Animation at the Oscars

By Alyssa Wu

April 24, 2026

The 98th Academy Awards took place on March 15, 2026, and Walt Disney Animation Studios once again found itself in the spotlight. Zootopia 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the 2016 Oscar winner, secured a nomination for Best Animated Feature, as did the popular Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters. The announcement, which took place at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles this January, set the stage for a historic showdown.

Zootopia 2 didn’t just win over critics; it shattered box office records, becoming the highest-grossing animated film in history with a staggering $1.7 billion global haul. The film follows beloved protagonists Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde as they pursue the answers behind a mysterious piece of shed shakeskin, the first sign of a reptile in Zootopia in over a century. They go undercover to track down Gary De’Snake, a viper who is searching for a historical journal belonging to the city’s wealthy founding family, the Lynxleys. Together, Judy and Nick must navigate new districts like the aquatic Marsh Market to uncover a deep conspiracy.

While the film entered the night as a massive fan favorite, it faced competition from the highly popular musical KPop Demon Hunters as well. Despite Zootopia 2 dominating the Annie Awards and Critics' Choice nominations, the Academy ultimately awarded the Oscar to KPop Demon Hunters for its innovative blend of modern aesthetics and traditional mythology.

To understand why Zootopia 2 resonated so deeply with audiences, I interviewed a Disney fan, Grace, to get her take on the film’s technical achievements. According to Grace, the hype began long before the premiere. “I think it earned the nomination because  Disney teased the movie a lot, which made fans really excited," she explained. Once the film hit theaters, the quality of the animation lived up to the marketing. Grace noted that the visuals felt "really smooth and flowy," specifically praising the transitions for being seamless rather than "clipped or separated."

One of the biggest talking points regarding Zootopia 2 is its commitment to animal accuracy. Grace pointed out a major difference between this film and other animated features: “Zootopia 2 takes into account all the tiny details. In other movies, when animals put on headphones, they put them where a human’s ears would be. In this movie, when Judy Hopps uses earbuds, she actually places them into her ears on the top of her head." 

This attention to detail helped the film stand out in a year crowded with high-quality animation. While it may not have taken home the top prize at the Oscars, its record-breaking box office and seven Annie Award nominations prove that the world of Zootopia is as relevant as ever.