Death Stranding and Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima is well-known for his love of cameos — his games are full of them — but the developer is now making a cameo of his own in a very unexpected place: an animated Disney movie.
According to Mantaweb via Automaton, Kojima will appear in Zootopia 2 as a mole at the Zootopia Police Department. Officer Paul Moledebrandt — to use his full name — will be the director’s first animated cameo and appears by way of a direct invitation from movie director and CCO at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Jared Bush.
“I’ve had many cameo appearances in live-action films and games, but this is my first experience dubbing for an animated theatrical film,” Kojima said. “And it’s from Disney, of all places! What’s more, it’s the sequel to my favorite film, Zootopia! On top of that, I received an offer directly from director Jared Bush, so I was extremely honored and accepted without hesitation.
“I only took part in a small scene, but even at the time of recording, the production was incredibly well-crafted. Thanks to the illustrations, the recording went smoothly. I’m usually on the directing side, so I learned a lot from actually experiencing acting. I was reminded of how much attention the voice actors pay to basic things like turning pages in the script and noise.”
In the western version of Zootopia 2, Officer Paul Moledebrandt is voiced by Josh Gad. Already it’s an enormous hit, with a huge $556 million global opening at the box office. $156 million came in domestically during the Thanksgiving holiday (five day period), but it was internationally that Zootopia 2 soared with a whopping $400 million (China accounted for more than half that figure).
Overall, Zootopia 2 has the fourth highest global opening of all time, behind only MCU movies Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Zootopia 2 now looks certain to become a billion dollar movie at theaters.
If you want to hear Hideo Kojima as Officer Paul Moledebrandt, you’ll have to head over to Japan, where Zootopia 2 is set for release on December 5. IGN’s Zootopia 2 review returned an 8/10. We said: “Zootopia 2 sends ZPD’s first ever bunny-fox detective duo back onto the case of some of the weightiest issues we face as a society, and they brought all the animal puns with them.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
