TL;DR – A film full of energetic characters, stunning animation, and a wonderful, uplifting vibe that permeated every part of the story.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

The Bad Guys 2 Review Introduction –

Back in 2022, Dreamworks Animation was in a bit of a creative quandary. It had just finished up its Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon series, but then it kind of just floundered for a while. But then The Bad Guys happened. It was an explosion of energy in a way the studio hadn’t found in the past years. But it was also stepping into a brand-new animation style that blended 2D and 3D styles into something that perfectly understood the medium they were adapting. We dipped back into this world with The Bad Guys: Little Lies and Alibis earlier in the year, but I am glad to say that it is time to dive into the sequel I have been waiting for.


So, to set the scene, ever since the events of The Bad Guys where the team of Mr Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr Snake (Marc Maron), Mr Piranha (Anthony Ramos), Mr Shark (Craig Robinson), and Ms Tarantula (Awkwafina) turned good to stop the master villain Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade). They have been serving their time and trying to reemerge in society. But they can’t find a job, because everyone thinks that they are just undercover waiting to rob everyone. This is made more complicated when the Phantom Bandit starts robbing the city of all its MacGuffinite in the style of The Bad Guys. What’s worse: being blamed for a crime you didn’t commit, or knowing someone’s out there copying your old moves? Well, The Bad Guys need to get to the bottom of this before Governor Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz) and police commissioner Misty Luggins (Alex Borstein) must act.

Visual Style

One of the strengths of The Bad Guys films is the animation style that perfectly captures their chaotic energy. But more than that, it helps dictate the flow of the film, allowing you to put the foot down on the gas or brakes at any moment and the style holds up. I mean, if nothing else, you should show the smoke effects from all the car chases to animation students for an example of how style and visual flair comes together in the service of movement. We also see this in the design and movement of all the characters. Each has a distinct design that highlights their individuality, but they all still have to work in the art style. It is a constant give and take between all the competing elements that always come together.

This visual style also expands out into the worldbuilding, with every part of this film feeling like a bombastic joy. There is such an attention to detail to make this world feel like a real, lived-in world that sometimes has animals that walk and talk, even if that does not make any sense otherwise. Every time Shark goes “undercover”, it is ludicrous how he is not spotted, but the art direction always sells the bit. This is a film where you need to throw physics out the door from the opening moments, yet still feel like it is somewhat grounded in the real world. It is the animation that does this, okay, and also some fart jokes, but mostly the animation.   

Voice Cast

Once you have the visual style, you then need a set of voice actors that can do these characters you have created the justice that they need. Well, The Bad Guys 2 takes what worked in The Bad Guys, turns it up to 11 and brings in the perfect actors to fill in all the new roles. Our core five have such a great banter together that I can believe that they were all sitting in a room just riffing off each other’s energy, even though I know that was probably not the case. Sure, a lot of them are riffing off noted archetypes like the Oceans 11 crowd. But I believe entirely Sam Rockwell is an anthropomorphised wolf that has a penchant for dramatic heists. Like, I believe entirely, to my core. This extends to the whole cast, who are just a delight from start to finish. Of the new cast, my favourite was Natasha Lyonne as Susan, a raven with a bizarre relationship with Snake, but every person on the cast list is bringing their A-game and it shows.  

Story   

You have the visual style and the characters, now you need to give them a story that does them justice. Here I was a bit concerned walking in, because I’ve not spent a lot of time with the source material, as it was from after my time. The first film ends on such a promising premise, but what happens in a lot of these films is that we just press the reset button at the start of the sequel. Thankfully, this is not the case here. What we get is a quite mature story about the barriers we put in front of people who have been in jail and then we are surprised when they become recidivists even though we, as a society, have gone out of our way to set them up to fail. This is the undercurrent that sits underneath what is a truly bonkers heist story with as many twisting doors as hotel lobby sales room. It is the sort of story that captures you from the start and does not let you go until the credits roll.     

Cairo

A good example of all of this can be found in the opening car chase through Cairo that was set during Ms Tarantula’s first mission with the group. In this opening, we get to see every character have their moment to shine while working together as an effective team. There is a level of trust that Mr Wolf has in every member of his team, which you also feel exists between the filmmakers and the audience. They capture the energy of both a heist sequence and a car chase with all the bravado it needs, while also shifting and turning throughout, so you are always engaged. One of the interesting things I found is that for a film where physics don’t really exist, and police can Voltron together, this might be one of the more faithful depictions of Cairo in cinema. There is an authenticity there that gives the film a more interesting feel.

Cairo is also where the film shows off its attention to detail when it comes to the visual worldbuilding. There are these touches that at first instance just feel like they are there for a joke, but serve a greater purpose. A good example of this is where The Bad Guys are driving through the marketplace, and you can see they are such good drivers that they are swerving around all the market stalls and not disrupting the local people, while the police smash through it all with an attitude of not caring. Even though you are laughing at the visual dichotomy, it is telling you a great deal about the characters you will be championing throughout the film. Then we get one of the best character moments in the movie, where Wolf gives all his trust to Tarantula, even though she is new, because he knows and cares about his crew.       

Conclusion  

In the end, do we recommend The Bad Guys 2? Absolutely. This film was a delight from start to finish. It has interesting characters, a visual style that captures the vibe of the film, a musical score that is its beating heart, and a story that is a joy to watch, even when it is looking at Fast and Furious films and saying that they didn’t move fast enough. It is both absolutely a family-friendly action comedy but also more than that in every way. Have you watched The Bad Guys 2? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked The Bad Guys 2, we would recommend The Wild Robot to you as it also shows the power of matching the visual style to the emotive storytelling you want to impart to the audience.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Bad Guys 2
Directed by – Pierre Perifel
Screenplay by – Yoni Brenner & Etan Cohen
Based on – The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey
Music by – Daniel Pemberton
Edited by – Jesse Averna
Production/Distribution Companies – DreamWorks Animation & Universal Pictures
Starring – Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Zazie Beetz, Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne, Maria Bakalova, Alex Borstein, Richard Ayoade, Lilly Singh, Omid Djalili, Colin Jost, Jaime Camil, Hugo Savinovich & Kelly Stables
Rating – Australia: PG; Canada: PG; Germany: 6; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: PG; United States: PG