Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Bad Guys Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 18, 2022

My wife is a school librarian, and she reports that amongst kindergarten through fourth grade it's all but impossible to keep Aaron Blabey's The Bad Guys book series on the shelves. "It's one of my most widely circulated series," she says, and notes that whenever she runs an analysis of checkout data, four or five titles from this series are usually amongst the top ten of the most circulated books. In other words, this series is wildly popular with young readers, so it's no surprise to find that DreamWorks and Universal have teamed up to make an animated movie loosely based on the bestselling graphic novel series. The film is a sucess, a fun and breezy caper adventure and character drama that has plenty of comical overtones and undertones alike about it while also clearly modeled after the great genre films of yore. The film is probably best enjoyed by the same age group as its target readers rather than the youngers who are still in love with Paw Patrol: The Movie.

It's a man's world...but it's also the animal's kingdom. In a place where both coexist on equal footing, where all species speak and interact and the new governor, Diane Foxington (voiced by Zazie Beetz), is a fox, there exists a band of feared and brazen criminals known publicly as "The Bad Guys." The infamous group consists of its de facto leader, Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell); the safe-cracking Mr. Snake (voiced by Marc Maron); computer hacker Ms. Tarantula (voiced by Awkwafina); the master of disguises Mr. Shark (voiced by Craig Robinson); and the brawling Mr. Piranha (voiced by Anthony Ramos). The world calls them "monsters" but they see themselves as, simply, the best in the business. When the new governor insults them on live television, Mr. Wolf plans retaliation by planning to steal a priceless artifact, the Golden Dolphin, from a packed gala honoring the genius Professor Rupert Marmalade IV (voiced by Richard Ayoade). The complex heist is initially a success, but the gang cannot escape. Rather than face hard time, Marmalade convinces Foxington to allow him to reform the gang into do-gooders instead. This, Wolf believes, plays right into the gang's hands and a new scheme is hatched to once again steal the priceless Dolphin under the guise of "The Good Guys." The question is whether they can maintain their villainy in the vein of playing the part of the good guys, and, maybe more importantly, if everyone is indeed who they are believed to be.

The movie is not high art, and its story is not original -- it's grounded in 70s caper charisma and aesthetics -- but it proves to be a success because it holds fast to what it wants to be and doesn't attempt to introduce big ideas or grand concepts, instead simply staying true to what it is and the best way to go about its business. The Bad Guys holds tight to the line of a simple, recycled narrative but manages a satisfying toeing of it because all of the ancillary support elements -- from the unique animation style to the voice work, from the story ebbs and flows to the character persuasions and interactions -- work so well. Writer Etan Cohen clearly know his characters and his genres, as does Director Pierre Perifel who handles structure, pace, and content delivery with sharp expression and clear insight into the moment and the larger picture purpose.

Ultimately, it's the character interaction and how the audience can relate to the roster that makes or breaks a movie like this, and while there's not a bastion of character originality or voice work performance novelty on display, both are grounded at a base level of animated film excellence that sees the film work hard, but look easy, in drawing near to its audience. All of the leads share wonderful voice chemistry; the group is believable as longtime friends and accomplices in crime, and their broader evolutions throughout the picture are handled with intimate realism as their changes impact self and the whole alike. As with the rest of the content, there is nothing overtly or obvious special about the performances or the characters, but also as with the whole the total synchronization of elements and focus on the bigger pictures works in the film's favor, elevating the individual performances from "good" to a collective "great."

The Bad Guys Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Good Guys unsurprisingly looks terrific on Blu-ray. The film does play with a particularly unique aesthetic, a blend of cutting-edge CGI and throwback animation which helps to sell the 70s vibe at play. It looks good: sharp, abundantly detailed, and very colorful. Character models are beautifully rendered down to the finest detail. The Blu-ray never struggles to present a clear, stable, reliably intensive visual experience that soars with every character nuance and environmental detail alike. Color is very well managed, too. While the picture is not the splashiest and most vivid on the planet, featuring some fairly bland color output at times (by filmmaker design), what is here is always bursting with accuracy and vitality within the indented color parameters. That includes expert black levels and bold whites. The picture is free of any debilitating source issues or encode artifacts. This one looks very good.

The Bad Guys Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dolby Atmos soundtrack is not raucous, but it is resplendent. The track finds harmonious balance between sonic intensity and engagement and a natural feel and flow through all sonic elements, from the most aggressive action and musical elements to the finest in subtle musical arrangements and ambient effects. Of course, it is in those higher energy moments where the track really shines for overall fun. Music soars with first-rate clarity and impressive spacing around the entirety of the listening area, including, even, a positive, but not overbearing, top end extension. Action effects offer excellent placement and stage traversal alike with impressive volume, all the while holding to faultless clarity. Support ambience in various interior and exterior venues featuring various crowd density elements with a clear need for spatial engagement are very impressive. The overheads are used for several discrete effects, perhaps most notably when Professor Marmalade's voice reverberates around the top end in the 32-minute mark. Dialogue in general is clear and center oriented otherwise.

The Bad Guys Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Bad Guys includes numerous extras. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. This release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• Maraschino Ruby (1080p, 3:50): A short film focused on another heist from the Bad Guys crew.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 10:52 total runtime): Included are Original Opening, Snake Attack, Extra Secret Base Tour, You Can't Fake Good Food, and Post Credits - Scientist Button.
• Devise the Plan: Making The Bad Guys (1080p, 6:56): Talking up the original books, voice work, making the heist scene, the animation style, and more.
• Assemble the Crew (1080p, 6:46 total runtime): Exploring the characters and the actors who voice them. Included are Wolf - Sam Rockwell, Snake - Marc Maron, Shark - Craig Robinson, Tarantula - Awkwafina, and Piranha - Anthony Ramos.
• It's Showtime: Cast Table Read (1080p, 5:51): A highlight reel of the virtual table read.
• Snake's Frozen Pop Shop (1080p): Some fun activities for home with the tasty treats featured in the film. Included are Frozen Popsicle Recipes (3:33) and How to Disguise Your Frozen Pop which breaks down into three sub-categories: Easy Distractions, Next-Level Double Agents, and Professional Snake Design (3:26 total runtime).
• Fron the Drawing Room (1080p): The obligatory animated film drawing tutorials, this time with storyboard instruction as well as the typical character drawings. Included are How to Storyboard (4:32) and How to Draw (11:44 total runtime), the latter with instructions for drawing Wolf, Snake, Shark, Tarantula, and Piranha. Head of Story Nelson Yokota instructs in all pieces.
• Audio Commentary: Director Pierre Perifel, Producer Damon Ross, Head of Story Nelson Yokota, Head of Character Animation JP Sans, and Production Designer Luc Desmarchelier discuss the film from a wide array of production perspectives.

The Bad Guys Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Bad Guys may not specialize in originality, but it is very good at building its otherwise familiar product to peak efficiency. Universal's Blu-ray is likewise a model of expected excellence, offering rock-solid video and audio presentations and a healthy wallop of supplementary content to boot. Recommended.