Review of Zootopia 2, directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I recently started an 8-5 job and have been trying to reclaim my sanity and hobbies by finding fun things to do on the weekends and after work, and one of my saving graces truly has been my AMC A List subscription. I’ve always had one on and off throughout graduate school, and I recently reclaimed my subscription after a brief stint of thinking I was going to move to India (long story).

Anyways, something my sister and I tend to do is when there’s a weekend where we’re both free, we use our AMC A List to see a random movie. Sometimes the movie is one we both want to see, something only one of us knew about before, or we play Russian roulette and see what happens.

Zootopia is one of those movies we kind of knew we were going to see before it came out. I remember watching the original very clearly, and this seemed like it was quite the hype movie to see this holiday season. There are a lot of solid movies coming out these days, and we’re even struggling to fit in everything we want to see.

Regardless, we saw this on a Wednesday night after work, which is interesting for us. We typically tend to go and watch our movies on the weekends, but the theater was still pretty crowded with families considering it was late on a week night.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to keep going on and on during the introduction.

Now full officers, Nick and Judy find themselves in a plot involving snakes and a rich family’s heirloom being stolen.

This movie takes place after the events of the original Zootopia, and Nick and Judy are now full officers and partners at the police department in town. However, despite this, their personalities clash heavily and their efforts to try and stop crime are kind of thwarted by the fact they can’t get along.

Chief Bogo tells them they have to go to therapy and overcome their issues, or they can no longer be officers. The incident that caused this though sparks a suspicion within Judy: she found snake skin in the back of the car she was chasing when there are no snakes in Zootopia.

She puts together the pieces and realizes that the snake might actually go after the gala happening that celebrates the city’s centennial. A snake tried to attack the founding family, who are lynxes, back in the day in order to steal their family heirloom, which is a diary detailing the creation of the weather walls. Nick and Judy infiltrate the gala event, but are spotted by their boss.

As Nick is hauled off by Chief Bogo, he spots a snake on the chandelier. Judy chases after the snake and gets cornered with it and the patriarch of the lynx family, but then discovers the snake, now identified as Gary De’Snake, wants to bring its family back. She hesitates to do anything as the lynxes try to kill them for knowing that the family diary has a secret no one else should know.

Nick joins them, but as the others come into the room, Milton the lynx accuses them of joining forces with the snake, forcing them to go on the run. Crime boss Mr. Big and his daughter rescue them and offer a way out of town with new identities, but Judy refuses to go without helping Gary. Mr. Big calls up Nibbles, a beaver with a knack for conspiracies, who brings them to Marsh Market.

Turns out snakes and reptiles have been living here, and they chat with the basilisk Jesus. He tells them that Tundratown, which was created by the lynxes, was originally the reptiles’ home before they were forced out. Gary shows up and steals the journal as the cops arrive. Judy and Nick chase after him, almost drown in a water tunnel, then discover a mountain lodge that has what they need to know about the reptiles living in Zootopia—but not without a major fight between Judy and Nick while climbing.

The police show up then and Pawbert, the awkward lynx, rescues Judy with Gary. Nick is arrested by the lynxes, but busts out of jail with the help of Nibbles, who was also arrested earlier. Judy learns about Agnes, Gary’s great-grandmother, and how she founded Zootopia and was the creator of the weather walls. The original lynx patriarch murdered is maid, who discovered his plot to steal the patent, and framed it on her and the reptiles, forcing them to leave Zootopia.

Gary, Judy, and Pawbert head to the weather walls with the switch to the original reptile town, but Pawbert betrays them and injects Judy with snake venom. He tosses Gary into the snow and takes the antivenom pen, and when Nick and Nibbles show up, he poisons Nibbles and fights with Nick as Judy lays dying. Nick gets the pen and throws it to Judy, curing her and Nibbles, and while Pawbert survives the fall, Judy and Nick make up first.

The crew chases after Pawbert and takes down the lynxes with the help of Mayor Bryan Winddancer, but Pawbert gets back up and escapes into the maze. The crew heads down into the former reptile town, with Gary teary as he sees his great grandmother’s home, and they find the original patent. A crazed Pawbert tries to stop them one last time, but the police show up to arrest him.

The movie ends with the lynxes arrested for their crimes, Chief Bogo recovering, and the city allowing reptiles back into regular life. Gary throws a party and has his great-grandmother’s name restored as the founder, his family joining them for the celebrations. Judy and Nick go off to capture the criminals who escaped from prison earlier after that.

Overall Thoughts

I’ll be the first to admit that usually I don’t care for sequels in film. It’s hard to do a follow-up movie right, but when it’s done right then it’s such a great time and hits even harder. This movie hit perfectly for me, although my sister said she didn’t care for it as much.

I think for me I was interested in the fact the movie brought up the whole dilemma with the snakes and them being pushed out. I feel like kid’s movies are more interesting when they touch on real-life subjects and societal themes, and we see gentrification happening before our eyes with the rising costs of living throughout the world and stagnant wages and economies. There’s also the fact people are pushed out for being different, even if it was their home first.

Lots to think about when it comes to this movie and real-life applications. I thought that it was interesting and entertaining, even when Nick and Judy were having one of their vicious fights. You can’t help but to imagine they might not make it to the finish line at times, but then remember this is a kid’s movie and it’s definitely going to happen.

Go see it if you have the chance! It’s lighthearted but also thought provocative. I’d recommend this movie to anyone who asks.

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