The Bad Guys

I completely agree with the first reviewer: I had low expectation after seeing the trailer, too. But "The Bad Guys" turned out to be a very clever movie, well-made, with a sophisticated script, and fast-moving. Most importantly: It's not taking itself too seriously. I mean: A shark as a master of disguise!?

I don't know (yet) the books on which this movie is based. Oviously the story is also inspired by the various Ocean's 8/ 11/ 12/ whatever-movies, but it is definitely an over-the-top-version of these caper movies. These movies always tried to be believable; "the bad guys" tries to be fun. And it succeeded in that!

Initially I sat down to watch the 2022 animated movie "The Bad Guys" with very little expectation. Why? Well, because I wasn't sure what I was getting into here, aside from it being an animated movie that my son wanted to watch. But with it being an animated movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to watch it with my son.

I will say that writers Etan Cohen, Yoni Brenner and Hilary Winston actually put together a good storyline. Now, I am not familiar with the books that the movie is based on, so how true it is to the source material, I cannot tell you. But I found the storyline in "The Bad Guys" to actually be well-written and enjoyable, as well as being entertaining.

The character gallery is what worked so well for me here. I really took a liking to the characters in the story right away, and they are as colorful as they are memorable. Not only did they manage to paint a gallery of interesting characters, but they definitely also had a great voice acting cast ensemble to bring the characters to life.

The animation and art style used in director Pierre Perifel's 2022 animated movie "The Bad Guys" was good. I liked the drawing and art style quite a lot, as it was very dynamic, and had a slight comic book feel to it.

The voice cast in "The Bad Guys" was nicely cast with some great voice actors on the cast list, with the likes of Awkwafina, Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos and more.

If you enjoy animted movies, then you certainly should sit down to watch "The Bad Guys". I was genuinely entertained by this animated movie, and it one that I will warmly recommend.

My rating of "The Bad Guys" lands on a seven out of ten stars.

This one, as another reviewer has already said , has wonderfully written characters (obviously - written and performed). It's not original - I couldn't care less - once again: originality as is, is overrated in my personal book. So despite obvious similarities with Zootopia I still enjoyed it wholeheartedly. Some of the plot twists can be spotted miles ahead - it doesn't matter. Once we got to know and like these lovely characters we just want to see the story through and know how it all ended for them. Only problem is - most of the climax of the movie doesn't really make sense. Or to put it simply, think it out carefully and you'll realize - it couldn't happen the way the movie explains it. I'd give it 10 stars if it was making sense. And then again - it's not as important as it could be in other movies.

Must add some words regarding the cast. They're all wonderful but I can't avoid special mention for Sam Rockwell, it's not the first time I see him but I can promise from now on - I'll make it my business to notice him; Marc Maron is also superb as snake; Zazie Beetz is always unforgettable, and she does it again, and the exact same thing can be said of Awkwafina.

To some it all up - if you don't have a special agenda against fun movies - you'll love this one.

I'll be honest, The Bad Guys is far from masterpieces like Pixar's Up, Wall-E, and the plot is rather predictable. But who am I kidding, almost all animations are predictable since they're made for kids so that shouldn't be a problem, as long as they're enjoyable. Fortunately for The Bad Guys, now I wouldn't say the movie 'nailed it', but it turned out to be pretty decent.

So the main characters are really likeable (pretty cute I would say), the voice acting is great (Sam Rockwell is wonderful, his voice is just so magnetic. Beetz's Diane is wonderful too.) Wolf and Fox have an amazing chemistry (I love the pair), and the characters' interactions are executed rather well, the storytelling pace is smooth and the motives are clear and believable, so there won't be any scenes that feel off, forced or awkward (Except for the opening car chase, that part is over the top, that I agree with Foxinton. And personally I hate this 'talking to viewers' thing, movies should be immersive! 'Show, not tell.' Isn't that what you writers prefer?) (I do like the opening scene though, kinda like Pulp Fiction, but in a reletively-terribly-written way. But I don't blame the writers for this, I mean, they're not Quentin, are they? It's just an animation.) Hats off to the writer/director, they've done a great job on this.

Now what I like most about The Bad Guys is that it doesn't try to give a lecture, it doesn't try to convey any messages (not anything big or meaningful at least, heh.) Disney and Pixar would be like 'Ohh! We should add messages into animations, we should teach kids about what's right and wrong, we should use animations as a way to express our political beliefs.' No, The Bad Guys just tries to entertain people, and it did rather well. I'm not saying that I hate messages in an animation, I love meaningful and educational animations, but only when the story is great. It seems to me that some animations focus on 'the big message' so much that they forget the fact that a well-written story should come first. No matter how true or how important your message is, nobody would like your animation if the story is bad. The Bad Guys does a good job on this by not giving any lecture. It knows what it is, it knows it can't be as good as animations like Inside Out, which is both entertaining and educational, so it chooses to only entertain. And judging by the result, it really did a good job.

This is fun light hearted animation. The story is entertaining and adorable at times. The humor is to my liking: even though some jokes are predictable, they're still well placed and executed well. I personally enjoyed the art style combining 3D animation with comic style 2D drawings. Kudos to the animators, the faces of the characters were very expressive.