When Disney invites you to Burbank for a day at their Animation HQ, you don’t just show up — you dive into the world of Zootopia 2 (which received a new trailer earlier today). The long-awaited sequel to the 2016 Oscar winner hits theaters on November 26, 2025, but I got an early taste through a press day packed with games, creative sessions, and an inside look at how this bustling metropolis of animals is being brought back to life.
(Photo Credit: Disney)
The adventure kicked off with a Zootopia-themed escape room set inside the Police Department’s Evidence Room, where I quickly realized my detective skills weren’t quite up to Judy Hopps’ standards. From there, Disney artists guided me through sketching exercises, this time with live models, a rabbit and a porcupine, right in the room. We and the story artists tossed around ideas for how the slippery newcomer Gary De’Snake might play sports (turns out, snake basketball is tougher than it sounds). The day wrapped up in the recording booth, where I channeled my inner Jason Bateman, stepped into Nick Wilde’s shoes, and dubbed my own voice over his lines in a scene, acting opposite Nate Torrence as the ever-enthusiastic Clawhauser in real time.
The real magic, though, came from sitting down with the filmmakers.
Director Jared Bush explained the scale: “I think the biggest shot we have toward the end of the movie has 40,000 animals. They’re all doing different things that are animal-specific. It’s the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen—part of Zootopia is making the world real by filling it.” Co-director Byron Howard added that the cast chemistry helped keep things vibrant. One highlight? Real-life couple Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song recording together as siblings in the Lynxley family. “They bicker a lot,” recalls Bush. “And so typically what we’d say is, ‘here’s kind of what the line is, but just do what you wanna do for the next 10 minutes.’ And they just go to town.”
Quinta Brunson, well-known for her work on Abbott Elementary, also joins the lineup as Dr. Fuzzby, a quokka therapist assigned to Judy and Nick. Bush called it a perfect fit: “We knew we needed a scene where we got to understand what Nick’s issues are and what Judy’s issues are. Who better to dress you down and tell you all of your faults than the cutest animal on the planet? And who better to do that than Quinta?”
Then there’s Patrick Warburton as the larger-than-life Mayor Brian Winddancer, an actor-turned-politician. In the film, audiences even get a glimpse of one of his cheesy blockbusters—The Neighsayer 2. “There was this specific era in the late nineties and early 2000s of action heroes we wanted to parody,” Bush explained. Warburton is no stranger to Disney, having voiced Kronk in The Emperor’s New Groove. He, of course, leaned all the way in, modifying Winddancer’s line, “You say justice is dead. I say nay!”, to “You say justice is dead. I say NEIGHHH!”
(Photo Credit: Disney)
Producer Yvett Merino described the challenge of wrangling such a massive world: “With Encanto, we had a town, and we focused on the family. With Moana, it was a small group of characters that went out on a canoe for their adventure. Here in Zootopia, we are living in a city and in a town with so many different characters and animals and different animal types. One of the biggest challenges I had as a producer is making sure that the world felt big.” Her solution was the Story Jams, where artists doodled every possible gag for Marsh Market, from what snacks animals eat to how they might ride an escalator.
Head of Animation Chad Sellers highlighted how far the technology has come since 2016. “We updated the fur on the characters and we have so much detail in the eyes that we were able to accomplish that we weren’t 10 years ago,” said Sellers. “The eyes are the window to the soul, and we want the eyes to draw you in.” He also teased the surprises tucked into the background: “One of the biggest surprises was the seals and sea lions and seeing what they do just out in their natural habitat. There’s so many unique things, and we try to pepper that stuff in throughout the whole movie and put them in the background doing all these unique kind of movements.”
Expect plenty of Easter eggs in Zootopia 2
And yes, the team hinted at plenty of Easter eggs in Zootopia 2. “Pay attention to a lot of the signage,” advised Head of Story Carrie Liao. “Because a lot of times they have some really fun signage in there that references other movies that we’ve done.” Her colleague David VanTuyle, who also has a voice role in the film as the walrus who always says, “Hey bub!”, described these minor details as “mind-blowing.”
(Photo Credit: Disney)
No Zootopia adventure would be complete without music to match its scale, and Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino is back to score the sequel. He described his approach as striking a balance between honoring the familiar and pushing into new territory. “If you’re dealing with sequels, yes, you may want to hear something from those originals,” he explained, “but I always focused on, well, what’s this movie’s theme? What is this character’s theme? I’m not gonna apply a theme that was written for other characters to these characters. People are paying a lot of money to see these movies. You want to give them something new.”
For Giacchino, restraint is key. He compared it to knowing the right moment for a punchline: “It’s like a joke. You don’t want to tell the same joke twice. Themes are the kind of thing you need to use at the right place, at the right time, for maximum impact.” He pointed to Star Wars as an example: “When Luke is flying down the Death Star trench, it’s all action music, and then suddenly Ben Kenobi starts talking and you hear the Force theme. If that had been played constantly throughout the film, it wouldn’t have meant anything. But because it comes in at just the right moment, it’s unforgettable.”
(Photo Credit: Disney)
Leaving Disney Animation HQ that evening, past my doodles of Gary the Snake dribbling a basketball, I realized the sequel isn’t just bigger, flashier, and funnier. It’s filled with the kind of playful imagination that made the first film unforgettable.
If Zootopia taught us that anyone can be anything, Zootopia 2 is ready to prove that everyone — even a quokka therapist, a bickering lynx family, or a horse mayor with a bad action movie past — has a story worth telling.
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