“Zootopia” first came out in 2016 and became popular for its comedy, compelling story and the dynamics between the characters. Each character had their own storyline and interesting traits that showed the creators spent a lot of time designing them. The film became a quick success for children and adults both.
This is what made fans so eager for a sequel.
“Zootopia 2” came out November 26 but development started in 2023. While watching the film in theaters, I could not stop laughing, and I was glad to see the movie kept the same animation style and its comedic themes that made the original memorable. Of course, we also see the iconic characters from the first movie and we learn a lot more about them.
The sequel follows Judy Hops and Nick Wilde a few weeks after the first movie ended where both of them now work as rookie partners in the Zootopia Police Department. The film’s main plot makes Judy and Nick work together to solve a case that they are not meant to be working on in the first place.
As rookies, the pair are told to stay away from the case but Judy and Nick don’t follow those directions and it later gets them in massive trouble.
In this case, Judy finds a clue leading to the idea that something bigger is going on. Judy convinces Nick to help her investigate by sneaking into a citywide gala hosted by the founders of Zootopia. At this gala, Judy’s suspicions are confirmed when a snake gets caught sneaking around the venue.
While at first they are trying to protect the family of the founders; a last minute decision by Judy where she chooses to help the snakes, forcing her and Nick to go on the run for this case.
We learn that snakes and reptiles have not been seen in Zootopia due to an incident that happened many years ago. Rather than the plot twist in the first movie where the main villains come as a surprise we find out the family of founders, the Lynxes, are the villains very early on.
They come across new characters and some old ones along their journey, introducing the audience to Gary De’snake, Nibbles and Pawbert. It’s really interesting how the movie shows how history is written by the victors.
This is where the main conflict arises but the subplot involves the rising tension between Judy and Nick as the movie continues. This conflict is built by their lack of communication with each other and more specifically Nick being emotionally insecure and Judy being head strong, without listening to others.
Whether you see Judy and Nick’s relationship as platonic or romantic, the movie perfectly displays how much the two depend on each other despite not knowing each other for long.
Throughout the movie we see perfect examples of why characters and people act the way they do because of their experiences and it’s nice to watch a movie where they show how people react to their surroundings and how this can haunt the narrative. This is one of my favorite things to analyze in media.
The whole movie builds up tension between Judy and Nick as the film progresses for when they are finally honest with one other. After a pressure-filled scene where Judy and Nick were worried for not only themselves, but more importantly each other, the two finally tell each other what the audience has been able to see since the beginning.
“I am an emotionally insecure source of your discomfort who’s not good at expressing his feelings—probably because I’ve been alone for most of my life,” Nick explains, and follows this sentence by saying that this isn’t an excuse for his behavior, which is a lot of character development where we see the character’s understanding for each other.
The movie does an amazing job of displaying behaviors of different animals or species in silly ways such as the myth that elephants are scared of mice and in a storytelling way where we see Nick’s references to being a solitary animal many times.
Judy during the confession scene tells Nick about how she has a hero complex and that is what makes her so headstrong. She explains this by saying she tries too hard because she is worried she is what everyone else thinks she is. This is a really meaningful way to reference the first movie where we see everyone underestimates her.
Their characters are perfect parallels of each other. Each of them are haunted by the predator or prey stereotype as children who have dreams of doing something that everyone says is impossible and the difference is we see them react to this in two opposite ways.
“If the world’s only going to see a fox as shifty and untrustworthy, then there’s no point in trying to be anything else,” Nick says. This famous quote is where we see him give in because he sees that he wants to be as impossible, and, on the other hand, Judy goes on to become the first bunny cop just as she had imagined and reach her dreams.
Everyone is excited to see where Hops and Wilde’s next adventure will take them and some fans speculate if the third movie is already in development due to some easter eggs within the film.
If there is a third film, I’ll be there.
