“Night of the Zoopocalypse” underwhelms in its environment despite engaging plot

Promotional image for “Night of the Zoopocalypse.” | Copperheart Entertainment

As summer is approaching, there is plenty of time to see movies! One new movie that recently came out is “Night of the Zoopocolypse.” It is a fun animated movie, detailing the adventures of several zoo animals as they aim to get themselves back into a zoo and get rid of a curse that has befallen the zoo animals. The movie first premiered on March 7, 2025, in the United States, and I saw it on March 15, at Regal Edwards Aliso Viejo Theatre.

I was attracted to this movie because it overall seemed like it might be uplifting. The movie left an imprint as it was inspirational. The movie, however, did not include a satisfying setting, and at some parts was not engaging.

When you watch a movie, there are several things to look for, including the animation, format, character development, and scenery. A good combination of these four make a movie truly worth watching.

“Night of the Zoopocalypse” starts out with several animals living in a zoo and one night they get infected by a virus. A bunny is first bitten by the virus, and soon several more are infected. However, four or five animals aren’t badly harmed and are tranquilized. They find themselves in cages, and then have the task of finding the key to let themselves back in and possibly save the other zoo animals.

What I thought was good: 

I liked the characters overall. Gracie and Dan form a close relationship, as they are both prominent zoo members. Gracie, a wolf, and Dan, a mountain lion, are both the bigger predators in the zoo, and they team up together through a lot of their pursuits. They find each other a tad annoying, as they both want to be in charge, but over time they form a closer relationship and learn to respect each other, which I thought was endearing.

I thought it was creative how the creators of the movie did a play of how the movie was a movie inside a movie. 

What I did not like as much:

The movie sometimes felt like it was playing the same five scenes in a loop. It was a little bit repetitive in this regard. The movie mainly took place inside of the zoo or just outside of the zoo, so there was not a lot of geographical distance covered or varied settings.

The themes throughout the movie include friendship and the idea of working together. It also explores elements of horror, and boredom versus adventure. One of the main characters, Gracie, feels that her life is monotonous. She soon learns adventure isn’t always easy!

This movie was creative in some parts in that the creators used it to describe the process of how a movie is made, but this was also cheesy and detracted from the movie. It had a good overall plot, but the scenes were too repetitive. If the creators added more variety in the scenes and plot twists, this would make it better! Maybe the characters come across other characters along their journey that help them along? The scope of the movie is too small as is.

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