As far as I can tell, families looking to spend a night at the movies together have two options. Both feature talking animals and lessons on the importance of acceptance for all creatures. And both are sequels. Well, kind of. One is a sequel, and one is a part 2, I guess. Neither choice is as good as the original movie of which it is a follow up. But of the two options, “Zootopia 2” holds far more enjoyment than “Wicked: For Good,” or as I like to call it “Wicked: For Bad.” I am confident I am the first person to come up with that joke. Please do not inform me otherwise.
I really wanted to like “Wicked: For Good” because I really liked “Wicked” despite my annoyance that it ended on a cliff-hanger and was unable to tell a whole story in a THREE HOUR MOVIE. I was willing to overlook those irritations going into Part 2 because of how much I enjoyed the first movie, its performances, its visuals, and its soundtrack. But, having seen the stage production thrice, I had my doubts that part two could match the magic of Part 1.
The second half of “Wicked” on stage does not have the musical caliber of the first — there’s nary a bop nor a banger in the song catalog. Its story makes almost no sense. And its attempts to add context to “The Wizard of Oz” leave viewers with more questions than answers. For example: [SPOILERS AHEAD]
- Why does the wizard reveal to the tin man that he always had a heart when we know for a fact that Elphaba turned Boq into the tin man so he wouldn’t need a heart?
- How does the wizard being Elphaba’s real father explain her magic powers when we know that the wizard himself isn’t actually magical?
- Why can animals no longer speak but the cowardly lion can sing?
These are questions viewers are forced to ask because sitting through the second act of the play is so boring that the mind has to wander. But I hoped I would be so swept up in the magic and musicality of the second movie that I wouldn’t need to worry about such silly matters as gaping plot holes. Surely, I thought, the movie makers would do some major revisions to the back half of the musical to make it go down a little easier. But I am sorry to report no such revisions were done and I choked on the entirety of “Wicked: For Good” even more than the stage production second act because instead of cutting the fat, the creatives decided to add more bad CGI animals. Which did nothing to hone in on the movie’s message. They made what should have been an hourlong movie, nearly 2½ and I could not wait for it to end. And when it did, I wasn’t sure what the movie was trying to say.
So I went into “Zootopia 2” with low expectations, believing, with recency bias, that no good sequel can exist. But I was wrong. Because “Zootopia 2” is good. Not as good as “Zootopia,” obviously, because “Zootopia” is a masterpiece. It’s one of those movies made for kids that I beg my children to watch with me because I always want to watch it but it’s weird for a grown woman to sit and watch alone. I find it genuinely captivating and hilarious and the best kind of imaginative — the imaginative that built a world that was a joy to inhabit for the movie’s run time.
“Zootopia 2” exists in that same world. In fact it picks up exactly where the first movie left off, with Nick Wilde the fox and Judy Hopps the bunny becoming partners in the Zootopia police department.
The movie reunites most of the major characters from the first film and introduces some new ones. Including reptiles. Indeed, the plot of the second movie is an exploration of the history of Zootopia and the absence of snakes, lizards, and other cold-blooded creatures from the animal-inhabited metropolis. This story is at times interesting and at other times a bit shaggy and a little slow. It’s also centered around a snake who is just not very interesting. It was, however, a clear message on the dangers of othering groups of people (or animals) and one I was glad we were learning as a family.
The movie really shines when there are many animal characters in the frame. There’s a portion where Judy and Nick visit a marsh neighborhood for the first time and we get to see a dolphin bartender, some sea lion buskers who do not appreciate being erroneously referred to as seals, and walrus gondaleers whose torsos are also the gondolas.
The movie is punctuated by these short, detail-filled scenes that bring life to the idea that animals could live together in a society with jobs and clothes and modes of transportation. I just wish there were a little more of them. But as it is, I appreciate its snappy 1 hour, 18-minute run time — the exact length of time a family film should be. And, despite some shagginess, the plot had zero detectable holes.
The same, sadly, cannot be said for the other Part 2 movie currently in theaters. But I’m glad to have at least one good sequel out there for families looking for a chance to spend a couple of hours watching talking animals learn important lessons about belonging.