How puritanical has the Disney machine become that the animated fox and bunny can’t even shack up in Zootropolis 2? Yet, the creative team here, in this otherwise witty and fun sequel, might in fact share in those frustrations, considering they’ve turned Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde’s (Jason Bateman) inability to examine their own feelings into a running joke about their new roles as “partners” at the Zootopia Police Department, bringing order to an entire metropolis of mammalians.
Having putting aside their own internal biases about prey and predators, the pair still have to wrestle with more essential differences: he’s a steadfast cynic who relies on humour to cover for a traumatic childhood, while she’s an aggressively idealistic micromanager. They end up being sent to couples – sorry, PARTNER – therapy headed by a bespectacled quokka (Quinta Brunson).
