Zootopia 2

This movie was fun but I have to say, Nick Wilde seems like more of a try hard in this one than the first and this kind of seems to be a theme for the movie as a whole. Not to say the first movie was perfect, it certainly had its flaws but it did bring an interesting perspective with its metaphor of systematic racism in society but one I would say personally I felt Elemental perfected later on. 

Zootopia 2 feels like it’s chasing the glory of the first film in pretty much every way. It wanted another memeable goofy character like the DMV sloth so they brought in the walruses. They wanted to continue having social commentary but wanted to make it bigger but instead made it more vague in its final message. And they wanted to advance the relationship between  Hopps and Wilde but it ended up with Hopps being the same flat note that feels like she’s still at the same place where they ended the first movie and Wilde seems like a store brand version of himself. 

Now while watching this one it had shown potential for its story and social commentary to go in interesting directions where at one point it seemed like maybe it will focus more on classism with the wealthy family having such a stranglehold on the narrative for events of the story or at another point it hinted at taking a stance on imperialism with the storyline of the reptiles being driven out but in the end it lands on the lesson of don’t discriminate because someone is different from you. It felt like it was where they probably started the brainstorming session of writing for the first movie before reworking it into what it became. 

But like I said, this is still a fun movie which is why I can see why it would be so recommended for it's target audience but for the adults who enjoy when Disney and even more so Pixar, make something that adults can enjoy a bit too, this one has hints of that flavor of filmmaking but never really commits to anything, almost as if it's just checking off boxes with its quick references for people to nod their heads but offers no further thought past that.  So it's not a bad film, but definitely not as good as the first one.