Whether you took your kids to see Zootopia 2 and are now hunting for the next family movie night pick, or you loved it so much on your own (hey, no shame!), here are our choices for the best movies like Zootopia 2.

What are the best movies like Zootopia 2?

It probably goes without saying that Zootopia 2 is a lot like Zootopia, so we’ll leave that one off the list. The rest of our picks are animated, feel-good films that bring the same dose of fun, quippy charm, and all-ages entertainment that works for both children and adults alike. While plenty of other animated films fit that criteria, we opted for the ones that feature a strong ensemble cast.

The Bad Guys (2022)

Starting with another film featuring a group of anthropomorphic animals, The Bad Guys veers away from the crime-fighting buddy-cop adventure in Zootopia and follows a crew of anthropomorphic animal criminals,  Mr. Snake, Mr. Shark, Ms. Tarantula, and Mr. Piranha, all led by the effortlessly cool Mr. Wolf. Never really given the chance to be more than criminals (you’ll notice these animals have a particular reputation just in name alone), the crew has spent years pulling off heists and outsmarting the authorities. But the party ends when the gang gets busted.

The conning doesn’t come to an end, though, and the team comes up with a plan. Instead of going to prison, they’ll pretend to rehabilitate themselves as upstanding citizens. What starts as a con slowly turns into something more sincere as the group begins to question whether they could actually be good. But the question remains: Can society ever see them as something other than criminals?

Inside Out (2015)

One of Pixar’s most heartfelt films, Inside Out takes the classic animated tradition of anthropomorphizing animals and applies it to emotions themselves. Inside Out is a funny, moving animated film that gives us the profound message about the importance of embracing our feelings, not just the happy ones. Phew, couldn’t we have all spent more time on that lesson? But to teach both children and adults, the film takes us into the mind of 11-year-old Riley, where five personified feelings — Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust — run the control center.

When Riley’s family moves across the country, her once-steady emotional landscape is shaken. Things only get more difficult when Joy and Sadness, along with Riley’s core happy memories, accidentally get launched out of Headquarters and into the far reaches of Riley’s mind. The more volatile emotions are left in charge, which, despite their best attempts to create equilibrium, are in over their heads. With Joy and Sadness absent from HQ, Riley’s internal world begins to unravel.

Ice Age (2002)

An oldie but a goodie, Ice Age is the kind of early-2000s animated classic that even Roger Ebert couldn’t scoff at. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, though it ultimately lost to Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. 

Set during the prehistoric deep freeze, Ice Age follows a mismatched trio of animals who form a team of their own. There’s Sid, an extremely talkative sloth who’s been abandoned by his family; Manny, a woolly mammoth who chose to leave his own herd; and Diego, a saber-toothed tiger with a plan of his own.

Their paths collide when they stumble upon a human baby who has been separated from his tribe. The three decide to work together to return the child to its family before the oncoming snow makes it impossible. This unlikely alliance evolves into a bond as the team makes this incredible journey. 

Finding Nemo (2003)

This is probably one that goes without saying, but Finding Nemo is easily one of the best animated films. We’re assuming you’ve seen it, loved it, and shared it already, but in case it somehow slipped through the early-aughts cracks, here you go. Finding Nemo tells the story of a timid clownfish named Marlin (Albert Brooks) who heads on the journey of a lifetime when his only son, Nemo, is captured. Nemo ends up in a dentist’s office aquarium, destined to be gifted to a small nightmare of a child named Darla.

Marlin sets out on a desperate ocean-spanning quest to rescue him, and along the way, he teams up with Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a cheerful blue tang who does have memory issues, but also the ability to read. She also has a knack for getting them into (and out of) trouble. The two encounter sharks trying to stay off fish diets, a totally chill sea turtle commune, jellyfish forests, and countless other ocean wonders. 

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was the first film set in the Shrek universe in over a decade, and it’s got everything we’ve come to expect from the franchise. Our swashbuckling feline (voiced again by Antonio Banderas) discovers that his long run of high-stakes adventures has finally caught up with him. Even this legendary kitty isn’t immortal — he’s down to his very last life.

But hey, this is a world of fairy-tale magic, and there’s always a loophole. Word spreads of a mystical Wishing Star hidden somewhere deep in the woods, capable of granting a wish to any who possesses it. For Puss, it holds the potential to restore his lost lives. Now getting to it before anyone else can is another story. Standing in his way are plenty of dangers, including a completely unhinged Goldilocks (voiced by Florence Pugh) and her three bears, all after the same wish-granting star for their own reasons.

If you’re not sold on this one yet, it’s got a 95% Tomatometer and a 94% AudienceMeter on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans and critics have come to a similar consensus on this one.

Madagascar (2005)

Another animated hit from DreamWorks Animation, Madagascar follows four pampered Central Park Zoo animals whose comfortable routines are thrown into chaos when Marty the zebra decides to take a page from some escapist penguins and experience life in the wild. His worried best friends — Alex the lion, Gloria the hippo, and Melman the perpetually anxious giraffe — chase after him, only for the whole group to be captured at Grand Central Station in a burst of full-blown pandemonium.

Things take an even more ridiculous turn when a group of animal rights activists pressures the zoo into sending them to a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya. The animals are packed into crates and shipped across the ocean until their unruly penguin companions stage a mutiny, causing the containers to topple overboard. The ragtag crew washes ashore on the island of Madagascar, where they quickly realize that surviving outside the zoo is a lot more complicated (and a lot stranger) than they ever expected.

How we picked the best movies like Zootopia 2

There are plenty of fantastic animated films that are just as heartfelt, whimsical, and fun as Zootopia 2. For our picks, we focused on movies featuring a heck of an ensemble cast working together that also scored high in entertainment value.