'It's incredible' - creators of Oscar contender 'Zootopia 2' talk box office success

Record ID: 2362920

  • Title: 'It's incredible' - creators of Oscar contender 'Zootopia 2' talk box office success
  • Date: 9th March 2026
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (RECENT - FEBRUARY 2, 2026) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRODUCER, YVETT MERINO AND WRITER AND CO-DIRECTOR, JARED BUSH, ON WHY THE FILM HAS RESONATED SO WELL WITH AUDIENCES, SAYING: MERINO: “It's a world that reflects ours and so we can put ourselves in that world but keep the distance because they are, the characters are animals. And so
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  • Keywords: 'Zootopia 2' 'Zootropolis 2' Disney Oscars animation
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Film,North America
  • Reuters ID: LVA00A114105032026RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: "Zootopia 2" will compete for the best animated film Oscar at the March 15 Academy Awards, after having already scored a major feat: becoming Hollywood's highest grossing animation.
    The Walt Disney Animation Studios buddy cop movie, also known as "Zootropolis 2" in some countries, has taken $1.86 billion at the global box office, fuelled by an extraordinary reception in China, since its Thanksgiving release.
    "It's a little unbelievable...there are hundreds of artists who work on this film and so all of their work is being recognized and seen and enjoyed, which is always just a joy," producer Yvett Merino said.
    "The really exciting thing is it means that people are going to see this in theaters...the movie took about five years to make and that's hundreds of people putting all these little details because you want to see it on this big screen and you want people to have this communal experience...So it's just incredibly rewarding,” writer and co-director Jared Bush added.
    The sequel picks up where the 2016 film left off, sending partners police officer rabbit Judy Hopps, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, and former con artist fox Nick Wilde, voiced by Jason Bateman, on a mission to uncover the truth about new reptilian character, Gary De'Snake, voiced by Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan.
    “We spent a lot of time thinking, what would that next phase be? And I think because, because of those differences that they had in the first movie, we wanted to say, okay, well, they kind of said like, ‘Let's work together' - what does that really look like?," Bush said of choosing the themes for the sequel.
    "And we talked a lot about our own relationships, we talked about dynamics with people that you kind of know but until you're spending a bunch of time with them, you're like, 'Oh, I didn't know you were like that, or you saw the world this way'. And I think that's something that happens in our world right now is that there's this polarization that can happen, certainly if you see the world differently and there's such a tendency to just say, 'Well, that's different and we're done' and we didn't want to do that. We wanted to sort of take our audience through how do you get past those things."
    As well as being a hit with audiences, "Zootopia 2" also won over critics. It has a score of 91% on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
    "People need joy right now, and there's so much joy and hope in this movie. And of course, it has these really important deeper themes, certainly about us understanding our differences. That's so important. The Gary De’Snake story, that's really a story about people being displaced and how hard that is and trying to fix those historical wrongs. And so I think it's a combination of a few things," Bush said.
    "One, if you want to go in and have a great time, you can do that, no problem. If you want to go in and have a great time because there's these homages to these films that you love, you get to go and do that. If you love a relationship story, there's so few real relationship stories, you can have that. If you want to go in and really think about what's going on in our world, you can have that too. So I think there's just something for everybody."
    "Zootopia 2" has also scooped nominations at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards this awards season. It won the animated film category at Britain's BAFTA Film Awards.
    “It's always such an honor to be recognized," Merino said of all the nominations the film had received. "For us, it really just means that all of these artists and all of their hard work is being recognized.”
    (Production: Marie-Louise Gumuchian)
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