HOLLYWOOD—I remember when I watched “Zootopia” with my nieces years ago, it was hilarious. After quite some time, we finally have a sequel to that animated hit and gosh, it is just as good. I found myself chuckling more than I ever expected. With animated flicks, so many are hit and miss. Sometimes they work, other times not so much. This sequel, I wouldn’t say it was better than the original.

I laughed a lot on the first go around, but this sequel had a meatier story in my opinion. “Zootopia 2” follows Zootopia Police Department partners Judy Hopps (voice of Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (voice of Jason Bateman), who are dealing with some tension as partners. How can we best say this, they just do things differently and as a result they clash. Their boss, Chief Bogo (voice of Idris Elba) warns them they better get it together, or they’ll be separated as partners.

The major plot point of the movie is this concern that snakes may have invaded Zootopia, a place where reptiles have been banned, after a heist takes place at the Zootenial Gala, courtesy of Gary De’Snake (voice of Key Huy Quan), Judy and Nick find themselves framed by the powerful Lynxley family who is trying to keep a secret from a journal about the true legacy of Zootopia and who created it.

This is where things really become fun as the jokes begin to fly a mile a minute and we are introduced to some very fun characters like Nibbles Maplestick (voice of Fortune Feimster), who is hilarious a beaver that is an absolute scene stealer in the animated movie. Judy and Nick’s venture into Marsh Market delivers some of the heftiest laughs of the entire movie. “Zootopia” does something that not many animated movies do: it pokes fun at pop culture and does it so well.

The crime boss and his daughter, iconic. The tropes of poking fun at acclaimed Disney movies left me in stitches and the fact that it even highlighted a Stephen King/Stanley Kubrick classic in “The Shinning,” is just absolute genius. It has heart and that heart overall pushes the narrative to give you all the feels and keep you sutured to what you’re watching. I went into this movie thinking, ok, it’s primarily for kids, but I found myself so thoroughly entertained I was more invested than I expected, and I loved it.

Ok, the first 10 minutes of “Zootopia 2” is a bit slow, but once that comes and goes the film moves at a solid pace, with fun characters from the first go around and new characters that just mesh perfectly for the perfect family time.