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Disney Reviews with the Unshaved Mouse #64: Zootopia 2

My friends, I ask you to consider a simple hypothetical:

Maybe we’re the assholes?

This meme did the rounds last year after Pixar’s Elio crashed and burned and someone at Disney had gotten into the hard liquor and had some feelings they needed to express. And while I do believe that 90% of the time creators blaming the audience for the failure of their project is the mark of a talentless hack so high off their own farts that they genuinely believe that the only way anyone could dislike their output is if there was something morally wrong with them…

Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.

…you know what? I gotta give them this one. And I can say that, because I am actually one of the two people who saw Elio (Micro-Mouse is the other one). Elio is not a perfect film and I probably won’t watch it again. But it was charming, well animated, sincere and, yes, not a retread or rehash or cynical nostalgia bait cash grab and we all just left it to die on the road like a leper.

It’s one thing for Disney to complain that we didn’t give them a participation trophy for Strange World or Wish. When we said “we want original animated films”, the rider “…that aren’t absolute bobbins” should have been taken as read.

But with Elio, they showed up. They gave us what we said we wanted. Aaaaaand it turns out we were a bunch of lying hoors because we instead gave a billions dollars to this:

I’m acknowledging this exists. Enjoy it while it lasts because this is the only time.

Then again, this year saw the hugely succesful release of Hoppers, which was not merely good like Elio but genuinely excellent with a truly original premise, animation that actually innovates and shakes up the old Pixar house style and some great comedy. Well, I say “original”. Clearly they stole wholesale from Don’t Trust Fish.

But it doesn’t matter! Because the next Hoppers might end up like Elio. We can’t be trusted, and once you’ve proven you can’t be trusted no one will ever deal with you because they know you’ll never negotiate in good faith and now somehow fucking Iran has the world’s economy by the goddamn short-hairs.

I mean, that’s how we get Zootopia 2.

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From sea to shining sea

Two weeks, 20,000 kilometres, 4 countries. There are trips and there are TRIPS and my contribution to the family collection of fridge magnets has been robust and muscular.

Late in February I took part in the Whole Wide World book tour organised by Children’s Books Ireland and Laureate na n-Óg Patricia Forde to visit schools across Northern Ireland. And once that was over, I immediately began a ten day book tour of North America. Why did I agree to do those two things so close together?

Anyway, horrendous “I’m pretty sure the devil is hiding in the wallpaper” level jet lag not withstanding, this was an absolutely incredible journey.

For starters, I finally got to meet Dan Santat who, despite the fact that we made a bestselling book together, had never actually been in the same room before. It’s always a little risky to meet someone for the first time and then spend almost a fortnight in close proximity but, as we explained to many schoolchildren, it’s really the only way to make friends in your forties. Seriously though, Dan is absolute gem of a human being and it was wonderful to have him as a guide through his amazing, often bewildering country.

We started in Chicago, headed to Austin and then San Antonio, then up to Colorado, over to Seattle, down to San Juan California and then up to Vancouver visiting a total of 16 schools and bookstores.

We actually got to meet the Cat in the Hat. Total prick.

Everywhere we went I was stunned by the generosity and the enthusiasm and the gosh-darned decency of everyone that we met.

I will treasure this 3D printed Jeff for the rest of my days.

This trip taught, or re-taught me that kids are kids the world over. They have the same hunger for knowledge, the same wonderfully mad sense of humour, the same mixture of innocence and great wisdom. Meeting these children, and the librarians and the teachers who work themselves to the bone on their behalf because they love them and understand how important they are has made me more optimistic than I have been for a while.

Naive of me to think, perhaps, but I think y’all are going to be alright.

K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025)

Heeeeey it’s me, Unshaved Mouse, your favourite writer/blogger who overpromises because he’s terrified of disappointing people and ends up taking on WAAAAY too many writing projects and then spirals and completely burns out!

So, as you all know I’m currently preparing for my first North American book tour at the end of this month while also facing a huge quivering mass of deadlines so this review is going to be shorter than the queues for Melania.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but I do have things to say about this movie.

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We’re going on tour!

Big news!

At the end of the month I’ll be embarking on an epic, two week book tour of North America with my colleague in anti-piscine propaganda Dan Santat! We’ll be doing readings in schools across the US and Canada as well as some public events and I’d love to see you there!

Here’s the schedule

Fri 27th February, 6pm

Anderson’s Bookshop, Downers Grove, Illinois

TICKETS HERE: https://www.eventcombo.com/e/Author-Event-with-Neil-Sharpson–Dan-SantatDont-Trust-Fish-78183

Sun March 1st, 11 am

Bookpeople, Austin, Texas

TICKETS HERE: https://bookpeople.com/event/2026-03-01/special-author-storytime-neil-sharpson-and-dan-santat

Sat March 7th, 11.30 am

Hicklebee’s Bookstore, San Jose, California

TICKETS HERE: https://hicklebees.com/event/2026-03-07/neil-sharpson-dan-santat-dont-trust-fish

Sunday, March 8th, 1pm

Langley, British Columbia, Canada

TICKETS HERE: https://ticketscene.ca/events/59235/

Yeah, that was okay.

In last year’s wrap-up I noted that 2025 was a big important sounding year for doing big things and I don’t want to brag…

Like, I genuinely don’t want to brag. I’m Irish Catholic, I’m brag intolerant. But fine, yeah, this was a REALLY big year for me. Without a doubt my most successful year since becoming a full time writer.

For starters, my third novel, The Burial Tide was released and was selected by the New York Public Library not only as their second best horror book of the year but one of their 20 best books of 2025.

But let’s not beat about the bush. The real star of the show this year was Don’t Trust Fish, my first picture book illustrated by the incomparable Dan Santat which was…deep breath.

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Son of the White Mare (1981)

I will probably never watch this movie again.

Not because it is bad.

Because the experience of watching Son of the White Mare again could never top the experience of watching it for the first time.

And you know what’s crazy? This is…drumroll please…my final reader’s request. And the reason I left this one to last was because the requester simply asked me to review “something Eastern European” and I just chose this because it looked interesting. I picked this one almost at random.

And it ended up being…well, we’ll get to that.

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New York Public Library Interview and New Podcast Episode

Hey everyone! Firstly, apologies for the delay with this episode, we were beset with all manner of plagues and misfortunes (Esther literally couldn’t speak for weeks). How long did this episode take us to upload? So long that when we recorded it there was a heatwave on. That, incidentally, is why you’ll hear me say that Tony Jay voiced Quasimodo and not Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, because my brains were melted goop. Anyway, this episode is about landmark Canadian CGI series Reboot, and you should give it a listen.

ALSO!

I’ll be doing an online interview with the New York Public Library at 4pm Eastern on the 2nd of December, talking about The Burial Tide. If any of you are in the parish and want to join in, you can register HERE.

The Fantastic Adventures of Unico (1983)

Back around the time the first eukaryotic organisms were developing on the Earth’s sea floor, I coined the term “Tar and Sugar Movies” to describe the earliest films of the Walt Disney Animated Feature canon. I chose the name in reference to the often jarring tonal shifts between cloying cutsiness and shocking darkness of those films. In retrospect though, I think I got it wrong. The true Golden Age of the Tar and Sugar aesthetic was not the late thirties and forties, but the nineteen eighties.

Here is the typical eighties cartoon experience:

“Golly Gee! This sure is a fun picnic! I just hope that mean ol’ Lord Hexxodrexx doesn’t show up to spoil everything.”

“I HAVE COME TO DEVOUR YOUR FUCKING SOULS!!! GRAAAAAAAA!!!”

And I think, with today’s movie, I may have found the ultimate Tar and Sugar movie. And, as in most things in this life, they do it better in Japan.

I don’t have to introduce Osamu Tezuka by this point, do I? Born in 1920s Osaka, created manga and animé as we know it, the Japanese Walt Disney, one of the most influential animators of all time you know all this. He was also quite possibly one of the most prolific creators in history, writing and drawing well over 700 manga series in his lifetime encompassing virtually any genre you could think of and targeted at every possible age demographic. The basis for today’s movie was the children’s manga Unico, about a cute little unicorn who has magical powers that he uses to bring happiness and joy to everyone he meets.

Well, I’m sure there’s no way that could possibly take a dark turn.

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Bats versus Bolts: The 2020s

Funny how these things work out. I was pretty sure I had run out of candidates for this particular feature and then look what happens! A Dracula* AND a Frankenstein movie arrive within a year of each other. Both critically acclaimed, big budget adaptations directed by genuine auteur directors. Bats versus Bolts is back from the dead like a…what’s a good analogy. A mummy? Sure, that works.

So join me in what promises to be a real knock-down drag out fight. Robert Eggers 2024 Nosferatu versus Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein. FIGHT! (Oh, and spoilers past this point).

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You all really don’t like fish, huh?

Okay, this is starting to get a little scary now.

In the last week, Don’t Trust Fish has been Shortlisted for the 2025 An Post Irish Book Award for Children’s Book of the Year – Junior.

Voting has now begun and if you could give me a vote I’d really appreciate it.

ALSO

Publisher’s Weekly have named it as one of their best Picture Books of 2025.

Blogger and teacher Colby Sharp also featured DON’T TRUST FISH in a list of “Amazing 2025 Books” that you can find here: https://www.mrcolbysharp.com/2025

Oh, true story. Once my grandmother made me tidy my room and when she saw the result sniffily remarked that I’d never get the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Well, well, well.

Don’t Trust Fish actually, literally, has the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. I’m dead serious.

Barnes and Noble have named it as one of their Best Picture Books of 2025.

And lastly, Don’t Trust Fish has been shortlisted for the 2025 West Sussex Picture Books to Shout About Award.

And this is just the stuff I can tell you about NOW.

Crazy, crazy year.