Review of Zootopia 2

A Rabbit Hole of Problems

Is Zootopia 2 further evidence that Disney is AI-generating content? I came up with a litany of complaints to combat the bizarrely positive reviews the film is receiving. In short, nothing in this film works. It commits egregious sins in terms of storytelling and character development. Absurd logical leaps are required to make sense of the puerile plot, and the plot holes render the whole as airy as a bubble bath. Nothing about it is tight, sensical or pleasing to a discerning viewer. If you shut your brain off completely and watch it while in a daze, only vaguely paying attention to the flashing colors and ecstatic energy of the animation, and if you purposefully forget about physics, common sense and other such normal concerns of the human brain, you might conceivably derive some enjoyment out of it I suppose.

It’s like Elio. Only worse. The more you think about it, the less sense it makes. First off, why did they separate the two movies by only a week? You’re telling me that in a week, Zoootopia forgot that the mayor was corrupt. And in that time, the herbivore and carnivore relations were perfectly settled. Merrywether was tried and convicted. Nick completed police training and was assigned to Judy. Nick and Judy were assigned to a special unit. The damage they caused in the first movie was repaired. They got a new mayor – all within ONE WEEK? Why not set the film several months later? Nick and Judy are already having trouble as a team (in their first week). Nick did not act like it was his first day on the job the way he strutted around as if he owned the place. His attitude makes Judy look hysterical and makes the police department look cruel.

The villain was obvious from the first trailer and poster. It doesn’t make their twist more clever that they joke about the first movie having a twist villain in the scene right before revealing their own twist villain. Judy looked inept at every turn. The Lynx family was cartoonishly villainous. They are supposedly territorial, meant to represent the billionaires of our time, with hints of colonial land-grabbing, stomping on the little people. There is no need for the brother or sister lynx in this political family. They do nothing. The main lynx bad guy poses as a good guy to get in good with his family, but why’d he save Judy in the first place if that was going to make his plan much harder? Why does he involve himself with the police? That makes him look worse to his family. Why would he reveal the stuff about the original patent to Judy when he already had the trust of the snake, who knew its location? He didn’t need Judy’s help.

Nick was useless for most of the movie, Judy’s yes man. His minimal pushback showed how he not-so-secretly cared about her and further exemplified her utter recklessness. This is a far cry from his original nature when he challenged Judy in the first movie. Now he just sighs and tags along. He is a bumbling comic relief that needed saving. 

In other respects, the plot was a photocopy of the first. Bunny cop has to prove herself and learn to work with an unlikeable partner. They solve a mystery at the heart of the city that goes to the top. Along the way, they meet a quirky cast of characters and are double-crossed by an innocent-looking family member of the bad guys…

Judy figures out the most important plot twist after being separated from Nick. He contributed nothing but his milquetoast, apathetic concern. Nick’s clever nature and dexterity as a fox are never used. He picks a pocket at the ball but immediately returns the lady’s jewels to ingratiate himself. That’s about it. There were several times when he could’ve escaped being captured, but other people saved him instead, like when the beaver makes a key out of the broom handle and gets him out of prison. The animals act like animals only when the plot requires it. Otherwise, they act like cartoonish people.

The themes of racism and learning to cooperate are sloppily slapped together. The snake was hardly discriminated against? We are only told it’s a problem. The lynxes are acting not out of speci-ism but out of greed. They are opportunists, fulfilling the genetic imperative so that evolutionists could snicker.

What tiny character arcs there are are pasted from the first movie. Judy needs to calm down and trust Nick. Nick needs to open up. 

Nostalgia does most of the heavy lifting. They reference better movies like The Shining, Ratatouille, and The Lady and the Tramp, adding nothing to cinema themselves. The references are momentary callbacks to the most recognizable scenes. This technique only highlights the film’s inability to tread new ground.

The snake and the beaver are wildcard characters, but they simply start the plot or save the main characters when necessary. At least they are semi-interesting while on screen.

But we must address the fact that antivenin being injected directly into the heart is not how you do it. They add that bit for dramatic effect. The writers clearly did no research and seem to believe that children watching this deserve that inattention to real-life facts. If you are making a film about animals, at least have the decency to research the basic facts about animals. And the way the antivenin caused a rush of adrenaline in the Bunny so she could rescue her partner in no time flat was another illogical act of silly stupidity. Also, snakes cannot instantly regain body heat by hugging a warm-blooded animal. Except where the plot requires it, of course. That’s lazy writing if I ever saw it. Almost like something a chatbot would come up with to solve the immediate problem in front of it without regard to reality.

They are pulling the wool over the audience’s eyes for plot convenience in every frame of this film.

Why would anyone build a honeymoon lodge on the edge of a cliff? Just walking through it caused it to collapse. It made the scene more dramatic, sure, but it made no sense. Something cannot be dramatic if it is inherently stupid. Why would the mountain goats randomly spout out that it was the hideout for snakes? Because they had to. For the plot to happen.

How did the water buffalo survive for a full day after the snake bite? The police force had no antivenin apparently. We are led to believe they were completely unprepared for a snake attack. It is depicted as an earth-shattering occurrence. But of course he’s fine. Everyone who gets bit or jabbed, ends up okay. This is Disney, after all.

How did everyone in the reptile lounge get to the lounge without being caught in a part of town where they could be arrested on sight? 

The location of the original patent was not only contrived; it was pointless. The patent is supposed to save the day. But what in reality would it prove? Couldn’t the Lynx family bury the truth again like they originally buried it? As the villain says, it’s their word against the police. The public swallowed the lie the first time, so what would be different now? The lynxes still have all that money and power. But the plot resolves, and everything goes back to being perfectly alright. No one is being oppressed now. Because they found a patent that proves reptiles had worth. No one suspected that reptiles had any value. They needed a patent of a fancy invention to prove it to them. It’s not like reptiles have done anything else of note throughout the hundreds of years of history the movie includes in its backstory.

You’re telling me that reptiles founded the city, but no one in the world remembers that fact or notices that millions of reptiles were displaced from their homes?

The police apparently have no weapons other than tranquilizer darts. You would need different doses for different-sized animals. How could they stop a rampaging elephant? The part with the kill dart was also disappointing. You don’t just follow the governor’s orders as a police officer. If a governor tells you to kill a fleeing, unarmed criminal, you will not follow that order if you have any integrity as a police officer. The police in this movie are atrocious. But that’s a common depiction of that profession in media. No one ever gives the police any credit. They are, without fail, corrupt, inept, and the embodiment of all that is wrong with the world.

Why would a prison have a big red button to open all the cells at once? Such a device would have a password or key. Letting out all the villains is a convenient way to provide enemies for the team to round up later. In the case of a sequel especially. You just have to roll your eyes when you see them planning a sequel instead of giving you a good movie in the first place.

The sloth has no reaction time or reflexes whatsoever, so how would he pull off the Fast and the Furious driving? Because it’s funny. No matter that it doesn’t make sense.

What makes Nick and Judy think flipping the electrical switch on a 60-year-old console would still remotely activate a clock tower in an abandoned part of town? Why are they still feeding power to that part of town? What makes them think a clock tower would light up? It’s not a lighthouse.

The Zee bros were annoying. Quite a few jokes didn’t hit. Like saying ‘Hey Bub’ fifty times in a row. Why do walruses talk like that? Why do the hippos on the police force not live in the swamp part of town? They arrive on the scene and wreck the place as if they were completely unprepared for water.

This was a glorified side quest where the protagonists ended where they began. Except they managed to admit their feelings for once.

Wait a second. Why did the lynx and the snake show up at the honeymoon hotel to save the heroes? They had no way of knowing the heroes would be there. Why would the lynx try to save the ones who are working to stop him?

How does a snake get a fanny pack to stay on its body?

Pit vipers are brown, not bright blue.

The heat-sensing pit viper’s ability detects infrared radiation. The legendary book’s plot device of revealing a hidden map when placed close to a fire makes no sense. The book itself would not radiate much heat, and whatever ink was used would not radiate infrared either. Heat-activated ink exists, but it’s perfectly visible to a normal pair of eyes when near heat. Why would a coded message from the snakes reveal a secondary map of the continent? They had not planned on being displaced. If they were going to leave a hidden message, why would they do it on the document used to build the new city that was displacing them? Why were snakes involved in the creation of the document with the instructions for the city that was displacing them?

The animals possess animalistic senses only when it’s convenient for the plot. That’s a typical Disney maneuver. The bunny’s ears are not good at hearing. They still use technologies like walkie-talkies and earpieces. But they can’t use their own natural abilities.

Who is the fake infant in their carriage in the first sequence some people will ask? Some random adult they dressed up as a baby and placed in a stroller for their cockamamie plan? They placed fake casts on his legs in the time between learning of the smuggling operation and making it to the scene – before any of the other officers made it there, ie. within 3 minutes. The character in the stroller is from the first movie. But you have to be paying attention to notice. But the plan goes awry because Judy can’t pick the lock on the container. They didn’t think that part through. They didn’t follow procedure and defied their orders. They did it in the stupidest way possible. They hijack a car and cause insane amounts of damage to the city. Of course, they could’ve just tranquilizered the perp, but apparently they are never given access to weapons, even though they are police officers.

They successfully uncovered the smuggling operation, but the police department was still unaware of the existence of reptiles from overseas for the rest of the movie. The smuggling scene also did not establish that more than one reptile was being smuggled in. They follow the scraps of snakeskin as clues, but wouldn’t a snake trying to stay hidden clean up after shedding? They are also not constantly molting.

The ending leads us to believe that reptiles are perfectly acceptable within polite society again with no readjustment from societal prejudice – within a couple of days.

Nothing changes for the characters except that they admitted their feelings. But Nick still lets her walk all over him. 

How did he not smell the poison? He’s a fox. Did the lynx milk the poison out of the one snake he befriended? Or is snake poison something you can buy on the black market? Those are things they never bother establishing.

The animation has improved in some respects from the first, but the design choices are very typical, and the set pieces make little sense from a world-building standpoint.

There’s no thought put to how the world functions. Hamster town, elephant ice cream, the elephant gym right above Nick’s apartment. Sight gags matter more than consistency.

They overuse characters from the first movie. The guy in the stroller is a reference to the first movie. As are the shrews, who serve as plot devices and make the tired comparison to the Godfather kingpin. Judy was already aware of the beaver lady, so why did they shoehorn in the mafia? When they reviewed the conspiracy theorists’ website and watched the video, in the screen’s corner it said that they were the second visitor on the webpage. But later, when they were talking to the mob boss, they were given a card, referring them to the conspiracy theorist, which makes the conspiracy theorist seem a lot more prominent than the website and viewer tracker would lead us to believe. They wanted us to believe the beaver was an obscure alarmist online spouting off conspiracies. A comment on the current climate of spouting stuff online. But the shrews pointing Judy in that direction was utterly unneccessary.

Finally, they reuse the gazelle singer so they can try to cash in on a new song.

The end-credits scene was a predictable inclusion of sequel bait. Of course, now there is suddenly a bird colony, which will cause problems for our heroes.

Why do we keep watching these travesties from Disney?