So now we know why Zootropolis 2 spent four months inside the UK's Top Ten films, even climbing the charts after the film landed on VoD: these are the busiest frames of anything released in 2025. From a commercial standpoint, it makes for exceptional value for money, returning directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard offering fans plentiful reasons to take a second or maybe even third look at what was going on in the sidestreets and backalleys of the titular city in the run-up to the Zootennial; some viewers doubtless wanted to spend extra time in the company of old crimefighting friends Judy Hopps (the happy bunny voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (the wise-ass fox voiced by Jason Bateman). Creatively, however, that busyness becomes a double-edged sword: the artistry gets altogether clotted, the result of animators feeling they have to catch up with every character who became a fan favourite during 2016's first film while sending our odd-couple leads on a new quest. Overworked and up against the clock to capitalise on the goodwill engendered by the first film, those animators have been forced to grab their inspiration where they can. If you find yourself wondering why a scene in which a heavily guarded artefact is swiped during a glitzy function sparks an odd sense of déjà vu, or why a gag about animal Captchas seems so familiar, it's because you'll have seen both as recently as 2022's The Bad Guys and its 2025 sequel, DreamWorks' own anthropomorphised critters franchise. Maybe the relentless motion of so much multiplex animation reflects the way competing teams of creatives are now scrabbling around to be first to an old idea, trampling on or tripping over one another's tails as they go.
In any case, this is visibly one of those sequels that resolved to be bigger rather than necessarily better. The relative tightness of the first movie's plotting, the Disney idea of a Prince of the City-style precinct procedural, has here been replaced by a sprawling, galumphing road movie. Zootropolis, we now learn, has been historically segregated, and Hopps and Wilde are obliged to pass from zone to zone after being exiled from home turf. The approach expands this world scene by scene, doubtless readying the ground for further sequels and future TV spinoffs, but you also sense the creative team wandering alongside their characters, going in search of anything like a compelling hook or plot. What they eventually arrive at, after all the hypercaffeinated huffing and puffing, is the kind of backstory - a squabble over ownership and naming rights, essentially who owns the IP to the city of Zootropolis - which would slow down any spinoff TV series something rotten. I recognise that I am writing these words after a week in which I pronounced an animation about a talking beaver to be a noteworthy reflection of our times, but I think you'd have to strain to spot any significant social comment within these frames: that strikes me as something hurriedly scribbled on the writers' room wipeboard and never followed up in any substantive way, and which may finally have been doodled over in brighter colours by the character and background artists. (The variety of names listed in the movie's closing credits tells a vastly more credible and stirring story about inclusion and community.) Those artists are the ones who might just claw you back to finish a first watch, even if you have no intention of returning for round two (or the now-inevitable Zootropolis 3). What Zootropolis 2 has in its favour is a richness of character work (one of many new additions to this menagerie: David Strathairn, who's been showing up in some unlikely places this year, as a moggy Mob boss) and flickers of the original's strong gagwriting (a passing Ratatouille gag - Disney cannibalising itself, for once - is genius). Elsewhere, I fear, the focus is being lost, the charm being squeezed, perhaps permanently, out of shot.
Zootropolis 2 is now showing in selected cinemas, streaming via Disney+, available to rent via Prime Video and YouTube, and on DVD and Blu-ray through Elevation Sales.
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