Even though “Zootopia 2” is Byron Howard’s fourth Oscar nomination, the filmmaker and animator insists that the thrill of being recognized “never gets old.”
“Honestly, it’s a great ride every time and such a surprise,” he says.
While it’s understandable that Howard is being modest about the nomination, the humongous success of “Zootopia 2” — both financially and critically — means that it was always likely to be a contender for the Academy Award for best animated feature. “Zootopia 2,” which Howard co-directed with Jared Bush, was the highest-grossing American film of 2025 (earning $1.8 billion worldwide), while its story of police officers Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) pursuing Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan) was lauded for being fast, funny, thoughtful and surprisingly emotional.
Howard was asleep at his home in Los Angeles when the nominations were announced at 5:30 a.m. Jan. 22. The sudden barrage of calls and messages helped him realize that he’d once again be part of the awards season roller coaster.
“There are awards in other countries, but Los Angeles goes insane over it for four months. I actually love seeing people go through it for the first time because it is so bonkers.”
One of the first people to congratulate Howard was his mother, who lives in Seattle. (Howard was raised in Issaquah.) Seattle is where Howard first fell in love with movies, as his father was a cinephile who would take him to see all the latest releases, like “Star Wars” and the “Indiana Jones” films, as well as bona fide classics made by Akira Kurosawa.
When it comes to the one film that inspired Howard to become a director, he always cites “Superman: The Movie.” The combination of Richard Donner’s direction and John Williams’ score proved just how powerful and transformative Hollywood movies could be.
That’s why, even now after a quartet of nominations for “Bolt,” “Encanto” and the two “Zootopia” films, Howard still basks in the glitz, glamour and celebrity of getting to attend the Oscars. At the Oscars Luncheon, which was held on Feb. 10 and saw all the nominees gathering for a meal and photo, Howard got to meet a number of filmmakers and creatives that he’d usually never get the chance to interact with.
“You get to sit next to documentarians, producers, actors, short directors that you’d never ordinarily meet. It’s all randomly seated. This year, for the photo, I actually got one of the best placements, because Leonardo DiCaprio was right behind me. I didn’t even realize at the time because they moved me there.”
On the day of the Oscars itself — which takes place on Sunday — Howard says he and his fellow “Zootopia 2” producers and filmmakers will have made a loose plan of who they’re going to thank onstage, if they win. However, when he won the same prize for “Zootopia” in 2017, he was actually more worried about tripping over his oversized trousers than what he was going to say.
“I remember thinking as I walked up, my trousers were kind of loose, and I was just thinking, ‘Don’t trip, don’t trip, don’t trip.’ I’m not used to dressing up like that.”
Having also won the Academy Award for best animated feature for “Encanto” in 2022, Howard is now used to giving acceptance speeches. He admits that they can be rather intimidating, especially as “there’s literally a countdown clock staring at you and the venue is so huge,” but the adrenaline usually kicks in and pushes him through.
The Academy also shows nominees a video that guides them on how to give a good speech. “It says be genuine, be sincere, don’t just do a list of ‘thank you.’ Then they show great speeches from the past, like Halle Berry. In fact, one of the ones they showed was Ke Huy Quan when he won for ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once,’ because he is such a genuine person.”
The mention of Quan leads Howard to reflect on the huge success of “Zootopia 2,” something he admits he still can’t get his head around.
“We’d hoped that it would do at least as well as the first one, but I would never have guessed it would get those kinds of numbers.”
Howard believes that the nine-year gap between films meant there was a desire from audiences to catch up with the characters and see how they could grow. He also notes that the benefit of having animals as characters is that there’s a universal appeal to them. “No matter where you are in the world, you can see yourself in them,” he says.
Most of all, though, he’s proud that the film reflected the current political strife that’s blighting countries across the world while still being entertaining.
“I think that people liked that it talked about the difficulties of where the world is right now. There are powerful folks trying to pull us apart. We have to hold on to each other a little tighter. We didn’t want to sugarcoat any of that.”
Howard is adamant that there won’t be a nine-year gap between the second and third installments of the “Zootopia” franchise, insisting he’d love to “play in the sandbox forever,” although he did add the reminder, “These films take a minimum of between three and five years to make.” For the time being, though, his thoughts turn to the Oscars, celebrating cinema and — hopefully — not tripping up over his trousers in front of his peers and the millions watching at home.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com ’
