'Zootopia 2': Twists in Hare-Brained Sequel Outfox Nobody
Potty humor, star-crossed romance, and sequelitis plague Disney's animated animal analogy.
By Caleb Wilson
As a casual movie fan and not a critic, I have always been a sucker for a good sequel. Sheepishly, I look back to the days when I vehemently argued that Cars 2 was better than the original Cars. Fortunately as I have grown I am less gullible and have come to realize that sequels in Hollywood are more a money grab than an attempt to make a quality, thought-provoking movie. Zootopia 2 fits this description to a tee. I went in cautiously optimistic that I would get at least some laughs and a good feeling about characters that I enjoyed in the original. However, I came out underwhelmed, without one real laugh, and discouraged by the lack of creativity.
The main premise of the story is that the good guys, namely, Judy Hops (the bunny cop) and Nick Wilde (the hustler fox-turned-cop) are punished for doing good things because it is not the way their superiors want them to do it. This leads the duo to retread basically the same story as the original Zootopia, where Hops is sidelined from doing good because of her superiors holding her back, leading to Hops and Wilde going undercover and trying to solve a case behind Police Chief Bogo’s back. Predictably, this goes horribly wrong and leads to them uncovering the main plot twist. Since this happens a mere twenty minutes into the movie, I was slightly underwhelmed, but then inevitably, we get another “shocking” plot twist at the climax, which falls flat because of how poorly disguised it was throughout the movie. Unlike the original Zootopia, there was no shock factor at all and the characters were so unlikeable that it really felt more like a let down than a surprise.
Perhaps the highlight of the original Zootopia were its characters: a spunky underdog (Hops) teaming up with a crafty outcast (Wilde) to battle a mysterious villain is a story line bound for success. Unfortunately, these quality characters were completely lacking in Zootopia 2. The Hops-Wilde duo changed from spunky and courageous to self-centered and reckless. If they had retained their original chummy friendliness from the original I believe the characters would have retained their likability, but early on in Zootopia 2 it was obvious that their relationship was going to be ruined by an awkward romantic tilt that worked about as well as Luke and Leah Skywalker. A couple new side characters such as a beaver named Nibbles (a wacky conspiracy theorist) and Gary De Snake (a snake) are introduced to try to regain the underdog feel of the first movie. Gary, as a reptile, must fight to shake off prejudices and convince the public he is trying to uncover lost secrets in order to regain equal rights for his fellow reptiles. However, since the main story follows Hops and Wilde there is not enough time spent in Gary’s character development and he comes off as simple and forgettable. In the end, too many characters muddy up the goal of the movie and so none of the characters are able to live up to their potential.
What disappointed me even more than the poor plot line was the lack of good humor. Most of the jokes were either slapstick humor that my three year old would have cringed at or thinly-veiled sexual jokes. Of course, in a movie meant for younger kids it is expected to have some slapstick humor but even so the humor was not even close to the level of the first Zootopia movie, which is a movie that could be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of their age. This regression into bland bathroom humor is pretty predictable in a sequel but I was disappointed in the more adult jokes that were slipped in as well. Early on a dik-dik (a tiny deer-like animal) was referenced and of course this was brought up several times throughout the movie in varying levels of explicit humor.
All in all, Zootopia 2 was pretty par for the course for a Hollywood sequel. The plot was predictable and the humor was worse. The two main characters were given very similar roles as in the previous movie, which left room for very little character development. Unfortunately, the movie was not saved by a couple of well timed jokes or comical situations. Every joke felt forced or crude and overall the humor was a detriment to the movie, which was pretty forgettable in general. Zootopia 2 was not a movie I walked out of trying to get my money back, but it was a movie that I will probably never really think of again. It is another sequel that fails to live up to its predecessor but at this point I don’t know if that is more Hollywood’s fault for rehashing old ideas or mine for going to see almost every one that they run out.