'Zootopia 2' Movie Review: Lightning Can Strike Twice

The sequel to an Oscar-winning animated film is always a trust fall, but Zootopia 2 arrives with all of the confidence and none of the baggage of living up to its predecessor. The original Zootopia (2016) set a ludicrously high benchmark. It convinced impressionable viewers like me that destiny was negotiable and self-improvement was a perfectly viable life plan. Because the first film became such a lodestar for so many of us, the sequel arrived carrying expectations that would make even Zohran Mamdani sweat.

Maybe that’s overstating it, but you get the idea.

The story picks up almost immediately after the first film. Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) are now a fully licensed buddy-cop duo, still testing the patience of their gravel-voiced Chief Bogo, played by Idris Elba. Their methods continue to involve creating three new problems for every one they solve. Their latest fiasco thrusts them into a citywide tangle that’s equal parts conspiracy, creature feature and workplace performance-review nightmare.

This chapter slithers into long-avoided territory: snakes. Popular culture has rarely treated them kindly. Cinema has not historically been charitable to the species; consider the collective trauma of Snakes on a Plane or the hypnotic side-eye of Kaa from The Jungle Book. Zootopia 2, though, gently asks why we’re so quick to fear what’s visibly dangerous while happily trusting the impeccably groomed (insert your favourite billionaire here). It's not subtle, but it works.

The film’s most delightful addition is Gary De’Snake, voiced by Ke Huy Quan. Gary is a blue pit viper with a faint lisp, a sheepish charm and the apologetic energy of someone who knocks over your lamp and then offers to pay for it. Initially treated as a villain, he arrives with a twist in the tail — sorry, tale — that reshapes the narrative and gives the film its emotional core.

Gary’s journey intersects with the wealthy Lynxley family: elegant felines who look like they wandered off the set of Succession. Their ancestors filed the patent for the Weather Walls, the climate-bending marvels that allow desert animals and arctic creatures to live side by side without declaring war. The Lynxleys are voiced by David Strathairn, Macaulay Culkin and Andy Samberg. Their sleek entitlement provides the perfect contrast to Gary’s earnest awkwardness. Through a complicated turn of events, Judy, Nick and Gary find themselves fleeing a police manhunt while trying to uncover a conspiracy that could upend the delicate ecology of Zootopia.

The film lands one clever gag after another with enviable confidence. There is a deliriously staged chase through Marsh Market, a Ratatouille-inspired joke that will delight Pixar loyalists, and a welcome return from Flash the sloth, who always manages to get a laugh. Mr. Big reappears in a Godfather-style cameo and remains the most intimidating and insane joke of the franchise.

The newcomers are equally memorable. Fortune Feimster voices Nibbles Maplestick, a chaos agent, Patrick Warburton brings flamboyance to Mayor Brian Winddancer, a former actor-turned-mayor. A hedge-maze chase inspired from The Shining may fly past younger viewers, but adults will grin in recognition, another reminder that this sequel has aged with the audience that embraced the original.

Zootopia 2 is a warm and cleverly engineered reminder of how much joy a theatrical experience can still offer. It pushes the story forward without abandoning the earnest charm that made the first film so beloved. If you walk into the film with hope, you’ll walk out with that hope intact. In today’s times, that’s no small achievement. The good news is that the film delivers. As for Mamdani… we’ll see.