Les 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!

So, it looks to me that the Bad Guys was influenced by the anime Lupin the third. Makes perfect sense, so many animated movies and series are. Sam Rockwell's Big Bad Wolf is a total play on this. Although I did notice that Disney's Seeing Red has a similar look so it looks like anime is getting even more intergraded in everything. I'm good with it!

The actual story is by the numbers. These animated features love the idea of teaching children to think outside the box and rising above what the world thinks you are, in a movie that's story arch could not have been more obvious if they tried, but that animation was so good that I'm too focus on it to care.

It's a good ensemble cast of characters. The Wolf, the Shark, the Tarantula (Played by Awkafina, a fav in this movie, just really cute), the Parana, and the Snake. It was a good crew and it's kind of great how the character and the voices all gel together.

But really, I can't stop talking about the animation. Its realty worth it to watch things unfold. Lots of good kinetic energy, the moving pictures never slow down and consistently lively throughout. Flawless.

Thumbs up.

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.

Low expectations were what I had when the trailer first appeared on my phone screen. I wasn't even interested to watch it 'till the end. I would roll my eyes on the animation style, it's not eye-catching nor it is impressive.

But damnnnnnnn! I wasn't expecting it to be good. It's a feature animated film filled with genuine laughter, comical characters and an above the par plot.

The caper team consists of Wolf, Tarantula, Piranha, Snake and Shark, all of which play a different archetype from one another. This team of 5 is evil and yet, you might find that their personalities are very likable, charming and even approachable. This is the heart of the film, the element that keeps the audience entertained aside from its narrative.

Ocean's 8 meets Zootopia, this is what The Bad Guys is. You may find the first heist somewhat similar to the all-women Ocean's. There's the restrooms, kitchen tray trolleys, red-carpet staircases, hackings (pretty much every heist film), red laser traps, all of which resemble strongly with the mega heist of the Met Gala in the said film. I found TBG better than Zootopia, which I PERSONALLY found it to be overrated. However, those who love Zootopia will also enjoy TBG as it implies similitude to it.

Running for over 100 minutes, The Bad Guys never stops with its steady pacing, putting audience in an enjoyable ride from start until the end.

Lo and behold, you wouldn't expect how many twists they are in this. It's a plot twist on top of another plot twist. Just when you thought, there you go, they have revealed all the twists, the film comes in with another unexpected twist , showing that you have also been deceived by The Bad Guys. When you look back at it, it's amazing that all the twists don't come as a force, but rather it oozes naturally, making it a perfect fit to the whole story.

The animation style is better than what I had visualized in my mind. Looking at the trailer, I thought it was mehh, but the pencil-like motion drawings got better as time went on. It took a bit of time to adjust but eventually, I liked it.

On the other side of the cell, I believe that TBG should offer a larger team than mere 5 animals. It would have been so much fun, exciting and the stakes would be even higher!

All the animal outlaws are excellent however, I must say, I'm a little disappointed with their back stories, because there is almost none to begin with. They did introduce each member in the beginning, but I wanted to know where all of them came from, how they can coexist and walk the earth with humans, and how the group was formed in the first place. I know, I'm aware this is an animated film but what a solid story they could have to an already excellent plot.

Rounding up, The Bad Guys is definitely in my top 5 films of 2022 as we almost end the quarter of the year. Let's see what the future has in store for animated films!

Verdict: If there is one thing The Bad Guys taught us, it's to never judge a film by its trailer.

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.