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The Bad Guys
(DreamWorks Animation/Universal Pictures)
By Lucas Allen
Based on a series of children’s books by Aaron Blabey, “The Bad Guys” is the kid-friendly version of the more sophisticated R-rated action pictures that have been coming out. It’s certainly something you might expect from an animation studio like DreamWorks, which previously skewered classic fairy tales for the modern audience with their highly successful Shrek franchise. While written by Etan Cohen, it’s also the directorial debut of Pierre Perifel, who was part of the studio’s animation department throughout the 2010s.
Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell) is the mastermind and leader of a notorious band of criminals committing crimes in and around Los Angeles. His cohorts include safecracker Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), master of disguise Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), hacker Tarantula (Awkwafina), and strongman Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos). For years, they managed to make successful heists and avoiding the police led by obsessed police chief Misty Luggins (Alex Borstein). After another successful bank robbery, the gang plan their next heist by infiltrating an annual gala to steal the Golden Dolphin, which is supposed to be given to the ultra-generous Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade).
But on that night, Wolf is smitten by the city’s mayor Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz) and suddenly helping an old lady gives him a feeling of being good. That double distraction gets the gang caught and arrested by the police. To prove there’s more good in those bad guys than most people think, Marmalade invites the gang to his mansion for lessons in how to be nice to everyone through the power of good. However, it becomes another ruse by Wolf and the gang to try again to steal the Dolphin.
Something you’ll notice right off the bat is how smooth-looking the CG animation looks. There’s a mix of 2D-style pencils and colors for the settings with the 3D design of the characters. Los Angeles looks more like a sunny paradise than in real life, while mixing the human and animal characters makes an unusual hybrid of Zootopia and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Overall, DreamWorks absolutely borrowed the Pixar playbook in making standout animation to the right degree.
Kids will undoubtedly enjoy the film for its wild characters and colorful animation, but adults may have a hard time clicking with it. As an “Ocean’s 11” for kids, even the most ardent of cinephiles can tell which twist and turn will come a mile away. The characters are simply written as two-dimensional stereotypes and the humor isn’t all that clever, which tends to get pretty lowbrow. There are some good chuckles to be found, but the story remains annoying in its predictability and loud during the climax that it could’ve gone bolder with a couple of scenes.
It’s easy to get Rockwell confused with Woody Harrelson, with the Oscar-winning actor going for that charming southern drawl, but he brings witty banter to the Wolf character. You also have Maron, Robinson, Awkwafina and Ramos getting a chance to hilariously improvise their dialogue to try to enhance their characters. Borstein dials it up all the way, while Ayoade and Beetz both maintain consistent quality in their acting.
It’s hard not to get mad at DreamWorks for making a movie strictly for kids, but “The Bad Guys” could’ve used some further fine-tuning in its storytelling. Despite its strong script issues, the good voice acting and unusual animation make it a decent viewing experience. You could do worse on a family movie night than this, which may beat whatever Netflix puts on your recommendation list.
THE MOVIE’S RATING: PG (for action and rude humor)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 3 Stars (Out of Four)
