What’s your favorite genre? Buddy Cop movies? Crime movies? How about Action-Adventures with dangers and escapes? Or are you a “noir” type who enjoys a twisty story complete with crime families and a McGuffin that changes everything? Animated feature films, maybe? Consider yourselves fortunate; with Zootopia 2, you get all four, and all of them blend into the best of the late-year animated releases, dance party ending and all. 

Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) are back on the case, and the stakes are high – Zootopia’s entire future! The stakes were also high for Disney, which had become a corporate rather than a creative juggernaut. The last few years saw efforts such as Wish, Moana2, and Strange World, not to mention live-action adaptations that were unspeakable disasters (looking at you, Snow White).

At last, the streak of mediocrity is over. Zootopia was a 2016 hit, with a sequel under discussion, but it was not until early 2023 that the project went into development. A year later, Disney announced that Zootopia 2 was scheduled for release, with animation entrusted to Disney’s Vancouver worksite.

The story: Judy and Nick have not been partners long, but aren’t acting like it. Judy stages a raid on a smuggling ring and finds a shred of snakeskin – but there hasn’t been a snake in Zootopia for many years. Judy thinks a snake might be heading for Zootopia’s 100^thanniversary celebration, hosted by the wealthy Lynx family, the revered descendants of the city’s founder. At the gala, Nick notices a suspicious figure wearing a hood, who turns out to be Gary De’Snake. The Lynxes’ youngest son, Pawbert, befriends Judy.

A melee ensues, with Gary obtaining a journal detailing the creation of the Weather Walls that separate Zootopia’s climate zones. The Lynxes call the police, stating that Judy and Nick are accomplices to the snake. The pair escape with the journal, and soon meet up with old acquaintance Mr. Big, the shrew crime boss, and his family. He introduces them to Nibbles Maplestick, a beaver rife with conspiracy theories. Maplestick takes Judy and Nick to Marsh Market, where it is revealed that the reptiles originally lived in an area of Zootopia that was buried when Tundratown was built. What happened to the reptiles of Zootopia and why?

From here on, it’s nothing but spoilers, which I hate adding to my reviews, but suffice it to say that the plot – and the action kick into high speed, with betrayals, plot twists, sharp action sequences, and heightened drama between Judy and Nick. There are some tremendous set pieces. One is the showdown in an old mountain lodge between the protagonists, the villain, and the police, which ends in the destruction of the lodge with everyone inside; beams, roofing, and walls convincingly collapse around them, and it’s a long way down.

Along the way are throwaway references to Disney and Pixar films (and several that are not) that are clever without being obscure (my favorites involve a particular rat and a tribute to a notable Stanley Kubrick film – watch for them). There is a certifiable McGuffin that powers the plot and ties the story up nicely once revealed.

The relationship between Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde is central to the film, and they do not disappoint. Whether arguing, dragging each other into the next frantic scene, or, yes, confessing their love for each other, Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman are the animated equivalent of Gable and Lombard. The acting is incredible, and if the post-credits scene points to a third film, so much the better.

The film is not without flaws; there are thirty-eight speaking characters in Zootopia 2, which attests to both the complicated script and the attempts to reintroduce secondary characters for 2016 while adding a host of new ones, and it’s a lot to juggle given the running time.

More than once, I found myself pondering how characters knew things they probably couldn’t, or showed up in far-flung locations without reason, and at times it was not easy to identify who was chasing whom and where. This is a film to revisit more than once, but it should be streaming on The Mouse soon enough.

Zootopia 2 restores Disney to the pinnacle of animated filmmaking. The next time the suits consider sequels to something like Wish or a Moana 3, they need to view another screening of Zootopia 2 and keep in mind that they can still make great films that earn upwards of $1.5B on a $ 150 M budget.