Nine years on, Disney’s animated sequel Zootopia 2 celebrates even more diversity

SEOUL – Ginnifer Goodwin knows that she “cannot put a jigsaw puzzle together if all of my pieces are the same shape”, she said Nov 18 in a virtual press conference.

The 47-year-old American actress, returning as bunny cop Judy Hopps in Zootopia 2, was explaining what the animated sequel is really getting at beneath all the slapstick chase scenes and talking-animal jokes.

“You need all of the pieces to be all different shapes in order to make a beautiful puzzle.”

Nine years after the original 2016 film topped US$1 billion worldwide, Zootopia 2 reunites the now world-famous bunny-fox duo also comprising Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) for another case – this time involving Gary (Ke Huy Quan), a poisonous pit viper who shows up in Zootopia for reasons nobody can quite figure out.

It is a long-awaited follow-up to a film that became one of Disney’s highest-grossing animated features and took home the 2017 Oscar for best animated feature.

North American trackers are already projecting a haul in excess of US$125 million (S$162.7 million) across the long US Thanksgiving holiday after it opens there on Nov 26. It opens in Singapore cinemas on Nov 27.

American director Jared Bush (Encanto, 2021; Zootopia, 2016) said the sequel picks up just one week after the original ended, an unusually tight timeline that lets the characters’ flaws bubble up while giving them room to grow.

“We had to start to push them out of their comfort zones,” the 51-year-old said. “Making sure that we’re visiting new places was important to us.”

Goodwin jumped on that point. “Judy might, perhaps, have a problem with listening and micromanaging. Nick might have a problem with taking things a bit too seriously,” she said. “We really get to grow and change with them on screen in real time from the get-go.”

Quan, 54, joining the franchise as the voice of Gary, said he initially questioned whether Disney had the right actor when it offered him the part. “I didn’t think my voice sounded scary at all.”

But once he learnt that Gary would be the first reptile to set foot in Zootopia in over a century – as a character that forces the community to reckon with its prejudices – he could not wait to get on board.

“I wanted the audience to feel what he was going through, especially when he experiences so many stereotypes and labels in life being this scary snake,” he said.

The production pushed technical limits.

With 67 animal species, 178 characters and multiple new environments to bring to life, the film upgraded to Pixar’s cutting-edge Presto 3D software, allowing for richer lighting effects and more vibrant palettes.

Producer Yvett Merino noted the challenge of coordinating over 700 people through the process. “A lot of times, it’s hard to shift quickly when the story needs to change,” she said. “We make sure that we are all on the same page; we all communicate.”

Music is expected to play a major role too, just as it did in the original with Colombian pop star Shakira’s Grammy-nominated Try Everything (2016). Oscar winner Michael Giacchino has returned to score the sequel, bringing 80 musicians into the studio for sessions that Bush described as almost improvisational in nature.

Shakira co-wrote the celebratory anthem Zoo with Ed Sheeran and Blake Slatkin.

Quan brought it back to what drives the whole thing: a celebration of difference and diversity in a world that seems increasingly bent on dividing itself.

“As humans, we have a propensity to shy away from people who are different from us,” he said. “If we embrace each other’s differences, the world will be a better place.” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK