Zootopia 2: A Biblical Worldview Movie Review for Families

Also Available on:

Hello, friends. On today's podcast, we are going to be looking at the movie Zootopia 2—just a general overview of it, and then three biblically grounded conversations that you can have with your children if you choose to take them to see the movie. So that's the topic we're going to dive down into today on the Foundation Worldview Podcast, where we're typically seeking to answer your questions so that you can equip the children that God has placed in your care to carefully evaluate every idea they encounter and understand the truth of the Christian worldview. I'm your host, Elizabeth Urbanowicz, and I'm so grateful you've joined me for another episode today.

Now, what I'm going to do for this review is first give some of my general thoughts on the movie—some of the positives, some of the negatives—and then go into three biblically grounded conversations that you can have with your children if you do choose to take them to see it.

General Thoughts on Zootopia 2

No surprise with this Disney film, the animation was excellent. Disney has been king of animation for a while. The movie, in general, if you've seen the first one, picks up where the first one leaves off. Judy and Nick are partners on the police force. There's a lot of humor in the movie. The plot is that Judy and Nick actually disobey orders on the force and they get disciplined for it. And then in the midst of their disciplinary action, they realize that reptiles in Zootopia have been framed and banished. Through that framing, they realized that it was the Lynx family who framed the reptiles and stole a patent for technology that they created to help all animals be able to live in Zootopia. So most of the movie is following the adventure that Judy and Nick go on to try to expose the truth.

Concerns About Inappropriate Humor

Now, in all honesty, it has been almost a decade since I saw the first Zootopia, so I can't remember too much about it aside from the sheep being the bad guy in Zootopia 1 and from that really funny scene with the sloths running the DMV. But I must say that I was very surprised sitting in this movie by the volume of what I really deem as inappropriate humor. So I can't remember if there was a ton of inappropriate humor in the first one, but I guess I went into this thinking, oh, this is a Disney film. They're usually family friendly, and usually more of the issues have to do with alternate worldview ideas being snuck in rather than potty humor. That's what I would expect from franchises like Shrek and Sing, but not Disney. And so just a number of things that I thought, oh, we really could have done without this.

In the opening scene or one of the opening scenes in the movie, it shows a sheep shearing barbershop and one of the sheep is being shaved as if he had a six pack. And then Judy and Nick zoom by as they're on a high speed chase and things get messed up in the barbershop and you see that the barber messed up, and instead of a six pack that sheep is now basically wearing a bikini and another sheep looks and goes, "Oh, I'll have what he's having." Then in another area, a character calls out, "You suck." There's an animal at one point that gets stuck in a tuba. It's supposed to be a really funny scene, and I didn't quite get this—I don't know if this is the name of an animal—but they kept calling the animal that was stuck in the tuba "a addict dick," and they kept saying that over and over and over.

Then several animals took God's name in vain. There's another scene where a police officer who is a hog is walking by and somebody goes, "What the pork?" Then another character looks at another character and calls him a butthead. And then there was just some phrases that had vague sexual connotations, but you're kind of left thinking, did they mean that? Did they not? And if you're having to question that, it's like, yeah, they probably did. So one of the characters, I think it was a beaver, she is always doing rhymes, and one of the things that she said is "it takes a threesome to be some, but a four way to wreck your doorway," which she was wrecking someone's door at the time with four different people, but just the term "four way"—it has a sexual connotation. Let's just leave it at that.

My Recommendation

So just so you're aware, if you are a faithful Foundation Worldview podcast listener, you know that I will never recommend that you take your children to see a movie because that is a matter of conscience. However, I will gently recommend that unless you have already pumped your kids to see this movie and promised to take them, this would be a movie you might want to skip. And so I will recommend that if you were on the fence about this one, just go ahead and skip this one because there was just a lot in it that I thought the humor was just really off color and it's just—there's some good in the movie, but I didn't feel like for exposing our kids to it that the good necessarily outweighed the bad.

However, I do know that some people will still choose to take their children to this movie, and that is a matter of conscience. I don't think that it is morally wrong to take your child to this movie because it was not vile. However, if taking your children to this movie does violate your conscience, then please don't take them to see it.

Three Biblical Conversations to Have With Your Children

However, if it doesn't violate your conscience and you choose to take them to see this movie, what I want to outline are three different conversations that you can have that are grounded in Scripture to get them thinking critically and biblically.

Conversation 1: Understanding True Love

The first conversation that you could have with your child is regarding love. And I recommend starting off the conversation by taking your children directly to John 15:13 and reading this verse and then discussing it. And this passage says, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." And so then say, okay, what is the greatest act of love that someone can do according to this passage? And it's to lay down our lives for others. And we can talk about how most people aren't going to physically have to die for another—some people will—but laying down our lives in small ways can look like giving up what we want for the good of another.

And so then we can ask our children, where do we see true love demonstrated in this movie? And I think there's a couple different places that we see. At first, Judy was willing to sacrifice herself in one scene. She throws herself in front of Bert when there's a poison dart that is aimed right at him. And now she does not get hit by it, but she was willing to be hit by it in order to save paer. And then even when she is almost potentially dying in the middle of the movie, her one desire is not to save herself, but to save Nick.

And then conversely, we also see true love demonstrated by Nick. Nick was willing to sacrifice himself to get the anti-venom vial to Judy. In that scene, when Nick and Popper are fighting over this anti-venom vial that Judy needs in order to be saved, Popper says, "Just leave it. You're going to kill us both," because they're on this balcony that's about to break, and he says, "Leave it. You're going to kill us both. It's not worth dying for." And Nick, I mean in Nick fashion, he's kind of humorous. He just says, "Agree to disagree," and then he just goes for the vial. He flicks it over to where Judy can get it and he and Bert start falling to the ground, which of course then Judy comes in and rescues him.

And so you can talk through these ways that true love is demonstrated where one character is willing to sacrifice even their life for another. And then talk through how you have seen true love demonstrated in your family—times when you have seen different family members lay down their desires, their wants for the good of another member.

Conversation 2: Personality Differences and Complementary Strengths

A second conversation that I think you can have with your children is about differences, personality differences and differences in strengths. Because in this movie, Judy and Nick are constantly referred to as odd partners. Every other partner or pair of partners on the police force are the same species. There's the zebras, there's the hogs, there's the hippos—there were some other ones, but I can't even remember. And so Judy is a rabbit and Nick is a fox. And so they do things, not only are there different species, but they do things very, very differently. Their personalities are very opposite.

And as the movie progresses, they begin to question whether they should be partners. And in one scene, Nick says, "Maybe we're just too different." And he and Judy kind of look at one another and they realize, "We're just too different. This isn't going to work out." And it's at that point in the movie that they're actually separated. And while they're separated, they realize how the other person's strength really benefits them as a team. And in the end of the movie, it is actually their differences that are complementary that enable them to save one another and save Zootopia.

So I think a good question that you could ask your kids is, does someone need to be exactly like us for us to get along? And so then I think a great follow-up to this is discuss how the strengths of different family members in your family make your family unit stronger. I know that when I think about my own family, both of my siblings have strengths that I do not have. And while I did not necessarily appreciate those strengths when growing up, I can see how God used those strengths in our family when we were growing up to really strengthen us as a family unit.

And a great passage of Scripture you can take your kids to is First Corinthians 12. And now this is a longer passage, verses 14 through 20, but I think it's a great passage to read through with our kids. It says, "For the body does not consist of one member, but many. If the foot should say, 'Because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body.' If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body."

And so talk about how this passage is talking about the body of Christ, the church, and how God has brought different people into the body of Christ to play different roles—that not everybody is a foot or a hand or an eye or an ear, that all of those different parts come together to make up the whole body. And so then you can talk about people in your local church and how you see different people have different strengths. There's certain people in your local church that are really good at serving. They're always there to set up and to tear down. Then there's other people that are really good at teaching and other people that are really good at encouraging and other people that are really good at hospitality. And so just talk through how we wouldn't all want to be the same, that God designed us purposefully with differences to make us stronger. And that's something that we see in the movie—that Nick and Judy were stronger together because of their differences.

Conversation 3: Differences That Strengthen vs. Differences That Harm

Now conversely, the third topic of conversation I think you can have with your kids is about differences that are strengths and differences that need to be addressed. Now at the end of the movie, as Nick is kind of summarizing things for us, he says, "There's a lot of different animals out there and we start to look at all the little reasons we're not the same. But if we started talking to one another, we'd realize our differences don't really matter at all. What makes me me and you makes us stronger."

And so then I think a good question to ask our kids is to say, when do differences make us stronger? And when do differences hurt everyone? And so at this point, I think you can revisit how your family's differences make you stronger in things that are true and that are good and that are beautiful. Maybe one of your children is very well organized and that helps you stay on schedule and keep track of things around the home. Maybe another one of your children is very creative and free loving, and maybe this creativity and lack of organization might help your family not become super stressed. And it might help your home be a more inviting and vibrant place.

So talk about how all of the things that are true and all of the things that are good and all of the things that are beautiful make you stronger as a family. And then you can talk about those things in your local church. You can talk about those things in your neighborhood with different friends and extended family members. And you can talk through how sometimes our differences—we look at people who are different than us and we don't like them because of their differences. However, when we get to know them, when we view them as someone who bears God's image, we can see what is true and good and beautiful.

So I think a great place you can take your kids to is just Genesis 1:27, which says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them." And talk about how every human is created in God's image. And when we look for the image of God in others and work towards that, that makes us stronger and that makes us realize that everyone is human. Everyone bears God's image.

However, unlike what the movie would lead us to believe, we can't just overlook all differences because some differences actually do lead to harm. And so I think a good way to talk about this is to be really vulnerable with your kids and bring up one of your own sin patterns that everyone in your family knows about. And then let's say you really struggle with anxiety and you become anxious about things. And sometimes this causes you maybe to snap or to become impatient or to spend time worrying when you should be doing something else. You can then ask your children, does my tendency to become anxious, does that make us stronger as a family? And then talk about how, no, this is a sin pattern because anxiety is choosing not to trust God. We've been commanded multiple times in Scripture to be anxious for nothing.

And you can just say, this is a sin pattern, and I might always struggle with this, but if I just view this as a good thing, if I let it go and I let it grow and I never confessed and repented of it, it would harm our family. It would cause our family to be run by anxiety rather than peace. And then talk about how sins do not make us stronger. They break down relationships.

And now this is even seen in the movie. In the movie, the bad guys are the Lynx family, because the Lynx family was lying and stealing and murdering people. And so connect this with the Lynx family in the movie and say, the moral of the story wasn't, "Ah, lynxes be lynxes—lying, they're stealing and they're murdering. Well, we'll all be stronger for it." No, the goal was to bring in justice to stop the lynxes from lying and stealing and murdering. And then talk about how it was what was true, what was good, what was beautiful that was making Zootopia stronger. It was not the evil things, the sin.

And so then we want to bring this all together and say, okay, we need to remember that every single person bears God's image and we need to look for God's image in every person. And when we're angry with someone or we don't like someone, we need to make sure that we actually know them and we get to know what is good and what is true and what is beautiful about them. However, we can't just overlook sin and we can't just think sin is okay. And then talk about how that's true in the world around us. We won't stop having different divisions in our world or different divisions politically simply if we say, "Oh, you know what? We're just going to overlook everything."

As a Christian, I cannot just overlook the evils of abortion. I can't turn a blind eye and say, "Oh, you know what? We're just going to all hold hands and sing kumbaya," when I know that there's a part of our population that is being murdered. So we want our kids to see that yes, understanding every human bears God's image and looking for what is true and good and beautiful in them is important. But we can't just turn a blind eye to sin and think if we just started talking with one another, all of our differences will fade away. Because as long as sin is in the world, there's going to be a struggle within our own hearts because we all have sin in our own hearts, and there's going to be a struggle out in the world.

And then we can talk with our kids about how there's going to be no true lasting peace until Jesus, the Prince of Peace returns and extinguishes sin and death forever. And then you can talk about the new heaven and the new earth and how amazing it will be when there will be no more crying, no more pain, no more tears, no more suffering when Jesus returns, and he conquers once and for all.

Conclusion

Well, that's a wrap for this episode. But if you just discovered this channel through finding this video, please make sure that you like and subscribe so that you don't miss any future episodes. Because what I just did in this video with guiding us through biblically grounded conversations to have with our children after they watch movies is something that we seek to do here at Foundation Worldview, but we don't just do it with movies. We seek to do it in all areas of life. We want to equip our kids to think critically and biblically through everything.

If navigating culture with your children feels overwhelming, you're not alone. Subscribe to our email list to receive practical, biblical resources straight to your inbox—including episode breakdowns like this one, exclusive content, and tools to help you guide the next generation with confidence and biblical clarity.

Well, if you have a question that you would like for me to answer on a future Foundation Worldview podcast, you can submit that by going to FoundationWorldview.com/podcast. My prayer for you as we end this time together is that no matter the situation in which you and the children God has placed in your care find yourselves, that you would trust that God is working all things together for your good by using all things to conform you more into the image of His Son. I'll see you next time.