When it comes to talking animals, Disney has done pretty well with them, building an entire animated empire on the likes of Mickey, Baloo, and Dory.

It’s no surprise then that they want to continue the trend, which is why they went with a sequel to their 2016 Zootopia.

They’ve only been on the job for two weeks and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) and Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) are already at odds as partners in the Zootopia Police Department.

While on a case to uncover a smuggling ring, they discover a piece of shedded snake skin, which sets off alarm bells with Judy, because all reptiles have been strangely exiled from Zootopia for some time.

Nick is happy to let it go, but Judy thinks she’s on to something, and is keen to follow up on it.

In doing so, the pair soon find themselves as fugitives on the run, with Judy still insistent on tracking down a journal with key historical documents inside it. But as they soon find out, investigating crimes on the wrong side of the law is no picnic.

Although this sequel appears a little sluggish in following the original’s release, nearly ten years later, it certainly paid off for Disney, raking in close to two billion at the box office.

And although there was a clearly a genuine appetite for it, the end result is disappointing.

Considering its target audience, the plot is head-scratchingly convoluted; perhaps they just decided that small children could be entertained with just lots of cute animals running around and talking, which is probably the case. The narrative is lacking however, and is nothing more than a long animated chase, uninspiring at that.

It also includes a number of inappropriate film references; not in terms of content, but considering the young target audience, referencing Kubrick’s horror The Shining seems puzzling. As does a reference to 1995’s Babe, which was not only not a Disney film, but was released 31 years ago.

The script is also sadly lacking humour, with none of the so-called gags hitting the mark, and although the many characters appear larger than life – physically at least – they just don’t have the warmth, personality or humour to back it up.

To its (one) credit, the animation is impressive; it’s colourful and vibrant, and the Zootopia world is a fascinating one, it’s just a shame they didn’t know what to do with it.

Not all animations need to have the ability to work on many levels, a la Toy Story, but one level would be nice.

Bizarrely it was nominated in the Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, which it had no right in winning, especially considering the quality of its fellow nominees (Elio, Kpop Demon Hunters, Arco, and Little Amelie or the Character of Rain), and thankfully it didn’t, which had it commit just the one crime, by being completely utter elephant droppings.