by Nick Ferro, Contributing Writer
With the summer movie season just around the corner, April is always hit or miss with movies. Some years we get movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, or sometimes you get Clash of the Titans (2010). When it comes to animated family movies, you never know what to expect. April is early enough in the year to question, if its good, why not make it a big summer release? But also, you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the studio had enough faith to not hide it in February or September. So when a movie like The Bad Guys was announced for mid-April after months of very little to see in terms of family fare, I felt hesitant to walk in expecting a lot. However, with an entertaining trailer, the excitement of my kids, combined with prospect of having a fun family afternoon at the theater, I was optimistic that this movie would be worth my time. Based on a series of children’s books that started back in 2015 by Australian author Aaron Blabey, who described the style of the books and movie as, “Tarantino for kids.” The Bad Guys is about several anthropomorphized animals who, after a lifetime of heists, bank robberies, and cons, are finally caught. In an attempt to avoid going to prison they convince the altruistic Professor Marmalade to make a deal with the new Governor Diane Foxington. Marmalade believes he can reform the group and make them good guys. What starts out as a con job to escape punishment turns into a true discovery of how it feels to do the right thing.
The Bad Guys stars Sam Rockwell as Mr. Wolf, Marc Maron as Mr. Snake, Craig Robinson as Mr. Shark, Awkwafina as Ms. Tarantula, and Anthony Ramos as Mr. Piranha. No matter what movie he is in, Rockwell always steals the show for me, and this role is no different. He is incredibly charismatic, but in a strange, untrustworthy sort of way. He is smooth, sly, and cool, and is perfect for the role of a criminal trying to turn the other foot. The movie even makes a joke about him “Clooney-ing.” The rest of the voice cast consists of Richard Ayoade as Professor Marmalade, Zazie Beetz as Governor Foxington, and Alex Borstein as the chief of police.
The animation is the standout of this film for me; it is beautiful and a nice change from the typical style of CGI animation, which helps the movie feel fresh and unique. It has a hybrid between CGI and hand-drawn quality to the animation style which looks similar to recent hits like Turning Red and Into the Spider-Verse. The characters move, at times, in what feels like a higher frame rate to add to the exaggeration of their movement during specific scenes. It is used frequently to enhance the comedic moments the most and works well.
The story uses elements of every heist movie you have ever seen. They play all the hits, do all the tropes, and it is predictable from start to finish. However, where a lesser movie would do all of these things in the most obvious and lazy way, here they are done with a thought and a cleverness that surprised me. Was I able to tell who the real villain of the movie was right away? Yes, but he wasn’t walking around with a sign that screamed at me, “VILLAIN,” which I appreciated. Was there a character who had a secret that turned out to be an ally to the titular bad guys? Sure was, but the movie played it cool by only giving that character a minor tell early on and never lingered on it until they were ready for the reveal. Was there a double cross and even a triple cross?? You bet there was! But you never were quite sure what or when exactly these twists would occur, and the lack of obviousness was a welcome change. And of course, you know they did the thing where they explain how the heist is going go down while we get to watch as it unfolds in real time. It’s Ocean’s Eleven with animals! This movie properly paid homage to the best of the genre while simultaneously and subtly peppering in references and Easter eggs for fans of the genre. I think I agree with the author — this truly was the closest we will ever get to a Tarantino movie for kids, right down to the opening scene taking place in an animated recreation of the diner from the beginning of Pulp Fiction, while the characters have a conversation with Tarantino-esque dialogue.
If I had to pull out some flaws of the movie, it would be the number of characters. Everyone was given something to do, which added to varying levels of humor or story points. However, I feel they could have cut a character or two to allow for more focus on Wolf and Snake’s relationship, or even Foxington’s character. I supposed that is truly the mark of a good movie though: I wanted to know more about these characters and spend more time with certain ones. Ultimately though, Tarantula, Piranha, and Shark are given very little to do because they had to not only compete with each other for screen time, but also the chief of police and professor Marmalade. I can’t think of a way to solve this problem other than making the movie longer or removing a character, which would ultimately hurt the final product as a whole. Another minor flaw, which is more subjective, is the lack of comedy. There is an expectation with animated family movies that there should be a certain level of comedy and, although I found it to be adequately funny, I noticed there weren’t a ton of laughs coming from the packed theater full of kids. I even overheard an older lady with what I presume were her grandkids afterwards apologizing that the movie wasn’t as funny as they were expecting it to be. I decided to ask my kids what they thought, and they agreed that it wasn’t a very funny movie, but they still laughed at parts and liked it overall. Perhaps this is more of a problem with American audiences and the expectations put on animated films. Not every animated movie targeted at kids needs to be jam packed with humor in the hopes of keeping their attention throughout. But then again, the marketing campaign really emphasized the humor in the trailers. Just one more reason to take the SiftPop “Zero Frames Pledge,” I guess.
I think if you made it this far you probably can guess I am definitely recommending this to anyone looking for a fun family movie or with a healthy love of the heist genre. I enjoyed myself throughout, and afterwards, all of my kids regaled me with their favorite moments, characters, and jokes. My four-year-old son definitely enjoyed the part where Mr. Wolf’s pants fly off while trying to use a grapple gun to escape, my seven-year-old daughter was into the action and car chases, and my nine-year-old daughter enjoyed the heartfelt character moment when Mr. Wolf saved a cat from a tree. Even my wife had a good time, as her review of the film was, “At no point did the movie annoy me,” so that’s essentially a nine out of10 for her. Your mileage may vary when it comes to this type of movie, but if you are looking to have a good time and don’t mind family animation, I think you should make The Bad Guys, that “one last job” before the official summer movie season kicks off next month.
Score: 8/10
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