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Several animated features of 2025 tackled very thorny issues of inclusion and identity.
“Zootopia 2,” “Elio,” “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain” and “Arco” all delve into deep musings on self-identity, inclusion and even racism — so how does an artist express that through animation?
Jared Bush, co-writer and co-director of “Zootopia 2” with Byron Howard, notes that 14 years ago, he and Howard were hired for “Zootopia” and that from Day 1, “Byron and I spoke about the ability of animation to reach people. And specifically, there’s something about a world of animals that allows us to hold up this mirror to human nature and the patterns that we fall into. And it was something that allowed us to touch on some deep themes and things that are sometimes hard to talk about. But it made it accessible.”
In “Zootopia 2,” Gary De’Snake (voiced by Ke Huy Quan) works to restore the snakes’ ancestral homes. These habitats were destroyed, and the snakes were cast out, by wealthy lynxes who greedily expanded into the cold lands that suited their own species. Anti-snake propaganda and habitat destruction ensured the rest of the Zootopia population didn’t question the status quo.
Bush says that while they had to stick with the central theme of the differences that arose between Nick and Judy, now full-fledged police personnel, their research into animals showed that snakes were the opposite of mammals in almost every way — plus, most mammals have an inherent fear of and bias against snakes.
“What’s fascinating, though, is our production designer, Cory Loftis, found a very specific species of pit viper — the Thai tree viper — it’s that brilliant blue color,” Bush says, a hue of blue that doesn’t show up in mammal colors. “So we wanted this character to immediately be an outlier, even among reptiles, an outlier. That was really important to us.”
Bush says that on the flip side, “pit vipers do have these incredible superpowers: the ability to sense heat, which gives them sort of a different way to maneuver in the world.” That became important later on, when Gary becomes the hero, “because of that difference, because of that otherness.”
Bush adds: “These were all really carefully constructed and thought-out ideas that all went back into this notion of what we are trying to say with the story.”
But Gary is still a snake, so …
Bush says that the character designers and Loftis really stepped up when it came to the reptiles and the less fuzzy wuzzy animals in the film, like the fact that snakes don’t have eyelids, so how do you create emotion through the all-important windows to the soul? Bush again credits the animators, citing Adam Green, who “spent a lot of time figuring out how to find emotion with Gary. We spent a lot of time making sure that he would be vulnerable and that he was this incredibly sympathetic and empathetic character.”
The research also turned up the fact that the scales of pit vipers are also feathery, “so when he smiles or emotes, you actually can see some of that breakup. It gives him specificity. And I would say not a cuddliness, but probably cuddlier than another snake might be because of that extra texture on his face,” says Bush.
He also credits Quan’s voice acting. “There was no one else we even considered for the role. He has this immense range of emotion; the second he talks, you lean in, and you want him to succeed, and you want him to be happy. And that’s such a critical part of, I think, why that Gary character works is because he matters to you,” says Bush.
“Little Amélie” animators and co-directors Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han adapted from the memoir of Amélie Nothomb chronicling the early childhood of the Belgian diplomat’s daughter in Japan. The film starts with her birth and follows her until about the age of three, exploring themes of identity (Amélie thinks she’s Japanese), class and scars left from WWII.
“It’s the end of the ‘60s, so it’s a specific point in her life,” says Han. Nishio-san, a young Japanese woman, is brought in to help around the house and cook, and she becomes Amélie’s companion. “And this little girl actually chooses to be Japanese. She feels that she’s Japanese. And we thought this was a very powerful and symbolic story, and we wanted to appeal to both an adult audience and a children’s audience, so we felt it was a very deep message about death, about grief, about accepting,” says Han.
One important scene that illustrates the versatility of animation is one in which Nishio-san explains to toddler Amélie what happened to her family in the war. In the book, it’s quite graphic, says Vallade. “We didn’t want to make something too violent. So that’s why our solution involved her cooking.” Nishio-san uses a pot of boiling water and rice to explain the bombing of her home and the deaths of her family. “So you could feel a bit more inside of her mind, of her emotional state. It was a big job to find this balance between the adult [themes] and make it for kids as well,” she says.
The book is about early childhood, so the character design reflects a more warm, round style. Han notes that the pair had worked with animator Rémi Chayé (director of “Calamity” and “Long Way North” who did backgrounds on “Amélie”), whose style using bold outlines matched what they were doing for their film. “Texture with a bit of pastel, you know, to feel like the character is even more blended into the background,” Han says.
Vallade adds that the connection between French Impressionist painters in the late 19th century and Japanese artists that spawned a movement called Japonais also influenced the look of the film. “It’s the Impressionist connection, trying to make some simple forms that can give a lot of emotion with the choice of very particular colors and mood.”
Ugo Bienvenu’s hand-drawn “Arco” tells the story of a boy called Arco who accidentally travels from the future Earth to 2075, which is adapting to a hostile climate. “Animation, to me, gives a lot more sensitivity and also depth; I have much more emotions in 2D than in 3D. I think it’s also because us humans recognize each other more in our errors, more in what we fail than what we achieve,” he says.
As for “Arco’s” style, which incorporates bright backgrounds and accessible characters, including humanoid robots, Bienvenu says, “I’m a drawer, and I have worked in comic books and illustrations for 15 years, and I didn’t try to find any new look.”
His near-future world is still familiar to audiences in 2025 as is Arco’s world, where they live in pod-like dwellings with gardens in the sky. He wanted to incorporate elements that were familiar to everyone, despite it being sci-fi. But that’s the point — our future looks similar to today, just with advancements in technology.
Bienvenu says, “And if I’m honest, tomorrow isn’t going to be better. And so I thought, if we want the best to happen, we have to imagine it first. So ‘Arco’ was a way for me to say, ‘Spread better ideas into the future so they can happen.’ The whole aim of ‘Arco’ is to say to people, imagine good things. And let’s bring better things to reality.”
English (US) ·