Zootopia 2

Story:

The 2025 American animated buddy cop comedy Zootopia 2 (also known as Zootropolis 2 in various territories) is a follow-up to Zootopia (2016) and was produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film, which was written and directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard, features Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Shakira, Idris Elba, Alan Tudyk, Nate Torrence, Don Lake, Bonnie Hunt, and Jenny Slate as well as Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Patrick Warburton, Quinta Brunson, and Danny Trejo. The movie follows Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde as they search Zootopia for a pit viper named Gary De’Snake and attempt to clear their names after being set up.

On November 13, 2025, Zootopia 2 debuted at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. On November 26, it was distributed in the US. After receiving favorable reviews from critics, the movie made $1.870 billion worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing animated movie ever, the ninth-highest-grossing movie ever, and the second-highest-grossing movie of 2025. Among many other honors, it won Best Animated Feature at the 79th British Academy Film Awards and was nominated in the same category at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards (together with Cinematic and Box Office Achievement), the 31st Critics’ Choice Awards, and the 98th Academy Awards.

Plot

A week after Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde join the Zootopia Police Department (ZPD) as partners, Chief Bogo threatens to split them up if they can’t work together because of their conflicting personalities. Even though snakes haven’t been seen in Zootopia in years, Judy discovers a piece of snake skin during a raid on a smuggling ring. Unfazed, she learns that a snake might be present at the Zootennial Gala, which Milton Lynxley, whose grandfather Ebenezer established Zootopia, is hosting to commemorate its centennial.

Judy makes friends with Pawbert, the Lynxley family’s youngest son and black sheep, while she and Nick sneak into the Gala. In the meantime, Milton is abducted by a hooded creature that crashes the party and shows himself to be a pit viper. He uses Milton’s eye to open a digitally guarded glass case that holds an ancient journal that details the construction of the weather walls that control Zootopia’s temperature zones.

When Judy confronts the viper, he admits that the journal has proof that clears his family. Milton orders that the journal be destroyed and the viper killed in order to protect his family’s reputation, but Judy refuses, setting the room on fire. The Lynxleys frame Judy and Nick for the murder after ZPD Captain Hoggbottom sees the viper unintentionally biting Bogo, causing them to flee with the journal as the viper is retrieved by an unidentified biker. After that, Milton gives the newly elected mayor and former actor Brian Winddancer—whom Milton has covertly backed—the order to find and capture Judy, Nick, and the viper.

Judy and Nick, who are now on the run, meet conspiracy-thinking beaver Nibbles Maplestick, who takes them to Marsh Market, a remote part of Zootopia where reptiles lurk. There, Jesús, a basilisk, recounts that the reptiles’ previous neighborhood was buried when Tundratown, Zootopia’s arctic district, was built. Tundratown is predicted to grow to Marsh Market. The viper emerges, takes the journal, and flees through a water tunnel after the ZPD, commanded by Hoggbottom, locates Judy and Nick and they just make it out. Judy and Nick argue and shatter their shared carrot pen as they ascend to an abandoned chalet in search of the viper.

Judy learns inside that reptiles used to coexist peacefully in Zootopia. Nick is arrested by the ZPD after they corner them. However, the viper, who poses as Gary De’Snake, and his motorcycle companion, who turns out to be Pawbert, save Judy by revealing that Agnes, Gary’s great-grandmother, was not only the journal’s original author but also Zootopia’s real creator. Ebenezer, her avaricious financier, copied her engineering work on the weather walls and then falsely accused her of killing his tortoise maid when she attempted to prevent him from destroying the original patent. After her death, the general public began to despise reptiles, which ultimately resulted in their banishment from Zootopia.

Nick finds Judy at the Desert-Tundratown weather wall, where she, Gary, and Pawbert activate an old clock tower to find the buried reptile district, concluding that the patent is concealed in Agnes’ home. Nick escapes from prison with the help of Nibbles, whom the ZPD also arrested, while unintentionally releasing numerous inmates. Pawbert, however, betrays Judy and Gary by disclosing his plans to ruin the patent and gain the respect of his family. He tosses Gary into the snow, injects Judy with snake venom, and takes the antivenom. When Nick reaches the wall, he battles Pawbert for the antivenom and throws it to Gary, who heals Judy. Following their emotional reconciliation, Winddancer destroys the remaining Lynxleys as Judy and Nick, along with Gary and Nibbles, pursue and subdue Pawbert, who is barely alive.

The Lynxleys are apprehended once their crimes are revealed, and Agnes is ultimately acknowledged as Zootopia’s real creator. Reptiles are fully reintegrated back into Zootopia when Judy and Nick are cleared, Bogo recovers, and the Tundratown expansion to Marsh Market is canceled. After Gary and his family are back together, Nick gives Judy the recently fixed carrot pen. Then, they start looking for the escaped prisoners that Nick unintentionally released earlier, beginning with their former enemy Dawn Bellwether.

Judy replays a tape of Nick declaring his love for her on her carrot pen during a post-credits sequence, but her neighbors interrupt and argue over whether or not she should stop playing the recording. Something flies by her window after she departs, leaving a bird feather on her ledge.