Rambunctious Zootopia 2 is a Freewheeling, Inventively Madcap Jolt of Comedic Adrenaline
If Airplane! and Top Secret! maestros Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker had ever turned their talents toward making an animated comedy, chances are it would have looked exactly like Zootopia 2. This long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Academy Award-winning Zootopia is like a crazy cross between the original The Naked Gun, a Police Academy sequel (but thankfully better than any of those), and the hard-boiled noir classic Chinatown, only with talking animals taking the place of bumbling — if still determined! — human police detectives or quick-witted gumshoes. I mean all of that as a compliment.
The story picks up moments after the previous installment ended with bunny police officer Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and her undisciplined fox con artist “partner” Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) proving Zootopia’s duplicitous sheep assistant mayor Bellwether (Jenny Slate) was a conniving criminal. After that success, cape buffalo Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) and the city’s new horse mayor, former action star turned politician Brian Winddancer (Patrick Warburton), have no other choice but to make them partners for real, allowing Nick onto the police force, even with his spotty law-breaking past.
What follows from there is a brand-new adventure involving a priceless old book, a powerful family of close-knit lynxes lead by the murderously scheming Milton Lynxley (David Strathairn), a plot to destroy one of Zootopia’s few unincorporated neighborhoods, and the arrival to the city of the first reptile, kooky snake Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan), in a 100 years. Judy and Nick must work together in ways they never have before if they’re going to solve this case, discovering differences that will either make continuing their partnership impossible or strengthen their bonds to the point that they are virtually unbreakable.
Other new additions to the cast include Andy Samberg as the easygoing runt of the Lynxley dynasty, Pawbert, Fortune Feimster as beaver conspiracy theorist and podcaster Nibbles Maplestick, John Leguizamo as the sneaky anteater smuggler Antony Snootley, and a marvelous Danny Trejo as the all-knowing basilisk lizard Jesús (he knows all the secrets involving Zootopia’s underground reptile community). Each plays a big role in helping Judy and Nick uncover a horrifying conspiracy that goes back to the founding of Zootopia’s four distinct weather-controlled neighborhoods a century ago, and Milton Lynxley and Gary De’Snake’s ancestors are right at the center of it.
Not sure how many will notice (or even care), but cleverly hidden underneath the inspired silliness is some timely social commentary regarding generational wealth, racial inequality, and political malfeasance. Returning writer and co-director Jared Bush (working once again with Byron Howard) does a fine job weaving topical universal life lessons into this web of backstabbing, subterfuge, and outright lies, and does so in a manner that is easy to digest for viewers of every age.
The filmmaker does all of this without utilizing a heavy hand. He lets these themes materialize organically and in a story-driven manner. It is through the actions and interactions of the characters that everything bubbles to the surface, with Judy and Nick understandably at the heart of it all. It is their evolving partnership that stands proudly at the forefront of all that transpires, no matter how goofy that may be. It is everyone they encounter, learn from, and are forced through one crazy circumstance after another to deal with that both pushes them further apart before cathartically bringing them back together, this time seemingly for good.
Not that any of this stops the jokes from flying fast, furious, and with never-ending gonzo gusto. Sight gags, verbal innuendos, pratfalls, slow-burn gags that are set up in the first act and are cleverly paid off in the third; it’s all here. Nothing (nothing, that is, in a decidedly kid-friendly way) is off limits or out of bounds. The sequel is a freewheeling farce that hits the ground at a sprint and accelerates to warp speed from there
I’m not sure Zootopia 2 is better than its predecessor; only future rewatches will determine how I feel on that front. What I am sure of is that, while it is set in (and nicely expands upon) the same world of walking, talking animals from the first mystery, that does not mean that Bush and Howard are content to repeat themselves. Judy and Nick become even stronger protagonists, new elements are skillfully introduced, and the humor has a freewheeling, anything-goes vitality that is triumphantly infectious. The whole thing is a madcap jolt of comedic adrenaline that the whole family will almost certainly love. I know I sure did.
Film Rating: 3½ (out of 4)
