Book Review - The Art of Zootopia 2
- The Artbook Collector
- 22 hours ago
- 4 min read
November 13th 2025
Zootopia heads back to the big screen this year, inviting fans of the first animated movie to visit the animal filled city for another adventure. The partnership between Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde isn’t the only one that is returning either, as Disney and Chronicle Books are again showcasing the art behind the movie in The Art of Zootopia 2!
The book has a November 18th release date and has now joined the collection, so check out my thoughts below on the latest addition to the large catalogue of Disney Animation artbooks. I’ve kept the review and previews spoiler free too.
Build Quality
Chronicle Books has long been the artbook publisher for Disney Animated Studios, as well as the Pixar, with this release proving again as to why this is. It’s another well-made book, coming in at just under 29cm x 24cm, matching the others in the series and this time has 172 pages. It has a hardcover with a dustjacket and good quality gloss paper, all held together by reliable binding. If you own previous releases from Chronicle Books you know what to expect here and that’s always a positive thing. The only downside for me personally is that there is no art under the dustjacket, just a debossed logo.
Content
The Art of Zootopia 2 showcases a lot of art for the movie that covers keyframes, character designs, costume design, in-movie posters, locations, storyboards, and more. Disney Animation Studios artbooks have always done a great job at highlighting all types of art that helps create their movies and that doesn’t change here.
I’m a big fan of not just the range of what is shown, but the variety of art styles too. The brilliance of the artists is on full display, whether it be with digital 2D art or 3D models, detailed colour concepts or loose earlier art, it all succeeds in bringing life and character to the animals and world of the movie. The teams have always done a wonderful job and this book highlights again how pivotal they are to the films. Art fans, artists, animators, and more, will find a lot to enjoy here.
Some of the characters get a nice selection of art too and it’s always impressive to see how many takes on one animal can be wildly different in personality just from each design. In other instances, they explore using different animals for the same character, a nice look behind the scenes at what didn’t make the cut.
Environment art is fantastic too, with some concepts of entire areas with the bright colours that animated movies are great for. In other areas they showcase the front of building or an isometric view of room interiors that gives a sense of the space for the location.
Key frames are used throughout and really capture moments of action or emotion, masterfully executed pieces that people will no doubt enjoy looking back at after seeing the film. Storyboards too are found on multiple pages and are a great look at how scenes are mapped out.
The only negative for myself personally is that I would have loved to see more of the earliest line sketches, as they are always fun insights into the character development and what they have included is fantastic to see. Artists can capture so much movement and personality in so few lines that I’m always wanting to see more. But that is also just a personal preference of mine for animated movie artbooks.
The text throughout is done through interviews with people behind Zootopia 2, adding snippets of character backgrounds, notes on the visual designs, the work of various teams, production design insights, and more. A lot of people were interviewed from different departments, including Director Byron Howard, Head of Animation Kira Lehtomaki, Production Designer Cory Lotis, Art Director Meg Park, Artist Ami Thompson, and Editor Jeremy Milton. There isn’t a huge amount to read, but the variety of voices gives the book a good range of insights.
Credits
Short and sweet as always for a Chronicle Books release, as the artists are credited on every page so you know who did which piece you’re seeing. It’s the best way to do it and I’m always happy to see it done this way. The artists are also listed in the front of the book too as a bonus.
Use of Space
The positives keep coming as the pages are full and the layouts make the most of the space as well. The backgrounds have simple designs that utilise animal patterns that I think works well to make pages more interesting without being distracting. The use of bordered and loose art is a nice mix that prevents a boring a sterile look too. There is a little image loss in the centre fold in places, but not enough to take away from the art. It’s a great job all round from the design team at Chronicle Books.
Value
The book has an RRP of $45/ £35 which is lower than many artbooks on the market, though the series is on the smaller side too. The pricing has always been very fair for the Disney series of books and you won’t feel let down by what you get for your money.
As always, I compare prices on Amazon to stay consistent and a handful of days before its release, you can order a copy with 7% off in the US, and a huge 25% off in the UK. Both of these are very good price points and again highlights that they will fluctuate too. Even without a discount though, this a well-priced book.
Verdict
The Art of Zootopia 2 is a superb showcase of the talent that helped create the movie, showcasing a variety of artwork and styles in a thoughtfully designed book. If you enjoy Zootopia, you’ll like what you get here too, as it offers a fun look at the designs behind the studios’ animal-filled world. It’s also easy to recommend to fans of animation in general, as well as artists wanting some charming animal references on their shelf. With all this at a good price point, Chronicle Books proves again why they are one of the best out there for animated artbooks.
If you enjoyed the review and previews and would like to order the book yourself, you can do so here;
