Hey everyone and welcome to a brand new review! For this one, I will be taking a look at the latest film from Dreamworks Animation, that also serves as a follow up to one of their more recent entries, The Bad Guys 2. The first film was a nice little hit for the studio back in April of 2022 grossing over $250 million worldwide on an $85 million budget. It was also very well liked and did presumably well on VOD and streaming, enough so that a sequel was green lit. It helps that it is based off of a popular children’s book series by Aaron Blabey, which means that it can easily lend itself to more movies if the studio wanted to roll the dice. I’m glad they did as I am a huge fan of that first movie as I found it to be such a fun time with it’s interesting story, impressive animation, and great characters. It stands as one of my favorite movies from the studio in recent memory and as far as newer movies go, it comes to mind when I think “I’d love a sequel to this”. So that next installment has finally arrived and was it able to live up to its predecessor? Let’s jump right in and see how well this gang pulled off this heist!
After a banger of a prologue where we witness Mrs. Tarantula’s first day on the job, we cut to after the events of the first movie, where the Bad Guys are now trying become reformed good guys. This comes with more difficulty than preferred as the rest of society struggles to accept them, leading to much in the way of rejection during job interviews (something that is likely relatable to everyone). Meanwhile Mr. Wolf is dealing with other struggles in trying to maintain a friendly relationship with the Mayor, Diane Foxington, without turning it into something more that he would want. One day thought, the team finds out that there is a new thief on the loose known as the Phantom Bandit that is copying their tricks leading to the public to suspect them of wrongdoing once again. So in order to prove themselves, they set out to find out the next move of this thief and prove themselves to be good… which may prove more complicated than expected.
There are many great qualities that I feel the first Bad Guys has, and it can be a lot to ask for a follow up to maintain everything that works while still keeping things interesting and fresh, but director, Pierre Perifel, absolutely succeeds in not only living up to that greatness, but in my opinion surpassing it. This is yet another incredibly entertaining adventure that has that same “family friendly Ocean’s Eleven” vibe to it that I find so fun with an even bigger sense of scale and comedy that makes this so lively from start to finish. It embraces the wackiness in a way that I found worked in creating an even wilder feature that still is able to succeed at making one interested in how things will play out as there were a number of times where things didn’t go exactly as I expected with some well written plot turns making me curious as to how our characters would get out of their situations. I especially like how instead of having our titular characters learn the exact same lessons they did in the original, they instead have new challenges to face as they realize the difficulties in trying to change oneself and overcome their past actions, when the world views them in a negative light.
It’s a strong way to continue their story as we see the dilemma they face in wanting to do good, but struggling to get much out of their attempts and are often tempted by the joy they had in their previous life. This is all explored very nicely with many moments where the Perifel allows scenes to breathe and get into the character’s thoughts in between all the crazy heists. Perifel is able to balance the tone exceptionally as I never felt anything felt off between the comedic and serious beats. Speaking of, the movie is an absolute laugh riot from start to finish with plenty of hilarious bits sprinkled throughout whether it’s the highly amusing back and forth conversation between the characters, the energetic moments of chaos, or even some of the more “low brow” stuff (possibly the funniest fart joke I’ve seen in a while). The pacing is on point and all of the respective character beats manage to land in spades with some strong build up preceding all of it. All of this is what makes a sequel great and I’m happy to see this be one of those.
One of my personal favorite aspects of the first film was the animation as it had a very neat style to it that felt like a way to bring to life the books, in that comic booky kind of way (not unlike Spider-Verse, but with a more cartoonier aesthetic and less playing around with the frame rate) with some anime touches, especially in regards to some of the character designs. Obviously, unless the creatives wanted to REALLY change things up, that style is utilized once more to an even greater effect than before! The artists really stepped up their game as everything just looks sharper, feels smoother, and even more is done in regards to what is shown onscreen. The designs are just as fun as before with the various animal designs of our main characters all being neat and fitting the personalities of the characters to a tee and the humans looking like they came straight out of Lupin III. There is a lot more detail put into all of the different textures and backgrounds as well with the environments feeling bigger and having more going on in a way that makes this into a more expansive production. I also loved the effort that went into the various physical movements of the characters with them just having this high speed energy to them that makes things even more fun to watch and the facial expressions help in conveying the different emotions perfectly.
What I was most impressed by though was just how much the ante was risen in regards to the action sequences as this is where I can really tell the animators had fun. There is just so much joy to be had from watching them unfold as they are fast paced and superbly edited, with all of the chaos going down never feeling like it becomes a bunch of noise as there is a lot of effort put into each sequence in regards to setting them up and delivering on what is promised. I think the opening car chase is an even better variation on the already awesome one from the first film with the environment being used in creative ways in how the car navigates them and there’s a bonkers Luchador match that went in some directions I did not expect in terms of scale (let’s just say the crowd gets VERY involved). Things get especially wild in the climax, when space travel becomes involved and those scenes are very well done in how anti gravity is portrayed convincingly and I surprised at to the extent it went in regards to stakes with some pretty awesome visual stuff going down.
On a character level, the film also isn’t content in having these guys go through the same arcs as last time as it does feel like there has been genuine growth with them actually trying to turn over a new leaf and it is both fun to see them try to steer clear of danger instead of causing it, but in a way that also makes certain scenes more suspenseful. Mr. Wolf is the main focus of the group once again with Sam Rockwell effortlessly giving a vocal performance oozing with charisma, while still containing the needed nuance where that confidence can often hide some deep insecurities that he is afraid to express. I think Wolf is an excellently written character in this way and I found his push pull on wanting to be good (and is good as proven by the first), but also being lured in to that life of crime when things were more simple and his life was seemingly better for him, very compelling. His relationship with Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz) is further explored here and the two make for a great duo with chemistry that is on point. Them trying to maintain a “just friends” relationship despite clearly them feeling more towards one another due to PR circumstances is well done and a reasonable direction to take given how the first one ended, while also giving sympathy towards both parties. Also appreciated that we get to see more of Diane in action on her own, still showing off the sass, intellect, and fighting skills as her alias of the Crimson Paw. The rest of the Gang is just as delightful as ever with Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson) and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) getting some of the best jokes with their usual gags and Mrs. Tarantula (Awkwafina) gets a bit more to do here, with her usual hacking antics. I also appreciate how Mr. Snake (Marc Maron) has both grown as a character (including being a kobucha loving vinassa practicer) while also still maintaining a bit of his sleazy self, which I find realistic and pretty amusing.
I also loved how certain returning characters are handled here. In particular, former Police Chief turned Commissioner Luggins (Alex Borstein) is given an even bigger role here and I really dug the frenemy dynamic she now shares with the Bad Guys being suspicious of them while still getting something out of their company and her arc was a nice one to watch especially when we get to end as it shows how far simple nice actions can go. It was also fun to see the first film’s baddie, Professor Marmalade, (Richard Ayoade) essentially playing a Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs esque part of serving aide of some sort to the good guys and his physical transformation made for one of the funnier visuals in the entire movie. As for the new players, we have the highly advertised Bad Girls, a team comprised of fans of the Bad Guys wanting to make a name for themselves and enact a heist to end all heists. The leader Kitty Kat (strong vocal performance from the always great Danielle Brooks) makes for a great main antagonist as someone who admire her inspirations while still wanting to be better than them to a dangerous degree and is an excellent contrast to Wolf on what he and his team could be if they didn’t have that tingling sensation that made them want to do good. Helps that Brooks nails the tone of charismatic mixed with menace that makes her into a great threat. The other two members are a bit more light hearted with Pigtail Petrova (Maria Bakalova bringing a lot of energy) being a very fun and silly presence as her love for the Bad Guys reaches a fan boy level of enthusiasm and Doom (Natasha Lyonne) bringing a lot of sarcasm and having a hilarious romantic relationship with Snake as both find each other’s morbid personality traits to be very attractive.
On the whole, I had an absolute blast with The Bad Guys 2, as it is yet another example of a Dreamworks Animation follow up improving on its already great predecessor. It’s an example of bigger being better, as the story is engaging, there are surprising number of… well surprises, the comedy it hilarious, the animation is even more impressive, the action is spectacular, and the characters are a hoot to be around! Families are going to have a great time as well as fans of this property as it is a great example of a youth skewing property that doesn’t really feel like it is exclusively appealing towards that demographic. This follow up was pretty much was I hoped for and more and has now cemented Bad Guys as one of my favorite ongoing animated franchises at the moment. Given how the movie ends on a note that very much implies further adventures, I do hope that we get a third installment as I have been very impressed by these two films and find them to be a somewhat underappreciated, yet worthy part of the Dreamworks catalogue. Call this my favorite animated movie of year so far and one that I will likely find myself re visiting often as a fun watch. Being bad has never felt so good in this case!
Side note: There is one mid credits scene that does potentially tease where things could go next and given how insane the books get as they go along (from what I hear at least), I’m very interested in seeing what will go down.
Rating: A+
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