Zootopia 2 changes its skin, but remains thrilling: the review of the Disney film

Bigger, more intricate, more complex, and almost equally thrilling: Zootopia 2 proves that even when a studio's need to turn a film into a franchise and make it obey corporate logic becomes more pressing, you can (and should) put cinema first and still deliver a great film, entertaining and exciting.

Nine years have passed since Judy the bunny and Nick the fox revived the tradition of anthropomorphic animals at Disney with an original film which, needless to say, given its success, immediately spawned an animated series and this sequel. A highly anticipated, carefully crafted film that took almost a decade to make. In the meantime, Beastars arrived in Japan and the sagas of The Bad Guys and Sing in cinemas: all more or less adult, successful, and intriguing stories based on the same metropolitan concept of coexistence between different animal species, carnivores and herbivores, which have seen great peaks (especially in Japanese animation) but remained short of that perfect synthesis achieved by Disney in less than two hours in 2016.

Where the nine years needed to prepare a sequel went becomes immediately clear, right from the first scenes of Zootopia 2, which also doesn't lack the ambition to be even bigger and more complex than its predecessor. The metropolis of Zootopia, barely explored in the first film, is further expanded, while one of its core engineering elements is explained: the meteorological barriers that allow the various habitats to be preserved side by side. This ingenious invention is the work of a very high-ranking lynx family, the Stirpe, who, for the city's zooniversary, decide to display the diary of the grandfather who designed and made the metropolitan utopia of Zootopia possible. This diary is targeted by a mysterious reptile, which sheds light on a dark point in the city where the film is set: why are there no snakes, lizards, and the like on the streets of this Zootopia?

The answer will, of course, lead Judy and Nick, now partners in uniform, to investigate, but surprisingly, they struggle to deliver the desired results to their chief inspector Bogo. Can a bunny and a fox truly not team up even if, deep down, they both want to make the city better and, above all, keep the person—pardon, the animal—who makes them feel safest and most understood in the world, safe? If the first Zootopia was entirely built on the metaphor of prejudice that discriminates and marginalizes applied to carnivores, the second chapter transforms reptiles into an even more current metaphor: undocumented immigrants, outcasts, subjects of podcast conspiracy theories, and stigmas that date back to the city's very foundation. It is also, as often happens with more recent Disney titles, a psychotherapy session à la Inside Out or Soul. If the first film followed Judy in her struggle to assert herself outside the stereotype her species imposed on her, here the film delves even deeper into the difficult relationship every individual has with their family. There are those who do everything to ensure their family has a safe place to stay, but above all, there are those who, when Judy exhorts them to “be different from their family,” say they don't want to be, in fact, they ardently desire a sense of belonging.

Thus, the small miracle of the first Zootopia—a film for the little ones, certainly, but surprisingly full of the anxieties and frustrations of the adult and working world—is repeated, investigating the urban loneliness of those who are solitary by nature and use irony to shield themselves from their inability to talk about their feelings (Nick) or of entire communities “off the radar,” united primarily in marginalization. These are strong themes that the film does not shy away from; in fact, there's even a conversation deemed “too much” by the beaver podcaster in which the two protagonists spew their agonizing emotional inadequacies at each other. This is the emotional core that makes a film relevant and sometimes cathartic, a film that has so much else to offer, so much so that it is even hyper-stimulating visually and narratively. It's impossible to fully appreciate the depth of field in which easter eggs and micro-stories are hidden within the story, winks and visual irony that perfectly complement the film's truly brilliant comedic tone, which doesn't get too lost in the Italian dubbing (where for once the talents are also up to par, starting with Michela Giraud).

To Judy and Nick's irresistible banter are added a myriad of cinematic, pop, musical, and internal Disney references that recall the approach Disney chose in the early '90s with Aladdin. An undeniable classic today, but at the time it was criticized precisely for how some improvised lines by Robin Williams as Genie referred to contemporary cultural and social issues. Detractors noted, not without reason, that this went against the Disney canon, designed to always be accessible, understandable, current, timeless. Zootopia doesn't reach Aladdin's level, but with all its citations (among others: The Shining, Indiana Jones, The Silence of the Lambs, and intra-Disney ones to Ratatouille and Tangled) it inevitably exposes itself to the test of time.

This primarily proves that the intention is to transform it into a solid franchise that looks at cinema tout court, with gigantic ambitions: Michael Giacchino's soundtrack here has almost Bond-like echoes, further reinforced by the “exotic” scenarios that Zootopia's habitats provide to the film. The great action scenes, but above all the hyper-classic plot of “fugitive” cops, bring to mind Mission: Impossible and the Bourne saga, without forgetting that almost sly approach of a police duo in buddy movie territory, from Miami Vice to The Nice Guys.

Certainly, it indulges a bit in self-referentialism and in elaborating on the series' mythology already cemented with the first chapter, which in its greater creative freedom perhaps remains a bit superior. Zootopia 2, however, does not bend too much to Disney's production dictates and, in fact, focuses so much on entertaining and amusing its audience—welcoming back characters from the first chapter like rock stars—that at the end of the viewing, one immediately wants another dose. A third chapter seems already certain, in light of the true film's ending which, attention, is placed after the credits (stay until the screen goes dark, it's worth it). Only the words “Nick and Judy will return” are missing, but the Bond-like vibe of a story that works and is destined to last is truly all there in Zootopia.