Zootropolis 2 review – Caper with its claws clipped

Nine years ago, in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Zootopia – also known as Zootropolis in regions like the UK and South Africa – the world met Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin), a tenacious anthropomorphic rabbit who refused to let preconceptions about “dumb bunnies” prevent her from achieving her dream of becoming a police officer. Forced into helping Judy was another animal burdened with prejudice, con artist fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman).

Judy and Nick’s struggles were couched in a buddy cop caper, and the film’s combination of poignant underdog tale, mystery and action comedy, with a dollop of pop culture referentiality, proved to be a winner for audiences and critics alike. Unusual for an animated movie, Zootropolis appeared on the American Film Institute’s Top Ten Films of the Year list for 2016, and won Best Animated Feature at the 89th Academy Awards.

There was something else about the first Zootropolis: it wasn’t afraid to go to dark places. Audiences witness traumatic scenes of bullying from Judy and Nick’s childhoods, and the most chilling moments in the film show predators gone viciously feral. 

You won’t find any of that in Zootropolis 2, which feels safer, and therefore less emotionally potent. The sequel still makes for more than fine family entertainment, with exceptional animation, well-chosen voice casting, and fun parallels with our world intact. However, the original film’s narrative and thematic fire has been dampened down into cinders. Even flamboyant cheetah dispatcher Benjamin Clawhauser (Nate Torrence) has had his role demoted this time around. Instead, the filmmakers, with their sequelitis mindset, have focused on delivering more madcap action, more characters, and neither are to the film’s benefit.

For a record, bigotry is still a big part of the plot of Zootropolis 2. It’s just a more abstract concept, with audiences largely removed from witnessing it firsthand. Set a few weeks after Judy and Nick become official partners, the pair find themselves in pursuit of Gary De’Snake (Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Ke Huy Quan) who has the citizens of Zootopia terrified as he’s the first viper to pop up in the mammals-only enclave in a hundred years. Judy and Nick suspect there’s more to the official story being promoted by the authorities, who are acting on behalf of the city’s most powerful family, the Lynxleys. Operating outside the law, and entering parts of the metropolis that audiences haven’t seen before, Judy and Nick have two new allies to help them: conspiracy theorist beaver Nibbles Maplestick (Fortune Feimster), and Pawbert (Andy Samberg), the timid youngest member of the Lynxley family.

Nibbles, especially, adds little to the fast-paced proceedings, and is frequently annoying, while key character Gary receives very little development. Even Judy and Nick have the complexities of their partnership reduced to a comedic bit, where they shout textbook therapy phrases at each other for five minutes straight.

The result is that the greatest pleasure while watching Zootropolis 2, at least from an adult perspective, comes from playing spot-the-spoof. Technology brand Apple has been reworked as Carrot, animals attend Burning Mammal festival, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining receives a whole tribute sequence, and then there are all the series and film parodies made for the pause button once Zootropolis 2 becomes available for home viewing.

These are superficial kicks, though. If you look closer, the edges, the richness feels toned down. Now with an amplified but trite “strength in diversity” message, Zootropolis 2 ultimately comes across like the inspired original film put through a photocopier, and that’s sad.

Zootropolis 2 is in cinemas from Friday 28 November.