Much of the appeal of any Disney park is that you can enter some of your favorite universes—whether Star wars at the edge of the Galaxycomplete with walk, talk and beep BDX droidsor a bar fit for Jack Sparrow's Beak and trunk. And while guests can visit Zootopia Shanghai Disney Center now has another way to explore the animal-filled metropolis.
A new immersive 4D experience opens today, November 7, 2025, at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. Zootopia: Better than Zoogether!. It replaces the long-standing It's hard to be a bug show (thematic for the film Life of a Bug) inside the Tree of Life Theater at the front of the park and marks the park's first new attraction in years.
Zootopia Show debuts as Animal Kingdom undergoes major changes, including new Indiana Jones– themed attraction and Charm attraction in upcoming land of Tropical America. TechRadar had the chance to preview the new 4D show ahead of its opening and check out the production, created by the same animation team behind it. Zootopia 2 – and get a closer look at a brand new animatronic from Walt Disney Imagineering.
It's a fitting debut for an attraction so deeply associated with Zootopia The Universe Arriving Just Weeks Before Zootopia 2 will be released on the big screen on November 26, 2025. The series will even introduce a new location, the Swamp Market, which will appear in the film, has the same voice talent and was developed by the same storytellers as the sequel. This is a great example of the synergy between Disney Parks, Walt Disney Imagineering and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Zootopia: Better than Zoogether! lasts about 10 minutes and takes guests through the various celebrations of Zoogeter's Day—a day similar to Earth Day—while exploring different biomes. Along the way, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde investigate. It's fun and similar to the shorts we've seen from Walt Disney Animation Studios. Disney+.
The art style and animation are almost identical to the film's universe – this is a big plus and enhances the experience. This is very similar to Zootopia story, and while it's not a full-blown themed land, it still pulls you deep into the world of the film. It's all presented as “CarrotVision” complete with orange 3D glasses to help bring the “third” dimension to life. Meanwhile, Disney also added a fourth dimension with effects such as fans, wind machines, smoke and water sprays.
It all adds to the immersion and forces you to look beyond the walls of the screen – sometimes up or down, left or right – to see where the next special effect might come from.
The real star, however, is the use of the original cast—Ginnifer Goodwin as Judy, Jason Bateman as Nick, and Nate Torrence as Benjamin Clawhauser—along with an all-new animatronic version of Clawhauser. Mounted on a rig on the right side of the theater, the animatronic turns and rotates, creating the feeling of being an exact recreation of the character we see at the table in Zootopia.
Clawhauser is very expressive in this form, with detailed facial movements – from eyebrows, cheeks, grins and other emotional nuances – as well as realistic articulation of the arms and paws. It's impressively executed. While Disney has another Clawhauser animatronic in the lineup at Shanghai Disney, the eyes here are not screens, which adds to the realism.
Nate Torrence, voice of Clawhauser in Zootopia films also voice this appeal. Speaking to TechRadar, Torrence said he was thrilled to be immortalized in this form. For Zootopia: Better than Zoogether!he recorded the lines at Disney Imagineering, where the team also filmed him for facial comparison.
He recalled being aware of his facial expressions: “There were certain points where they would come in and say, ‘We just want to see how you say this and how you move—like when you wince in the water.’ Things like that aren’t written into the process,” Torrence explained. “It was great to be a part of this process.” He added that watching the ride made him more aware of how he used his hands and became even more animated.
Ginnifer Goodwin also shared information about the recording process for the attraction and film. “It was explained to me that the way we move changes the way we sound, and it makes us more human – just like we want ours to be.” Zootopia the characters need to have a human resonance,” she said. That expressiveness—like Torrance's flinching—is directly reflected in Clawhauser's animated performance.
Although the attraction is billed as a 4D show, the animatronic is visible, moving and interacting for most of the runtime before the character moves onto the screen for the musical number – which is likely to surprise and delight. Zootopia fans.
Speaking to TechRadar, Priya Sampat, lead producer of the Walt Disney Imagineering attraction, shared that the animatronic Clawhauser is more interactive than previous models, replacing projected eyes with mechanical ones and adding “additional features on his face as well as on his wrists to allow him to follow what the characters are doing on screen.”
You'll also notice that Clawhauser's lighting is intentional: it gets brighter when he moves, consistent with the biomes, and a little darker when the focus is on the screen or other effects in the theater.
Sampat also noted that Imagineering worked hand-in-hand with Walt Disney Animation Studios to ensure “he is represented correctly in the series.” This collaboration shows in the visuals as the same animation team is behind it. Zootopia 2 worked on the attraction. The result fits seamlessly into the universe – a family experience that will have you humming the original song created for it.
Various immersive elements go beyond the standard 3D stunts: being sprayed with water from spray bottles as two otters describe a scene in the Swamp Market, feeling the rumble of your seat during a chaotic chase through Rodentia, or being surrounded by smoke, fog and wind as you race through it. Zootopia. These moments pick up the pace and allow you to be completely immersed in the performance throughout the show.
Zootopia: Better than Zoogether! is now open at Disneyland's Animal Kingdom, and admission to the attraction is free with a park ticket – there's also a Lightning Lane option. You'll need some time queuing as Zoogether Day features posters displaying excellent art, a mini entrance for guests from Rodentia attending the show, and a Powdora exhibit while you wait to enter the theatre.
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