the bottom of it.
Characters
Overall, my favorite of the new characters introduced was Mayor Winddancer, played by the great Patrick Warburton. Warburton’s iconic voice was the only one that could’ve pulled off Winddancer. The writers had a clear goal of the useless punching bag mayor, and they succeeded with flying colors. Couple that with Warburton's stellar performance and you get the whole theatre laughing out loud most times he was on screen.
Character animators are actors in their own right, as shown by Mayor Winddancer’s physical acting throughout the movie. Physical comedy is something I rarely see done right in animation, and Zootopia 2 knocked it out of the park!
Gary De’Snake, voiced by Ke Huy Quan, is another amazing example of this. Disney has a long history of animating snakes well, and Gary is no exception. His movement as an organic creature was so well done, and the fluid movements made me believe he was a snake, not just a centipede with a sock on.
One of the main things I disliked about the movie was Gary’s name. He has such an original and iconic character design that he deserves a name to match. I am a sucker for a good pun, and characters like Nibbles Maplestick, voiced by Fortune Feimster, Mr. Big, voiced by Maurice LaMarche, and Captain Hoggbottom, voiced by Michelle Gomez, are some of my favorite punny names. There was a lot of potential with a snake or viper-based pun, or at least an ‘s’ name so introductions could have that extra chuckle.
You would imagine a snake character’s main way of fighting would be his venomous fangs, but as they were so demonized by the corrupt leaders of Zootopia, it was a nice touch that Gary didn’t use them to fight. The only time his fangs are used is by accident, and Gary even carries an anecdote with him and is shown with a card reading “Sorry I fanged you” at the end of the movie.
Un-frog-ettable Soundtrack and Environment
There was a lot of amazing subtlety in the environment. The audience walked into theatres not needing more overall shots of the different parts of the city, which freed up a lot of room for things like the way the benches in the De’Snake’s old home curved and the subtlety of the flower designs with repeating motifs, such as the use of yellow and pattern design that reminded me of quilts. It made me laugh out loud to see the references to music festival Burning Man (or Burning Mammal in the film) and classic film The Shining.
The soundtrack, done by Michael Giacchino, definitely lived up to the first movie. Giacchino writes my favorite chase music of all time. He also really knows how to keep it whimsical and jaunty in the midst of that.
Shakira also did a great job with what little the movie gave her to work with. While giving up the magical wide shots of Zootopia was a good idea, it left Shakira’s musical cameo with very little. She ended up just being in the context of her character’s usual performance, although it was nice to see her get a supporting characterization.
Conclusssssion
Overall, there was surprisingly little I disliked about Zootopia 2. It was really refreshing to see a character-driven plot and emotion-first writing that didn’t feel like a cheap cash grab. It wasn’t trying to one-up the original or capture the same magic in any way, and it was really awesome to see that.
Sources: IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb
Contact Ashton Weir with comments at ashton.weir@bsu.edu or on Instagram @ash.art_0303.
