After nearly ten years since the original movie, Zootopia is coming back with a sequel near the end of this year. Simply named Zootopia 2, Disney dropped a new trailer recently showcasing Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde seemingly on the run from the police force they’re supposed to be in. They’re harboring what seems to be a new character, which is a blue snake, protecting the character from the cops. It’s currently unknown why they’re protecting the snake, but we can assume just like in the first film, things in the metropolis city of Zootopia are much more mysterious than at first glance.
In this teaser trailer we also see new landscapes, like a marshy area with a beaver, a frozen tundra, a cliffside, mountainous region, a desert, and finally the reveal of an ominous new villain behind a city skyline. The villain so far is only a silhouette with glowing yellow eyes. Immediately this quick shot had me excited as I felt the one thing that was sorely lacking in the first movie was the villain. I got what they were going for, having a literal sheep in wolf’s clothing with Bellweather being behind the scenes of everything, but she served as a twist villain, a Disney formula in the past several years that I’m tired of personally. So an honest villain for Judy and Nick to face will be refreshing to get to enjoy them as proper villains.
In the description of the trailer, it’s further revealed that the general plot is that Judy and Nick discover a reptile arriving to Zootopia. Primarily a mammal society, they go undercover to the locations we see in the teaser to uncover the mystery. In this movie, their dynamic will be further tested. I imagine it’ll be beyond how their relationship was strained and tenuous for most of the first movie before coming to respect and care for one another. I’m also excited to see how this goes, as maybe there’s been a time skip from the events of the first movie to this one. Unlike then, they’ve been more established in their detective careers now.
The movie was first announced many months ago during D23, in which we see a brief scene of Judy and Nick in the marsh area with a beaver character, trying to figure out the mystery in Zootopia. Here, it was also announced that in the new sequel, Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman will be reprising their roles as Judy and Nick respectively. Their two voices are iconic from the original so I’m glad to see them come back to play as them.
In the teaser as well, we get shots of previous characters, as well as potential new ones. We see Gazelle, Bellwether in a prison jumpsuit, Officer Clawhauser, Mr. Big and more. We also see new characters, like the beaver in the marshes, an iguana cowboy type character, and many more to be revealed in the movie.
My final take on this trailer is that in this current landscape of Disney movies and beyond, I find myself often wondering why we keep seeing sequels. I find myself trying to justify their existence when people are starving for something new. Hell, we have a Toy Story 5 on the way when this series has been going on since the 90s. Give it a rest already.
However, some sequels like Inside Out 2 pleasantly surprised me with the addition of anxiety and a few other emotions to indicate Rylee’s growth to becoming a teenager with different and more complex emotions that I really enjoyed. Perhaps I can come to accept Zootopia 2 as well, which will be dropping in theatres November 26th of this year.
