On Aug. 1, the sequel to “The Bad Guys” movie was released. “The Bad Guys 2” is a PG kids movie, gaining “positive reviews from critics” and “gross[ing] $181 million worldwide.” (Wikipedia) It featured the Bad Guys team, Snake (voiced by Marc Maron), Webs (voiced by Awkwafina), Shark (voiced by Craig Robinson), and the leader, Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell), as they saved the world from imitators.
The first movie was a story of how the Bad Guys “went good,” and the second movie followed that same theme. While the Bad Guys fought with the Bad Girls (a group of female thieves, who allowed their love for the Bad Guys and evil to lead them to imitating the Bad Guys’ crimes) to prevent them from stealing all the gold in the world, they battled with the impulse to act with no conscience and go back to their old, thieving, ways.
The beginning of the movie was similar to the first “The Bad Guys,” in which they introduced the characters with a car chase and a fourth-wall break of Wolf saying their names and talking to the audience about what was happening on screen. They did the same thing in “The Bad Guys 2,” just with a different setting and time for the car chase. This was a nice homage to the first movie, while also reintroducing the characters to new audiences. Although their names aren’t hard to identify (the snake being “Snake,” the shark being “Shark,” and so forth, with the only exception of the tarantula being “Webs”), they added a quick personality introduction as well. From that point onward, there were very few scenes in “The Bad Guys 2” that were the same as the first movie.
Graphic created by Kitty Alexander on Canva.
One thing they did keep in the second movie was the models. The animators of “The Bad Guys 2” refrained from changing the character models from the last movie. Instead of giving them a new hairdo or style of modelling that would tear the transition between the two movies, they smartly decided to keep the models the same, allowing them to have the same wardrobe from last time, but also adding on new clothes here and there when it fit the scene. This again helped the transition from the first movie to the second be one of the smoothest I’ve seen in a while.
Produced by DreamWorks Animation, both “The Bad Guys” 1 and 2 worked closely with the author of the original children’s books, Aaron Blabey. He was an executive producer on both movies, and you can tell. The characters and story, while not strictly canon to the books, are authentic and fresh, free of corporate greed-related changes. When watching both movies, you can feel the passion intertwined with the movie flowing through the animation, dialogue, and more. The movies were also created with the intended audience of kids and their parents or siblings, hence the multiple layers to the plot and jokes that some movies tend to leave out, claiming it would make it too complex for kids.
Unlike with recent Disney movies such as “Wish” or “Snow White,” “The Bad Guys 2” was free of quirky characters, bland and basic plots, and worst of all, joke pauses. When Wolf inevitably made a joke at some point in the movie, the world around him didn’t stop for the audience to laugh; the characters didn’t look with a confused expression for 0.8 seconds. They continued doing whatever they were doing and maybe laughed in passing. This helped make “The Bad Guys 2” feel more in the moment and real, rather than a sit-com with a canned laugh track.
It also was enjoyable for multiple audiences. Every time the Bad Guys flew over the cops during a car chase, my sister turned to me to whisper “aura farming” in my ear. So even she, who hasn’t seen the first “The Bad Guys” and was consequently dragged to the theaters by me on a weekend, enjoyed the movie. Throughout the showing, I also heard adults and kids laughing alike, with my mom even sporting a good chuckle here and there. With the mix of older and younger jokes, such as the billionaire-typical age-inappropriate marriage and direct SpaceX reference, to Piranha farting in a space suit, the movie had layers of dialogue, jokes, and themes.
Similar to other non-Disney movies, such as the “Despicable Me” franchise, “The Bad Guys 2” actually had music written for the movie. The songs “GOODLIFE” by Rag’n’Bone Man (feat. WizTheMc) and “Taking Everything” by Busta Rhymes were written specially for “The Bad Guys 2,” showing just how invested the production team was when making this. Even “Despicable Me 4” only had one new song written for it, not two!
Farther along in the movie, when the Bad Girls took the Bad Guys captive and went out to steal the spaceship to go to the moon, they did something very, very clever. The Governor, previously the Mayor in the first film, friend of Wolf and the Bad Guys from the first movie, was, in her previous life, also a “bad guy.” She was a renowned thief who had since changed her ways and sought out to better her city, but the Bad Girls had managed to find footage of her as a thief and showed it to the Bad Guys.
Using a strong magnet and similarly magnetic cuffs, the Bad Girls gave the Bad Guys a button. If they pressed the button, the magnet would stop and they would be free to prevent the Bad Girls from stealing the spaceship. However, once the magnet was stopped, the footage of the Governor as a thief would be uploaded to the internet, killing her career.
While the Bad Guys struggled with this on screen, I realised just how genius this plot is. It’s unique, it’s clever, and it’s relevant to the plot. Never have I seen something like it, and seldom am I compelled by a plot device such as this one to be as invested as I was.
Now of course, it wouldn’t be a real review by me if I didn’t nitpick a few parts. However, I really only have one thing to nitpick: in the middle of the movie, when Wolf called the Governor on a payphone, they both held the phone up to the side of their face where human ears are, not their animal ears on the top of their head. Other than that, the movie was crystal clear of plotholes, confusion, or scientifically incorrect scenarios. They even got the atmospheric pressure right when they were in space (which if you read my “Dog Man” movie review is something very important to me). Even the spaceship model was accurate, although they eventually crashed it, but at least they took responsibility for it.
As with every kids movie, there has to be some moral to the story, and “The Bad Guys 2” is no exception. From the beginning to the end, the Bad Guys struggled with the freedom given when acting with no regard for other people and the consequences that always followed after. Whenever they acted bad, they were filled with exhilaration and excitement, but whenever they acted good, they were filled with the happiness and satisfaction of helping someone in need.
With the addition of the Bad Girls crew and their inner turmoil, the moral of “good conquers all” was challenged; when the kind and caring Governor was blackmailed with her villain past, we felt as if being good doesn’t pay off. Unlike other kids’ movies who introduce a general moral and refuse to challenge it on the idea that the children watching will be unable to grasp the concept if other view points are shown, “The Bad Guys 2” challenged their moral again and again. They showed the audience that, although being bad and doing whatever you want can be fun and more interesting, being good is the right thing to do because ultimately you help more people live their life happily that way instead.
Believing in the audience, no matter what age they are, to grasp this concept even with alternating viewpoints, is one of the things that made this movie so great. By treating their audience like they could handle a complex theme, they really could, something other movies need to keep in mind.
Overall, I loved “The Bad Guys 2” movie. It was absolutely one of my new favorites, and is a great one to watch with your little siblings, cousins, or even the whole family. It’s funny, it’s unique, it’s clever, and it’s a great sign for upcoming sequels’ success. I will definitely be encouraging my friends to watch it once it comes out on streaming. Because after all, the real Bad Guys were the friends we made along the way.
