Title – The Bad Guys (2022) 

Director – Pierre Perifel (feature debut) 

Cast – (voices of) Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz

Plot – A criminal group made up of a rag-tag collection of animals known simply as The Bad Guys, attempt to change their image after they are finally caught for a string of high profile heists that had made them public enemy number one.  

“These are the cards we’ve been dealt, so we might as well play ’em”

Review by Eddie on 29/08/2022

Based on Australian author’s Aaron Blabey’s successful book series of the same name, Dreamworks Animation’s The Bad Guys is an enjoyable and fast paced affair that manages to overcome its many familiar elements to become one of the more memorable animated rides of the last few years, a ride filled with humour, heart and likeable oddball characters that are sure too be seen on the big screen again in the near future. 

Following the exploits a criminal animal gang known simply as The Bad Guys, debut feature director Pierre Perifel’s film has a lot of fun exploring the world of Sam Rockwell’s Mr. Wolf, Marc Macron’s Mr. Snake, Awkwafina’s Mr. Tarantula, Craig Robinson’s Mr. Shark and Anthony Ramos’s Mr. Piranha as the collection of social misfits and miscreants find themselves thrust into the limelight and ordered to become “good guys” with Blabey’s colorful and energetic story allowing Perifel and his talented voice cast lots of opportunities to go all out.

You can sense the playfulness in the voices of the name brand cast with Rockwell and Maron in particular sharing some great chemistry as the buddy duo of Mr. Wolf and Mr. Snake, while additional voice players such as Zazie Beetz as Diane Foxington and Richard Ayoade as hero guinea pig Professor Rupert Marmalade IV have a lot of fun also and Perifel does a good job of allowing his performers to shine through their characters as their journey of self-discovery and meaning to life takes hold. 

With a winning bunch of characters and actors to bring them to life in animated form it’s a shame that The Bad Guys didn’t allow for its story to play more outside of the expected and while it appears at the start we are going to be gifted some wild and inventive heist action, the film does settle into a more straightforward fish out of water type redemption tale that is a familiar set up for many such family orientated films and you do sense that the world in which this story takes place in could’ve been explored in a more unique and unpredictable way. 

This matters little at the end of the day however as it’s likely the target audience for The Bad Guys are going to lap up this adventure with a gleeful abandon and with so much to potentially explore and a great cast attached to bring everything to life, further adventures in this wild universe are certainly more than welcome. 

Final Say – 

A fun animated outing that is elevated by some great characters and voice performances to make them come to life, The Bad Guys looks set to be a new series we can look forward to seeing more of. 

3 1/2 debate sparking meteorites out of 5