Zootopia 2 is exactly what it looks like. It is a Disney animated buddy cop sequel with gorgeous animation, sharp voice performances, a cracking mystery plot, and a progressive allegory that does not hide behind the fur. The franchise was never pretending to be neutral. The original Zootopia was described by its own directors as being about racism, sexism, and governing through fear. The sequel turns the dial up. This time the allegory is systemic exclusion, historical revisionism, and wealth built on theft and oppression. Nobody who paid attention to the first film should be surprised by a word of it.

What they might be surprised by is how well the movie still works as a movie.

Plot Summary

The story picks up one week after Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde become official ZPD partners. The partnership is a mess. Judy is type-A and relentless. Nick is sarcastic and untrusting. Chief Bogo is already threatening to split them up. Their supervisor ships them to a quokka psychotherapist named Dr. Fuzzbee, who runs a program called Partners in Crisis. This is probably the most groan-inducing scene in the film, and the Federalist was not wrong to call it therapist slop. The mandatory couples counseling framing is modern progressive culture imported wholesale into a fictional animal city. It does not feel organic to Zootopia's world. It feels like a message.

From there the film picks up momentum fast. At the Zootennial Gala, a pit viper named Gary De'Snake shows up in a city that hasn't seen a reptile in a century. Gary steals an antique journal belonging to Milton Lynxley, patriarch of Zootopia's most powerful dynastic family. Judy corners Gary, who tells her the journal contains evidence to prove his family's innocence of something old and terrible. Before she can decide what to do with that, Gary accidentally bites Chief Bogo with his venom. The Lynxleys frame Judy and Nick for the incident. Our heroes go from cops to fugitives inside of thirty minutes.

The investigation takes them to Marsh Market, a hidden district where reptiles have lived underground for decades. There they meet Jesus, a plumed basilisk played by Danny Trejo with exactly the voice casting you would expect and exactly the presence the film needs. They piece together the truth: Gary's great-grandmother Agnes De'Snake was the architect who designed Zootopia's weather walls. Ebenezer Lynxley stole her work, framed her for murder, and used the resulting anti-reptile hysteria to exile an entire population and bury their original district under Tundratown.

The villain reveal is Pawbert Lynxley, the seemingly sympathetic youngest son who has been helping Judy and Gary. He injects Judy with snake venom, throws Gary into the snow, and steals the antivenom to impress his father. Nick fights Pawbert on the weather wall, throws the antivenom to Gary, and falls. He and Judy survive. Pawbert barely survives. The Lynxleys are arrested. Agnes gets her name back. The reptiles come home.

Trope Analysis — VVWS Weighted Scoring

Woke Tropes

Trope	Severity (1-5)	Authenticity	Centrality	Weighted Score
Institutional Evil / Systemic Exclusion (reptile exile via manufactured fear and legal corruption; defining plot engine)	5	Emphasized (1.25)	Defining (2.0)	37.5
Anti-Western Revisionism / Historical Erasure (Zootopia's founding myth exposed as a lie; great inventor's legacy stolen by wealthy patriarch)	4	Emphasized (1.25)	Central (1.5)	22.5
The Colonialist Villain (Lynxley family as old money built on theft and displacement of a minority population)	4	Emphasized (1.25)	Central (1.5)	15.0
Therapy Culture Normalized (mandatory Partners in Crisis couples counseling treated as productive and correct)	3	Injected (1.5)	Supporting (1.0)	4.5
The Marginalized Savant (Agnes De'Snake as the true inventor whose work was stolen by a white-coded power family)	3	Natural (0.75)	Supporting (1.0)	4.5
Victimhood as Moral Authority (Gary feared on sight by an entire city; innocence is the source of his moral standing)	3	Natural (0.75)	Supporting (1.0)	4.5
Globalist Utopia (reptile reintegration as triumphant resolution; multicultural unity as the happy ending)	3	Natural (0.75)	Supporting (1.0)	2.25
Coded LGBTQ+ Representation (Bucky and Pronk confirmed gay couple by directors; background only)	1	Emphasized (1.25)	Background (0.5)	0.6
WOKE TOTAL	91.35

Traditional Tropes

Trope	Severity (1-5)	Authenticity	Centrality	Weighted Score
Defense of the Innocent / Law Enforcement Heroes (Judy and Nick as brave, self-sacrificing cops throughout; law enforcement treated with full heroic dignity)	5	Organic (0.5)	Defining (2.0)	10.0
Partnership and Loyalty (the entire film is about building and preserving a worthy partnership; earned trust as the emotional core)	5	Organic (0.5)	Defining (2.0)	10.0
Truth and Justice Prevail via Institutions (heroes expose fraud through evidence; legal system arrests the villains; reform within the system, not destruction of it)	4	Organic (0.5)	Central (1.5)	9.0
The Self-Sacrificing Hero (Nick falls off the weather wall to save Judy; physical sacrifice to protect a partner at personal cost)	4	Organic (0.5)	Central (1.5)	9.0
Industry and Perseverance (Judy grinds through the case relentlessly; Nick overcomes deep personal distrust; neither quits)	4	Organic (0.5)	Central (1.5)	6.0
Homecoming / Restored Community (reptiles return to their district; Gary reunites with his family; broken communities mended)	3	Natural (0.75)	Supporting (1.0)	4.5
Traditional Family (Hopps family portrayed with warmth and genuine love; Gary's family is the motivation for everything he does)	3	Organic (0.5)	Supporting (1.0)	3.0
Faith in Adversity (Grandma Hopps prays daily for Judy's safety; presented without mockery or irony)	2	Organic (0.5)	Background (0.5)	1.5
TRAD TOTAL	53.0

Composite: TRAD 53.0 - WOKE 91.35 = -38.35 (WOKE)

Confidence: HIGH. Multiple detailed plot sources available. Trope calls are clear and well-anchored. Variance: ±0.5.

Director / Creative Team Ideological Track Record

Jared Bush is the chief creative force on both Zootopia films. He has been at Disney Animation since 2011. His writing credits tell a clear and consistent story: Zootopia (prejudice allegory), Moana (indigenous identity and anti-colonialist myth), Encanto (multi-generational family trauma and institutional expectations). Every project foregrounds a marginalized community finding its voice against a system that has diminished it. Bush is not hiding this pattern. He speaks openly in press about wanting his films to say something about the world.

What separates Bush from a pure ideological filmmaker is craft. He writes emotionally effective stories. The prejudice allegory in Zootopia worked because it was embedded in a genuinely fun buddy cop movie. Encanto worked because the family dynamics were real regardless of the social message. Zootopia 2 follows the same template: the colonialism parallel is explicit, but it is also embedded in a tightly plotted mystery with real stakes and real characters. You can disagree with the thesis and still admire the execution.

Byron Howard directed Bolt (2008) and Tangled (2010) before Zootopia. His solo work is conventional crowd-pleasing Disney. Tangled is one of the most traditionally constructed Disney princess films of the modern era: a resourceful heroine, a charming rogue with a good heart, a clear villain, a romantic resolution. Howard is not an ideological filmmaker by default. He is a craftsman who makes energetic, accessible stories. His co-direction of Zootopia 2 is visible in the film's pacing and action sequences, which are the most traditionally crowd-pleasing elements.

Yvett Merino as lead producer is a Disney Animation lifer. She produced Strange World (2022) and Wish (2023), two of the studio's more aggressively progressive recent films. Her involvement does not moderate the ideological signal; it confirms it.

Michael Giacchino carries no political signal. He composes for blockbusters across the ideological spectrum. The Zootopia 2 score is warm, propulsive, and callbacks-rich. It serves the film without editorializing.

PRE-VIEWING PREDICTION: Bush's writing pattern gave a near-certain woke lean. Howard's co-direction suggested the traditional elements would be stronger than a solo Bush project. Prediction: WOKE with meaningful traditional resistance. Prediction confirmed.

Adult Viewer Insight

Conservative adults should go into this film clear-eyed, which means going in knowing two things simultaneously.

First, this is a genuinely progressive film. The systemic exclusion allegory is explicit. The wealthy founding family built their dynasty on theft and propaganda. Historical truth was buried to preserve their power. The marginalized community has a hidden genius whose work was stolen. These are standard progressive frameworks and they are the load-bearing structure of the plot. They are not subtle. Bush has spoken about them openly.

Second, the traditional elements are real. Not window dressing. Not bait. Real.

Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are police officers and they are heroes. The film does not equivocate about this. They are brave, loyal, and willing to sacrifice themselves for each other and for justice. The entire resolution of the film is achieved through evidence gathering and legal process. The Lynxleys are arrested by the system they corrupted. The film trusts that the system, when fed the truth, can correct itself. That is a classically conservative position. It is reform within institutions, not tear-it-down radicalism.

The partnership between Judy and Nick is the heart of the film and it is built on earned trust, demonstrated sacrifice, and loyalty through adversity. These are traditional values. Nick tells Judy he loves her at the end of the film. Not as a political statement. As two partners who came through something genuinely hard together.

The Hopps family is warm, loving, and present. Grandma Hopps prays. This gets a brief, gentle scene that plays it completely straight. Nobody mocks it.

Watch it knowing what it is. Talk about it afterward. The conversation about why the film frames its story the way it does is worth having with your kids.

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Review by VirtueVigil Editorial Team

Formula: Weighted Score = Severity × Authenticity Multiplier × Centrality Multiplier

🔴 Woke Tropes

Trope	Severity	Authenticity	Centrality	Score
Institutional Evil / Systemic Exclusion	5	Emphasized	Defining	37.5
Anti-Western Revisionism / Historical Erasure	4	Emphasized	Central	22.5
The Colonialist Villain	4	Emphasized	Central	15
Therapy Culture Normalized	3	Injected	Supporting	4.5
The Marginalized Savant	3	Natural	Supporting	4.5
Victimhood as Moral Authority	3	Natural	Supporting	4.5
Globalist Utopia / Multicultural Integration	3	Natural	Supporting	2.25
Coded LGBTQ+ Representation	1	Emphasized	Background	0.625
TOTAL WOKE				91.4

🟢 Traditional Tropes

Trope	Severity	Authenticity	Centrality	Score
Defense of the Innocent / Law Enforcement Heroes	5	Organic	Defining	10
Partnership and Loyalty	5	Organic	Defining	10
Truth and Justice Prevail via Institutions	4	Organic	Central	9
The Self-Sacrificing Hero	4	Organic	Central	9
Industry and Perseverance	4	Organic	Central	6
Homecoming / Restored Community	3	Natural	Supporting	4.5
Traditional Family	3	Organic	Supporting	3
Faith in Adversity	2	Organic	Background	1.5
TOTAL TRADITIONAL				53.0

Score Margin: -38 WOKE