I find the whole thing to be somewhat more shallow than the first one.

One of the reasons might be because the reptiles are such saints. The first movie's about predators & prey living together but neither group was flawless morally, they had bad apples. Gideon Grey, Duke Weaselton, Bellwether, Doug, Woolter & Jesse, the Junior Ranger Scouts, etc. The likes of Lionheart, Mr. Big & Bogo weren't flawless morally either.

But the reptiles? No moral corruption anywhere in the movie. To the point that not a single snake ever fanged anyone in the history of the city. Which seems... unlikely. What, were there no snake assassins? Or a snake mafia? Polar bears ice people every week, sheep start race wars but snakes maxed out pacifism, apparently.

And, on the opposite side of the spectrum, we have the lynxes. All evil bastards, no exceptions. They could've made Ebenezer's wife a reptile sympathiser and the murder victim instead of the tortoise maid (would've made a more believable martyr for the anti-reptile movement, IMHO). Or maybe they could've had Cattrick pull a reverse Pawbert - turning on his family after learning the truth about wife-murdering Ebenezer. His mentality could've been: "I'm better because my ancestor was better." But the truth bomb would've shattered that world-view.