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Zootopia 2
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Spoilers for Zootopia (2016) and Zootopia+ will remain unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Zootopia 2 (Western Animation)
Zootopia will be changed furrrever.
Nick: Let me ask you something: do you think we're a good team?
Judy: Of course. I just... I just wish I knew what we had to do to prove it to everyone else.

Zootopia 2note  is a 2025 animated mystery comedy film, the 64th entry in the Disney Animated Canon, and the sequel to 2016's Zootopia. It was directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard.

Having just foiled a massive conspiracy and cemented an unlikely partnership, ZPD officers Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) have found that their new team-up hasn't been as solid as they'd hoped after a mere week of working together. When the supposedly all-mammal city is suddenly turned on its head by the arrival of Gary De'Snake (Ke Huy Quan), a mysterious reptile on a mission of his own, Judy and Nick find their partnership put to the test as they work to unravel a dark conspiracy involving reptiles, an "innocent" family of lynxes and an antique book that could change the future of Zootopia for good...

The film was released theatrically on November 26, 2025, and became available for digital rental and purchase on platforms such as Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV on January 27, 2026, followed by a physical media release on March 3, 2026. It premiered on Disney+ on March 11, 2026.

Zootopia 2 provides examples of:

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    A-M 
  • Abandoned Area: The Honeymoon Lodge, a dilapidated hotel on the cliffs of Copenhoofen. Gary De'snake uses it as a hideout while trying to gather evidence to exonerate his great-grandmother. Judy and Nick investigate the place, and are nearly apprehended by ZPD officers—leading to a chase that results in the Lodge's foundation splitting in half, and most of the structure falling down the mountainside. (The location, and its destruction, is symbolic for the growing rift between Nick and Judy, which is threatening their partnership: the honeymoon is over.)
  • Abhorrent Admirer: At the Reptile Hangout, Nick accidentally steps on the tail of a red tegu lady, causing it to fall off. When he frantically tries reattaching it to her body without her noticing, she looks at him, chuckles, gives him a flirtatious smile, and tells him to keep the tail, much to Nick's disgust. He throws the still-squirming tail onto a waiter's tray, shudders, and walks away with the lady lizard still smiling and staring at him.
  • Aborted Arc:
    • When Nick and Judy are undercover as a couple, Snootley offhandedly comments on Nick and Judy's interspecies relationship in a questioning but relatively accepting manner. While it seems like this might set up a conflict regarding their developing relationship, it is simply only teased throughout the rest of the movie.
    • Later at the gala, Nick appears to get jealous when he sees Judy and Pawbert hitting it off. This doesn't go anywhere either.note 
  • Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal:
    • Gary wears a fanny pack carrying anti-venom and a few markers.
    • In one of her podcasts, Nibbles wonders if snakes wear half a pair of pants or one long sock. When they get to the reptile district, a long sock is seen on a clothesline, answering her question.
  • Actionized Sequel: The first film had fairly limited action, culminating in defeating the Big Bad through trickery. This film increases the action noticeably with more frequent set pieces, complete with the Lynxley family providing a big action confrontation towards the end.
  • Actor Allusion:
    • Gazelle's purple outfit at the gala looks similar to the outfit that Shakira wore during one of her concerts. Shakira herself wears the same outfit in the music video.
    • Gazelle does an elbow drop onto the Zebros, a nod to their voice actors, pro wrestlers Roman Reigns and CM Punk.
    • Michael J. says to Nick "What are you lookin' at, butthead?!" The same quote said by Biff to Marty McFly, whom Michael J. Fox plays.
    • Duke Weaselton's bootleg DVD selection now includes a parody of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which starred Gary's actor Ke Huy Quan as Short Round, ironically depicted as a mouse on the cover. When Gary's family is shown, one of his relatives wears Short Round's baseball cap.
    • Gary is always wearing a fanny pack, which brings to mind what Waymond, Ke Huy Quan's character, wore in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
    • Gary's family at the end brings references to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, with one wearing a hat like Indy, and one wearing a hat like Short Round (Quan's character in that film). Some have suggested the mother might be based on Willie as well.
    • Ke Huy Quan's character being a snake. Snakes are such a prominent part of the Indiana Jones franchise that we named a trope after it.
    • The Zebros' partnership and relationship is similar to the relationship between their actors, CM Punk and Roman Reigns, in the then-current WWE Raw storyline where CM Punk publicly announced that he would back up Roman reclaiming his title.
  • Agony of the Feet: When Nick is heading to his home underneath the gym, one of the exercising elephants drops their weights on their foot. They hop around holding their foot, causing visible shaking in the building.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Pawbert decides to go kill Nick and Nibbles to leave no loose ends, Judy grabs his leg and pleads with him to not kill them or destroy Agnes De Snake's patent saying "You can be different from your family." Pawbert simply states "I don't wanna be different."
  • The Alleged House: The Honeymoon Lodge is a long-abandoned cliffside wreck with floorboards that can barely support body weight, held together largely by structural inertia. It does not survive the ZPD's arrival — one officer accidentally clips a load-bearing beam and the whole structure begins splitting apart.
  • Almost Out of Oxygen: Nibbles tried to warn Nick and Judy that the Red Line pipe out of Marsh Market was long enough that they would not be able to hold their breath to the end. Judy ran after Gary too fast for that to register. Nick followed, and fortunately was able to get Judy to an emergency escape hatch before they lost consciousness and drowned.
  • Amazing Technicolor Wildlife:
    • Downplayed with Gary, a blue snake. Blue snakes do indeed exist in real life, although they are quite rare (even within the species, green is the dominant colour).
    • Also downplayed with the female red lizard Nick meets in the Reptile Speakeasy. Her colors and patterns match those of the red tegu.
  • And the Adventure Continues:
  • And There Was Much Rejoicing: Happens with the residents of Marsh Market when the news announces that the Lynxleys have been arrested and thus the Tundratown expansion has been cancelled.
  • Angry, Angry Hippos: Higgins and Bloats are a pair of hippo ZPD officers that are among the ZPD officers who chase after Judy and Nick, and they're incredibly persistent while in Marsh Market thanks to the wetlands terrain.
  • Angry Fist-Shake: The polar bear who runs a snowcat rental does this after getting his scarf swiped by Nick for Gary.
  • Animal Facial Hair:
    • During the beginning chase, Ebenezer Lynxley's statue shows that he sported a long mustache during his life, which is seen during a flashback of what happened during the time when he was still alive.
    • Russ the walrus' bushy whiskers have the appearance of a bushy mustache.
    • Milton Lynxley (the patriarch of the Lynxley family) has two small tufts of fur near his nose, which give the impression of small mustache.
    • Officer Bloats (one of the two hippo ZPD officers who chases after Judy and Nick) has bristly gray hairs on her lips and chin that give the impression of human facial hair.
  • Animal Gender-Bender: Female sea lions are shown to be as big as the males, when they should be smaller.
  • Animal Jingoism:
    • Played for Laughs with the animal partners in the group therapy, who are all natural enemies.
    • Played for Drama with the main conflict between reptiles and mammals, the latter of which consider the other to be so vastly different that they are instantly hostile to them, hence why reptiles are not seen in the first film.
    • The Lynxleys, as lynxes, are this to both Judy and Nick. According to the filmmakers, this is because lynxes prey primarily on rabbits, and in Nick's case, it draws on the Cat/Dog Dichotomy between felines (lynxes) and canines (foxes). It helps that lynxes and red foxes are major ecological competitors in real life as well, and the former will even prey on the latter.
    • To a lesser extent, the Lynxleys opposing the De'Snakes is meant to represent the climate rivalry between warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals.
    • Similarly, the Lynxleys planning to pave over Marsh Market represents the rivalry between terrestrial and aquatic animals.
    • The Lynxleys are also shown to be feared even by Mr. Big and his daughter Fru Fru, who are Arctic shrews, mirroring the famous rivalry between cats and small mammals (particularly mice and rats, which shrews resemble).
  • Animals Not to Scale:
    • Gary, implied to be a Sunda Island pit viper, is ridiculously large, about the size of the largest snakes in the real world.
    • Same with Jesús, a plumed basilisk who is as big as Nick, even though in real life plumed basilisks are way smaller than red foxes; most of the background lizards, especially those which are patterned after geckos, are larger than they should be, being uniformly around Nick's size (apart from the two geckos who climb on Nick for warmth, which are appropriately tiny).
    • Additionally, Nibbles is quite small for a beaver, being shorter than Judy the rabbit.
    • Dr. Fuzzby the quokka is comically small, being not much larger than a mouse despite quokkas being about cat-sized — probably a remnant of earlier concepts, in which she was a chinchilla (which are admittedly still much larger than mice).
  • Answer Cut: When Nibbles remarks that she and Nick will need someone fast enough to get them to Judy's location, Nick smiles as he knows the right guy. Cut to a sports car driven by Flash arriving to pick them up.
  • Arc Word: "Different." It has a threefold meaning in the context of the story: first, how Nick and Judy try and ultimately succeed in understanding and resolving their differences, how the reptiles don't want to be treated different and instead treated fairly by mammals, and finally, how Pawbert is an outcast from his family... and unfortunately, decides he doesn't want to be different from them.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Nibbles gives one to Mayor Winddancer, in order to convince him to help her and Gary turn the tide against the Lynxleys.
    Nibbles: Hey, Brian Winddancer! You wanna be a hero, or just play one on TV?
  • Artistic License – Biology: Has its own page.
  • Artistic License – Prison: Real Life prisons don't have a "release all prisoners" button, as that would be a huge security risk (as the film itself demonstrates).
  • Ascended Extra:
    • While Officer Higgins is still a minor character, he gets more screen time and lines in the movie compared to the first Zootopia, thanks to being one of the ZPD officers who chase after Judy, Nick, and Gary.
    • Flash Slothmore has a slightly bigger role in this movie compared to the first, as he actually gets to assist Nick and Judy with his speed driving during the pre-climax. The same applies to Gazelle, who meets Judy in person for the first time here and even helps her out.
  • Ascended Fridge Horror: The previous film established Zootopia as a city of only mammals, leading to speculation that other sapient animals, particularly birds and reptiles hinted at by the creators, were banned from the city. This film confirms that reptiles are indeed banned from Zootopia, with those in the city effectively relegated to a ghetto, because of an incident allegedly involving a viper murdering a tortoise, when it was actually a frame-up by a racist mammal plotting to steal credit from a viper's work and defame reptiles to gain fame and riches. The Stinger notably hints to the existence of birds, suggesting their absence will be addressed in the next film.
  • Ascended to Carnivorism: Judy (who is a rabbit) eats a live worm in order not to offend reptiles present in the Reptile Speakeasy. Though she nearly throws up in the process (not that Nick fares much better).
  • Attack the Tail: An accidental one occurs when Nick steps on the tail of a female red tegu lizard, causing it to fall off. Understandably horrified, he frantically tries to reattach it to her body, but she notices and tells him to keep it with a chuckle, knowing she will grow a new tail. An even more disturbed Nick tosses the still squirming tail onto a waiter's tray.
  • Bad Liar: Judy says that she and Nick have been partners for a total of one week, and that everything is fine. But not only is Judy trying to run this past the couples therapy animal Dr. Fuzzby (who sees right through Judy), Judy has a very obvious tell of rapidly tapping her foot when she's suppressing discomfort. Dr. Fuzzby calls out the latter, prompting Judy to try and awkwardly stop her foot from moving.
  • Bad Ol' Badger: In the therapy scene, Karen, a honey badger officer, responds with violence when her partner, Joel, a deer, smiles at her.
  • Bad Taste Call-Out: Nick comments that what Judy did with her ears is worse than her idea to sneak into a Gala to look for a snake. He gets a punch in the gut for it.
  • Bait-and-Switch:
    • In the opening, Clawhauser explains to an infuriated Chief Bogo that Judy and Nick have entered a crime area against his wishes "with their baby". Turns out it's not really their baby, but Finnick in a disguise, and the film continues to keep the duo's relationship platonic with varying levels of Ship Tease.
    • After one of Gary's venomous fangs accidentally gets stuck in Chief Bogo's head, Mayor Winddancer makes an announcement.
      Mayor Winddancer: Chief Bogo is dead... Those are words I'm glad I don't have to say!
    • Twofold at the climax: at the climate wall, it briefly seems like Nick has been locked outside by Nibbles and is about to be roasted alive by the heaters, only for Nibbles to get the door open at the last second and pull him in. Judy, watching over the security monitors, expresses relief that it wasn't a betrayal like in the last movie... and then Pawbert injects her with snake venom.
  • Bathos: Jesús solemnly encourages Judy and Nick to stop the Lynxleys and prove to the world that reptiles aren't that different from mammals, which is immediately followed by him running on the water in a silly manner, baffling the mammals.
  • Batter Up!: In the climax, Gary takes a baseball bat — produced by Nibbles — to smack it over Pawbert's head.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Pawbert Lynxley betrays Judy and Gary because he prefers to be like his family, and he achieves that in the worst way.
  • Berserk Button: Played for Laughs. Mr. Big and Fru Fru don't take too kindly to those who take anything Little Judith says or does as endearing or childlike when it comes to the family business, as Nick finds out.
  • Big Damn Heroes: At the weather wall, Flash's car (with Nick and Nibbles aboard) screeches in to block a poisonous arrow aimed at Judy.
  • Big Damn Reunion: After the first fight between Nick and Pawbert, with Judy having just been saved by Gary's antivenom pen, Nick and Judy get to their feet and go right into each other's arms, expressing relief that they were okay. Especially since Pawbert had told Nick that Judy was dead.
  • Big Electric Switch: The power to the buried reptile neighborhood is controlled by a single large lever. A flashback shows Ebenezer Lynxley throwing it off to seal the neighborhood's fate. Later, Judy, Gary, and Pawbert throw the same lever back on, and the old clock tower begins to glow.
  • Big "NO!": Judy shouts “OH NO!” after Nick has hit Gary in the head with a frying pan, given that Gary earlier told her that he doesn't have any ill intentions and just wants to help his family, due to instantly realizing what a bad move that was.
  • Black-Tie Infiltration: Judy and Nick crash the Zootennial Gala by dressing the part, with Nick in particular being completely in his element working the room and sweet-talking his way past suspicious eyes.
  • Bland-Name Product:
    • The keyboard the lemmings are seen dancing on during the credits is a "Catzio" keyboard.
    • Nick watches a streaming service called "Huluzoo".
    • Volkswagens are called "Wolfswagen" In-Universe.
    • Judy browses the Internet using "Zoogle".
    • Fru Fru has control over a counterfeiting ring making fake "Gnucci" handbags.
    • The reptile bar sells "Bug Light" beer.
  • Blipvert: The teaser ends with a fast-paced montage, flashing single-frame shots of the entire cast.
  • Bookends:
    • The movie begins with Judy bursting the door open after capturing the twist criminal Dawn Bellwether with Nick by her side. It ends with Judy bursting the door open after capturing the twist criminal Pawbert Lynxley with Nick, Gary and Nibbles by her side.
    • The movie opens by revisiting Bellwether's capture at the end of the first film and ends with Nick and Judy recapturing her after her escape.
    • The carrot pen opens and closes the film — Judy gives it to Nick as a gift in the opening montage, and in the final scene, Nick hands it back to her, repaired, without a word of explanation needed.
  • Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Gary kidnaps Milton and uses his eye in a scanner to release the journal from its glass case.
  • Brick Joke:
    • At the gala, Gazelle swears vengeance on the Zebros, when they rudely push one of her tiger dancers out of the way. While covering for Judy at Burning Mammal, she and her tiger dancers beat the stripes off of them when they meet again.
    • One of Nibbles' conspiracy theories involves koalas having four thumbs. In the final scene when Bellwether attempts to flee for the Outback, Robert Furwin, a koala, asks to give her four thumbs up.
    • In her conspiracy video about snakes, she wonders whether snakes wear one pant leg or a single sock. When they find the frozen snake district of town, she is delighted to see a long frozen sock.
    • At the gala, Chief Bogo is presented by a lemming waiter a complimentary tiny glass of wine, which he accepts in his own stoic way. At the end, he does the same with a box of donuts presented to him by Clawhauser as a get-well present.
    • Nick isn't happy about Judy turning down Mr. Big's offer to help them flee town, and suggests that they could be "sitting on a beach on Outback Island sipping piña koalas". In the epilogue, an escaped Bellwether is shown attempting to flee to Outback Island.
    • During the epilogue at the airport, Nick and Judy are seen sporting ridiculous undercover moustaches and presumably using the same forged IDs provided by Mr. Big much earlier in the film.
  • Call-Back:
    • As a Freeze-Frame Bonus, Judy prepares herself another frozen carrot dinner (with another shriveled up specimen) as she prepares to do research about the incident regarding snakes and the Lynxleys' journal.
    • At the gala, Chief Bogo accepts the complimentary mouse-sized wine and drinks it delicately, finding himself enjoying the taste, like Nick when he was trying the shrew-sized wedding cake.
    • Nick tries to get on the polar bears' good side with the same phrase he greeted them with in the first film. He's stopped before he can even finish.
    • Fru Fru tells Judy she loves her dress, to which Judy gives a high-pitched "Oh, thank you", much like Fru Fru accepted Judy's compliments.
    • Milton Lynxley, while threatening Mayor Winddancer to hunt down Judy and Nick, brought up how these two managed to ruin the mayoral careers of Lionheart and Bellwether.
    • "Flash, Flash, hundred yard dash!"
    • When everyone is celebrating at the De'Snakes' residence, we see they've bought Jumbo Popsicles that they make smaller popsicles out of.
    • When Pawbert fights Nick in the snow, he tells Nick he "[doesn't] know when to quit," the same way Gideon Grey does in the beginning of the first movie, making it somewhat of a Meaningful Echo
    • Judy reiterates the quote she said to Bellwether when the protagonists stop Pawbert, this time with Nick finishing her sentence.
  • The Cameo:
  • Can't Believe I Said That:
    • After his first encounter with Judy at the gala, Pawbert closes with "Bon appetit" and immediately realizes that was a strange thing to say. Judy, for her part, finds the whole thing rather charming.
    • During the garden maze phase of the race to Reptile Ravine, Nick says something even he immediately regrets to Judy before they jump out of the bulldozer to tackle Pawbert:
      Nick: ZOOGETHERNESS! Huh? ...no, nevermind, forget I said it.
  • Captcha Gag: Clawhauser needs to enter a mole's tiny computer to get access to Judy's location. After struggling to type in the password, Clawhauser is stopped by a check box and an image selection of cheeses.
  • Cardboard Prison: When Nick and Nibbles are put in prison, it takes them about 10 minutes at most to break out. This is primarily due to Nibbles's ability to make a key out of the wood, but even ignoring that, the prison barely seems to have any guards, none of the doors are locked to the outside, and most notably, there is a button that instantly releases all of the prisoners, allowing them all to escape with little problem.
  • Cartoony Eyes: Zig-zagged. Keeping in line with the previous film, most animal characters (including the reptiles ones) have cartoonish eyes but background characters do not. Gary and the snake characters have Animal Eyes like actual snakes, but with smaller irises and pupils. Also, Nibbles and the vending machine mouse have human-like eyes, even though other beavers and mice have simple black ones.
  • Cassandra Bystander: As the heroes close in on victory, the defeated Pawbert insists no one will believe the word of a snake, a pair of disgraced officers, and a conspiracy theorist over the Lynxley name. He is wrong. Agnes' original patent is the kind of evidence that speaks for itself, and it does.
  • Casting Gag: Ke Huy Quan, who started his career playing Indiana Jones's sidekick, is cast as a snake, Indy's biggest fear.
  • The Cat Came Back: A literal example. The protagonists beat up and tie up Pawbert and make their way into Reptile Ravine. But when they find the patent at the De'Snakes' house, Pawbert has broken free and followed them all the way there, attempting to destroy them all by setting the place on fire. Fortunately subverted when Hoggbottom promptly knocks him out with a frying pan, preventing any more strikes from him.
  • Cats Love Laser Pointers: While working as a parking attendant for the Zootennial Gala, Clawhauser is briefly distracted by the lights he is holding and accidentally causes a car to crash into the snow, due to the driver and passenger being respectively a leopard and a tiger also distracted by the lights.
    Clawhauser: Cats and lights! I know better!
  • Cement Shoes: Played for dark comedy. Fru Fru's young daughter cheerfully reminds her grandfather mid-meeting that they still need to make cement shoes for Mr. Weaselton as promised.
  • Central Theme: "Differences" are the core idea of the film's two major conflicts (Judy and Nick's partnership and the segregation of reptiles). Things go off the rails when two characters (Judy and Pawbert) become unable to accept differences in perspective regarding those conflicts and gravitate towards people of similar thinking to them.
  • Character in the Logo: In the trailers and promos, Gary forms the 2 in the logo using his body. According to the directors, this idea of a snake forming the two was what led to the reptile theme for the sequel.
  • Chase Scene: Judy and Nick pursue Gary through Marsh Market after he takes the journal away and then go down a water tunnel to escape the cops who have just located them.
  • Chekhov's Gag:
    • Nick and Judy's Car Chase after Snootley culminates with them destroying the statue of Ebeneezer Lynxley. Later, they destroy a smaller statue of Ebeneezer as they drive a snowcat after Pawbert in a hedge maze.
    • After their first counseling session, Nick buys soda from a vending machine and accidentally tosses it into Paul Moldebrandt's office. Later, when Nick is calling Clawhauser to urge him to get into Paul's computer, Clawhauser slips on the same soda can, resulting in Paul being trapped in the donut box he was carrying. Results in a Brick Joke at the end, when the heroes are visiting Chief Bogo at the hospital, Clawhauser presents to him the donut box, with Paul still in it.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Early in the film, Nick warns Judy that cell phones are essentially Tracking Devices - a warning that becomes critical when Pawbert's phone leads the Lynxleys' hunters directly to their location.
    • When Judy finds herself sharing a motorcycle sidecar with Gary and his very large fangs in close proximity, he reassures her that he always carries an antivenom pen in case of accidents. It gets a lot more than casual reassurance later when the pen becomes the only thing standing between Judy and death — and then Nibbles after her.
  • Chekhov's Gunman:
    • Mr. Big and his bodyguards are shown to be attending the gala, meaning he's able to bail out Judy and Nick when things go south.
    • Despite being a slow sloth, Flash was seen at the end of the first film revealed to be a fast driver. After Nick and Nibbles break out of prison, he calls on Flash to drive them to where Judy is, once more showing off his expert driving skills despite a very slow start.
  • Chekhov's Skill:
    • Gary has the ability to detect heat, which plays a role in deciphering the journal he stole. When Pawbert poisons Judy and leaves Gary out in the cold climate, he sees that Judy is still warm and gathers enough heat to recover so he can get his anti-venom pen with Nick's help.
    • When Nick watches one of Mayor Winddancer's movies on TV, it is shown to be an action movie where he appears to invokeddo his own fight choreography. During the climax, Winddancer singlehandedly takes out most of the Lynxley family using the same martial arts moves displayed in the film Nick watched, down to the catchphrase.
  • Clear My Name:
    • Gary infiltrated the Zootennial Gala to steal the Lynxley journal because he believes it can help him clear his family's legacy and get back his home. Pawbert reveals that the journal actually belonged to Gary's great-grandmother, who was the inventor of Zootopia's Weather Wall system. Pawbert's great-grandfather stole the patent and framed the De'Snakes, leading to prejudice against all reptile kind.
    • The Lynxleys accuse Judy of using Gary's fang to infect Chief Bogo. The rest of the movie has Judy and Nick avoiding the cops so they can clear their names by capturing Gary and later help him foil a century-long conspiracy that endangered his family.
  • Coincidental Broadcast: While Judy is at home going over her therapy homework, a TV broadcast running in the background mentions the infamous reptile attack from a century ago — and cuts to footage showing the same catering truck from the Snootley case, now confirmed to be working the Zootennial Gala.
  • Cold Hurts Reptiles: In the trailer, Judy and Nick carry Gary (a snake) when he's frozen solid in Tundratown, and in the film proper, he nearly freezes to death when Pawbert opens the door to Tundratown so that he won't be able to save Judy.
  • Comically Missing the Point: When Nibbles appears in Nick's prison cell and hugs him out of nowhere, Nick immediately asks how she managed it. She responds by patiently explaining what a hug is. …Before suddenly realizing what he meant and pulling out the mop handle she gnawed into the shape of a key.
  • Comic-Book Time: Although the film is set very shortly after the first movie (which more or less reflected the culture of the year it came out, 2016), it contains numerous references to media that came out in the years between then and 2025, such as an in-universe equivalent to Disney+, which wasn't launched until 2019 in real lifenote  and Andor, which did not premiere until 2022. Duke even makes a remark about how movies are struggling more to make revenue.
  • Company Cross-References:
    • Nick checks out what's streaming on Huluzoo, and the menu has media released for Deersney, Star Roars, Mammal Studios, Pigsar, ELKS, Searchlion Pictures, and Rat Geo.
    • The streaming service has many Freeze-Frame Bonuses of various works, including Ramdor, FuturLlamanote , Piggity Falls, Ham-iltonnote , Die Herd: Die Herder, and Platypus.
    • During the rave section of the teaser, a zebra can be seen dressed as Darth Vader.
    • Before the above rave from the teaser happens, Judy, Nick, and Gary end up getting cornered by ZPD rhino officers, quite similar to how in Robin Hood (1973) the titular hero gets cornered by Prince John's rhino guards after his disguise falls off.
    • A Mickey Mouse plush can be seen on one of the desks of the ZPD IT department.
    • To infiltrate the Zootennial Gala with Nick, Judy wears a gold dress that looks very similar to Belle's.
    • During the chase, while in the kitchen, Judy and Nick make one of the chef's hats fall off to reveal he is being puppeteered by a rat.
      French Raccoon Chef: I knew it!
    • Sea lion characters in Marsh Market resemble Fluke and Rudder from Finding Dory.
    • When the walrus finds out it's Nick and Judy's (work) anniversary, he puts on special lighting and plays "Bella Notte".
    • One of the posters hanging by the mole ZPD officers' desk shows a leaf on which is written "Crush the bugs", a nod to Zootopia show Better Zoogether replacing It's Tough to Be a Bug! at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom.
    • One of the billboards that appears in Marsh Market says "Fish are food", which is a dark twist on the Shark Trio motto "fish are friends, not food" from Finding Nemo.
    • Two of the shops in the Marsh Market are called "Ariel's Grotto" and "Hook's Bait and Tackle," and a billboard is seen advertising the "Cabbages & Kings Olde Marsh Faire."
    • Nick hits Gary in the head with a frying pan, similar to how a frying pan was Rapunzel's go-to weapon in Tangled. Byron Howard even confirmed at the 15th Anniversary special showing of Tangled at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood that this is the same frying pan that Rapunzel is using. And for bonus points, Rapunzel used that frying pan on another snake, Kaa, in Once Upon a Studio. Hoggbottom also uses this on Pawbert from behind to stop him from burning down the original patent, just like how Rapunzel knocked out Flynn when he entered her room.
    • Pawbert, after pretending to be the white sheep of his family, tries to kill Judy and leaves her friend, Gary, to freeze to death. Now, what other Disney villain do we know who shares those traits?
    • The blue gecko that sticks to Nick's shirt resembles Hodari from The Lion Guard.
    • One of the members of the band performing at the reptile hideout is a frilled lizard who resembles Frank from The Rescuers Down Under.
    • The way Nick slurps up a worm is similar to how Simba eats a caterpillar in The Lion King (1994). Nick doesn't find it "slimy, yet satisfying" however.
    • Duke is at it again, selling bootlegs of films such as Floatsen II and the tentative live-action remake of Wrangled.
    • A Mouseketeer hat is on the hat stand at the Marsh Market.
    • During The Stinger, Judy's loud neighbors quickly devolve into yelling at each other to shut up.
  • Compromising Call: Judy and Nick's scheme to bust Snootley's smuggling operation falls apart at the worst possible moment when Chief Bogo's voice blares out over the police radio giving instructions.
  • Conflicting Loyalty: When the lodge splits apart, Judy is faced with an impossible choice: stay with Nick, who is about to be surrounded by ZPD officers, or follow Gary and Pawbert forward with the only lead they have left. The decision is effectively made for her when a Tranquilizer Dart hits her and Pawbert catches her before she falls.
  • Construction Vehicle Rampage: Judy and Nick hijack a snowplow and smash through a hedge maze in pursuit of one of the villains.
  • Contrast Montage:
    • Judy and Nick have one during their Synchronized Morning Routine.
    • Judy and Nick take different approaches to their group therapy study after leaving the class. Judy heads home on the train reading the therapy book, highlighting several passages; Nick walks down to his apartment and drinking a smoothie. Judy prepares a small microwave carrot meal; Nick opens a jar of peanut butter to eat. And finally, Judy settles down studying while watching the news to keep track of their case, while Nick sits on his couch and streams a movie to watch, using his therapy book as a table balance.
  • Contrived Coincidence: During the struggle between Nick and Pawbert on the platform, Pawbert's bag of marker pens spills, and the markers bounce and roll in exactly the right direction to tumble into the chamber below where Gary is trapped, giving him the "Eureka!" Moment to signal Nick to throw the antivenom pen.
  • Convenient Photograph: Twice.
    • Judy has the Snootley case file at home, which includes a photograph of the catering van. When she sees the same truck on the TV broadcast, the photo lets her make a positive match on the spot.
    • At the Honeymoon Lodge, Judy finds an old photograph of Gary's family with a clock tower clearly visible in the background. It becomes the key piece of her "Eureka!" Moment — if the clock tower wasn't fully buried, lighting it up could beacon them straight to the hidden reptile neighborhood.
  • Cope by Creating: Bellwether has been passing the time in jail sculpting furniture out of her own wool. The armchair folds in half when she tries to sit in it.
  • Covers Always Lie: The poster shows Nick and Judy running away from Chief Bogo's pursuit, implying he serves an antagonistic role in the film. Towards the end of the first act, he accidentally receives a dose of Gary's venom and is knocked out of commission for the rest of the movie until the very end. The real villains, the Lynxley family, do end up commanding the ZPD to hunt down Nick and Judy, just without Bogo to intervene.
  • Creator's Culture Carryover: The fact that the film was produced in California is evident in the Marsh Market. Four of the seven new aquatic mammal species that are introduced in the movie are a harbour seal, California sea lion, elephant seal, and bottlenose dolphin, four of the most common and iconic marine mammals of California, while almost no new aquatic mammals not native to California (such as manatees, capybaras, or platypuses) are seen (the only exception being walruses, grey seals, and bearded seals). Nibbles also chastises Nick for touching a sea lion; while you shouldn't really touch any wild mammal, California has particularly strong laws protecting marine mammals specifically (due to being a coastal tourist state with a diverse offshore marine ecosystem).
  • Crisis Catch-and-Carry: Pawbert carried Judy out of the almost destroyed Honeymoon Lodge like this after she was hit with a tranquilizer dart and lost consciousness.
  • Cue Card... Pause: When Nick asks Flash to help him get across town fast and asks him to ignore traffic laws, Flash begins with a slow "No..." — leaving Nick visibly deflated — before completing the sentence with "...problem."
  • Culture Clash: Nick gets an up-close experience with squamate biology, particularly a gecko licking live flies off a honey-covered stick, an agama shedding his skin in one peel, two more geckos clinging onto the fox and commenting on his body temperature, and a tegu losing her tail, which she treats like it's no big deal. All of which Nick finds disturbing.
  • Cut-and-Paste Note: Gary reveals that he contacted the Lynxley family with an anonymous letter (which he signed) asking to see the journal, assembled cut-and-paste style so it couldn't be traced back to him. It landed in the mail room, where Pawbert happened to be the one to open it.
  • Dance Party Ending: Like in the first film, Gazelle performs "Zoo" over the main-on-end credits with the entire cast dancing in the crowd.
  • Darker and Edgier: As soon as the plot kicks off, Judy and Nick become wanted fugitives. The Lynxleys order not the arrest but the outright execution of the duo and a snake they rescued to cover up a century-long theft of credit as well as gentrifying reptiles out of Zootopia, and even the nicest member of their family puts the two in a situation where Judy nearly dies. While the first movie had its dark moments and characters almost dying, it's noticeably ramped up here. The flashback of Zootopia's foundation reveals that Ebenezer Lynxley, Milton's grandfather, murdered in cold blood a turtle maid in order to cover up his crime and frame Agnes D'Snake for it, causing the ejection, prejudice, and expulsion of reptiles out of Zootopia. Even so, just like the first movie, there are tons of funny moments to balance the tone of the movie.
  • Dead Foot Leadfoot: In the opening Car Chase scene, the customs inspector gets knocked unconscious by a road sign with his foot still on the gas, causing his van to careen out of control down the street.
  • Deadly Euphemism: Several times, such as Milton Lynxley saying that he wants Nick and Judy "gone" and "buried", or Nick warning Clawhauser that the cops will "put Judy to sleep" if they catch her. Some are real-world euphemisms for killing animals ("put down", "put to sleep") that are rarely applied to humans, making for some very dark additions to the animal-themed word play. However, Milton does outright says to "kill" Gary and then tells Judy and Nick to help him cover up his death as being entirely defensive.
  • Deathly Dies Irae: Heard during the labyrinth scene mainly to hammer home the Shining parody.
  • Delinquent Hair: Bellwether puts some purple highlights in her hair while on the lamb.
  • Demoted to Extra: To put it shortly, almost all of the main cast of characters from the first Zootopia are completely sidelined.
    • Chief Bogo is accidentally poisoned at the end of the first act and hospitalized for the rest of the movie.
    • Clawhauser, who served as the first film's comedic relief, has a smaller, but important, role in this film.
    • Bonnie and Stu are reduced to one scene talking to Judy on the phone and two scenes at the end of the movie.
    • Former mayor Bellwether gets only a few scenes, albeit quite memorable ones.
    • Priscilla, Flash's fiancée, only appears during the credits and has no lines while Flash is basically Nick's getaway driver who has only one line and is barely in frame when he's driving Nick and Nibbles.
    • Duke Weaselton has only one line.
    • Finnick only appears in the scheme at the beginning pretending to be Nick and Judy's son as well as part of the crowd at Gary's party.
    • The Ottertons appear in the background during the chase scene in Marsh Market, rowing one of the boats Judy jumps on.
    • Bucky and Pronk are heard but not seen in The Stinger.
    • Yax appears briefly at the Burning Mammal, namely during the scene when the festival's sign gets lit up by flame-throwing moose.
  • Denser and Wackier: While it is in many ways darker than the original, it also ups the slapstick and cartoony humor and has a much faster, zippier pace overall than the original did. Plus many of the new characters, including Nibbles and Winddancer, are much goofier than the previous movie's supporting cast. Additionally some of the returning characters are much more over the top than they were in the first movie. For example Bellwether goes from being a cold, calculated villain in the first movie to a mustache twirling cackling cuckoo pants.
  • Destructive Saviour: Chief Bogo is furious at the trail of destruction Judy and Nick leave while pursuing Snootley, leading to them being pulled from active duty and sent to group therapy.
  • Deus Exit Machina: Chief Bogo is accidentally envenomated by Gary early in the film, rendering him comatose for the remainder of the story, and both Gary, and Judy and Nick, are framed by Milton as attempting to murder the chief. It could've been anyone, but having Chief Bogo be the one bitten removes the one authority figure most willing to vouch for Judy and Nick's innocence. This not only makes it much more difficult for the pair to clear their names, it also puts the villains indirectly in charge of the remaining ZPD officers (several of which have a chip in their shoulder against Nick and Judy).
  • Digging Yourself Deeper: Nick offends a sea lion street performer by calling them a seal. He pays them a coin as an apology, which aggravates them further because coins are a choking hazard for marine mammals. And then he pats the sea lion's flipper assuring it was an honest mistake, but this gets him roared at because sea lions hate being touched.
  • Disney Villain Death: Subverted with Pawbert, who falls with the rest of the ice-shelf that Judy and Gary save Nick from. However, he manages to survive the fall because of the thickly piled snow in Tundra Town (although he has a limp for the rest of the movie).
  • Disproportionate Retribution: While there were likely tensions with the mammals to begin with, all it took was a single murder a hundred years ago for all snakes of any sort to be banned from Zootopia ever since, and for all reptiles of any kind to have to leave or be reduced to living in hiding in the marsh district.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?:
    • Gary is seen carrying an anti-venom pen with him throughout the movie, similar to how someone carries an EpiPen injector in the event they suffer a serious allergic reaction. In Gary's case, he is very cautious when it comes to his fangs and his pen is used to cure any victim he may accidentally bite. He was unable to do this with Bogo, who slowly recovers, but is able to with Judy with Nick's help when Pawbert poisons her.
    • Reptile cuisine seems to include live insects and worms, like in certain cultures in real life.
    • Jesús the plumed basilisk can run across water. Aptly named.
  • Double Meaning: Nick assures that "No snake has set foot in Zootopia in fur-ever". This can mean that no snakes have been in Zootopia for a long time, but it's also a joke by Nick that snakes don't have limbs, as he also adds in "Even if they had feet".
  • Double Take: When Nick bumps into Bogo at the gala, Bogo does this, not initially recognizing the fox.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Nick keeps criticizing Judy's driving skills. However, he is one to talk, as Judy uses him to drive a plow right through a labyrinth, and he is a worse driver than she is.
  • Driving Question: Three at the start of the movie revolve around the Lynxley Journal. "What does a snake like Gary gain by stealing the Lynxley journal?" Second, "Why did the Lynxley family entrust the journal's secrets to one?" Third, "Why is the book cover metallic?" It turns out that Gary himself is the answer to all three questions: It never belonged to the Lynxleys, but rather Gary's family. The journal and Weather Wall patent was stolen when Gary's great-grandmother was framed for murder. The metal cover is heat sensitive, and reveals the location of the old patent when exposed to heat. Gary is a pit viper capable of reading the location of the reptiles' old town where the patent is hidden.
  • Dude, Not Funny!: Nick ends up on the receiving end of this many times throughout the entire movie because of his wisecracks in the form of stink eyes from the large majority both inside the ZPD and out and exasperated looks from Judy that say "Nick? Now? Really?!" This ends up costing him and Judy dearly throughout the movie, primarily when it destroys the carrot pen which upsets Judy, and when Fern Hoggbottom tells him after he's arrested that the reason she doesn't believe him is because "you don't respect anyone," in a way that suggests she would have believed what he said if Judy was the one who told her.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: Zig-zagged. On one hand Chief Bogo is a little more willing to put up with Judy being a Cowboy Cop, on the other, the other officers are just as eager to distrust her as before, seeing the heroics from the previous movie as nothing but them being a "one hit wonder". The city office and police also seem to easily accept that Judy and Nick are dangerous criminals, but they meet many civilians who acknowledge the two are heroes and are willing to help.
  • Dungeon Bypass: Rather than walk through a hedge maze in the climax, Judy and Nick use a bulldozer to mow down the walls.
  • Ear Ache: On the listing, half-submerged boat, Nick slips and pulls on Judy's ears to stay up, much to her dismay.
    Judy: Stop pulling my ears, stop pulling my ears! Never pull a bunny's ears!
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: After spending most of the movie on the lam and nearly getting separated, Nick and Judy are able to clear their names, take down the bad guys and restore the De'Snakes to their historical glory, with reptiles once again welcomed into the city. Bogo survives getting fanged as well. As for the Lynxley family? They have been arrested for their crimes, and their reputation is destroyed.
  • Ears as Hair: At the Zootennial Gala, Judy has her ears styled in a bun, which Nick lampshades.
    Nick: Your worst idea is what you did with your ears. (gets punched by Judy)
  • Eat That: To avoid offending the reptiles in the Reptile Speakeasy (and blend in undercover), Judy and Nick are forced to eat a live worm—Nick slurps it down like a noodle for comedy, while Judy grimaces through it.
  • Elephants Are Scared of Mice: In the therapy scene, Francine, an elephant police officer, is terrified of her partner, Clark, a mouse. Francine's subsequent Face Palm implies that this reaction was completely reflexive.
  • Emotionless Reptile: Invoked by several of the mammalian characters as one of the reasons for reptile rarity in Zootopia. Some interpret reptiles as so reserved that they hide away and keep to themselves, but most of the time they're seen as cruel and heartless monsters. It's ultimately proven by the reptiles themselves that they're being forced into hiding for coming to Zootopia illegally.
  • Everyone Chasing You: The ZPD and the Lynxleys go after Nick and Judy throughout the film.
  • Everyone Has Standards: When Chief Bogo is out of commission, the Zootopia police force is ordered by Milton to capture Nick, Judy, and Gary by any means necessary. When they are later ordered to use lethal force to stop them, they hesitantly and soon outright refuse, sticking with capturing them alive.
  • Extended Greetings: Nibbles' greeting with Russ the walrus turns into an extended sequence where they trade variations of the line "hey bub."
  • Extremely Short Timespan: Outside of the prologue and epilogue, the entire movie takes place over roughly forty-eight hours (Judy and Nick wake up and go to work on the first morning, arrive at Marsh Market the following morning, and apprehend the Lyxnleys and uncover Reptile Ravine the morning after that).
  • Facepalm:
    • Francine the elephant officer frustratedly whacks herself in the head after screaming blue murder at the sight of her partner, Clark the mouse.
    • Milton puts his paw to his forehead after Pawbert confesses his plan to destroy Agnes's patent and Reptile Ravine right in front of Mayor Winddancer.
  • Fake Shemp: Unused audio of the late Tiny Lister recorded for the first film was used in Finnick's appearance at the start of the film.
  • Falling Chandelier of Doom: Judy narrowly escapes a chandelier crashing from the ceiling during the gala.
  • Falling into Jail: A variant. After crashing his car into the statue of Ebenezer Lynxley, Snootley's unconscious body conveniently rolls into the backseat of the Zeebros' police car, effectively arresting himself.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms: Instead of real guns, the ZPD uses tranquilizer dart launchers. Their equivalent of lethal force is to swap the tranquilizers with poison darts.
  • Fantastic Drug: Judy unlocks a shipping container being used to illegally smuggle something into the city. Once she gets the door open, we see that said smuggled goods are crates labeled Catnip.
  • Fantastic Racism:
    • Mammals don't take kindly to reptiles due to propaganda that reptiles (especially snakes) are cold-blooded monsters, with Gary's appearance at the ice palace causing mass panic among Zootopia citizens while other reptiles in the city are forced into hiding. Snakes in particular are shunned entirely, even from Marsh Market where the reptiles are hiding. This is due to Ebenezer Lynxley framing Gary's great-grandmother for murder a century ago, later leading to the entire reptile population suffering in the process for almost a century.
    • Milton considers aquatic mammals to be "lesser", which is why he plans on freezing over Marsh Market as Tundratown gets expanded. He reveals this to Nick who is arrested, and he also calls foxes lesser mammals alongside them. Later, Pawbert calls Judy a "dumb bunny" alongside Nick as a "dirtbag fox", suggesting the Lynxleys look down on rabbits as well.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Copenhoofen village, which is connected to Marsh Market by a water tube, is analogous to various regions associated with Germanic cultures. The name is a pun based on the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, the village is located in a mountainous region akin to the Alps and the valleys of Germany, and the two encountered inhabitants are mountain goats, which are native to said real-life areas. They are also dressed up in a traditional attire of the region and like to yodel.
  • Fee Fi Faux Pas: Nick makes several comments that end up earning him a lot of stink eyes from the aquatic residents of the Marsh Market, such as using the idiom "like a hole in the head" in earshot of a dolphin (which does literally have a hole in the head), and misidentifying a sea lion as a seal.
  • Five-Second Foreshadowing:
    • Nick remarks to Judy that they need Nibbles "like a hole in the head", which a dolphin takes offense to. This suggests he will just get into trouble with the locals of the Marsh Market if left on his own, and sure enough, he ends up enraging a sea lion immediately afterwards, with every one of his attempts to placate them worsening the situation. Nibbles is the one who has to explain the rules, proving Judy right that they need her.
    • Judy tells Pawbert about the last-second reveal of the Twist Villain during the last case she and Nick worked and Pawbert responds by stabbing her with the venom dispenser revealing that he too is a Twist Villain.
  • Fleeing Suspects: Judy and Nick help Gary flee from their fellow police officers.
  • Flipping the Table: During her trial, Bellwether is apparently not taking the verdict well as she flips her entire defendant's table in a rage.
  • Floorboard Failure: At the abandoned lodge, Nick steps on a cracked floorboard that gives way under him, nearly sending him plummeting before he catches himself.
  • Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: The film closes with Judy and Nick launching themselves straight at the camera in pursuit of Bellwether, freezing into a Freeze-Frame Ending with their faces filling the screen.
  • Foil:
    • Gary and Judy. As both are idealists from a species that are marred by others looking down on them, Gary latches onto Judy in particular because he sees in her a desire to do right that mirrors his own - but Gary understands that the world isn't meant to be on one animal's shoulders, and is able to impart that lesson to Judy as a person who is trying to help the world in the same kind of ways.
    • Judy and Pawbert, something Pawbert himself even brings up towards the end of the film. Both of them are underdogs who are desperate to prove that they are more than the weak people others deride them as beings, and both see Gary's quest for the patent as the key to doing so. But while Judy genuinely wants to both help make the world a better place and help Gary reveal the truth and succeeds in proving her worth, Pawbert just wants to make things around him better for himself by proving he's not a loser to his family by destroying Agnes's Weather Wall patent and ends up causing his and his family's downfall. Pawbert even delivers a Not So Different speech about it, believing that Judy would understand because they're "on the same page" about being abused for being different.
  • Forced to Watch: Discussed. After Nick is captured by the ZPD, Milton tells Nick he'll be kept alive in a cell just long enough that he can read the headline that Judy was killed, after which it's heavily implied Nick will be similarly disposed of.
  • Foreign Queasine: Subverted. Judy and Nick are told by Jesús to eat off the plate of live worms served to them, seemingly to avoid offending the reptiles, only for it to turn out to be a prank. Live bugs are still shown to be a normal food for reptiles though (much to Nick's disgust).
  • Foreshadowing:
    • There are some clues hinting that Pawbert is a False Friend:
      • Pawbert can be seen very early in the film dressed as a dock worker when Nick and Judy are chasing Snootley.
      • When he first meets Judy, he says, "Yes, I am a Lynxley. Well, I'm trying to be."
      • In the scene where Pawbert, Judy, and Gary discuss the original patent's location, he keeps his hand in his pocket, hiding the venom injector he eventually uses to nearly kill Judy with after he betrays them.
      • Pawbert is often framed with a prominent green glow, a lighting scheme traditionally used for villains in the franchise.
      • He helped Gary come to Zootopia after reading his anonymous letter, but no mention is made of him establishing his bona fides even after it was clear that his family were against letting Gary have the book. So Gary trusted him on word alone.
    • Milton is so concerned about the journal that he quickly drops the facade and orders his family to find and kill Gary. He won't be so worried if the journal was legit, will he?
    • In the reptile bar, a brief gag involves a pair of geckos clinging to Nick and commenting on how warm he feels. When Pawbert later throws Gary into the snow to die, he coils around Judy (with permission) to use her body heat to recover.
    • The wallpaper in the Lynxley family office (Where they drag Winddancer to after the gala) is stylized to look like blue snake eyes, representing how they've stolen their fortune from the De'Snake family.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: While most of the predators in the film have four fingers and three toes, pinnipeds seem to have five digits in their front flippers and back flukes. Averted with koalas which have five-fingered hands, including the second opposable thumb.
  • Frame-Up:
    • Cattrick frames Judy and Nick in trying to assassinate Chief Bogo who got accidentally fanged by Gary, after Judy starts to suspect that Gary had been telling the truth about the Lynxleys being the bad guys. This triggers the movie's plot with Judy, Nick, and Gary all trying to clear their names.
    • Ebenezer Lynxley killed his maid when he realized she saw him burning Agnes De'Snake's original patent. He used snake venom so he could pin the death on Agnes, who turns out to be Gary's great-grandmother. Gary's reason for stealing the journal the Lynxley family held was because it contains clues where the patent was buried so he can retrieve it and restore his family's reputation.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus:
    • In the sheep barber Nick and Judy pass at the beginning of the film, among the photographs of previous customers are shots of Bellwether and Sharla (Judy's sheep classmate from the first film's opening).
    • The movie listed on the marquee of the cinema in Sheepshire is Star Trunk.
    • Nick's Huluzoo homepage features several Company Cross-References with animal-themed titles, such as The Fantastic Fur and an Alien (1979) parody titled Platypus.
    • Also in Nick's apartment on the floor is an NES, and what seems to be a Star Fox 1 cartridge in particular.
    • The overly complicated password that Clawhauser has to enter on the tiny computer seems to contain some potential Foreshadowing: p@Rt3izFr&BrdZr2 (Part 3 is for real and birds are too.)
  • Friend on the Force: Clawhauser, working quietly from inside the ZPD, helps Nick track down Judy's location, fully aware he could be fired for it and doing it anyway.
  • Friendship Trinket: Nick gives Judy a new carrot pen at the end as a Call-Back to the one from the first film, symbolizing their repaired partnership.
  • Frothy Mugs of Water: Surprisingly averted in this otherwise family-friendly work. Judy, Nick, and Nibbles pass by a bar run by a dolphin and visit another bar for reptiles, both of which clearly serve alcoholic drinks. One lizard in the reptile bar is obviously shown to be drunk, and another is seen having passed out. There is also plenty of wine served at the gala in various colors and sizes, including a bottle of champagne.
  • Frying Pan of Doom:
    • Nick, to Judy's horror, hits Gary in the head with a frying pan, given that before that, Gary was telling her that the reason why he is stealing the book written by Ebenezer Lynxley is that he wants to help his family.
    • At the end, Captain Hoggbottom neutralizes Pawbert Lynxley with a frying pan to the head before he can burn the true climate wall patent.
  • Fun T-Shirt: Nick and Judy, undercover as a couple with Finnick as their child, wear T-shirts reading "Foxy Dad" and "Don't Worry, Be Hoppy" respectively.
  • Furry Reminder: Has its own page.
  • Gag Haircut: With an Accidental Good Outcome. During the opening car chase with Snootley, Judy's driving sends their vehicle crashing into a trolley, which careens into a hair salon and causes the stylist to accidentally shear a whole new shape into a customer sheep's wool. It's such a good cut that another patron immediately demands the same style.
  • Girls Stare at Scenery, Boys Stare at Girls: In a bit of a Ship Tease moment, Judy admires the beauty of the gala while Nick takes her in. Shortly after, he's so focused on her, he almost gets hit by a mouse flying on a champagne bottle cork.
  • Going by the Matchbook: Judy finds a matchbox in Gary's satchel bearing the name of the Honeymoon Lodge. The clue gets hotter when two mountain climbers Judy runs into confirm that the "Liebchen flower" printed on the cover only grows at one specific spot on the nearby mountain — with the old lodge sitting right at the top.
  • Go Mad from the Isolation: Upon the reveal of Bellwether, it is revealed she has practically covered her cell in her own wool.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Clawhauser attempts to get Paul the mole away from his computer by distracting him, but due to slipping on a soda can, accidentally traps him in a donut box and has it taken away by a rhino officer.
  • Good Is a Choice: Both played straight and invoked:
    • Gary De'Snake admits when he finally talks properly with Judy that he knew coming to Zootopia to help his family wouldn't be easy (among other things, it involved spending two weeks in a shipping container). It's also implied that his parents told him that they wouldn't force him to do it, as they didn't want him to undertake such a big responsibility if he didn't want to. Despite that, he still chose to come to Zootopia and find the patent proving that Agnes De'Snake was framed so the Lynxleys could steal her weather wall plans.
    • Throughout the film, Mayor Winddancer allows himself to be bullied by the Lynxleys (the financial backers for his mayoral campaign) into doing whatever they want. In the end, while it would be easier to go along with the Lynxleys and help them take out Nibbles, Gary, Nick, and Judy, the Mayor does the right thing and uses his old action movie training to take out the Lynxleys. As a result, he becomes the first mayor in the franchise not to get arrested.
    • When Pawbert reveals himself as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing by poisoning Judy and throwing Gary into the snow, Judy stops him and invokes this trope, reminding him that he has a choice and doesn't have to be like his family. He responds that he wants to be like his family, and leaves his two "friends" to die.
  • Good Is Not Nice: After their screw-up in the beginning of the movie, Nick and Judy get heckled by most of the other cops.
  • Good-Times Montage: One occurs at the end as Nick is explaining how to be the "Dream Team", showing reptiles reintergrating into Zootopia, Judy and Nick being awarded for their deed, the heroes visiting a recovering Chief Bogo at the hospital, and the newly-restored Reptile Ravine having a grand reopening.
  • Great Escape: Nick's prison break takes an unexpected turn when, looking for a way out, he hits a red button that he hopes opens the exit — and instead releases every single prisoner in the facility. The ensuing chaos is extremely useful cover for him and Nibbles, even if it does mean Bellwether walks out right alongside them.
  • Group Hug: The De'Snake family reunites at the end in a full group hug when they move back into their home — and without a moment's hesitation, they pull Judy in too.
  • Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: This trend in cartoon animals (the standard in Zootopia being the barefoot variety, except for snakes, who due to their anatomy are accessory-wearing at most) is referenced by Nibbles, where she says that Marsh Market is the only place in Zootopia where you can get away with wearing a shirt and no pants, pointing out a walrus at a bar being so attired.
  • Happy Ending Override:
    • Though the original film ended with Judy and Nick becoming official crime-fighting partners, despite their closeness and compatibility as friends, they haven't been getting along as partners as well as they'd hoped and have even been having enough trouble to need police partner counseling after just a week of working together. One of the main driving conflicts of the film is that they will be split up as partners for good unless they can prove they can improve on their camaraderie. Judy believes it would be better and faster if they successfully catch and later exonerate the snake that is hidden in Zootopia, while Nick believes they should just lay low.
    • On another note, the first film ended with the implication that the other officers at the ZPD would be treating Judy better alongside Nick. This film shows that this isn't the case, and that both of them are being ostracized and picked on by their coworkers despite saving the city, making their fear of being split up all the more understandable. Though, this is mainly on Judy for being too eager to jump the gun. Additionally, the ostracization and mockery Judy and Nick receive from their fellow officers is not about them thinking a bunny and fox cannot be police officers, but more about them being rookies who disobeyed direct orders.
  • "Harmful to Pets" Reminder:
    • Judy tells Nick to never pull a bunny's ears while he's doing so to hang on. In real life, pulling a lagomorph's ears is very painful to them.
    • Two of the things Nibbles advises against when in Marsh Market (throwing coins due to them being a choking hazard and touching the locals) are actual rules for people in areas with wild aquatic animals.
  • Have You Tried Rebooting?: A throwaway gag at the ZPD when Paul the mole is overheard on a support call telling a client to try restarting their computer. The client apparently does not take this well, because his next line is "Have you tried not being an idiot?"
  • Heel–Face Turn: No longer wanting to be complicit in the Lynxley's scheme, Mayor Winddancer takes a cue from the Neighsayer, a character from his movies, and turns against them.
  • He Knows Too Much: The Lynxleys decide to have Nick and Judy killed when they start to piece together Ebenezer's misdeeds. Ebenezer himself also killed his maid when she discovered him trying to burn the original patent for the weather walls.
  • Hero Stole My Bike: Twice. First, Judy and Nick steal Frantic Pig's car to pursue Snootley. Later, they hijack a snowcart from a rental service to pursue Pawbert.
  • Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines: Zig-zagged. Nick the fox is one of the main heroes going up against a family of evil lynxes. However, Clawhauser the cheetah helps Nick find Judy and Gazelle's tiger dancers also help Judy escape.
  • High-Dive Escape: With the ZPD closing in after Milton frames Judy and Nick for poisoning Chief Bogo, their only exit from the gala is out a window. They take it, and luckily there's a snow drift below to break their fall.
  • High-Speed Hijack: Judy leaps from her vehicle onto Snootley's van mid-chase after a fallen road sign knocks Snootley out.
  • Homage Derailment: The Shining homage. When Pawbert runs off into the hedge maze with a gas can, tradition demands Judy and Nick follow him in, braving the maze themselves. Instead, they take the simpler option, grabbing a snowplow and merely crashing through the entire maze.
  • Horrifying the Horror: When Gary appears at the party at the ice palace, his presence manages to send to panic big cat, bear, wolf, elephant, rhino, and hippo guests, which are all species of animals that are way more dangerous than snakes in real life and are way bigger than the species of snake that Gary belongs to (Sunda Island pit viper). It could be justified as said snake species is venomous, in real life most large mammals are instinctively wary of snakes.
  • Hot Pursuit: Judy and Nick go on a high-speed pursuit through Zootopia's diverse districts, including a desert, as Judy, Nick, and Gary flee from ZPD officers.
  • Hotter and Sexier: More focus is given to Gazelle and her tiger dancers here, especially during the Dance Party Ending where she dances much more provocatively in a skimpier outfit. There is also Mayor Winddancer, a hunky Clydesdale who gets a lot of flattering shots and gets off a brief Pec Flex in the credits.
  • Humanlike Animal Aging:
    • Zig-zagged with the shrew family. Fru Fru has given birth to her daughter Little Judith during the timespan between the first film and this one, which is only one week. Little Judy is already a young child, fitting with how real-life shrews age, although Zootopian animals have the same lifespans as humans (with Little Judy's grandfather Mr. Big having been around for several decades since the 20th Century, when the real-life lifespans of Arctic shrews in the wild barely extend past a year). Lampshaded by Nick who comments they grow up so fast, only to receive a tongue-lashing from both Fru Fru and Mr. Big.
    • Milton's grandfather, Ebenezer Lynxley, lived a hundred years prior to the film's events. Canada lynxes only live to about 15 years, meaning several generations would have passed between the two in real life.
  • I Am Not Weasel:
    • Nick accidentally offends a sea lion street performer by calling them a seal, which Nibbles corrects him. Later, Officer Truffler makes the same mistake, getting chased by the peeved pinniped as a result.
    • Nibbles, a beaver, takes offense to being called a woodchuck, as shown when Snootley calls her as such while she and Nick are breaking out of jail.
  • I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Subverted. Milton orders Hoggbottom to use lethal force to stop Judy, but she can't bring herself to fire upon a former colleague (even one she doesn't personally like) who is not an immediate threat. However, just when she lowers her weapon, another officer bumps into her from behind, causing her to accidentally fire the poison dart anyway. It's only due to the timely arrival of Nick, Nibbles, and Flash blocking the shot with a car that no one is killed.
  • "I Know What We Can Do" Cut: Judy and Nick stand before the hedge maze debating which way to go. Judy spots something just off-screen, says "Or...", and the film immediately zoom-cuts to the snowplow.
  • Immediate Sequel: The film picks up one week after Judy and Nick became partners.
  • Improvised Lockpick:
    • Judy uses what appears to be a toy corkscrew to pick the lock on a shipping container.
    • Nick attempts to use his own claw to unlock the door of his cell, but he only manages to snap it.
    • Nibbles chews on a mop to make a key to help her and Nick break out of prison.
  • Improvised Platform: Twice.
    • At Marsh Market, with the ZPD closing in and their boat too slow, Judy rings all the bells along the docks, summoning a chain of gondolier walruses who surface from the water and create a path she and Nick can hop across to reach land ahead of their pursuers.
    • When the Honeymoon Lodge splits apart and a gap opens between the two halves, Gary spans it with his own body so Judy can cross over to the others before the section collapses.
  • Inevitable Waterfall: The heroes' high-speed chase through a twisting water tube culminates in an unavoidable plunge down a dramatic waterfall.
  • Insistent Terminology: Nick and Judy each want to put their own name last in their partnership. He will say, "Hopps and Wilde?" and she'll answer, "Wilde and Hopps!"
  • Instant Sedation:
    • The dart guns that the ZPD use take less than a second to incapacitate their targets, as Judy finds out the hard way.
    • When characters are injected with snake venom, it instantly incapacitates them (although it takes slightly longer for the dose to become fatal). Similarly, when Judy is injected with antivenom, she fully recovers the second the needle goes in (in reality, it can take well over a day to recover from serious snake bite envenomation).
  • Interspecies Romance: Invoked by Nick and Judy feigning one while undercover at the wharf. Snootley's reaction shows that, while a bit weird, this actually isn't that unheard of in Zootopia, or at least not enough to make a big fuss about.
  • In the Hood: At one point in the teaser, Judy, Nick, and Gary find themselves encountering an ominous hooded figure with glowing yellow eyes. This character never actually appears in the movie. The director claims that it was meant as a symbolism of the movie having a true villain who is a proactive and dangerous threat compared to the previous installment, a role that is fulfilled by Pawbert Lynxley in the film's third act.
  • Intimate Healing: When Judy is poisoned, paralyzed and on the verge of death, Gary, also in dire straits due to being freezing cold, struggles over to her and gives her a hug (with permission) all while expressing how grateful he is for her kindness. Initially it looks like he's comforting her before she dies, but instead he uses her body heat to warm himself up so he can continue with the mission and get the antivenom to save Judy's life, although it causes a Not What It Looks Like moment when the cops break down the door a second later.
  • Inventional Wisdom: The prison has a button near the exit that opens every single cell, including the highest-security cells such as Bellwether's, for some reason. It's also extremely easy to do by accident, because the button just says "Open" but doesn't solely open the door it's immediately next to.
  • Invisible Writing: The Lynxley Journal's metal cover is heat-sensitive. When a pit viper like Gary generates warmth against it, hidden writing is revealed — the location of Agnes' original patent, invisible to anyone who isn't cold-blooded.
  • Involuntary Smile of Incapacitation:
    • When Nick smacks Gary with a pan, Gary is left with crossed eyes and his tongue lolling out.
    • Pawbert puts on a cross-eyed, tongue-hanging grin on his face after being knocked out by Captain Hoggbottom.
  • Ironic Echo: Pawbert unintentionally mirrors the words Bellweather used to try and coerce Judy to her side ("We've always been on the same page.") which comes a minute after Judy admits that their last major case had a twist... that Pawbert enacts.
  • Jerkass Realization: Nick and Judy come to this conclusion and get Character Development by the end of the movie out of it:
    • Nick's cynicism, Dude, Not Funny! jokes, and inability to take anything seriously end up costing him and Judy dearly throughout the entire movie (especially after his taunts with the recording of her apology back in the first movie). By the time he's reached his Rage Breaking Point out of anger for Judy's recklessness and frustration with her militaristic behavior and attitude, their argument destroys the carrot pen, upsetting Judy to the point where she doesn't listen to him. At the Honeymoon Lodge, when Nick tries to tell Judy the ZPD is coming, she refuses to listen to him and clings to solving the case, until Nick explodes that he doesn't care about the case, believing it's not worth dying for. Unfortunately, Nick's cynicism distorts the message into saying that she's wasting her time, leaving Judy heartbroken. After he's arrested, Milton Lynxley threatens to make him hear about Judy's death and tells him that nobody will care about what he does to Marsh Market as long as it's not their problem, making Nick realize that Judy was right about the conspiracy all along, and leaving him wishing he had told her he cares about her and guilt-ridden for upsetting her. When they reunite, he tells her he cares about her and that the reason he kept trying to get her to leave town was that he doesn't want her to get hurt or killed because she is his pack.
    • Judy's comes after her aggressive determination and obsessive drive to solve the case, which nearly gets her killed, tears a rift between the partners, not helped by the fact that she treats Nick as secondary and disobeys him when she's leaping in without thinking. After Nick saves her from nearly drowning in the water tunnels, Judy is oblivious to Nick's efforts and the danger she put herself in, frustrating Nick. When Judy, still upset with Nick, frantically keeps trying to collect the evidence she believes they need to solve the case, adamantly declaring they have to solve the case, she doesn't consider Nick's words. Nick's outcry that the case isn't worth dying for only upsets Judy, who can't see that he's trying to protect her and only deems Nick as selfish. Judy's convinced to join Pawbert and Gary since they share her vision, but it's when she exposes herself to Pawbert's betrayal that she realizes how badly she treated Nick, and trying to do everything all by herself distanced her from the only ones who really do care about her. During their heart-to-heart, Judy confesses to Nick that her recklessness is born out of a fear that, if she's not brave enough to do the right thing, nobody will, either because they're too scared or just don't care, and the immense pressure she puts on herself as a result.
  • Jump Scare:
    • The statue of Ebenezer Lynxley accidentally gets destroyed by Judy and Nick crashing into it and the head suddenly from out of nowhere falls onto a nearby car.
    • Nick suddenly coming out of nowhere and knocking Gary unconscious with a frying pan.
    • While quietly investigating the derelict Honeymoon Lodge, Nick unexpectedly and loudly falls through the floor.
    • In the prison scene after Bellwether slowly disappears into her wool chair, she suddenly pops up again and actually yells "JUMP SCARE!" at an already disturbed Nick.
  • Just Between You and Me: Once Pawbert is convinced Judy is moments away from dying from the venom, he takes the opportunity to lay out his entire Evil Plan to her — destroying Agnes' patent, earning his family's respect, finally belonging.
  • Kent Brockman News: Peter Moosebridge is seen throughout the film giving plot points.
  • Kidnapped by an Ally: Mr. Big has his polar bear bodyguards grab Judy and Nick and stuff them into the boot of his car as a means to get them out of the gala, with the plan of smuggling them out of Zootopia with fake identities to protect them.
  • Kitchen Chase: Downplayed. Judy's pursuit of Gary at the Zootennial Gala takes them briefly through the kitchen before they move on.
  • Lacerating Love Language: Judy shows her affection for Nick by punching him and only ends up hurting him due to not knowing her own strength. This is Truth in Television, as female rabbits usually show affection especially for a male they like by hitting them.
  • A Lady on Each Arm: At the Zootennial Gala, Nick briefly uses this trope to get himself and Judy into the reserved section at the Zootennial Gala by charming a bear lady who was allowed in and walking in with her arm-in-arm, while Judy hangs onto his other arm.
  • Lame Pun Reaction: Judy gives Nick one after he playfully tricks her into thinking he found a viper in a catering van via doing a German accent (A "vindow viper").
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: It's mentioned at the beginning that Judy and Nick took down two mayors of Zootopia which includes Bellwether, the Twist Villain of the first movie who was only revealed as such near the end.
  • Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: A platonic version. During the Opening-Up Moment when Nick and Judy finally start being honest with each other, Gary — who has been standing right there the whole time — quietly clocks what is happening, announces that he is going to go help Nibbles, and makes himself scarce.
  • Left the Background Music On: The music that plays throughout the Car Chase early in the movie turns out to be the one played by the Gnu Jersey marching band which Judy narrowly avoids a collision with at the end of the chase.
  • Loud Gulp: Mayor Winddancer produces an audible one when Milton steps into his personal space and quietly asks whether he perhaps chose the wrong mayor.
  • Lovable Lizard: Zootopia's secret reptile population includes several lizards which are seen at the Reptile Speakeasy. Most if not all of them seem to be friendly to mammals or at least tolerate them, despite the latter's prejudice against reptiles. Nibbles seems to be on good terms with the patrons of the bar, and the worst thing they do to Nick and Judy is trick them into eating a worm each.
  • MacGuffin: The Lynxley Journal is an antique journal detailing how Ebenezer Lynxley designed Zootopia's climate walls. Gary steals it from the family because its metal cover hides a secret map only snakes can detect with enough heat, guiding him, Judy, and Pawbert to the long-lost reptile district where Gary's great-grandmother hid a patent in her name, proving her the true creator of the climate walls.
  • Mad Eye: As Pawbert's breakdown reaches its peak and he makes one last desperate attempt to torch the patent, he pulls a truly unhinged one — right before Hoggbottom knocks him out cold.
  • Magic Antidote:
    • Averted with Bogo who, despite being given an antivenom not long after accidentally getting envenomated by Gary, remains out of commission and in hospital care for the rest of the movie.
    • Played straight with Judy and Nibbles who recover instantly with no other side-effects from being poisoned by Pawbert once Gary administers them with his antivenom pen.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Played for Laughs. In the secret reptile hangout, Nick accidentally steps on the tail of a lizard patron, causing it to drop off. He's horrified and frantically tries to reattach it, but the lizard doesn't consider it a big deal (she didn't even notice until Nick tried to stick the tail back on the stump) and tells him to keep it. Justified, of course, because she's a lizard, so it'll just regrow after a while.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": The high-society crowd at the Zootennial Gala descends into a stampeding frenzy the moment Gary is revealed.
    Mayor Winddancer: THERE'S A SNAKE!!!
  • The Maze: The route to the buried reptile neighborhood is blocked by a massive hedge maze. Judy and Nick bypass it entirely with a snowplow.
  • Meaningful Echo: Two lines exchanged earlier in the story come together in the climax. Judy repeatedly uses "Agree to disagree" when clashing with Nick over risks and priorities. Mid-film, Nick tells Judy during their heated argument at the Honeymoon Lodge that the case "isn't worth dying for," pleading with her to back off for her safety. In the finale, Nick finds himself having to decide to put his life on the line to reach the antivenom pen at the far end of a crumbling platform to save Judy. Pawbert smugly throws Nick's own words back at him with a warning that "It's not worth dying for." Without missing a beat, Nick fires back with Judy's line "Agree to disagree," fully embracing her attitude of risking everything for the people you care about.
  • Meaningful Name: In the Polish dub of the first trailer, Greg's name is Zbroja (Armor), which is a reference to how armadillos' characteristic shells protect them from predators like armor.
  • Menacing Hand Shot: When Milton Lynxley locates Judy, Nick, and Gary at the gala, the camera pushes in on his left paw as his claws extend, with Judy and Nick visible in the background, looking appropriately terrified.
  • Men Can't Keep House: Nick's apartment has the expected amount of trash lying around for a male who lives alone.
    Judy: Yikes! No wonder you never invite me over! (snaps a picture with her phone)
  • Micro Dieting: The guests at the Lynxleys' gala are served mouse-sized glasses of wine.
  • Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Snootley's smuggling operation looks like a routine customs bust — until Judy finds shed reptile skin in his van and notices on a TV broadcast that the same catering company is working the Zootennial Gala. One thing leads to another, and what started as a shipyard arrest ends up unraveling a century-old conspiracy.
  • Mistaken for Murderer:
    • When Chief Bogo barges into the room Gary fled to, the pit viper, in a panic from experiencing the cold of Tundratown, flies into Bogo's forehead, accidentally fanging and poisoning, knocking him out and forcing Judy to remove Gary and the fang from Bogo's forehead. Unfortunately, Hoggbottom and Truffler run into the scene and it appears that Judy had Bogo fanged, not helping with the Lynxleys taking advantage of the situation and claiming that Judy and Nick were conspiring with Gary to murder the chief.
    • A freezing Gary coils himself around Judy to draw off her body heat. When other cops see him, they assume he's trying to asphyxiate and then eat her.
  • Mistaken for Romance: Besides pretending to be one at the beginning, Judy and Nick are mistaken for a couple multiple times during the movie. Not that Judy saying things like "happy anniversary" and them looking for the Honeymoon Lodge help matters.
  • Monumentally Important Founder: Ebenezer Lynxley, the inventor of the climate wall that allows Zootopia to have such a wide variety of biomes, has a statue in the city, which is destroyed during Judy and Nick's first mission. This turns out to be a hoax, as the true inventor of the climate wall was Agnes De'Snake, Gary's great-grandmother. Thus, once the truth came out to the public, Agnes gets a commemorative golden statue at the entrance to Reptile Ravine.
  • Mood Whiplash: When cornered at the Zootennial Gala, an emotional Gary reaches out to Judy to help him clear his species' name, making Judy's heart break with sympathy. But just then, Nick ruins the moment, as he, believing Gary is still dangerous, whacks him over the head with a frying pan, knocking him unconscious.
  • Motor Mouth: Judy, as usual, but especially the scene where they confess their insecurities. By comparison, Nick takes his sweet time listing them, but Judy lists them at 500 miles a minute!
  • Mr. Fanservice: Mayor Winddancer is a Clydesdale horse with a hairy chest and well-defined muscles, possibly because of his career as an actor before becoming a politician. He also has a long, flowing, blonde mane, which looks like Fabio Lanzoni-esque hair.
  • Mundane Utility: At one point during the opening Car Chase, a porcupine uses their quills for a spike strip.
  • My Instincts Are Showing: When Gary turns on an electronic dangling cat ball toy, Pawbert immediately stops what he's doing to start uncontrollably batting at it. The instinct is so strong he can't even stop himself from turning the machine off.
  • Mythology Gag: Nick making up a sob story about Finnick to tug on Snootley's heartstrings for a sting calls back to an earlier draft of the first movie's jumbo pop scene, where Nick lies about, among other things, Finnick being legally blind and species dysphoric.

    N-Y 
  • National Animal Stereotypes: The travel agent for Outback Island Flights is Robert Furwin, a koala, whose voice actor is Australian.
  • Necktie Leash:
    • At the beginning, while they're having their picture taken, Judy excitedly pulls Nick in by his tie and tightens it, to which he promptly loosens it up again. Later, she drags him by his tie to get him away from an angry sea lion.
    • When Nibbles shows up in Nick's prison cell, she grabs him by the tie and yanks him down to her eye level to make absolutely sure he is paying attention before telling him that Judy needs him.
  • Never Trust a Trailer:
    • The trailers teased that Bogo assigning Judy and Nick to the case focused on Gary De'Snake and threatens to end their partnership if they don't solve it, similar to how Judy was tasked with finding Mr. Otterton in the first film for the sake of her job. The movie actually has Bogo put them on Partner Counseling to improve their teamwork, and Judy decides to take the case herself with Nick behind her.
    • Both the trailers and the clip from D23 ended with Nibbles asking Russ if he'd "Seen the snake?" to which he replied, "Nope." In the actual film, she asks him, "Seen Jésus?" to which he replies, "Yep."
    • invoked The teaser trailer shows a clip of Judy, Nick, and Gary encountering a hooded and cloaked antagonist, but it never appears in the actual film; instead, the Lynxleys are the main antagonists. However, Gary wears the cloak for a disguise in his first proper appearance, temporarily obscuring his species from a casual observer. Word of God has stated that the hooded figure was only meant to be symbolic.
      • The figure is also shown to have glowing yellow eyes and is clearly a different animal than Gary. The villain is Pawbert Lynxley, whose eyes glow yellow after he's revealed as the villain.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!:
    • Nick drops his hat after being drenched at Marsh Market, which clues the ZPD to where he and Judy went. Not helped by him earlier accidentally angering a sea lion, who rats them out to the ZPD out of a personal grudge.
    • In an attempt to escape from prison with Nibbles, Nick accidentally released all the prisoners by pressing the open button thinking it would open the door. After the case has been solved, Judy reminds Nick that they need to track down and recapture all of those prisoners, including Bellwether.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Rather than simply ignoring Gary's letter and letting Zootopia's secret history remain hidden, Pawbert instead arranges to have Gary smuggled in to steal the Lynxley journal, as part of an elaborate plan to destroy an obscure piece of evidence and prove his worth to his father and siblings. Through Pawbert's mishandling of his own scheme, he inadvertently causes the truth to be exposed and gets himself and his family imprisoned, tarnishing the Lynxley name for good.
  • Nitro Boost: While pursuing Snootley, Judy finds a speed booster canister in the car and engages it, closing the gap with Snootley's vehicle just enough for her to make her High-Speed Hijack move.
  • No Cartoon Fish: Fish and invertebrates aren't sapient, just as they were implied in the previous film, and thus are a food source for the sapient carnivorous animals.
  • No OSHA Compliance: The Weather Wall access door, which has an unfortunate tendency to jam and trap people outside.
  • No Prison Segregation: Real prisons don't keep different sexes in the same cell, or usually even the same building. But Nick is incarcerated across the hall from Nibbles and a few doors down from Bellwether. Also, Kitty Lynxley is shown to share a cell with her father and brothers.
  • Nothing Is the Same Anymore: As the tagline states, Zootopia will be changed furrrever. With The Reveal that Agnes De'Snake is the true inventor of Zootopia's weather walls, the city is now populated by both mammals and reptiles. The Stinger makes the implication that birds are coming as well.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: After Pawbert betrays Gary and Judy, and reveals himself to have been secretly working for his evil family this whole time, he justifies himself to her by saying the two of them are the same, deep down, and it's Nothing Personal. Both underdogs that have to resort to drastic actions in order to prove themselves as more than just a screwup to others (in Pawbert's case, he wants to be seen as more than just a loser to his father).
  • Obligatory Earpiece Touch: Judy and Nick split up at the gala and stay in contact through earpieces. Nick's habit of touching his earpiece when talking to Judy ends up working against him when he fumbles it out of his ear entirely and it clatters to the floor.
  • Obvious Villain, Secret Villain: After Judy and Nick's initial encounter with them, Milton Lynxley and his family openly direct the narrative conflict, including having the ZPD officers pursue the pair. The apparent white sheep of the family, Pawbert, ends up being the plot-twist villain, having been helping Judy and Gary so that he could destroy the true patent and prove himself to his family.
  • Off with His Head!: Played for Laughs. A lizard falls onto its back from belching after a drink and molts its skin in the process, with the skin's head then falling off.
  • Oh, Crap!: Cattrick and Katty's expressions as they fearfully watch their evil father go violent with their brother, Pawbert.
  • "Oh, Crap!" Smile: Nick flashes a nervous, forced grin when their plan to trick Snootley falls apart due to Chief Bogo's Compromising Call.
  • Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date: A modern, more-or-less romantic variant. When Russ the walrus ferries Nick and Judy across the water on his belly, he overhears that it is their "anniversary" and immediately sets the mood — switching on a string of lights and putting on a vintage love song.
  • Once More, with Clarity: The flashback of Ebenezer Lynxley murdering his maid and framing Agnes is shown twice. The second time adds the missing detail that Agnes found the real patent clutched in the maid's hand and secretly hid it.
  • Opening-Up Moment: The film's emotional peak arrives when, after Nick's life-risking Heroic Sacrifice saves Judy and she in turn saves him from a fatal fall on the crumbling platform, they stop holding back. They confess their deepest flaws — her obsessive recklessness, his cynical fear of loss — and acknowledge how much they've always depended on each other, something neither could say out loud until this moment.
  • Open Mouth, Insert Foot: When Judy tells Nick that they need Nibbles to guide them, Nick remarks, "Like a hole in the head", which angers a nearby dolphin bartender. Nick admits that was bad timing on his part.
  • Our Doors Are Different: The tortoise-shaped door that leads to the Reptile Speakeasy turns out to be a shell of a giant tortoise who uses his own body to block the entrance into the club.
  • Overly Long Gag: After surviving a Poor Communication Kills situation near the climax, Nick and Judy finally confess their flaws and deficits to one another and openly admit to being heavily reliant on each other. This oversharing goes on for several back-and-forths before being interrupted by Gary and Nibbles reminding them that there are bigger issues afoot.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Mr. Big and Fru Fru provide Nick and Judy new identities to escape capture after being forced on the run. However, the identities made for them leave something to be desired. Despite still being identified as a red fox, Nick's ID photo is clearly of a red squirrel and his new name is Rick Wilde, while Judy's looks nothing like her and also has a large, bushy moustache for some reason.
  • Parental Bonus:
    • Gary is shown to carry a pen containing antivenom with him in case he envenoms someone by accident, similarly to an emergency drug such as epinephrine or naloxone.
    • The reference to The Shining where a crazed Pawbert is limping through the hedge maze, followed by Judy and Nick taking the snowplow instead of following him in.
  • Pariah Prisoner: Twice.
    • When Nick is thrown in prison, the inmates he personally put away make their feelings about his arrival very loudly known.
    • In the end it's implied the Lynxleys' fellow inmates (or at least the ones in the cell facing theirs) especially have it in for them, because of their history of racism.
  • Pariah State: The film reveals that there is a continent of the world inhabited entirely by reptiles, and that reptiles used to be welcome in Zootopia, same as mammals. However, because of an event that Gary's great-grandmother was framed for, reptiles were all but exiled from Zootopia. Gary's admission that he had to smuggle himself into Zootopia heavily implies that the city didn't have anything to do with the continent for a century.
  • Pec Flex: During the end credits, Mayor Winddancer does this to show off his manliness.
  • Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Pawbert's misdeeds are all part of his efforts to be accepted by the rest of his family.
  • Perp Walk: When the Lynxleys are arrested, they are met by a large crowd of mammals either taking photographs of them or looking on disapprovingly as they pass.
  • Platonic Declaration of Love: When the case is solved, Nick tells Judy, "Love ya, partner", but claims he'll only say that once a decade. Unfortunately for him, Judy recorded that on her carrot pen, giving Nick a taste of his own medicine.
  • Please Subscribe to Our Channel: Robert Furwin asks a customer to give him a four thumbs up review, since as previously noted by Nibbles, koalas have that many thumbs.
  • Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Nick and Judy's long-building tension finally breaks at the abandoned lodge, splitting them up after Nick admits he doesn't care about the case the same way Judy does. The rupture holds until Nick works through his emotional block in prison, at which point he breaks out with Nibbles's help and comes back to her for the climax.
  • Poisoned Weapons:
    • When the ZPD uses lethal force, they load their guns, which normally shoot Tranquilizer Darts, with lethal poison.
    • The Lynxley family developed a weapon that delivers poison and leaves marks that make it look like snake envenomation.
  • Police Brutality: Defied. Milton Lynxley eventually loses it at the ZPD and screams at Officer Hoggbottom over the radio to use lethal force on Judy and Gary. Horrified, Hoggbottom cannot bring herself to do it. The ZPD does not kill. Period. This is when they slowly begin to realize the true colors of the family.
  • Poor Communication Kills:
    • Nick constantly needs to keep up with Judy's desire to prove herself, forcing himself to cope with humor instead of being honest with himself or her, while Judy ignores most of Nick's concerns while trying to find the snake Gary, hoping to show the ZPD that they are a capable duo. They almost split up for good and nearly die because they failed to admit their own shortcomings to one another.
    • Pawbert's plan to find and destroy the lost patent of Agnes De'Snake requires him to befriend her descendant, Gary De'Snake, and pretend to betray the other Lynxleys so that Gary (and later Judy) would trust him all the way. Hoping to finally impress his family with his "heroics", Pawbert doesn't involve his father or his siblings in this scheme, nor does he tell any of them about it beforehand. As a result, when Milton learns of his son's involvement, he believes it to be a genuine betrayal and tries to outright kill Pawbert when the latter comes back to them. Pawbert barely manages to blurt out the truth to his father just before the claws can fall on him.
  • Post-Climax Confrontation: Pawbert reveals himself to have survived his fall from the border wall after his fight with the others of the team, and confronts them at Agnes De'Snake's house, before he gets knocked out by Hoggbottom.
  • Practical Currency: Fish are apparently used as both food and currency in Marsh Market. As a consequence, coins are considered a choking hazard (though they seem to be accepted at market stalls at least).
  • Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: In the climax, as Mayor Winddancer is beating up the Lynxleys, he says the same line he once said in one of his movies.
    Winddancer: You say justice is dead? I say, NEIGH!
  • Previously on…: The film begins with a short recap of the first film, specifically, Bellweather's arrest.
  • Production Foreshadowing: At the very end of the credits, the face of a character from the upcoming film Hexed appears.
  • Product Placement:
    • Volkswagen is the sponsor of the film, where at one point it showed a yellow ID.-like EV zipping through the metropolis. Even they have an ad all about it, where Volkswagens take a ride on the wild side.
    • A T-shirt showing the logo of footwear brand Crocs can be seen briefly in the film, showing it to be one of the few Real Life brands that exist in the Zootopia universe completely unchanged. (Even the Partnerships for Dummies book is tweaked with comic illustrations of animals instead of humans.)
  • Pun-Based Creature: More than a few. For example, the reptile hangout has several lounge lizards.
  • Punk in the Trunk: Mr. Big has his polar bear heavies stuff Nick and Judy into his limo's trunk to help them evade the fuzz. They later do this to Duke Weaselton.
  • Put on a Prison Bus: After defeat, the Lynxleys are loaded onto a prison transport. Milton starts his "You haven't heard the last of Milton Lyn..." warning—cut short when Nick and Judy slam the door.
  • Puzzling Platypus: Referenced as a one-off gag, where we see that the in-universe equivalent of the movie Alien is called Platypus (implying platypuses are really weird and alien to other mammals). Nibbles also mentions platypuses as mammals that she finds suspicious, along with koalas. No platypuses actually appear in the film proper though.
  • Ragnarök-Proofing: When the protagonists finally reach Reptile Ravine, it's remarkably well-preserved despite having been completely abandoned and buried deep beneath snow and ice over a century ago. All the electricity still works, the buildings are habitable, the interiors are completely free of dust or frost, and no colours have faded from drawings or fabrics.
  • Recycled Animation: Parts of the Previously on… section are made up of establishing shots from the first film, showing how technology and transportation work in Zootopia.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Some of the new characters introduced in the film are a pair of boar cops, a pair of zebra cops, a mouflon cop, and a markhor cop. Despite being explicitly described as "veteran teams" and working in the same police section as Nick and Judy, none of them were seen before (or any of these species in the entire police station).
  • Repeat Cut: This happens when Mayor Winddancer beats the ever-loving snot out of Milton Lynxley.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Deconstructed. Reptiles are viewed by mammals as monsters and alien creatures, treating snakes with particular disgust due to one presumably assassinating a tortoise, which is treated as murdering their own kin. Even with snakes as the most fearsome, it's made clear that mammals as a whole don't view reptiles positively, given reptiles come across as solitary loners. Not helped by the fact reptiles can't live in Zootopia's diverse climate out of environmental necessity and the ban of reptile travel caused by the assassination debacle. However, reptiles are shown to be laid-back folk, and their customs are little more than foreign barriers like cuisine and communication. They likewise detest the stereotype of being bad animals mammals have ascribed to them.
  • Repurposed Pop Song: The first trailer is set to Lizzo's "Love in Real Life".
  • Rhetorical Question Blunder: Mayor Winddancer is asked how many mayors Judy and Nick have destroyed. Though intended rhetorically to highlight the heroes' peril, Mayor Winddancer begins counting and arrives at "two."
  • Rhyme Theme Naming:
    • In the Polish dub of the second trailer, Karen the honey badger and Joel the deer have the rhyming names Balbina and Albin.
    • Gary's family all have names that rhyme with his.
  • Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony: At the end, Reptile Ravine has a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its grand reopening, with Gary being the one to cut the ribbon in honor of his great-grandmother.
  • Ridiculous Future Sequelisation: A one-off gag has the Floatzen movie series already having reached film number 12. Note that, in-universe, only a few weeks have passed since the events of the first movie, when Floatzen 2 had not come out yet. This also functions as part of the scene's gag of not-so-subtle Self-Deprecation on Disney's recent tendencies to largely focus on sequels, remakes, and reboots (including this very film!).
  • Risqué Animal Business: Like its predecessor, this movie again delves into the topics of racism, this time by showing prejudices between mammals and reptiles. It is also even Darker and Edgier than the first, with a tortoise shown getting murdered and police officers being ordered to actually kill the fugitive Judy and Nick.
  • Roundhouse Kick: Mayor Winddancer, despite having spent the whole movie as an ineffectual presence, steps up at the crucial moment and takes Milton out with a clean roundhouse kick.
  • Run for the Border: After Judy and Nick become fugitives, Mr. Big offers them new identities and a truck out of the city. Nick is very much on board. Judy talks him out of it, asking for a single day to crack the case before they consider running — though she does agree that if they strike out, Trudy Cabbagepatch it is.
  • Running Gag:
    • The pig that Nick bumps into at the party gets his drink spilled on his shirt, to his dismay. During the guests running out of the gala, the same pig gets wine spilled on him again.
    • Nick enrages a juggling sea lion by touching them, calling them a seal and offering them change (a choking hazard to sea mammals). Later, that sea lion rats out Judy and Nick to the ZPD, only for Officer Truffler to do the aforementioned things Nick did and get chased by the sea lion.
  • Sacred Hospitality: Before they reach Jesús' den, Nibbles warns Nick and Judy not to turn down any food he offers them, making clear this would be a serious breach of reptile custom. This is what leads directly to the Eat That moment with the grubs. Subverted when this turns out to be a set-up for a prank.
  • Safe Word: During the Partner Counseling, Dr. Fuzzby tells the group that the safe word is "Coconut" for if they want their partner to unquestioningly stop what they're doing. Nick uses it when Judy jumps into the 'red tube' to chase after Gary, but Judy is too caught up in the moment and ignores both it and the previous warning that they would not be able to hold their breath long enough. This leads to some fairly serious consequences soon after.
  • Secret Compartment: Agnes' original patent, the document that could rewrite Zootopia's history, turns out to be hidden inside a secret compartment in her music box.
  • Sequel Hook:
    • Since Nick accidentally freed all the escaped prisoners, including Bellwether, he and Judy pursue them. It becomes subverted with Bellwether, however, as the duo ambushes her while she was about to escape to Outback Island, and she is shown back in prison in the Dance Party Ending.
    • As seen in The Stinger, a shadow flies by and leaves behind a feather, heavily implying that birds will be introduced in the future.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: To infiltrate the gala, Nick gets into a nice tuxedo before noticing his reflection in the side of the catering van and admiring it, and then Judy steps out of the back in a ballgown, each being impressed with the other.
  • Shell Backpack: Greg the armadillo's police uniform disappears behind his carapace. This is also a case for turtles and tortoises.
  • Ship Tease:
    • Oddly, the story has one on more of a meta level than a narrative one. Nick and Judy's relationship remains firmly platonic throughout the movie (with a very slight possibility of more at the end), but there are multiple gags throughout the movie that are related to them being perceived as a couple. There is their undercover operation where they pose as a married couple, at one point they are on a boat ride and Judy references her earlier "Happy anniversary" line (about their 1 week as police partners anniversary), but the boat operator assumes she means a romantic anniversary and turns on romantic music and lights, and later on, they are pointed towards a hotel called the "Honeymoon Lodge" with the two goats that tell them about it tell Nick that the two of them should enjoy their time there. It's clear the creators knew what fans of the original were hoping for even if it doesn't come to pass as of this installment.
    • Judy records Nick saying "Love you, partner" on the fixed carrot pen. The Stinger shows her replaying the audio and smiling while her neighbors complain, implying that she's been replaying Nick's words all day, and ask what's next for the two of them.
  • Short-Distance Phone Call: Nick gets a call from Judy when someone knocks at his door. Assuming it to be the pizza delivery, he opens up — only to be surprised when it turns out to be Judy herself, phone still in hand.
  • Shot to the Heart: When Judy is poisoned, paralyzed and on the verge of death, Gary stabs them in the heart and they immediately gasp and sit up before sprinting into action. One wonders if the needle contained antivenom or adrenaline!
    STAB ME STRAIGHT INTO THE HEART!
  • Shout-Out:
    • In the Polish dub of the first trailer, Marlon's name is Boguś, which is a reference to Open Season, where Boog in the Polish dub was named Boguś.
    • While Judy is chasing Gary through the gala's kitchen, they knock off the hat of a lion chef, revealing a rat underneath holding onto his mane (and another cook yells "I knew it!"), an obvious reference to Ratatouille. Bonus points in that the chef is actually preparing the titular dish. In a double whammy, the instructing chef is a raccoon, a nod to the "Raccacoonie" Ratatouille parody from Everything Everywhere All at Once, which Ke Huy Quan also stars in.
    • Later, Nick sneaks up behind Gary and knocks him out using a frying pan, a move used repeatedly during Disney's other movie Tangled; with frying pans eventually being used by her kingdom's soldiers by the end.
    • When a bunch of police officers replay the video of Nick and Judy crashing into the statue of Ebenezer, Zebraxton can be heard shouting to Nick "What does the fox say? 'You suck'" and at another point in the movie, a little bit of the song can be heard when the aforementioned clip is shown on TV.
    • While chasing Nick and Judy, Higgins and Bloats crash into a dock with crates of fruits they instinctively start munching on, similar to the game Hungry, Hungry Hippos.
    • When Nibbles and Nick are escaping prison, Mayor Bellwether appears in a cell looking absolutely crazed and giving off Dr. Hannibal Lecter vibes.
    • Bellwether's jumpsuit in prison has the number "62275". This is a ZIP code in central Illinois, a key location and central plot point in The Silence of the Lambs.
    • At the Marsh Market, when the walrus reemerges from the water with a carriage for Nick and Judy, he dons a white sailor cap and whistles twice out of a corn cob pipe.
    • An odd example at the gala with Mr. Big's introduction at the red carpet. His polar bears crush a camera wielded by a journalist, similar to who he's an expy of, but unlike the origin where the FBI was taking surveillance pictures at a private party, this is an incredibly publicised event and Mr. Big has just gotten out of a luxury limo into a press gathering. It's hard to imagine him doing so while not expecting photos.
    • The polar bear who's watching over the snowcats at the climate wall can be seen drinking what appears to be a Coca-Cola bottle.
    • During the climax, Pawbert, with a crazed expression, stumbles through a snow-covered hedgemaze, similar to Jack at the end of The Shining, complete with the same Deathly Dies Irae musical motif and Kubrick Stare.
    • After Captain Hoggbottom defeats Pawbert for good, Truffler tells her: "That'll do, pig. That'll do."
    • The Oryx-Antlersons appear in The Stinger audibly and get into an argument from overhearing Judy's self-validation ritual trading "NO, YOU SHUT UP!" back and forth.
    • One of the movies shown in a Freeze-Frame Bonus of Huluzoo is a Zootopia-version of Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956) (notably, the only film/show referenced in the shot that is not owned by Disney). Specifically, it references one of the original posters◊ for the movie.
    • One of the Z-Bros wears a letterman jacket like Axel Foley.
    • Part of the climax takes place at the Burning Mammal music festival, a Theme Park Version of Burning Man.
    • The iguana bartender is named Molt Kahl, as a reference to Milt Kahl of Disney's Nine Old Men.
  • Shown Their Work: Has its own page.
  • Shy Shelled Animal: Inverted in the therapy scene shown: it is Marlon, a bear, who gets uncomfortable and curls up when he is touched by his partner, Greg the armadillo, rather than the other way around.
  • Silence Is Golden:
    • The teaser is devoid of dialogue, with the audible focus being the song made for it, "ZUTU".
    • The whole sequence where the heroes find Reptile Ravine and the hidden patent has only one line from Nibbles.
  • Silly Walk: Unlike the mammals, lizards squat and waddle as they walk, giving off this image. Truth in Television, as lizards have sprawling legs.
  • Simpleton Voice: In the Polish dub of the first trailer, Gary speaks with a goofy-sounding high-pitched voice, courtesy of Jarosław Domin.
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Double Subverted. Nick and Judy are helped on the case at various points by Gary, Nibbles, and Pawbert. After Nick and Nibbles escape from jail together and manage to make their way to Judy's group by the climate wall, it seems like Nibbles has locked him out to be burned alive by the heaters. But at the very last moment she opens the door and pulls him inside to safety, apologizing that the door was stuck on her. Judy, who was watching this on the security monitor with Pawbert, is relieved by this due to the twist of Bellwether's betrayal from last time, only for Pawbert to immediately betray her himself instead.
  • Slow-Motion Fall: Nick and Pawbert's plunge from the collapsing platform is shown in dramatic slow motion, giving Judy time to reach out for a Take My Hand! rescue.
  • Spanner in the Works:
    • Mr. Big and Fru Fru order Judy and Nick to be kidnapped as everyone is fleeing the gala. Mr. Big and Fru Fru knew Judy and Nick were in danger and wanted to help them leave Zootopia so Judy insisted they must solve the case, but their interference prevented Milton from having them killed immediately and kept them out of the ZPD's eye long enough to start investigating in relative safety.
    • Ebenezer Lynxley's maid witnessed him stealing Agnes De'Snake's patent and creating a fake in his own name, so he murdered her both to keep her quiet and to unite mammals against reptiles by framing Agnes. The maid was able to steal the original patent and managed to give it to Agnes before the stolen venom killed her. If not for her, Agnes's descendants would never have been able to prove Ebenezer's fraud.
  • Spraying Drink from Nose: A blowhole variant of this trope occurs as a dolphin bartender's response to a news report that the Lynxleys have been arrested and the Tundratown expansion has been canceled, spraying a walrus behind him.
  • Sssssnake Talk:
    • The teaser ends with the phrase "Only in theaterssssssssss", playing on the reptile theme.
    • The trailer has the phrase "Return to Zootopia for the movie event that will make hisssstory".
    • Actually completely averted with Gary as he speaks with a light lisp.
      • Averted with Gary in the Polish dub of the first trailer, where he speaks with a normal high-pitched voice, courtesy of Jarosław Domin.
  • Stealing the Credit: Judy discovers that Zootopia built on a lie, that the so-called founder and creator of the weather walls, Ebenezer Lynxley, actually stole the patent from the real inventor, a viper named Agnes De'Snake, by forging documents in his name, framing her for murder to smear her reputation, and then having the reptile district completely covered up.
  • The Stinger: Judy plays her carrot pen again while her loud neighbors complain. She playfully tells them she and Nick are investigating a rabbit who strangled her neighbors. As she leaves, a shadow flies over the carrot, then a bird feather falls next to it.
  • Stock Animal Diet:
    • Marsh Market has plenty of stalls selling fish and marine invertebrates for the predator residents, particularly pinnipeds, cetaceans, and otters. There are also stalls selling logs clearly meant for beavers. Naturally, Nibbles is shown gnawing on wood at various points in the movie.
    • Several lizards are shown eating bugs in the reptile bar but it's subverted in the case of Jesús. Despite his species being insectivorous in real life, he admits he doesn't care for grubs and orders a scone instead. He does take a certain glee in tricking Judy and Nick into eating them in his place however.
    • Pawbert's private tent has bottles of milk and snack dispensers containing fish-shaped kitty treats.
  • String Theory: At the abandoned lodge, Judy discovers a research room in the attic with a corkboard covered in photographs, documents, and red strings connecting the clues — evidence that this was Gary's hideout and he was piecing together the same conspiracy long before she was.
  • Sturdy and Steady Turtles: Along with squamatesnote , testudinesnote  are among the token reptiles in the film. They are in general shown to be very slow in both movement and speech. One is used as a gag during the ZPD raid on the Reptile Speakeasy in which the red-eyed slider band member tries to run. Another gag occurs in the Dance Party Ending, where Flash, Priscilla, and the tortoise bouncer from the Reptile Speakeasy very slowly do the wave.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
    • Pawburt survives his apparent Disney Villain Death and continues going after the patent. From the protagonists' perspective, it at first looks like he's running full speed, but it's soon shown he's injured his leg badly enough to leave him with a severe limp that slows him down for the rest of the movie. Even if factors let someone survive a fall from that height, they're not going to walk away completely unscathed.
    • At first, it looks like Pawbert would get the last laugh and kill Nick, Judy, Gary, and Nibbles by burning down the De'Snake home with them and the original weather wall patent inside by tossing a lamp. However, it doesn't hit anything too flammable, thus it quickly peters out after Hoggbottom hits him with a frying pan.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: A variant of an accusation instead of denial happens during Judy's not-so-subtle questioning of Snootley:
    Judy: Inspector? What do you do? Ensure that nothing illegal gets smuggled here in one of these cargo containers?
    Snootley: That's a weird way to ask that.
  • Swapped Roles: In the previous film, Nick takes Judy to Mystic Spring Oasis much to the latter's discomfort due to the patrons there being naked. When they visit the Reptile Speakeasy, Judy is ecstatic while Nick is disturbed due to his fear of reptiles.
  • Symbolically Broken Object: The carrot pen, a symbol of Judy and Nick's partnership, falls and shatters as a result of them not seeing eye to eye and trying to save it at the same time. Then the Honeymoon Lodge completely falls apart the moment their differences prove to be too much for them, physically and figuratively separating them. However, at the end of the movie, after the two admit their problems and reconcile, Nick gives Judy back the fixed and still working pen, symbolizing that, while the honeymoon phase may be over, their relationship was never beyond repair and is still just as strong, if not stronger than before.
  • Symbolism:
    • One that goes outside of the film: the very first trailer has Judy, Nick and Gary being cornered by an ominous hooded figure with glowing yellow eyes. No such character appears in this form in the actual film, only serving to indicate that — after a number of animated Disney films (including the original Zootopia) where the antagonists are either hidden or non-existent — this film has a genuine, active villain driving the conflict. In the film itself, Pawbert's eyes are briefly shown glowing yellow when he's hiding in the shadows, subtly paralleling the figure from the teaser.
    • The opening chase scene ends with Judy and Nick accidentally destroying a statue dedicated to Ebenezer Lynxley, Zootopia's beloved inventor of the weather walls. This virtually sums up the film's plot right out the gate, in which the duo and their new allies inadvertently discover the dark truth about Ebenezer, and have to finally tear down his family's long-held legacy and status.
  • Synchronized Morning Routine: A side-by-side of Judy and Nick shows two very different morning routines; Judy is up early to do her self-care, floss, get dressed, and rush to work with her badge in hand, while Nick uses a kitchen timer as his alarm as he lazily gets out of bed, uses the same brush for his fur and teeth, and only takes his carrot pen as he meanders his way out the door.
  • Take My Hand!: As the lodge breaks apart and the Tranquilizer Dart hits Judy mid-fall, Pawbert grabs her hand just in time before she can plummet into the drop below — a moment of genuine heroism from someone who will not be genuine for very long.
  • Take the Wheel: During the opening Car Chase, Judy decides mid-pursuit to perform a High-Speed Hijack onto Snootley's van, leaving Nick with no choice but to scramble into the driver's seat of their own vehicle.
  • Taking the Bullet: When Officer Hoggbottom fires a toxic dart at Pawbert and Gary by accident, Judy shoves them out of the path with a Diving Save, putting herself directly in the line of fire instead. Flash's car then hurtles into the scene just in time to take the hit for her.
  • Team Spirit: Pawbert is taken down by a coordinated chain of assists: Gary wraps himself around Pawbert to restrain him, Nick throws a log to Nibbles, Nibbles fashions it into a baseball bat, and Gary uses it to knock Pawbert out cold.
  • Technologically Blind Elders: Stu attempts to text with Judy using emojis, but he doesn't use the appropriate emoji reactions.
  • Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Averted. The new prominent female characters Nibbles Maplestick, Captain Hoggbottom, and Officer Bloats lack such characteristics compared to the previous film. Nick even lampshades that reptiles lack sexual characteristics entirely.
  • That Came Out Wrong: Nick tells Judy when their partnership reaches a breaking point that the case centered around Gary "isn't something worth dying for". This breaks Judy's heart before circumstances lead to them getting separated. When they reunite, after a near-death experience during the climax, he corrects himself that he just didn't want to lose her; the first legitimate friend he made.
  • That Wasn't a Request: When Little Judith (Fru-Fru's daughter) asks Nick to kiss her (candy) ring, he initially takes it as an endearing joke from how young and sweet she seems... until Mr. Big and Fru-Fru furiously demand that he do so.
  • This Is No Time for Knitting: While both are stuck in prison, Nibbles appears to be contentedly chewing on a mop while Nick tries to focus on figuring out an escape. Nick, increasingly frustrated by the sound, asks her to just let him concentrate. But as it turns out, she was fashioning the mop handle into a makeshift key the entire time, helping herself and Nick break out of their cells.
  • To Be Lawful or Good: Nick requests information from Clawhauser while he and Judy are wanted fugitives, which results in Clawhauser having to either break protocol or refuse to help. Despite clearly being uncomfortable doing so, and knowing it could be a terminable offense, he does choose to help his friends.
  • Tongue on the Flagpole: At the Zootennial Gala, several wildebeest guests are shown with their tongues stuck to an icy pole. The gag pays off when the whole house is in panic after Gary's reveal, leaving the unfortunate wildebeest still stuck while everyone else tries to flee.
  • Took a Level in Badass: A brief one but Gazelle shows that she is more than a pretty singer. Even backed up by her tiger dancers, she pummels the Zebros while protecting Judy, Gary, and Pawbert, remembering how the two rudely shoved her during the Zootennial Gala evacuation.
  • Tracking Device: When Judy and Nick are fleeing the gala after being forced on the run, Nick smashes Judy's cellphone and warns her that phones are the first thing the authorities will try to track them with. This ends up causing trouble for Judy, Gary, and Pawbert, after the other Lynxleys are able to track their location using Pawbert's phone. Judy only remembers Nick's advice once she sees police vehicles converging on them, much too late for it to be useful anymore.
  • Tranquilizer Dart: The ZPD uses a tranquilizer gun twice in the movie. They use it at the Zootennial Gala after Judy and Nick are framed by the Lynxleys for seemingly murdering Bogo, and the second time during Judy and Nick's separation at the Honeymoon Lodge when Judy gets hit with one in her arm by Bucheron.
  • Trapped in a Tuba: Judy and Nick's chase after Snootley takes a detour through an unfortunate marching band, leaving a dik-dik wedged firmly inside a tuba. Chief Bogo later mentions that an elephant officer had to blow on the tuba to dislodge him, sending the poor dik-dik rocketing out.
  • Trauma-Induced Prohibition: Reptiles have been barred from Zootopia ever since a reptile-on-reptile murder that occurred over a century ago, a crime considered so repugnant that it's still infamous in the present day, and led to all reptiles, already looked upon before the event with suspicion by mammals, being ostracized as cold-blooded monsters so despicable they would even kill one of their own. In reality, the crime was a frame-up as part of a conspiracy by a virulent mammal racist to defame reptiles and profit from it.
    Jesús: The fanging didn't just change how folks saw snakes. No mammals trusted any reptile after that. That's why we all left.
  • Tropical Epilogue: Implied. The film closes with Bellwether booking a one-way trip to Outback Island in first class — a tropical getaway she's not going to get to enjoy for long, with Judy and Nick already on her tail.
  • Undercover as Lovers: Nick and Judy are reintroduced carrying out a sting where they pose as a married couple, with Finnick as their "baby", to catch a smuggler.
  • Unplanned Crossdressing:
    • The car chase through Sheepshire causes a barber shearing a ram to slip and make it look like the ram is wearing a bikini top and tutu, which he decides he likes.
    • During the skirmish at the decaying Honeymoon Lodge, Nick gets rammed and pinned on the floor by Officer Chèvre, resulting in both of them falling through and landing upon a bridal bed. Officer Chèvre rises awkwardly in front of Nick with a bouquet in his hooves and a bridal veil over his head, prompting the fox to teasingly make eyes at him.
  • Vegetarian Carnivore: Downplayed. A pair of sea lions is seen hungrily digging into a mound of seaweed.
  • Villainous Breakdown:
    • As his goal to earn his family's approval grows more desperate, Pawbert completely abandons his nice guy act as he goes looking for the patent, even channeling Jack Torrance in one shot and acting like a savage lynx in a later scene. When the heroes find the patent, Pawbert flings a lantern at them in a last ditch attempt to defeat them, looking crazed and unhinged as ever and raving madly before he's finally knocked out.
    • Bellwether herself seems to have gone on her own breakdown after she was busted by Judy and Nick when she tried to escape at the airport, since she acts much more unhinged and derranged compared to the previous film.
  • Villainous Gentrification: The Lynxleys are planning an expansion of Tundra Town which will apparently envelop the otherwise cut-off neighborhood of Marsh Market, displacing the marine mammals and hidden reptile population, both of which the Lynxleys view as lesser. This happened a century prior as well, with Ebenezer Lynxley funding Gary's great-grandmother's efforts to develop the climate wall, only to steal the credit, frame the great-grandmother for murder, and use the climate wall to bury the reptile district beneath the ice.
  • Visual Pun:
    • For the gala, Judy ties her ears up into a ball, making them resemble a bun hairstyle. She is a bun(ny) with a bun.
    • Judy and Nick are seen in a pig-like hot rod car (which Judy drives) - in other words, a hog rod. And the driver of the commandeered car is a pig who briefly obstructs the duo - a "road hog".
    • When Nick and Judy drive through Sheepshire, one of the people standing outside the wool shop that they pass is a wolf holding a long wool coat.
    • During the first Car Chase, Judy, Nick, and the other ZPD officers drive through a cloud of shaved sheep wool. The wool completely blinds one of the drivers - "pulling the wool over their eyes".
    • One of the characters appearing in the Blipvert is a naked mole-rat who is... naked.
    • When the dolphin bartender gets angry at Nick for his "like a hole in the head" remark, he sprays water through his blowhole. In other words, he blew his top.
  • Voice Clip Song: Nick mocks Judy by playing her "I really am just a dumb bunny" statement on the carrot pen and making it into a dance mix.
  • Waking Up Elsewhere: Judy comes to from the tranquilizer to find herself outdoors under a red evening sky, disoriented — before she realizes she is in a sidecar with Gary and Pawbert, speeding across the desert.
  • Walk of Shame: After the Snootley debacle, Judy and Nick's exit from Chief Bogo's office is met by the entire ZPD (except Clawhauser) openly mocking them as they pass. Nick tells Judy not to let them get to her, but it stings enough that proving the department wrong becomes one of Judy's core motivations for pushing the reptile case as hard as she does.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Pawbert Lynxley's true motive was to finally gain approval from the rest of his family, especially his father, by destroying the original climate wall patent.
  • We Meet Again: When the Zebros show up at the Burning Mammal festival, Gazelle greets them with this — and then a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown immediately follows. She has not forgotten the Zootennial Gala incident.
  • We Need a Distraction: Nick keeps Inspector Snootley busy by asking him to sign a plaster cast, telling a lengthy story about a birthday and a legally blind child, while Judy quietly works on opening the shipping container behind them. It works perfectly right up until Chief Bogo's voice blares out over the police radio.
  • Wham Line:
    • After Gary steals the journal from the Lynxleys, Nick and Judy go to visit them and meet with their patriarch, Milton. He then says something that reveals just who they are dealing with:
      Milton: Kill the snake. We'll burn the journal. If he wants it, it's dangerous. And you two will file a report that he attacked us, and you'll keep your mouths shut. (extends his claws, with Cattrick and Kitty doing the same) Step aside.
    • While Gary uses his thermal sense to scan the journal, it proves to be the final hint for Judy to put together all the clues and realize what the big secret the Lynxley's have been working so hard to keep under wraps is.
      Judy: Zootopia wasn't created by a mammal. It was created by a snake.
    • After Pawbert betrays Judy and Gary, Judy attempts to appeal to his better nature by telling him he can be different from his evil family. Pawbert thinks about it for a moment, and just for that moment one might believe he'll perform a real Heel–Face Turn...
      Pawbert: I don't wanna be different.
  • Wham Shot:
    • After Judy turns the power to Reptile Ravine back on, it seems like they'll be able to finish things without much more drama. Then Pawbert stabs Judy with a snake bite imitator exactly like the one his great-grandfather used to frame Agnes De'Snake.
    • In The Stinger, after Judy leaves her apartment, a shadow can be seen flying over the carrot pen. Followed by a feather dropping next to it, giving our first hint at the existence of birds in this world.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Defied. After Judy promises to give the pen and its "love you, partner" recording back to Nick after their next case, Nick asks what case that is. Judy reminds Nick that when he escaped from prison he freed over two hundred criminals. While she doesn't blame Nick for this, those criminals still need to be recaptured. They start with Bellwether, and brought her back to jail when they found her at the airport.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: Several of the attendees of Burning Mammal are men cross-dressing in tutus, bras, skirts and panties.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Nick confesses to Judy that he has an aversion toward reptiles, and thus shows discomfort when he is around them in the Reptile Speakeasy.
  • Widely-Spaced Jail Bars: The bars in the prison where Nick and Nibbles end up are wide enough that they could easily get through them but instead Nibbles uses an Improvised Lockpick to escape.
  • Wilhelm Scream: It can be heard at one point in the first trailer when a delivery van ends up destroying a statue of Ebenezer Lynxley.
  • Written by the Winners: Ebenezer Lynxley is remembered as the inventor of Zootopia's revolutionary weather walls, while snakes and other reptiles are demonised as vicious monsters due to the alleged murder of the Lynxleys' maid. Lynxley actually stole the patent for the wall from its original inventor, Agnes De'Snake, and killed the maid himself when she tried to expose this, subsequently framing Agnes and having the reptile population driven out of Zootopia in order to cover his tracks.
  • Wrongful Accusation Insurance: While Nick has his name cleared in the end, he never has to suffer any legal consequences for his prison break, or for accidentally releasing 200 convicted felons in the process. While Judy reminds him about it, she doesn't blame him considering the circumstances, and they soon get to work on recapturing them, starting with Bellwether.
  • You Are Not Alone: The Character Development Judy shows by the end of the film is because she ends up on the receiving end of this many times after the Lynleys frame her and Nick especially from her idol Gazelle, Nick, and Gary which helps her learn to be a team player.
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: After Nick pulls Judy out of the red line as she was about to drown and states that some apologies are in order and Judy tells him that she knows he didn't mean to lose Gary, Nick gives Judy a gobsmacked look that screams this and tells her "Oh, not me sorry. No, no. You sorry."
  • Your Mom: Nick makes such a joke near the beginning of the film, targeted at Captain Hoggbottom:
    Nick: If I may, I think someone's just jealous that we got to drive the squeal mobile. Or maybe you thought it was your mama?
  • Your Television Hates You: When Judy arrives home after the Snootley debacle hoping to decompress, she turns on the TV and is immediately greeted by footage of Snootley's van crashing into the Lynxley statue — followed by a studio audience laughing about it.
♫ Come on, get on up
We're wild and we can't be tamed
And we're turnin' the floor into
A zoo, ooh, ooh
Come on, keep it up
It's fun if you're down to play
And we're turnin' the floor into
A zoo, ooh, ooh! ♫

 
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Video Example(s):

"Sorry, sir!"

Pawbert apologizes after taking out one of the ZPD.

Example of:
Apologetic Attacker

★★★★☆ 4.18 (11 votes)
(Leave a comment)

Judy and Nick

Nick Wilde

Zootennial Gala

"NEVER PULL A B...

Fox and Bunny

Judy Hopps

Cat Instincts

Nick, Judy, & P...

Judy calls Nick

Alternative Title(s): Zootropolis 2, Zoomania 2

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"Sorry, sir!"

Pawbert apologizes after taking out one of the ZPD.

(Leave a comment)

How well does it match the trope?

4.18 (11 votes)

Example of:

Main / ApologeticAttacker

Media sources:

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0:18

"Sorry, sir!"

 0:20

Judy and Nick

 0:40

Nick Wilde

 0:37

Zootennial Gala

 0:17

"NEVER PULL A B...

 1:18

Fox and Bunny

 0:22

Judy Hopps

 0:30

Cat Instincts

 0:56

Nick, Judy, & P...

 0:41

Judy calls Nick