Cert – PG, Run-time – 1 hour 48 minutes, Directors – Jared Bush, Byron Howard
Reptiles haven’t been seen in Zootropolis for 100 years, that is until one (Key Huy Quan) returns to steal the original plans for the city – could it lead officers Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) to once again put aside their differences and uncover a takeover plot?
There are many wonderful puns throughout Zootropolis 2. Writer Jared Bush, and the team of animators bringing the world to life, less throws them in and more commits to them. From a brief exhale of amusement to genuine laugh-out-loud bits of wordplay – a reference to a “vindow viper” is a particular highlight – they are very much a part of the world rather than just small gags in themselves. Yet, it’s the world as a whole that perhaps has the most striking effect in this sequel.
The titular city, with all its different segments providing suitable climates for all kinds of animals, courtesy of what are known as ‘weather walls’, is a true visual feast and provides plenty of fun in the details on display – it could well make a great location for an open-world video game. Perhaps none more so than the gag-packed watery landscape of Marsh Market where a good deal of plot development occurs. Officers Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) are only one week post their saving the city and it seems they may have to do so again when snakes return (in the form of Ke Huy Quan’s Gary). Reptiles haven’t been seen in Zootropolis in its almost 100-year history, but Gary claims that a book with plans for the weather walls and city as a whole could provide proof that could allow his family back, and perhaps uncover a takeover plot that’s been unfolding for decades.
While likable and moving things along at a consistent pace the plot certainly feels familiar, and isn’t quite as strong as in the first Oscar-winning outing to Zootropolis nine years ago, it’s the city itself that provides much of the engagement, and indeed movement. Whether through water-slide like transport systems, racing through the streets of the main city or inside the weather walls there’s a constant energy to the animation and look of what’s happening on screen. For all the praise of Moana and Frozen, and even Wreck-It-Ralph’s various video game landscapes (I would also personally mention the creativity of the truly underrated Strange World), Zootropolis may be Disney’s best, most entertaining and immersive, world of their current era).
Nick and Judy once again make for an energetic double act, bouncing off each other with their very different approaches to things – the fox much more cynical and wisecracking than the positive, can-do attitude rabbit. Their differences once again come up as a point that could trouble their partnership – which the film plays as purely a friendship, despite the internet’s (and I believe to some extent creatives’) views otherwise. Some such elements may come as part of the more familiar, and slightly weaker, narrative beats but there are others, like moments that look at the pair’s tight bond which have a genuine heartfelt feel to them.
Much like Zootropolis 2, their relationship may have some bumps, but they see it through by taking the different environments of the expansive city in their stride. From the tundra (and its excellent reference to The Shining) to the desert, and the wetlands in-between, there’s plenty to enjoy about the locations and life of the city; also glimpsed in the fun supporting characters, featuring some welcome returning faces. There’s a love for the world and the characters that live in it, and help make it what it is, and that’s what sees it through. Shakira returns as the city’s pop star Gazelle, telling us in the film’s original song, Zoo, that “concrete jungle life is sometimes a mad place” and Bush, co-director Byron Howard and the whole team of animators and artists fully embrace this with plenty of love.
The narrative may not be as strong, but the detail and love that goes into one of Disney’s most immersive worlds sees Zootropolis 2 comfortably through, alongside a cast of entertaining characters and wonderful puns, bringing about plenty of chuckles.
Just A Little Bit Random 