Chapter 1: What is the controversy surrounding Zootopia II?
You're not going to be a dictator, are you? I said no, no, no, other than day one. How did Donald Trump turn the presidency into a king? Well, it didn't start with him. It was the goal of a decades-long master plan. When the president does it, it is not illegal.
I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. Where they won't act, I will.
I'm David Sirota from The Lever. On our new season of the award-winning Master Plan podcast, we uncover the stealth plot to create an all-powerful president, or as some call it... A unitary executive. A unitary executive. A unitary executive. Our journalists reveal the hidden scheme to eliminate checks and balances, crush democracy, and turn government by the people into government by one man.
I have the right to do whatever I want as president.
Check out Master Plan Season 2, The Kingmakers. Visit masterplanpodcast.com or search Master Plan in your podcast app to start listening right now.
Pushkin. So I went to Caesartopia at 3.15 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. It was me, seven children, and their associated mothers or nannies.
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Chapter 2: How does the film Zootopia II reflect issues of corporate power?
No fathers present. I was the only adult male there. In the theater. So not only was I there as a professional, but I have never been so demonstrative about the fact that I'm a professional. I took my notebook out of my backpack and I was like, I'm not here to enjoy the film. Silence, children. This is a, I'm close reading.
I sent my colleague Ben-Nadav Hafri, a film buff and literary scholar, to see Disney's new blockbuster animated film Zootopia 2. I told him it was urgent. First things first, did you enjoy the film? I did. I really did. I actually like Zootopia 1 better, but I think it's a good intellectual property. Yeah.
Now, so you came in knowing that there was this controversy that exists around Zootopia II and why the particular plot choices that they pursued were pursued. And you came to, as I understand it, you came out of the theater with some really strong ideas about why this movie is the way it is. Is this correct? Yes, it is correct. Ben called me up a few days later.
Zootopia II was now available online. He told me to pull it up. He wanted to show me something that he thought was a clue to unlocking the true meaning of the film. When? Go into it right now. The heroes of the Zootopia franchise are two cops, Judy Hopps, a rabbit, and her partner, Nick Wilde, a fox.
Chapter 3: What clues did Ben discover in Zootopia II's storyline?
In Zootopia 2, they launch an audacious investigation into the Linksleys, the ruling animal family of the city of Zootopia, who live in a giant mansion called Linksleys Manor. Okay, so 20 minutes and 10 seconds. Okay. Just to set the scene, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, the heroes of the movie, are going to the Link's Lane Manor because it's the... Oh my goodness! It's the Zootennial.
Oh my goodness! It's insane! You know what I'm gonna say. You know what I'm gonna say. My name is Malcolm Gladwell. You're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast about things overlooked and misunderstood.
This is the second part of our investigation into the very curious mystery behind Zootopia, the Walt Disney Company's insanely successful and possibly soon to be two-time Oscar-winning movie franchise about a magical world inhabited entirely by animals. If you have not listened to part one of our exploration, you should do that before we go on.
And for those who have, allow me to remind you of where we are in our story. Almost 20 years ago, a screenwriter named Gary Goldman says he went to Disney with an idea for a movie about an animal kingdom named Zootopia. where every animal was told they could be whatever they wanted to be. Disney passed.
But then, several years later, came out with a movie called Zootopia, about an animal kingdom named Zootopia, where every animal was told they could be whatever they wanted to be. Gary Goldman sued and lost in a bitter seven-year legal battle, whereupon, late in 2025, Disney came out with a sequel called Zootopia 2. And what is Zootopia 2 about?
A snake named Gary, whose family invented the technology behind Zootopia, the weather walls that make it possible for animals from all over the world to live together, and who had their patent stolen by a family of wealthy lynxes. Lynxes. Could the symbolism be clearer? Stolen by the literal embodiment of corporate fat cats?
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Chapter 4: How do the characters Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde contribute to the plot?
In this episode, we attempt to answer the most important question of all in this long, bizarre story. Who was behind this cinematic crime? What did they intend to say? And what could their motivation possibly have been?
To start, to silence any doubts you may still have about the legitimacy of this enterprise, let me now share with you what my colleague Ben found at the 20-minute, 15-second point of the movie. It's a shot, a brief image, looking down at the mansion of the evil corporate fat cats from high in the sky.
The camera is like high above Linksley Manor and we see the fireworks going off because it is the Disney logo. It is the Magic Kingdom logo. Ben, every single night for the last two and a half years, I have sat in my little study with one or two of my daughters and we have seen that exact scene before we watch a Disney movie. And I missed it. I missed it. How did I miss it? It's right there.
It's an unbelievable. It's right there. It is an unbelievable visual quotation. It is an exact visual quotation of how every Disney film starts with the fireworks over the Magic Castle. So just to be clear, what this image is suggesting is that Lynxley Manor, the home of the fat cats who stole the IP from Gary DeSnake, is essentially the Disney Castle. The fat cats are in the Disney castle.
The fat cats are in the Disney castle.
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Chapter 5: What is the significance of the Linksley family in Zootopia II?
Disney, famously the Fortune 500 company most consumed with protecting its association with everything wholesome and good, has done something completely out of character. They've made a movie, a huge movie, in which the home of evil cats who steal ideas from innocent reptiles is presented with exactly the same visual language as the iconic Disney castle.
Well, wait, Malcolm, maybe this is too much. Maybe, you know, they had a party. There's just the fireworks display, whatever. Like, you know, you could write this off if you were a true skeptic. But I would say then we should look at the frame at 26 minutes and 42 seconds. So this is after... 26, 42, okay. Hold on. So, yeah, set it up, set it up. Gary DeSnake has revealed himself.
Ben had me take a look at the moment where Gary DeSnake has finally gotten a hold of the evidence he needs to prove that snakes really invented Zootopia. The crucial bit of evidence in his case against the Linksleys. You can hear the emotion in his voice. We armed the bad guys. They are. And this journal holds the secret that will prove it.
I was thinking to myself, as this happened, I was like, I had seen the fireworks display six minutes earlier, and I was like, wow, that really looked like the Disney logo. But if it were Disney, then surely there would be some other sign in here that were meant to read this as a parallel to the Magic Castle.
And so 26 minutes and 42 seconds, watch what happens when they race out of the ballroom and through the kitchen. Okay, I'm watching it right now. The snake goes through the kitchen. It's mayhem. They're racing for their lives. She follows him down a hallway, going through the kitchen. They take the hat off the chef. Do you know what that is? That's from Ratatouille, a famous Disney film.
Oh, my God. It goes on.
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Chapter 6: How does Zootopia II comment on creativity and authorship?
At one point, we see a weatherman. What's his name? Bob Tiger. Get it? Bob Iger is the CEO of the Walt Disney Company. In a movie about the weather in Zootopia, the person charged with telling everyone about the weather in Zootopia is the head of Walt Disney. Tomorrow's weather is, again, everything. They brought Bob in to voice the character, of course. There's more.
Later in the movie, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde leave the castle and pass a weasel selling bootleg DVDs of Disney films. Surely this is gratuitously self-referential. Just listen. Anything you need, I got them. Sequels, prequels, requels. Who says the industry's going down the tube? So I think the whole thing is just like, fuck you, Disney. And OK, last thing. Sorry, I'll stop after this.
No, don't stop. Don't stop. Coming up after the break, we invite some other critics to join the party.
You're not gonna be a dictator, are you? I said, no, no, no, other than day one. How did Donald Trump turn the presidency into a king? Well, it didn't start with him.
Chapter 7: What parallels can be drawn between Zootopia II and real-world issues?
It was the goal of a decades-long master plan. When the president does it, it is not illegal.
I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. Where they won't act, I will.
I'm David Sirota from The Lever. On our new season of the award-winning Master Plan podcast, we uncover the stealth plot to create an all-powerful president, or as some call it... A unitary executive. A unitary executive. A unitary executive. Our journalists reveal the hidden scheme to eliminate checks and balances, crush democracy, and turn government by the people into government by one man.
I have the right to do whatever I want as president.
Check out Master Plan Season 2, The Kingmakers. Visit masterplanpodcast.com or search Master Plan in your podcast app to start listening right now.
Before we go on, it is important to establish a few things. First, there is a universe where the obsessive critic sees things in a script that do not exist. In the 1980 masterpiece The Shining, the director Stanley Kubrick has the little boy Danny wearing a sweater decorated with a reference to the Apollo 11 moon landing.
And there are people on the internet who see that sweater as freighted with significance. I'm quoting now from Reddit. In the movie The Shining, we see Danny is wearing a sweater which has Apollo 11 writing on it. It's due to the fact that Stanley Kubrick directed this movie and he was also the guy who directed the fake moon landing. Maybe, or maybe not. Sometimes a sweater is just a sweater.
On the other hand, speaking of Kubrick, there's a whole sequence in Zootopia II that also seems to reference The Shining. The villainous Paubert Linksley grimaces and limps his way through a maze behind a castle in an exact visual quotation of the way Jack Nicholson famously grimaces and limps his way through a maze in the actual Shining. That is not a coincidence.
There are no coincidences in animated movies. They take years to make. Every single frame is drawn and plotted and executed according to a plan.
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Chapter 8: Who is Jared Bush and what role does he play in the Zootopia franchise?
It's not a sly dig, an inside joke, some wink-wink. Whoever was behind Zootopia 2 clearly wanted to make a statement. Exhibit A, a pivotal scene at the 1 hour and 29 minute mark. Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde have finally apprehended Poppert Linksley, scion of the evil Linksley family. Gary DeSnake wraps his body around Poppert, immobilizing him. Poppert is angry, speaking his truth.
And then Judy Hopps silences him. No one will believe you over us. We've always been better than you. And we always will be. Nothing you do matters. Well, it matters to him. Now that, I think, is the crucial part. Nothing you do matters. This film is not going to... Change anything. It's not going to change anything. Disney owns Zootopia. But it matters to him. But it matters to him.
Talking about Gary the Snake, you've just pointed me to a scene that is, in essence, the climax of the movie. That is the end of the film. The Lynxes have finally been brought to justice. The fat cats are going to live in the Magic Kingdom. Fat cats are going to live in the Magic Kingdom. And our heroes, the bunny, Judy Hopps. And Judy says it does matter.
And she looks at Gary the Snake and says it matters to him. And this is, I mean, I can't believe I missed this. This is the screenwriter saying to Gary... Gary, I understand what you've been through. We took your idea.
I can't give you, you're never going to get recognized in the court of law for being the originator of Zootopia, but we can at least give you this small moment of satisfaction that we understand what you went through and we understand your contribution, that you are, you're Gary the Snake and your family invented this. It's like, it's insane. It's crazy. It's very explicit.
It tracks so perfectly. Ben and I talked about this moment with the filmmakers Britt Marling and Zolbuttmanglage. On my instructions, Britt and Zol dropped everything and went immediately to Seizutopia II. It's not like they made it subtle, as if someone in the writing team knew the score and wanted to do a wink to Gary, like, hey, I know what went down.
This is our internal apology, a quiet apology to you that only you would understand. They made it in a way that, like... Any part of the audience, his family, the surrounding community that knows anything about it would know that this is what the movie is. Like, it's not quiet. It's public. It is not a Straussian reading of the controversy.
In a sense of, you know, the famous theories of Leo Strauss who argued that texts in conflicted times have hidden messages. And the goal of the scholar is to decode the hidden message, right? The person attacking the church in the 15th century would never do a... A real attack. They would make it subtle. They would praise the church, but if you read Between the Lines, you would see this.
There's no Straussian reading here available in Zootopia II. It is what it is. Yeah, it's not Between the Lines. It's the lines themselves. It is literally the lines on the book. And it's not Iranian cinema, which has to get through all the censorship. So that is an interesting thing about Disney. It shows you there's no one at the wheel.
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