Yvette Nicole Brown is part of a special group. While some talents have earned EGOT status by winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony, Brown has her own pop culture distinction as a DMPL, having appeared in a Disney, Marvel Studios, Pixar, and Lucasfilm project. Now the actor shares her thoughts on the recognition, being in Zootopia 2, as well as an update on the Community movie.
With Zootopia 2 now available to watch at home, audiences can revisit the BAFTA-winning animated sequel and catch details they may have missed the first time around. The home release arrives after the film shattered records at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing animated film of all time and racing past $1.85 billion worldwide in under 100 days from its November 2025 debut.
Set shortly after the events of the first film, Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) go undercover to uncover a citywide conspiracy involving a mysterious reptile fugitive named Gary DeSnake (Ke Huy Quan).
We had a chance to participate in a home entertainment release event at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, California, where we spoke with director Byron Howard and producer Yvette Merino about the film’s success and what was behind the feather in the after-credits scene.
Brown is no stranger to the Disney family, but even now, getting the call still feels surreal. Joining Zootopia 2 also gave her the chance to voice not one, but two characters in one of Disney’s biggest recent hits. “You know, I’m still pinching myself,” Brown said. “You never get used to a call from Disney. I don’t get I don’t care who you are. You just never do because it’s not promised and you don’t know, you just don’t, you just don’t expect it. So when the call came through, I was just really excited, and to get to be two voices in this amazing film is just an embarrassment of riches. So I was very, very excited.”
The actor also had fun reflecting on the unofficial DMPL label, a distinction she seems more than happy to claim. Even she sounded surprised to find herself in such rare company across Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm. “You know, it’s so funny because I’m trying to, it’s like I’m trying to make fetch happen with dimple with it. But, you know, I’m surprised that Ming-Na Wen is not a DMPL. I’m surprised that Samuel L. Jackson is not a DMPL. So just the idea that I am the only person that’s been in each of these properties is crazy. Yeah, crazy something. I’m gonna get a t-shirt, maybe get a billboard, DMPL is just as great as it you got, as far as I’m concerned. I mean, you know, Marvel and Disney and Lucasfilm and Pixar.”
Brown also recalled how much freedom she had in the recording booth, crediting writer-director Jared Bush for letting her fully lean into the character and have fun with the performance. “You know Jared, I was surprised how crazy he let me be, if I’m honest, like, I’m pretty crazy. But Jared was like, No, give me more. I was like, okay, so it literally became a freak show of me and Jared just cracking each other up and saying we did a whole movie in the sessions, half the stuff, we’ll never make it anywhere. But it was a lot of fun just to play. You know, that was exciting that I got to play as much as I did.”
With Zootopia offering a variety of climate-centered districts, its citizens can choose between somewhere hot and dry, cool, or even humid. Brown already seems to have an idea of where she would go. “I was gonna say the water, but I can’t swim, so that’s probably not the best choice. I also thought about the snowy place where they buried all the reptile world, but I don’t really like snow,” she said. “So I’m going with someplace dry and arid. Maybe where they had the festival in the desert.”
As for the long-awaited Community movie, Brown made it clear that the project is still happening, even if the timeline remains uncertain. “We are on. We just don’t know when,” she said. “I keep telling people, it’s not a lack of desire, it’s not. Everybody’s on board. We want to do it. We just don’t know when we can do it because everybody’s busy. So it’s got to find a section of time where everybody’s free.”
Zootopia 2 is on Blu-ray and DVD, and is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.
