Talking about runaway successes, Zootopia 2. Though you might not fully credit it, this movie made its $150 million budget back in 48 hours and, on the day I saw it, had already become the ninth-highest grossing movie of all time. It’s clearly made even more money since then. Not bad for a sequel, an animated sequel at that, though the Chinese animation Ne Zha 2 is also both of those and it’s currently sitting at number five. Note to self: check it out.
But back to Zootopia 2, which continues the adventures of Hopps and Wilde, the bunny/fox cop duo, in a world where animals live in uneasy harmony. Could a fox and a rabbit really rub along together so well, given that the fox is a carnivore and a rabbit is more usually its lunch, if it can catch it? The first film was incredibly interested in all that, in what could be seen as a coded interrogation of the idea of multiculturalism. This time out: not quite so much, though it is there in the broad-brush Animal Farm-ish plot about the Lynxley clan, whose ancestors built the animal utopia, and nefarious attempts to undermine the city’s founding principles, mostly by scapegoating the snakes.
This, with a tweak and a nudge, is also the subplot to Wicked: For Good. But I digress. Hopps the idealist progressive and Wilde the sceptical conservative are voiced again by Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman. Normally, big-name voice work is nothing to get excited about, and publicity claims that, say, Julia Roberts “stars” in animated movie X, is all hooey. But in this case the voice casting is at least half of the charm of the movie. Goodwin and Bateman riff off each other brilliantly as the rabbit and the fox head off on a quest together to find a long-lost patent, quipping all the way, their voices the sonic manifestation of character. Apparently Dwayne Johnson, June Squibb, Idris Elba, Danny Trejo and Macaulay Culkin’s voices are also in there, and there’s an obvious in-joke in Disney big noise Bob Iger playing a character called Bob Tiger. Something for the “listen out for…” contingent to chew on.
This is a busy film full of incident, which is not quite the same as drama but could be mistaken for it. It keeps moving, dropping in references to other movies (When Harry Met Sally, The Shining), games (Hungry Hungry Hippos), movie stars of yore (Marlon Brando) and so on, interlacing them with some good animal jokes. The sea lion incredibly touchy about being referred to as a seal. The dolphin annoyed about the concept of needing something “like a hole in the head” and so on.
It’s not quite the same writing/directing team as in the first film. Jared Bush (who wrote Moana and Encanto) is now credited as co-director and sole writer, alongside Byron Howard, who co-directed the first film, and worked with Bush on Encanto.
For edge you’d have to go with the first movie, whose flirtation with right-wing politics was its uneasy driver. This film has a bigger heart, exemplified by Zoo, the bouncy song sung by Shakira, whose presence sums up the whole vibe – fun, lively, upbeat.
Incidentally, you might know this movie as Zootropolis 2, which is all down to Disney and copyright issues in certain territories – in the UK and much of Europe the right to that name was already held by a Danish zoo. Determined to turn that frown upside down, in the UK Disney came up with the fanciful claim that the Zootropolis name was all about creating a “unique title that works for UK audiences”. Translated that means one that hadn’t already been taken. You’re welcome!
Zootopia – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
