The Bad Guys (2022)
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The Bad Guys Movie Review
The Bad Guys is a 2022 animated heist crime comedy film directed by Pierre Perifel and starring Sam Rockwell. DreamWorks Animation is finally back with this fun, funny flick.
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“We may be bad, but we’re so good at it!“
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Several reformed yet misunderstood criminal animals attempt to become good, leading to some disastrous results along the way. Based on a children’s book series and featuring a distinct visual style, the movie is reminiscent to Sony’s ‘Spider-Verse’ in the huge character roster as well. That is a problem for me as the characterization usually suffers when the film is straddled with way too many personalities, which is exactly what happened here.
All of the characters are beautifully designed and a lot of fun, but some get very little screen time, resulting in lesser development. Mr. Wolf is excellent. He is one of the highlights of the film. Rockwell’s voice is great and the character is suave, amusing and very memorable. The design that they did on him is the best in a film filled with amazing character animation.
Mr. Snake is another standout. This sarcastic, villainous snake who has a soft side to him is Wolf’s best friend and the two share a very interesting, strong dynamic. All of the dialogue between the two was stellar. Awkwafina as Ms. Tarantula is also great and the character is fun, but not utilized all that much. But it was clever of them to include a spider hacker who could easily type with her many legs.
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Mr. Shark is the more childish member of the bunch and he is endearing while Mr. Piranha is the most unstable member of the team. As for Marmalade and Foxington, the twist about their identities I saw coming from a mile away. They are solid characters, but DreamWorks should have come with a better way to surprise viewers with a fresh twist instead of these tiresome ones.
As for the overall storyline, it’s pretty good. While labeled as a crime comedy, I would call The Bad Guys a full-on heist movie, which made it so interesting as I cannot recall any other heist movie that was done in the animation medium on the top of my head. The heist scenes worked as they were so well executed and the humor was also fantastic. Unfortunately, the best jokes were revealed in the trailers, but still the movie’s very humorous, especially when focusing on the devious nature of the main team.
DreamWorks should be praised for doing something different in terms of animation. Yes, they were obviously inspired by Sony’s recent outings, but still this new trend in 2D-looking style really appeals to me as a traditional animation fan. As I’ve already said above, the character design done on all the animal characters was truly unique as they look different than any other cartoon animal. The overall style is very smooth, light-drenched and colorful, making for such a pleasant viewing experience. The action scenes also look super smooth.
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The Bad Guys loses its steam toward the end as the movie’s first half is much more exciting than the standard formula of the latter half. With that being said, the dialogue remains great throughout, the editing is pretty good and the movie’s soundtrack is also fine. The highlight in terms of the scenes was the opening long-shot sequence that mirrored Tarantino flicks effortlessly. With this movie, DreamWorks is finally back as they’ve suffered a string of lackluster efforts recently.
