Movie Review: Disney’s Zootopia 2

Zootopia is a PG-rated movie, debuted on March 4, 2016. With a budget of $150 million, Zootopia became the second most successful original animated film, earning $1.024 billion worldwide. Zootopia 2 was released in theatres on Nov. 26, 2025 and has already become a commercial success. As of early Dec. 2025, it has earned over $900 million worldwide.

Considering Zootopia 2 had a budget of around $150 million, similar to their last budget, the visuals showcased that hefty funding. The art style had the same cute flair as the previous movie, all the character designs were unique and well thought out, and the animation was smooth and engaging. However, for such a big budget, the writing was lackluster and seemed to be not well thought out. 

The movie starts off with Judy Hopps and Nick Wild, the two main protagonists, disobeying orders sent out to them from their police chief. They attempt to bust a smuggling operation, but it doesn’t go as planned, leading to them ending up on the news, and in turn the police station’s new laughing stock. They get demoted and sent to a group therapy meeting for carnivore and herbivore partners, where they reveal they’ve been dating. The next day Judy finds out there’s a special event for the elites, where the Mayor and the family that owns Tundra Town will have the book that the original founder of Zootopia had written. The last time this book was seen, a snake had allegedly killed someone over it. The message this movie was trying to convey was incredibly lost at times, and felt like Disney was confused on what it themselves were writing about. The movie was about how reptiles founded Zootopia, and that the Tundra Town owners were evil and stole the credit of Zootopia from the original snake family.

The rising action of the plot conveys the discrimination the reptiles are facing because of the hate the Tundra Town family have encouraged in the public in a good and interesting way. The problem is the relationship with Judy and Nick and how the movie tries so hard, almost forcing their dating dynamic. They are constantly fighting for no apparent reason, and when they specify why they fought, the answer almost always feels small or like the escalation that happened wasn’t justified. Disney tried too hard to push the romance between Judy and Nick. 

Sophomore Amrie Reveles, said,“They pushed the love thing too hard…and it felt kind of random.” The movie kept trying to make it funny and quirky. These jokes weren’t necessarily offensive, but if they were going to put those kinds of jokes in a kid’s movie at least make them funny. Then, after making this bad attempt at a relationship dynamic, they try to wrap it back around to the theme of the movie which is that everyone is different, but that’s what makes diversity great. Trying to tie Judy and Nick’s dating and fights into the theme that we are different but that’s why we should love each other also felt so forced and out of place. The movie as a whole was cohesive, beautifully animated, and had a good message for a kids’ movie. The dating and random adult jokes that Disney tried to sprinkle in felt out of place and seemed completely unnecessary to the movie’s plot.