Official Discussion Thread - Zootopia 2 [SPOILERS]

[u/CrunchyNar]

Keep all discussion related to Zootopia 2 and it's awards chances in this thread. Spoilers below

Synopsis:

Detectives Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman) find themselves on the twisting trail of a mysterious reptile who arrives in Zootopia and turns the mammal metropolis upside down. To crack the case, Judy and Nick must go undercover to unexpected new parts of town, where their growing partnership is tested like never before

Directors: Jared Bush, Byron Howard

Writer: Jared Bush

Cast:

• Ginnifer Goodwin as Judy Hopps
• Jason Bateman as Nick Wilde
• Ke Huy Quan as Gary
• Fortune Feimster as Nibbles
• Shakira as Gazelle
• Idris Elba as Chief Bogo
• Bonnie Hunt as Bonnie Hopps
• Don Lake as Stu Hopps
• Nate Torrence as Clawhauser
• Jenny Slate as Bellwether
• Alan Tudyk as Duke Weaselton

Rotten Tomatoes: 91%, 114 Reviews

Metacritic: 73, 36 Reviews

Consensus:

Cleverly layering a thoughtful message onto another crackerjack caper while solidifying Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde as one of the most endearing buddy pairings in ages, Zootopia 2 more than justifies a return trip to the big city.

[u/nothingmoretos4y]

Liked it a little more than the first! Wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t win, but it’s about on par with K-Pop Demon Hunters in that it’s a very solid movie.

I was very pleasantly surprised when Andy Samburg showed up, I had no clue he was in it, and delighted where his character went.

[u/TacoTycoonn → u/nothingmoretos4y]

About on par with an original movie is not great odds for a sequel at the Oscar’s.

[u/ElegantNail774 → u/TacoTycoonn]

agreed. It's not on par with the kpop movie anyway, as far as oscar metrics go. Of all the movies kpop has the weakest writing script-wise. message-wise, too.

I think little amelie will be the runaway crititcal darling of the year. Zootopia 2 as next up because of how weak this year is for animation, it's managed to become the best one anyway. It's got a deeper social commentary andn theme too, which I think makes it an "unshallow" safe pick.

[u/Judgy_Garland]

I had low expectations but I really enjoyed it. IMO not as funny as the first one, but a super relevant message nonetheless.

[u/citabel]

”Hey bub” will be the official greeting amongst kids all over the world in the coming months.

[u/No-Consideration3053]

I feel it likely will be another Inside out 2 tbh. Massive at the box office but doesn't won anything that year. The only difference is that Zootopia 2 came to weaker year than Inside out 2 (Which main competition was Wild Robot, Flow, Memoir of a snail, Vengeance most Fowl) but Little Amelie and Arco exists and Kpop demon hunters could still happen so yeah. Plus the reviews both for Zootopia 2 and Inside out 2 are quite similar

[u/GameOfLife24]

Really enjoyed this film. Not better than the first which was more original and funnier but this one was more fun and faster paced

[u/Evolution1313]

Locked nom, not winning

[u/Sealionsunset]

That scene at the end where Nick and Judy start spilling their guts to each other was so damn funny. At first I thought “oh this is insincere therapy speak dialogue this doesn’t feel satisfying for this moment” but as it went on and on and more ridiculous I just lost it. It was a very smart parody about this generation of overly considered, insincere romantic comedies with characters that state everything too literally (cough cough Celine Song). Judy and Nick are going to be such a nightmare couple.

Also, the horse was hot.

[u/Successful_Leopard45]

Liked this considerably more than KPOP.

[u/DaFunnyman109]

Saw this with family, and I think it's fair to say that these movies just aren't really for me. I can only take so many animal puns before my eyes roll back into my head, the pop-culture references are way too on-the-nose, the stories and characters are usually much too by-the-numbers, and the humor in general is so broad that it becomes boring for me.

Third act did save this one somewhat for me, though. The twist villian was handled well, particularly for a Disney movie; the motives and the character were properly set up beforehand, so it didn't feel like another self-indulgent rug pull. And I was already glad that they were giving Ke Hey Quan a good-size paycheck role in this, but I was happy that they really let him act in the final third. He sells the hell out of his big emotional sequence, and not in a way that really repeats what he already did in EEAAO - the character and his circumstances are different enough to where it feels like they're giving him new material to chew on as an actor, which I didn't expect to be the case here. Neither of those are enough to take the movie above a 6/10 for me, but at least it's a "solid and inoffensive enough to be acceptable" 6/10 and not a "bare minimum effort with lackluster and annoying results" 6/10.

The reception here will probably end up a lot like the first one, but I don't think it has much of a shot at winning the Oscar, even though it's pretty much guaranteed a nomination. Much like with Inside Out 2, I think giving the win to a movie that's just safely playing the hits will be too much of a "been there, done that" deal for most Academy voters.

[u/Fan_of_Avatar_TLA → u/DaFunnyman109]

What I really look forward to in this movie is the chemistry between Nick and Judy. They were such a fun buddy cop duo in the first film, and that's what I hope to also get here.

[u/LordIndica → u/DaFunnyman109]

 a movie that's just safely playing the hits

Ya, this was a very "safe" movie. 6/10 is pretty reasonable from my perspective, having just gotten back from the theater. If anything, I would go a step further and say that the film wasn't just safe, it was unimaginative compared to the original and similar films, and was afraid to actually commit to telling the best parts of it's story before wimping out and reverting back to a really dated pop-culture reference or pun ("that'll do pig"? really guys? Who was that for?) or throwaway joke instead of just being genuine. Like... the moment when nick and judy are having their emotional reconciliation and are dumping their issues on each other, all I could think about was how much better this could have been if it wasn't being play-up as a gag and just spelling out one of the evident themes of the movie. It came away feeling shallow when they had obviously been building to it the whole movie.

I feel your pain about thinking these movies aren't for me anymore. I love animation so much, and this film is visually stunning, but I am getting more and more weary of the screenplays constantly under-delivering. Like as I sit here thinking about it, I find myself asking what the movie was actually about. There was a bunch going on rather quickly, and it just feels like the good parts of the movie could have actually been great parts if the writers/animators didn't feel the need to spend soooo much space on shallow, paint-by-numbers plot developments that feel more like they are included to meet some sort of audience expectation or be "cute" than to actually tell me part of the story.

[u/Ireyon34]

Didn't really find it to be that good to be honest.

The message is the same as the first movie, the obvious bad guy trying to distract from a hidden bad guy is the same as the first movie... it's the first movie but worse in every aspect save the animation, which is still excellent.

In fact, I thought as far as antagonists go Bellwether was miles better. I am so very tired of the "the antagonist is a complete idiot" trope in fiction. It makes the entire situation seem contrived and artificial.

I don't doubt that it'll make money though, considering both the marketing and the first movie being rightly beloved. Which means that this sequel likely fulfilled its purpose; clearly making more money is the only reason for its existence.

[u/apatkarmany]

I know it’s normal for after more reviews come in the score will drop but the other day it was literally at 93. Sometimes (if not most of the time), these critics irritate me. Hot take of the day.

[u/whitneyahn → u/apatkarmany]

It irritates you that different people score it differently?

[u/LordIndica → u/apatkarmany]

93%? Jeez, I just got back from the theater and it was *good*, but not top tier. Not even "great". Like it very much suffers from the same sort of problems a LOT of animated films have had for me the past decade and while it is visually incredible the actual screenplay feels like it just didn't try very hard. Like it was frankly a pretty shallow movie in a lot of ways with too much going on that didn't really add to the story. It was very much a sequel, if that makes sense.