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After almost a decade of waiting (9 years!) we furry degenerates finally got what we want: Zootopia 2. That's approximately how long My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic lasted btw. Not really relevant beyond "yeah, that's a long time". Was it worth the wait? Honestly? No, not really.
Z2 sends Hopps and Wilde, now partners on the ZPD force, on an investigation leading to a vast conspiracy against a marginalized group of animals that goes all the way up to the Mayor! Along the way they struggle to overcome their differences and work together. There's miscommunication that threatens their friendship, betrayal, a Shakira song that plays near the beginning and over the end credits... If this is sounding somewhat familiar, you're not crazy. It IS the same movie. Theres a snake this time, and a beaver! That's new right? I try not to be pretentious and act like every movie needs to be Citizen Kane or whatever. I like simple digestible movies that don't bring anything too novel to the table. Just this Sunday I had a blast at Predator: Badlands, a simple adventure movie in a well worn pulp sci-fi mold, but I just can not bring myself to say Zootopia 2 was anything more than a barely passable time.
It's not just it's repitition of the same... everything as the prior film that's the problem here. It's also, like Quan's snake, partially defanged. There are lines that stuck out to me in the first movie, like Judy calling Nick "A real articulate fella", and scenes, like Nick's flashback where he remembers being bullied by his fellow scouts, which so accurately reflect real world racism that it actually makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Those rough, uncomfortable moments are sanded away to become "safer" with execution that is more abstract, less discomforting, and paradoxically more dangerous. This isn't the kind of movie that will make a well meaning liberal introspect about their own biases. Rather, it makes gags of micro-aggressions as Nick repeatedly stumbles into faux-pas after faux-pas in his trip through the Marsh Market and secret Reptile Bar. We are invited to laugh at him for not being more sensitive as opposed to seeing our own insensitivity uncomfortably mirrored by the well-meaning vulpine cop.
The film is, more concerned with Nick and Judy's relationship. As a degenerate shipper myself, it was expectedly frustrating to find that the film's ceaseless shipping bait resulted in no real progress in their relationship. Instead, it prefers to use their conflict to develop them individually in a way that enables their relationship to progress in the future. Still, their dynamic is a delight to see play out once again, and the pair are as endearing as ever for the most part. Judy winds up holding the asshole ball more than her fair share in order to keep the conflict brewing, but I wouldn't say she acts out of character. The rest of the characters get sidelined, unfortunately. I can't think of a single other character that had an arc... Oh wait the new mayor had one... off screen. Everyone else ends the movie exactly how they started. The movie's two new side kicks Gary DeSnake, and Nibbles Maplestick exist solely to teach Nick and Judy lessons with only the barest of affectations making up the whole of their characters. Gary is a total waste of the talented and charismatic Ke Huy Quan. Quan’s prior stand out roles as Short Round, Data, and Waymond (in Temple of Doom, The Goonies and Everything Everywhere All At Once respectively) are characterized by anxious panicky energy. Gary, conversely, is borderline placid gentle optimism and nothing else. Quan’s physical acting is naturally absent in this animated movie so there is very little left of his strengths as an actor. Maplestick is much more complete as an energetic and overeager beaver conspiracy podcaster, and she manages to keep the energy up and a few laughs coming but frequently threatens annoyance. If you don't have a high tolerance to annoying on purpose characters you probably won't see any charm in her. The returning cast fare far worse than any others. Chief Bogo has the meatiest role consisting of one entire scene, but the rest are relegated to glorified cameos at best. The all too obvious twist reveal villain might as well *be* Bellweather again for all the difference it makes.
I know I haven't had much good to say about this movie, but that's because everything good about Zootopia 2 (and there is quite a bit of good here) was just as good as it was in Zootopia. The animation is stellar, the "furgonimics" of the city are clever and visually interesting, the puns are cute, Nick and Judy remain a delight, and the plot structure and pacing are airtight. All in all I'm left with the question why not just watch the first movie again. It does solve some of the first film’s problems. Notably, it winds up more critical of police as an institution, and it mitigates the impact of the biological differences between animals in narratively subtle ways. It also gets dangerously close to having a compelling different theme as it rhetorically draws parallels between gentrification and colonialism, but, in its incuriosity about its own social issues, utterly fails to deliver anything of substance about either topic or how they are similar. Zootopia 2 just can't offer any reason to watch it over its nearly identical predecessor. Before the movie started, the friend I went to see it with commented that, instead of remakes, Disney might be better off doing restored theatrical re-releases of their classic films. In Zootopia’s case I think the same holds true for sequels. I probably would have had a better time seeing the first film in theaters again.