The first Zootopia was a pleasant surprise but that this sequel was a far bigger success was even more surprising being the top grossing film in the US for 2025. To me this is almost the same film with the same core message, except bigger, more frenetically paced and almost painfully vibrant. The attempt to create a new source of conflict between the two leads is cringeworthy and the last minute betrayal is clunky. I don’t doubt that this is a spectacular experience for kids but it’s too shallow to be satisfying for me.

After the events of the first film, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are now partners in the Zootopia Police Department. Flush with success, they disobey orders from Chief Bogo to pursue criminals on their own. On one outing, they successfully a bust a smuggling ring while causing plenty of property damage in the process. Judy also finds a shed snake skin in the van which is surprising as snakes are banned from Zootopia. The two partners infiltrate a gala hosted by the Lynxley family whose ancestors founded Zootopia, suspecting that snakes are planning to steal the journal documenting the invention of the weather walls that regulate the city’s different climates. A snake does indeed show up but after a chase, he reveals that the snakes were the ones who invented the weather walls but the lynxes stole the invention and framed them for murder, banishing all snakes from the city. Despite Nick’s hesitation, Judy wants to investigate further. As they flee with the journal, both are branded as fugitive criminals wanted by their former colleagues.

The first film was already an explosion of colors, animals and hijinks. The sequel turns everything up to eleven. More animals, more locations, more crazy chases, and all of it ultra fast-paced so the audience doesn’t pay too much attention to the weak plot. Honestly just take a look at the insanely long list of celebrity cameos. I like the art style and the concept of Zootopia but this was too much for me, getting into sensory overload territory. Every new character appears long enough to deliver their own little joke or gimmick, and then they’re gone. The different sections of the city each with their own biomes now more than ever feel like the little individual sections of a theme park. It feels fake, superficial and repetitive. I found it tiresome to watch the two chase one MacGuffin after another but couldn’t help but notice weaknesses in the film’s structure. Director and writer Jared Bush’s favorite trick to start having things go wrong in a scene is to have a character turn around and accidently bump into someone. In order to achieve maximum chaos, the world is deliberately made fragile. Knock over something and walls come crashing down. Step a foot in the wrong place and the floor gives way. It further highlights how artificial all this feels.

I don’t mind so much that the message of being against prejudice is repeated. That’s usually the case for sequels even if redeeming reptiles is a bit on-the-nose. What I do object to is the hamfisted approach to generating some drama between Judy and Nick. I’m sympathetic to Nick myself here as Judy dismissing his fears about the risk is ridiculous. She has no right to pull him into danger without his being okay with it. I hate even more that this is all resolved with what amounts of a therapy session. I dislike how therapy-speak is becoming widespread among the general public as if this were how everyone is supposed to communicate and the scene of them reconciling is the ultimate expression of it. Yes, they supposedly come clean with each other. Nick’s caution is interpreted as being fearful on Judy’s behalf. All is well, except that it ignores the fact that what they’re doing really is dangerous. It’s an irresponsible message and having them mutually declare that they are each other’s most important person makes me uneasy.

It’s a decent enough spectacle and works as mindless entertainment. My favorite bit might be recognizing the many cinematic references they work in, no doubt as a nod for adults, such as framing the patriarch of the lynxes as Jack Nicholson in The Shining. I doubt many kids will get that. But it’s a small consolation prize for an unremarkable film without much heart.