Zootopia 2 rehashes almost everything from the first movie in a colourful yet unimaginative way.

Watching Zootopia was akin to the optimistic excitement that high-achieving bunny Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) felt when she entered the movie’s titular city for the first time. Watching Zootopia 2 is akin to what red fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) feels every day: jaded, seldom surprised, and acutely aware of how the real world works. This is not a compliment.

A sequel was always going to be made after the first movie grossed over a billion dollars and demonstrated that a Disney animated film can be ambitious enough to stir up discussion about racism and prejudice – and follow-up discussions about the limits of allegory when trying to dumb down tough topics for a family audience.

But 2016 was a different time in the movie space than 2025. There are fewer risks being taken than ever before (with varying degrees of success, critically and commercially) as studios double down on the IP-fication of everything and anything. Sadly, Zootopia is no exception to this stifling of creativity as Disney clearly wants another billion-dollar hit and will take as little risk as possible to ensure that happens.

Zootopia 2 takes place a week after the events of the first film and sees Judy and Nick being official partners at the Zootopia Police Department. After an overzealous attempt at busting a criminal, Judy and Nick stumble upon a large prejudice-laced conspiracy and subsequent cover-up in which pit viper, Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan), plays a central role.

If this sounds broadly similar to the first movie, well, that’s because it’s almost exactly the same thing, for the occasional bit of better but mostly for the worst.

Judy is still a high-achieving optimist, except that’s now become her entire personality, and it becomes grating rather than charming. Whereas the first movie had Judy using her brains and carefully weighing up the risks she takes, here she not only dives recklessly into situations without thinking things through, but she also never apologises whenever she’s clearly in the wrong. When Nick presses her for an apology for endangering both their lives at the end of an underwater chase scene, the movie yada yadas it away rather than dig deeper into the Judy/Nick conflict, resulting in a thread that’s unfinished and never fleshed out.

Nick remains a sly quipster, except he’s more akin to an empty Marvel joke deliverer than the scarred fox that he was depicted as. The character-driven deflections in the first movie have been downgraded from ‘there’s some pain behind that’ to cheap puns aimed at eliciting a ‘that’s a clever dad joke’.

This Flanderisation of Judy and Nick winds up hurting the emotional payoff of their character arcs because none of it feels earned. The intended heart-to-heart touches on the right notes, but it comes off as a messy trauma-dump rather than a proper reconciliation. For a pair of friends who supposedly love each other, they’re awfully bad at communicating, and it’s disappointing to see Zootopia 2 employ the tired trope of ‘this could’ve easily been solved if they just talked it out’.

Prejudice and racism once again form the thematic backbone on which Zootopia 2 attempts to build its foundation. Not a bad place to start, except that the message – i.e. ‘racism and prejudice are bad!’ – has not only been explored in the first film, but there’s nothing new or interesting being said. While Gary is a welcome addition to the proceedings, he functions as little more than an exposition-delivering plot device. It’s a shame because he’s a visual representation of the unfulfilled promise whenever the movie touches on the idea of historic ethnic erasure of entire races, only to push this aside with a Nick quip while Judy nudges the plot along.

I have no doubt that the animation in Zootopia 2 is much improved compared to the first Zootopia, but the movie’s breakneck pace barely lets its audience breathe long enough for any new colour palette or animation technique to sink in. There’s so much plot that you’re just dragged along for the ride the entire time, going from set piece to set piece with very little thought put into the deeper why of it all beyond Judy’s ‘I need to solve crime!’ mentality and Nick being reluctantly dragged along.

While there are clever sight gags that highlight how Zootopia operates, the sheer number of random pop-culture references sprinkled throughout the movie’s 108-minute runtime makes these gags feel less like world-building and more akin to shallow Easter eggs with little to no substance. I will admit that I enjoyed the quick Ratatouille reference, though.

But does all this matter in the broad scheme of things? Ultimately, no, because like the stupid F1: The Movie before this, Zootopia 2 is a movie that hits all the beats it needs to. It will make another billion dollars with ease, which will satisfy Disney and its shareholders; it will appeal to the general moviegoing audience (especially families) as it’s a colourful and fun romp that is unlikely to alienate anyone since the aforementioned themes aren’t explored deeply enough to drum up any meaningful discussion; and it will inevitably add fuel to the continued IP-fication of movies. With over $600 million banked (and counting) in just a week, there will inevitably be a Zootopia 3, and this whole cycle will start all over again, like Gary being forced to eat his own tail.