The Bad Guys
The first thing I want to point out in this review is the animation style. While it is firmly 3D computer animation, there are moments where it feels like a hybrid of cel and 3D animation, especially in character animation and set pieces- in particular, the opening car chase- and the result is beautiful and striking. “The Bad Guys” doesn’t feel like a movie we’ve seen before from Dreamworks animation- though there are times I was reminded of the “Kung Fu Panda” films, and it immediately hooked me into the story.
Sadly, the novelty of that style wears off as the story kicks in, and the film turns into chaos by the 3rd act. Based on a book series by Aaron Blabey, the screenplay by Etan Cohen (with additional material by Yoni Brenner and Hilary Winston) follows a very traditional plot trajectory, and as twists and turns are revealed, we’re left asking questions we shouldn’t be, like- for example, why there are seven anthropomorphized animals running around in this otherwise human world, and one of them gets elected governor. I really just couldn’t let that go, and it really kind of took me out of the film.
We begin at a coffee shop with Wolf (Sam Rockwell, and smoothly charming as ever) and Snake (Marc Maron) meeting up before a bank heist. It’s Snake’s birthday, and he really doesn’t like birthdays. As the sequence goes on, we are introduced to the rest of the team- Tarantula (Awkwafina), Shark (Craig Robinson), and Piranha (Anthony Ramos), as well as the Chief of Police (Alex Borstein), who’s been trying to catch them for a while. When the newly-elected governor (Diane Foxington, a fox voiced by Zazie Beetz) calls them out, they try their most daring heist yet. When they’re found out, they manage to convince philanthropist Professor Marmalade (a guinea pig voiced by Richard Ayoade) that they can be good, in exchange for a pardon. Does it happen? If so, is it genuine, or part of another scheme by Wolf.
I really enjoy the main character dynamics and the voice performances in this film, and that helped me engage with the film even as other pressing questions lingered. The film doesn’t really have much in the way of an emotional arc, though- it’s all very superficial- and so, when the set pieces get exponentially larger by the end of the film, it feels like chaos instead of actions with stakes that matter to me as a viewer. This might be one of Dreamworks’s most disposable entertainments in a while, and it’s a shame, considering they seemed to be pushing themselves in an interesting direction with the animation.
