The Bad Guys (Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital HD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Jun 26th, 2022
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Alex Borstein, Lilly Singh
Written By: Etan Cohen
Directed By: Pierre Perifel
Studio: Universal
Buy On Amazon.com
The Bad Guys is based on the popular children’s graphic novels and I was excited there was going to be a movie about these characters. Does it live up to my expectations? Not really but it was still a fun movie and my kid loved it, which is all that matters in the end.
In this world, animals and humans coexist and the movie centers around a gang of animal criminals called the Bad Guys. It’s lead by Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), along with his best friend and cynical, safe cracker Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), hacker Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), disguise master Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), and the muscle Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos). The group decides to pull off a caper against Professor Rupert Marmalade IV (Richard Ayoade) but get caught after it happens. Marmalade persuades them to be good instead and to do good deeds for him…except there are some twists and turns.
This is loosely based on the books by Aaron Blabey, because it features the characters and the bad guys wanting to be good…well most of them wanting to be good. There’s a lot of different things that happen with this, but perhaps they are waiting for a sequel to develop more of the twists with Marmalade? I liked that it was different in that I didn’t know what was going to happen, another part of me wanted them to follow along with the books more closely. I was expecting a post-credits scene dealing with Marmalade and it never came.
The way the story works, it plays out like an Ocean’s 11 caper but with animal bad guys trying to be good. It’s a movie that both parents and kids will enjoy. The animation is really good and has a slight Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse feel to it. The characters are amusing, I particularly like Mr Shark since he’s always putting on these silly disguises. Mr Piranha is good too, who gets a bit gassy when nervous. The fart jokes don’t feel forced like with most kid movies. Sam Rockwell played Mr. Wolf well and he was a fitting voice for the character. Marc Maron was as well, but Mr Snake didn’t even sound like Marc Maron. Maron seemed to be going for the Alex Rocco type of gravelly voice it seems. Richard Ayoade was another voice that just fit with Professor Marmalade. Wasn’t the voice I used when reading the book to my son but Richard’s voice obviously works well. The rest of the cast was great as well.
The Blu-Ray and Digital HD copy has a bunch of featurettes, although short as they may be. Maraschino Ruby is a quick animated short, there’s a few deleted scenes, there’s a making of that features interviews with the cast & crew, there’s a table read and a lot of other things. The table read was fun to watch for 5 minutes as you see the cast voicing their characters over Zoom or whatever. There’s some featurettes on how to draw storyboards and some of the characters, which is always cool to see.
I have to see the movie again and believe me, knowing how much my son liked the movie I will be seeing this again shortly. I thought the initial viewing was okay, I kind of wish they followed the books more closely but I also just felt something was missing. I’m not sure what it was but this just felt like your standard non-Pixar animated movie to me. There were a few moments I laughed out loud but felt like everyone was trying hard to make this be something different than some generic animated movie. Perhaps another viewing will change my opinion but I just felt this was a generally fun and good movie, except some things could have been better.
Features:
Maraschino Ruby
Deleted Scenes
Devise the Plan: Making The Bad Guys
Assemble the Crew
It’s Showtime: Cast Table Read
Snake’s Frozen Pop Shop
From the Drawing Room
Audio Commentary
Video:
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English SDH, French, Spanish
Bottom Line: A fun, animated caper featuring bad guys trying to be good. I just wish they followed along with the source material more closely.
Running Time: 100 min
Rating: PG
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
