Things that I like about it:
1. Judy Hopps is still super cute and i still love her. This is exacerbated by her being visibly smaller than many other characters, because unlike a lot of anthro media, Zootopia's characters remain the relative size of their real life counterparts, such that a bunny is, in fact, quite small. Especially compared to the other cops which are guys like "buffalo" and "elephant" and "stripey horse". Now, I know what you're thinking... "Why are Judy's hips so big proportional to the rest of her?" and the answer is that some people on this earth are Artists. Thank you for asking. It was a good question and I enjoyed answering it.
2. They basically immediately Stop being cops and start being fugitives (on the lamb?). This may have been necessary for there to be a functional plot, but it felt like they were just kinda trying to recreate the "underdogs putting aside their differences" vibe from the first film. wait no this is the section for things i like uhhhh next point go
3. the police chief is voiced by knuckles the echidna
4. Shakira's song "zoo" is really fun. like Really fun. I want to hear a remix of this at every rave for the next year. Yes, Gazelle, i DO want to "get on up", actually. And now that you mention it, we ARE wild, and what's more is that we CANNOT be tamed. you're just so right about that. I like this song enough that I'm totally willing/able to look past the patently absurd notion that she would perform at burning man---i mean, burning mammal.
5. speaking of which, I do enjoy a good animal pun, as you can tell. and I'm not FRICKING afraid to say it, either, but then again, I'm the kind of (redacted) who is literally writing a 1400 word review of a children's movie about talking animals for a blog that 2 people will read, so uh. What was I talking about? NEXT POINT
6. Shakira beats up a pair of cops and suffers absolutely no consequences whatsoever. Based???
Things that I feel mixed and or negatively about:
The first act was the weakest. In it, Nick felt like a flanderization of himself. I guess there's a textual explanation for it: "emotional defense mechanisms", but it still doesn't feel authentic to his character.
Further, act 1 felt rushed. Like a ton animated movies, they come out of the gate with (a reacap and) an action scene. This action scene, being a car-chase in particular, is the first of a long list of uncanny similarities to another funny animal movie. The car chase opening PLUS having a prominent snake character PLUS the destruction of a staute of a figure important to the towns identity who, SHOCK-TWIST, might not be so cool after-all? PLUS the inciting incident being a civic fancy dress event where an important city artifact is on a stage and pedestal, and where there is a scheme around stealing it... Could all that be a coincidence? It makes me imagine an exec at mousecorp who, after seeing Bad Guys (2022), and going into a blind rage, barks "Those sneaky rats! they stole our movie!!! we need to steal it back!!!!"
Despite the world of Zootopia's being perfectly poised to accomodate a bakers dozen "new guys who we all love", it felt more like the character designers got to go home early. (or got transfered to another project at the whims of the mouse's shadowy council).
Most notably, according to the poster, there's a snake who makes special effects happen. (it's not magic, it's like... heat vision. Like how snakes have(?)). There's also a conspiracy theorist beaver who does exactly what you think she does: says wacky stuff so that our pov duo can straight-man her like "o_O erm... this gal's really got a screw loose!" I don't remember if that's a direct quote but it might as well be. The snake and the beaver have big "we're main characters too!" energy.
Lastly, the antogonists of the movie are a family of lynxes, which, as a species-choice, is honestly a pretty "deep" cut, in a good way. I'm a lynx enjoyer for sure, but still, there were exactly 0 new characters that I loved or felt super compelled by. All the wonderful little side characters from the previous movie came back for cameos, and that was kinda neat, but it did make me go "Where are all the other interesting critters in this setting? Are there only that dozen that we've already seen?"
Although the emotional peaks of the movie did deliver a satisfying experience, it doesn't quite have the heart or the soul of the original. was I a fool for imagining that an animated sequel could possibly have such a thing? I'm not sure. What I do know is... It was very easy to imagine that there was a core group of writers with a vision for Zoo2pia to be about Nick and Judy's immense and fuzzy love... but for some reason, they weren't allowed to explore their relationship as romantic??? so we get a TON of subtext where they like... look longingly into each others eyes, and have an "anniversary" and go to couple's therapy, and have a pretend child, but we're not allowed to talk about it??? The movie refers to them as "Partners" so many times, I almost feel like Nick and Judy are another "D!sn#y's furst canon gay couple!". I feel gaslit. I feel like a Destiel shipper in 2015, except I'm RIGHT. LET THEM KISS YOU COWARDS. WHO'S GOING TO STOP YOU? THE CHINESE MARKET???
And by the way, thats a "one week anniversary", which implies that this film takes place literally exactly 7 days after Zootopia 1, which is completely bonkers.
Although judy and nick are deep and multifaceted enough that you can make a whole subsequent movie exploring their emotional depth, AND have it be believable.... the same can sadly not be said about our new friend gary the snake. To quote Nick Wilde, on the way from the first climax to the second climax "Who's Gary?"
Now that I think about it, his last name being literally De' Snake is kind of..... abominable??? Like, yeah, it's good for the joke where its misheard as "the snake", but come ON, film! that is not the kind of joke that you give to someone who you want to be the (secondary) emotional core of your movie!!!
ALSO how did the bad guy get a vial of snake venom without Gary noticing...? is it Gary's venom? if it's not then why does Gary's antivenom work on it? Let me say something positive before I turn into cinemasins... It is legitimately fantastic worldbuilding that a nonviolent venomous snake would carry around anti-venom in the form of an epi pen. i like it. its cute and it makes sense. They do a "cuzco's poison" with it, in the semi-climax, right down to tossing it between ledges and it Almost teetering off into the abyss.
Now, to wrap it up before I lose it, here's a couple jokes where they REALLY thought they were cooking:
"pina koala" (a pun on pina colada) - repeated 4 times.
"the safeword is coconut" - repeated 3 times.
Conclusion:
While somewhat predictable and formulaic, there's enough cute bunny and Triple-A-Gloss to make this a perfectly serviceable "popcorn and beer" movie for the friendgroup. It might not live up to the mantle it inherits from its predecessor, but it's still better than every "Madagasar" by an animal-city mile.
its a 6.5 / 10 if ur a furry. its a 4.5 / 10 if ur not.
despite what you might think, kojima agrees with me on everything.
"And we're turning the floor into.... a zoo (oo, oo)" - Gazelle
not my kind of tf but go off queen.