A lot of the attraction of any Disney park is you can step inside a few of your favourite universes – be it Star Wars at Galaxy’s Edge, full with strolling, speaking, beeping BDX droids, or a bar match for Jack Sparrow at The Beak and Barrel. And whereas visitors can go to Zootopia at Shanghai Disney, there’s now one other solution to discover the animal-filled metropolis.
Opening right this moment – November 7, 2025 – at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, is a brand new immersive 4D present, Zootopia: Higher Zoogether!. It replaces the long-standing It’s Powerful to Be a Bug present (themed to the movie A Bug’s Life) contained in the Tree of Life Theater close to the entrance of the park and marks the park’s first new attraction in years.
The Zootopia show debuts as the Animal Kingdom park undergoes major changes, including a new Indiana Jones-themed ride and an Encanto attraction in the upcoming Tropical Americas land. TechRadar had the prospect to preview the brand new 4D present forward of its opening, experiencing the manufacturing – created by the identical animation workforce behind Zootopia 2 – and getting an up-close have a look at an all-new animatronic from Walt Disney Imagineering.
It’s a becoming debut for an attraction so deeply related to the Zootopia universe, arriving simply weeks earlier than Zootopia 2 hits the large display on November 26, 2025. The present even premieres a brand new location – Marsh Market – that may seem within the movie, options the identical voice expertise, and was developed by the identical storytellers behind the sequel. It’s an ideal instance of synergy between Disney Parks, Walt Disney Imagineering, and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Zootopia: Higher Zoogether! runs for about 10 minutes and takes visitors by numerous celebrations centered round Zoogether Day – a day much like Earth Day – exploring totally different biomes. Alongside the way in which, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde information the story by an investigation. It’s participating and feels much like the shorts we’ve seen from Walt Disney Animation Studios on Disney+.
The artwork type and animation are practically similar to the movie universe – a serious plus that elevates the expertise. It feels very very similar to a Zootopia story, and whereas it’s not a full-scale themed land, it nonetheless pulls you deep into the world of the movie. It’s all introduced as “CarrotVision”, full with orange 3D glasses, which assist to deliver to life the “third” dimension. In the meantime, Disney has additionally added a fourth dimension by results, comparable to followers, wind machines, smoke, and water sprayers.
All of this enhances the immersion and has you trying past the display’s partitions – at instances up or down, left or proper – to see the place the following particular impact may come from.
The true star, although, is the usage of the unique voice solid – Ginnifer Goodwin as Judy, Jason Bateman as Nick, and Nate Torrence as Benjamin Clawhauser – together with a brand-new animatronic model of Clawhauser. Set on a rig on the appropriate facet of the theater, the animatronic swivels and rotates, feeling like a one-to-one recreation of the character we see behind his desk in Zootopia.
Clawhauser on this type is very expressive, with detailed facial actions – from the eyebrows, cheeks, grins, and different emotional nuances – in addition to lifelike hand and paw articulation. It’s impressively executed. Whereas Disney has one other Clawhauser animatronic in a queue at Shanghai Disney, the eyes right here should not screens, which heightens the realism.
Nate Torrence, who voices Clawhauser within the Zootopia movies, additionally lends his voice to this attraction. Chatting with TechRadar, Torrence stated he was thrilled to be immortalized on this type. For Zootopia: Higher Zoogether!, he recorded strains at Disney Imagineering, the place the workforce additionally filmed him for facial reference.
He recalled being conscious of his expressions: “There have been particular instances after they got here in and stated, ‘we simply need to see how you’ll say this and the way you progress round – like if you’re wincing from the water’. Stuff like that isn’t written into the method,” Torrence defined. “It was nice to be included in that course of.” He added that when watching the attraction, he turned extra self-aware of how he makes use of his fingers – and much more animated himself.
Ginnifer Goodwin additionally shared insights into the recording course of for each the attraction and the movie. “It was defined to me that the way in which we transfer adjustments how we sound, and that makes us seem extra human – in the identical means we wish our Zootopia characters to have human overlap,” she stated. That expressiveness – like Torrence’s wincing – straight interprets to Clawhauser’s animated efficiency.
Whereas the attraction is billed as a 4D present, the animatronic is seen, shifting, and interacting for a lot of the runtime earlier than the character transitions to the display for a musical quantity – one thing that may possible shock and delight Zootopia followers.
Chatting with TechRadar, Priya Sampat, Lead Producer at Walt Disney Imagineering for the attraction, shared that the Clawhauser animatronic is extra interactive than earlier fashions, swapping projected eyes for mechanical ones and including “extra capabilities in his face in addition to his wrists to lean into what the characters are doing on-screen”.
You’ll additionally discover that the lighting on Clawhauser is intentional: it will get brighter as he strikes, matching the biomes, and barely darker when the main focus is on the display or different results within the theater.
Sampat additionally famous that Imagineering labored hand-in-hand with Walt Disney Animation Studios to make sure “he’s represented accurately within the present”. That collaboration shines by within the visuals, as the identical animation workforce behind Zootopia 2 labored on the attraction. The consequence matches seamlessly into the universe – a family-friendly expertise that may go away you buzzing the unique tune created for it.
The assorted immersive parts transcend commonplace 3D tips – being sprayed with water spritzers as two otters describe a scene in Marsh Market, feeling your seat rumble throughout a chaotic chase by Rodentia, or being surrounded by smoke, fog, and wind as you race by Zootopia. These moments improve pacing and preserve you totally engaged all through the present.
Zootopia: Higher Zoogether! is open now at Animal Kingdom at Disney World, and admission into the attraction is free with a park ticket – there may be additionally a Lightning Lane choice. You’ll need to take time going by the queue as there are posters teeing up Zoogether Day that showcase wonderful artwork, a mini entrance for visitors from Rodentia attending the present, and a ‘Pawdora’ exhibit as you wait to enter the theater.
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