The director says Zootopia 2 shows how useful differences can be and sees the potential for more sequels

A large city with several neighborhoods, whose residents are very different from each other, and hosts events such as a music festival in the desert and a party at the mansion of a tycoon. This might be the description of many modern cities, if their inhabitants were not entirely made up of animals, as is the case here Zootopia 2a new Disney animated film premiering in cinemas on Thursday 27th, which, nine years after the debut of the first film, promises to deliver a new message about respecting differences.

Judy the rabbit and Nick the fox, voiced in the Brazilian version by Monica Iozzi and Rodrigo Lombardi, return as the heroes, but this time as a pair of police officers. In the first film, they’ve already overcome some stereotypes, but they’ll have to deal with often conflicting worldviews with an even bigger difference: the secret reptilian presence in the mammal-only city.

“For this movie, we knew that differences would be important. So, we had the idea of ​​including reptiles, which are very different from mammals. We also have an area where there are dolphins, manatees and sea lions, which is very different from the animals we’ve seen in Zootopia so far. We’re always thinking about the characters and what these characters would do with the heroes,” says Jared Bush, director and creator of Zootopia, in an interview with land.

For Bush, the situations that occur in the film, such as the superficial judgments placed on the character simply because he is an animal, are a reflection of what happens in the real world, and the animation aims to show what could happen if these prejudices were overcome.

“These are animal characters in a city built for animals, but what we do is hold up a mirror to look at who we are as human beings. Something that was very important for us in the first film and no less important in this film is to ask ourselves: What mistakes do we make? What assumptions do we make? How can we learn and improve?,” he asks.

Bush adds: “It’s human nature to look at differences and care about them. What we want to do in this story is to assume that we as humans do that, but what if we talked and understood each other? We would realize that these differences have tremendous benefit. And even though we are different, working together makes us stronger.”

story Zootopia It gains two new central characters, Gary the snake, voiced by Danton Milo, who mysteriously appears in town, as well as Nibbles the beaver, who hosts a podcast with conspiracy theories. Byron Howard, the film’s director and animator, analyzes that this city of animals is a modern world just like ours, so these details are key to building the story, which he believes could be further explored in a sequel or other formats.

“The world of Zootopia is vast. This is a big city in the animal world. So there are all kinds of stories and animals that we haven’t gotten to yet. It has a lot of potential,” Howard says.