Zootopia 2 Review

By Jay Cheung (Grade 11)

On Friday, the 29th of Thanksgiving, I went to watch Zootopia 2 in theaters with some of my friends. It cost quite a hefty sum, as I decided to watch it in 4DX, which just so happened to be 3D as well, so you could say I enjoyed the full experience.

Needless to say, it was quite an amazing experience, with the 4DX making it extremely lifelike and more like a rollercoaster than a movie, though that didn’t detract from the viewing experience. That said, sometimes the shaking of the chairs or the little whips under my seat was a bit excessive. (The shaking made my drink splash onto my pants, testifying to the sheer amount of shaking there was.)

In fact, throughout some scenes, a character is punched or headbutted, and I’m (no doubt other people as well) just forced to bear the brunt of the damage through that shaking. How unjust! But some of the other effects, the subtle drizzle of the rain in the Tundra scene, were just icing on the cake and really helped put me into the scene. 4DX was a great experience, and though more pricey, I would definitely recommend it. Now, onto my review:

I’ve seen a lot of reviews hailing Zootopia 2 as a breath of fresh air compared to other mediocre Disney animated films (Wish, Moana 2, Lightyear), and I certainly agree with that, considering the quality of some of these movies, Moana 2 and Lightyear being soulless cash-grabs solely designed to capitalise on successful sequels. Now, although Zootopia 2 is a sequel, you can definitely tell that the production team was passionate about what they were creating.

Carrie Liao, the Head of Story for Zootopia 2, in an interview, stated that she simply wanted “audiences to enjoy the movie,” “What can we do that’s new? That's new for the audience to get excited about.” and that can certainly be felt in every aspect of the movie, the world is far more expansive than the first movie, and makes for a far more entertaining movie, the added lore behind how Zootopia was created really fleshing out the world. 

Before watching Zootopia 2, I actually watched Zootopia 1 again, for the probable 5th time, to refresh my memory, and immediately after the viewing, all I could think of was that I enjoyed Zootopia 2 more than its prequel, subverting my expectations of sequels. Why? Well, drawing some comparisons, I felt the world is far more expansive, definitely a step-up compared to the first movie. The plot, too, is a lot more focused and rooted in real-world problems; the Snake family’s invention being stolen and miscredited to the Lynxleys no doubt meant to evoke thoughts of historical figures like how Thomas Edison stole Nikola Tesla’s ideas on electricity, Rosalind Franklin’s groundbreaking discovery of the structure of DNA stolen by Watson and Crick.

With such real-world parallels, the plot becomes that much more ‘real.’ In contrast, the story of the first movie, while focusing on a more global issue, feels to me less compelling, the predators being ‘dangerous’ due to a drug that causes them to go berserk, and facing racism because of it. Such an issue is way too wide-encompassing to make a clear allegory, trying to explain all of prejudice through a biological metaphor of predators naturally needing prey to survive, without addressing a lot of the historical, social, and systemic factors that come into play to form discrimination. 

The villain, too, is definitely a step-up as well, Pawbert’s motives being a lot less sudden compared to the drastic switch-up of Mayor Bellwether in the first movie. Instead of having a ‘twist villain’ pop up in the last 5 minutes of the movie, with an almost unbelievable grandiose motive, I think Pawbert’s more focused, personal motive of wanting to impress his family makes more sense. Despite both characters being ‘Twist Villains’, it seems to me that Pawbert is just the better villain.

In fact, Zootopia 2 draws a pretty interesting comparison between Pawbert and Gary the Snake, both characters wanting to help their family, painting both as tragic figures, especially as the audience knows about Pawbert’s status in his family. Zootopia 1’s villain, however, feels like a villain solely meant to shock the audience, without any deeper thematic elements.  

Overall, I would give this movie a 7.5/10, with Zootopia 1 being a 6/10. Good movie, the jokes were actually pretty funny. Can’t wait for Zootopia 3 in the near future.