Review: THE BAD GUYS, Mildly Diverting, Engaging Kid-Friendly Flick

While Pixar and Disney Animation continue to soar to newer and greater heights with each new theatrical or streaming release, scoring critical acclaim, commercial success, and Oscar nominations practically every year, their closest rival, DreamWorks Animation Studios, hasn’t fared nearly as well since Shrek and its immediate sequel, Shrek 2, made DreamWorks Animation not just a major name in the family-oriented animation space, but a ubiquitous merchandizing force practically on par with Disney.

Too often picking quantity over quality, flooding movie theaters with mid- or sub-standard fare, DreamWorks Animation’s reputation has taken an understandable hit. Their latest straight-to-cinemas release, The Bad Guys, might not return DreamWork Animation’s lackluster brand to its former glory, but considered on its own terms, The Bad Guys emerges as a splendid addition to DreamWorks's 40-plus-strong catalogue. For families willing to give it a chance opening weekend or via streaming sometime down the road, The Bad Guys might just offer a brief, if charmingly engaging, diversion from everyday (and nighttime) cares.

Loosely based on children's author Aaron Blabey's illustrated series and set in a pop-art, adjacent reality where humans and anthropomorphic animals uneasily coexist, The Bad Guys centers on an anthropomorphic gang modeled on the George Clooney-led iteration of Ocean’s Eleven and its lesser sequels. Led by an avuncular, cooler-than-cool, immaculately dressed Canis lupus, Mr. Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell), the title characters thoroughly enjoy both the thrill of the chase and the thrill of the escape from daring daylight heists (a bank in the first scene), stealing from the well-insured and keeping the proceeds for themselves. It’s an unexamined life filled with the kind of surface-level excitement that Mr. Wolf doesn’t bother to question, especially when his support network (aka, his heist gang) follow his lead without hesitation.

With the nimble assistance of Mr. Snake (podcast legend Marc Maron, perfectly cast), a stealthy, limbless reptile with a curmudgeonly worldview and a wicked sense of humor; Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), a lumbering land shark and the gang's master of disguise; Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos), the gang's pint-sized muscle and sadly, where The Bad Guys unreflectively embraces ethnic stereotypes; and Tarantula (Awkwafina), the team's erstwhile hacker, Mr. Wolf can steal almost anything from anyone anywhere with few, if any, consequences. Mr. Wolf’s next-level driving skills come in handy too, specifically when Mr. Wolf and company run afoul of their longtime nemesis, the ultra-caffeinated police chief, Misty Luggins (Alex Borstein, delivering an outsized vocal performance in line with her two-dimensional counterpart), or the city’s seemingly endless supply of bumbling uniformed officers.

Mr. Wolf’s lifelong embrace of crime and criminality, however, get thrown into question when an inadvertent act of kindness, saving an elderly woman from falling down some stairs at a bustling charity gala, makes him feel something unexpected: Shockingly, doing good makes Mr. Wolf feel good, if only temporarily. That, in turn, sets up Mr. Wolf’s existential dilemma: If doing good makes you feel good, then why continue pursuing a life of criminal activity and risk eventual imprisonment and ostracism, especially if it makes him feel bad? It's a question every child eventually asks of themselves explicitly or implicitly.

Meeting the recently elected governor, Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz), like Mr. Wolf, an anthropomorphic animal, but unlike Mr. Wolf, a law-abiding citizen who's parlayed her natural charm, persuasiveness, and verbosity into a political career, also spurs him to rethink his life choices. Getting caught in the middle of a heist also gives Mr. Wolf a seemingly easy way out: Pretending he wants to do good and dragging his reluctant team along for a redemptive ride under the presumably well-meaning tutelage of the city’s wealthy benefactor, Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade), a well-spoken, well-tailored guinea pig who lives in a vast mansion near the sea.

The Bad Guys mixes unobjectionable, inclusive ideas (i.e., the danger of stereotypes, altruism vs. self-interest, redemption/rehabilitation for criminals), with preteen-oriented body humor (Mr. Piranha suffers from flatulence), countless pop-culture references, and broad physical comedy, the last clearly inspired by Looney Tunes and Japanese animation. Deliberately embracing a less intrusive approach to animating the story, characters, and backgrounds reflecting an anti-photo-realistic, two-dimensional, throwback cartoon style, The Bad Guys consistently soars on its visual style and imaginative set-piece pyrotechnics, collectively making The Bad Guys worth the price of admission.  

The Bad Guys opens today (Friday, April 22) exclusively in movie theaters via DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.