Zootopia 2 is not a movie for the children in the audience; it’s for the adults. I’m sure little ones will enjoy it—there’s plenty of bright colors, silly moments, and chaotic chases to grab a kid’s attention—but in a movie where the narrative climax features two characters word-vomiting their emotional baggage, it’s hard to imagine anyone under the age of 20 feeling a sense of catharsis.

Do they get the references to The Shining and Burning Man that writer Jared Bush drops into the script? Does the occupation of newcomer Nibbles Maplestick (Fortune Feimster) as a conspiracy podcast host track with them? What about the movie’s primary narrative of geographical displacement and racial relocation?

All of that makes Zootopia 2—directed by Bush and Byron Howard—a thoughtful movie, albeit overstuffed with too many characters and unnecessary scenes. Thankfully, the heartbeat of the story still pulses with odd couple Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman).

Zootopia 2 picks up immediately where Zootopia left off: Judy and Nick have saved the day and the city, and are now full-fledged members of the Zootopia Police Department. Still, the beat goes on as the two are maligned and overlooked for more physically impressive animals. And, as in the previous installment, Judy refuses to sit in the corner and makes herself integral to uncovering Zootopia’s core conspiracy.

The plot is put into motion when a pit viper named Gary (Ke Huy Quan) crashes Zootopia’s anniversary ball. Only once before have snakes entered the planned paradise, and it didn’t go well. His presence puts residents on edge, particularly Mayor Winddancer (Patrick Warburton) and industrialist Milton Lynxley (David Strathairn). Gary implores Judy and Nick that he means no harm and just wants to find his ancestral home, which he says has been buried by Zootopia officials.

Coded as Chinese thanks to Quan’s vocal performance and composer Michael Giacchino’s Chinese-influenced leitmotif, Gary represents the ten thousand Chinese laborers who help transform the American West from a wide open landscape to a network of railroads that brought America into the modern era. For their contributions, they were persecuted, segregated, and forced into residential conclaves. It’s one of America’s many egregious sins, a burden they do not carry alone. And when Judy and Nick are told to track down a chameleon named Jesús for more information—voiced by Danny Trejo and sporting buckskin fringe—there’s a tingle that Zootopia 2 is about to unearth some thorny subject matter.

Sadly, Zootopia 2 pulls back right before it gets a chance to explore Manifest Destiny and reverts to Judy and Nick acknowledging their unresolved childhood trauma and inferiority complexes.

A bummer. The MacGuffin everyone is chasing is an old text that proves Zootopia was erected on the ancestral homes of a sophisticated, intellectual, and emotionally progressive civilization. In that respect, the two Zootopias walk a similar path forged by the Frozen duology. In the first installment, the characters uncover a current conspiracy to control the future. In the second, they uncover a present conspiracy that eradicated the past.

Too bad there’s so much extra stuff zooming around for Zootopia 2 to stick the landing. Nibbles Maplestick seems to exist only to know whatever information is necessary to move the story forward or do whatever needs to be done to get the characters out of a jam. Additionally, the three separate ZPD pairs—zebras, warthogs, hippos—in pursuit of Judy and Nick ought to be collapsed into one, and the multiple chases through Zootopia regions don’t add much. But this is a Disney animated movie after all, and there has to be enough stimulation for all ages in the audience.  That’s part and parcel of the Disney promise.

But here, the movie strains against the story it wants to tell and the entertainment it needs to deliver. Most Disney movies play as well for the adults as the kids, but Zootopia 2 is the first Disney movie in a while that ought to forget the little ones and say what it wants to say to the over-20 crowd.

Zootopia 2 (2025)
Directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard
Screenplay by Jared Bush
Produced by Yvett Merino
Voices: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, David Strathairn, Patrick Warburton, Danny Trejo, Andy Samberg, Idris Elba
Walt Disney Animation Studios, Rated PG, Running time 108 minutes, Opens Nov. 26, 2025

---