Zootopia 2 (2025)
★★★½ — Zootopia 2 (2025)
Nine years is a long time to wait for a sequel, but when the original film earns over a billion dollars at the global box office and becomes one of the most talked-about animated features of its decade, a follow-up was always a matter of when, not if. Zootopia (2016) arrived at a particular cultural moment, using its anthropomorphic animal city as a lens through which to examine prejudice, systemic bias, and the gap between idealism and reality, all wrapped up in a genuinely enjoyable buddy-cop comedy. That it landed so well with both critics and audiences gave Walt Disney Animation Studios a franchise with real legs, and the intervening years brought the short-form spin-off Zootopia+ (2022) on Disney+, which expanded the world without moving the central story forward. This feature-length continuation picks up where the original left off, with Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde facing a new case, a new antagonist in the form of Gary De'Snake, and new corners of their city to explore, running at a fairly comfortable 108 minutes.
The returning directors, Jared Bush and Byron Howard, have both spent considerable time inside Disney Animation's orbit. Howard co-directed the original Zootopia alongside Bush, and Bush subsequently co-directed Encanto (2021), the studio's Colombia-set musical fantasy that won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Between them, the pair have a clear handle on the kind of warm, plot-driven family film Disney Animation does best: colourful, fast-paced, and emotionally accessible without being patronising. Walt Disney Animation Studios produces here, bringing with it the technical infrastructure that has consistently put the studio's output at the very top of the industry in terms of sheer visual craft. The screenplay revisits the undercover and mystery mechanics that gave the original so much of its energy, sending Judy and Nick into new districts of Zootopia and testing the partnership that audiences grew fond of nearly a decade ago.
Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman reprise their lead roles, and it is worth remembering just how well that central double act was cast first time around. Goodwin brings an earnest, slightly headstrong quality to Judy that keeps the character likeable without tipping into saccharine, while Bateman's dry, lightly sardonic delivery as Nick remains a reliable comic counterweight. Joining them are Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, and Andy Samberg, names that suggest the studio was not cutting corners on the new additions to the ensemble. Quan in particular, following his remarkable return to prominence in the early 2020s, is an interesting piece of casting that will draw adult audiences as much as any of the film's other elements. Whether the newcomers get enough to do is, of course, the question, and that is rather what the review below sets out to address.
Zootopia 2 has all the right ingredients: charming leads with intertwining arcs, a warm if slightly simplistic take on prejudice, and a neatly structured detective plot packed with gags, twists, and satisfying payoffs. The voice cast is excellent, full of personality and comic timing, even if the script leans a bit too hard on exposition and forced callbacks to the original. It's consistently entertaining, just rarely surprising. Visually, it's a treat. The animation bursts with colour, texture, and lively cinematography that keeps things moving at a brisk pace. The spy-jazz score blends nicely with pop tracks, and the world-building remains rich with sight gags and detail. Nothing feels lazy or phoned-in. A polished, pleasant sequel that delivers exactly what you'd expect. Great fun for families, beautifully made, and utterly competent. It just never quite rises above being good to become something truly distinctive. Solid rather than spectacular.
That sense of competence-without-revelation is something I find myself thinking about quite a bit with big studio animation these days. There is so much craft on display, so much evident care and talent, that it feels almost churlish to want more, and yet the wanting is genuine. For me, the first film had a certain scrappiness to its ambition, a sense that it was genuinely trying to say something even if the message was tidily resolved by the credits. Here, the machinery is smoother but the friction that made the original interesting has been sanded down a touch. I will almost certainly watch it again with the right company on a rainy afternoon and enjoy every minute of it. Sometimes good is plenty good enough. It just depends what you came for.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2025 | Watched: 2026-03-26
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Zootopia 2 (2025) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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