Warning: spoilers for Zootopia 2 ahead.
What I love most about Zootopia 2 is how many references it has to Disney movies, old and new. In the sequel alone, we get references to pretty much every Disney movie where animals are the lead, like Ratatouille.
Head of animation Jared Bush tells me, "There are countless references. There's a great Tangled reference. There's some good James Bond references in there. There's a lot of references to every movie Ke Huy Quan has ever been in."
Bush was tight-lipped, but I also think there's a pretty big reference to the next Pixar movie, Hoppers... and that got me thinking. Zootopia, as a Disney IP, has the same level of trajectory as Toy Story in terms of how much can be done with its worldbuilding.
So, for all the details jam-packed in the sequel, has anything been purposefully left out for a potential Zootopia 3?
Zootopia 3 could be set in the Outback, according to its creators
"We spend four to five years making the movie, but what we're really doing is experimenting," Bush explained. "When I joined the studio 14 years ago, it took me a long time to understand that what you're trying to do is not hone something to perfection, but find out what you can do with 700 people's brilliant imaginations.
"We have a world like Zootopia where there's fun everywhere to be had. We've still have not gotten to our nocturnal district... that's one thing we really wanted to try this time. Yvett (Merino, producer) loved the idea because you just turn the lights out, and it's free animation.
He continued, "There's a lot of different biomes that we'd still love to visit that would be really fun. I'm still looking forward to going to Outback Island one day. There's lots, lots left to be discovered."
I'm definitely on board with a desert setting added to Zootopia, perhaps with some kangaroos and wombats to match. But this idea is the total opposite of my favorite biome introduced in Zootopia 2: Marsh Market. Don't worry, I've made my plea to Merino to explore the area further.
"I think Marsh market is one of my favorite new areas that we go to, and I love it because ... there's no human equivalent to it," Merino replied. "There's so much credit that goes to our amazing design team, who really kind of got into the heads of like, 'hey, if we were building this, this world for these animals that live under and above and below water, what would it look like? What would it look like to have shops underneath a restaurant underneath the water?'"
Zootopia 2 doesn't have a streaming release date yet, but stay ready with this US streaming deal:
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