with Judy and Nick back, film reflects on prejudice

Following the continuations of animations seen in the last decade, especially “Moana 2”, released last year, Disney now returns to the city of animals with “Zootopia 2”. The film currently showing in Belo Horizonte arrives almost 10 years after the first title in the franchise.

The sequence reinforces the debate about prejudices and stereotypes that already existed in the original work, but now at a time when the studio is being accused by conservative groups of promoting the so-called “woke” agenda, of those who engage in the defense of minority groups.

After the criticism, the company removed diversity and inclusion as criteria for defining its executives’ remuneration and found itself the target of an investigation ordered by President Donald Trump into practices considered discriminatory within the scope of these initiatives.

“Although it is a city of animals, it works as a mirror of human nature, a way of looking at our issues as people and, perhaps, reflecting on it”, says Jared Bush, director and screenwriter of “Zootopia”, who also wrote the scripts for “Encanto” and “Moana”, other films praised for issues related to diversity.

In “Zootopia 2”, police bunny Judy and fox Nick investigate the disappearance of the city’s reptiles and try to understand why the arrival of a snake named Gary caused so much astonishment among residents. The new character is a viper, a figure often associated with evil and betrayal. But, like every fable, the film seeks to teach that not everyone is what they seem.

In the first “Zootopia”, from 2016, species of animals live in harmony, despite judging each other. The first film uses this dynamic to discuss stereotypes – a sheep, for example, although associated by everyone with docile prey, turns out to be an evil figure.

The film won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2017 and surpassed the $1 billion mark at the box office, becoming one of Disney’s biggest recent hits.

Diversity

But other films with more space for diversity did not have the same trajectory, such as 2022’s “Strange World”, which featured the studio’s first gay protagonist and made 10 times less money than “Zootopia”.

That same year, Pixar faced difficulties in releasing “Lightyear”, which shows a kiss between two female characters. Although it was part of the successful “Toy Story” franchise, the film suffered boycotts that reduced its profits.

For Jared Bush, the director, the way these messages are received by the public depends on how they are incorporated into the narrative. “In the ‘Zootopia’ universe, there are more than 60 species, and this makes people naturally see the differences between them,” he says.

Since the pandemic, several of the studio’s animations have fallen behind the billion mark, with the exception of “Moana 2”. But the directors say they don’t care about that. “It’s not about money, but about seeing the audience fall in love with the world we created together”, says Byron Howard, who also directed the film, and was behind the hits “Tangled” and “Encanto”.

“ZOOTOPIA 2”
USA, 2025 (108 min.). Animation. Directed by: Jared Bush and Byron Howard. Showing on Cineart, Cinemark and Cinépolis networks.