Headline news everywhere has agreed that Disney finally has a good sequel.This shocking announcement traveled widely through the internet. Soon, everyone got to know that it refers to Zootopia 2, as it came out grandly at the end of November this year. This became one of the top-searched phrases on many different social media platforms. People became curious about its content, for Disney carries the notorious label of not producing good sequels. To everyone’s surprise, the film escaped the sequel “curse” and instead became a huge box office success. 

The movie’s plot and themes attracted many children, like the first one did, delving into deep topics that exist in modern society, while presenting the story in a way that children can understand. From the moment the story unravels to the last second before the movie comes to an end, every scene is well- thought through by the directors, Jared Bush and Byron Howard. The film captures and reflects on the three important themes in our society: the danger and obstacles one can face while pursuing truth, the reality that vulnerability is being exploited as a weakness, and the social norm where one is “obligated” to follow one’s family’s expectation. As you can see, it can seem difficult to put a hand on how a children’s film can discuss these serious topics while keeping it enjoyable for kids–well, Bush and Howard sure succeeded. 

Similar to Zootopia 1, the sequel focuses on how Judy the cop pursues truth regardless of the cost. In the movie, the protagonist, Judy Hopps, tries to clear the name of all reptiles by looking for evidence that proves reptiles’ innocence. During the process, she was confronted and stopped by stronger authority: the mayor of Zootopia knows the truth that reptiles were framed to be evil, and that it is a false stereotype shared in the city, but he couldn’t afford for the citizens to have a public outrage so he painted a bad public portrait of Judy once he knew Judy had the intent to reveal the truth. Even though Judy became a fugitive under the pressure of Chief Hugo, she didn’t stop her search. In one scene where she and her partner were both in great danger, her partner Nick told her that sometimes it isn’t worth it to lose your life to pursue truth, but Judy said if one doesn’t look for the truth, what’s the point of living in lies. This significant quote highlights how strong Judy is as a person to still stand firm on her moral ground despite her life being on the line. It is inspiring and important for children to see people like Judy and learn how they can be brave and face authority when injustice appears. However, it is unfortunate that in reality people like Judy don’t normally stand a chance of getting to the truth because of how much stronger the authority would be in modern society. Nonetheless, this is a reminder for people to be honest and advocate for trustworthy leadership teams. This lesson is also extremely vital for children because they will be the future leaders that can lead a society to greatness or corruption. The public needs to teach them the importance of having strong moral values and responsibilities.

While this lesson about responsibility might not be immediately obvious to children, the lesson about vulnerability being exploited as weakness is. By being in a community with peers like children have, there would be more or less of a situation where everyone wants to be friends with the “strongest”, pay less attention to the vulnerable ones, or see the weak ones as inferior to others. From the movie, children can learn that people like Judy who are looked down on by the majority can actually be very powerful within themselves. As the only bunny cop, Judy constantly receives stereotypes and disrespect such as believing she’ll never be sufficient for real cop work because her build isn’t strong or big, or that bunnies are always sentimental so they can never set their mind on what’s right or wrong and not skew their views because of the emotions. After Judy was proclaimed to be a fugitive on the TV, many people started to give bunnies horrible names when in other cases if it was another animal becoming a fugitive, the public wouldn’t see the whole species as untrustworthy or bad, but only that person. However, in this case, since Judy is the only bunny cop, and bunny cops are not those in favor, whenever she does something bad that’s small, the problem is dramatically enlarged by the public. Nonetheless, Judy still doesn’t give up and tries her best to build a good image of herself by excelling at her work at the police department. Later on, Judy’s partner told her that she doesn’t need to prove her worth to anyone, and this made her become more confident. This teaches children that everyone is cool in their own ways, and that your worth doesn’t depend on others' approval. People should be more inclusive, allowing everyone to be who they want to be without being judged,and to make everyone feel comfortable in the shared space.

Furthermore, children should be taught ethics before evaluating situations, such as when their parents set expectations for them. In the movie, the villain, Pawbert Llynxley, tries to impress his family and to earn their approval by leading Judy to danger so she wouldn’t find the evidence that proves the reptiles’ innocence because it was the Lynxley's family who stole it in the first place. This shows us that when a child like Pawebert-- who was not educated well and taught morality when he was little by his family, would pursue the unethical path while not knowing what he does is morally wrong because he was never taught how to evaluate what’s right or wrong. Family can be the most influential people children have, for they spend all their time with family members before they become adults and have their own life. Therefore, they must know many of the expectations their family gives them, or what they want them to become in the future. It is important for children to know that they don’t have to follow expectations their family impose on them if they are not reasonable. In this case, Pawebert didn’t understand what his family pursued was morally wrong; he simply wanted to fit in in his family. This also leads to another very important point, which is the importance of cultivating morality for children. They need to understand what’s right or wrong clearly before making their own decision and evaluating the expectations others give them to see if they make sense. If he had the ability to differentiate between good and bad and that he wasn’t afraid of standing up to his family, he would’ve been able to succeed in becoming a better person and overthrowing what his famil believed. Overall, children should know that they don’t have to live up to others’ expectations,that learning moral values are crucial for character building, and it can play an important role in evaluating situations. 

At the end, Zootopia 2 presents more vital lessons beyond these three presented; however these three alone should be enough reasons for parents to bring their kids to watch this movie. The essential ideas that the danger and obstacles one can face while trying to pursue truth, the reality that vulnerability is being exploited as a weakness, and the social norm which one “has to” follow one’s family’s expectation are all very important to recognize. Taken together, this movie has wonderful music, strong and colorful visuals, funny characters and dialogues, and a valuable lesson to teach. If you decide to watch this movie, don't forget to watch the first one before the sequel!