Author(s)

Xinyao Liu ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Communication, International College Beijing, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

Corresponding Author

Xinyao Liu

ABSTRACT

This study examines how Zootopia 2 (2025) constructs a social allegory of structural exclusion through three mechanisms: spatial segregation, historical erasure, and stereotype manipulation. Drawing on qualitative content analysis of five key scenes, the study integrates animation-specific theoretical frameworks—particularly Aylish Wood's concept of 're-animated space', Suzanne Buchan's 'animated spatial politics', and Mihaela Mihailova's 'mastery machine'—to analyse how the film's digital animation techniques produce social meaning. The analysis demonstrates that Zootopia 2 advances beyond the first film's focus on individual prejudice to address systemic conditions of marginalisation, while its 'Disney-style ending' partially undermines this structural critique through individual moral resolution. The study contributes to animation studies by foregrounding the medium's specific capacity for social commentary and to critical animal studies by developing a complex animal narrative that resists simple metaphorical mapping.

KEYWORDS

Animation studies; Zootopia 2; Animal narrative; Spatial segregation; Historical erasure; Digital animation; Social allegory

CITE THIS PAPER

Xinyao Liu. Re-Animating Injustice: Spatial Segregation, Historical Erasure, and the Politics of Invisibility in Zootopia 2. Media and Communication Research (2026). Vol. 7, No. 2, 86-98. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/mediacr.2026.070209.

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