Before the slop-ification of animated cinema and its need to cater to dwindling attention spans (I’m looking at you, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie), the children’s film was more or less a gateway for kids to fall in love with the movies. For all its flaws, Minions & Monsters moderately succeeded at conveying that, though it was still a Minions sequel at the end of the day. Don’t our kids deserve more? Contrary to my bemoaning of the contemporary animated landscape, it’s in an incredible spot right now. A renaissance spurred by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, animated cinema is (though not without its hiccups) thriving, with Pierre Perifel’s The Bad Guys being one of the best films of this new movement.
A loose adaptation of Aaron Blabey’s multipart graphic novel series of the same name, The Bad Guys, released in April 2022, reads (no pun intended) like plucking a book from the shelf. The eponymous “Bad Guys” are already an established presence of hijinks in a paradoxically grounded and stylized Los Angeles. Starring Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Craig Robinson, and Anthony Ramos as Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Ms. Tarantula, Mr. Shark, and Mr. Piranha, The Bad Guys smashed box office expectations, charming audiences and critics alike with its bouncy verve. Such triumph was enough to warrant a sequel, released in August 2025 (alongside two shorts and a Netflix series), making The Bad Guys one of the 2020s’ essential animated franchises.
Written in a similar vein to that of a one-shot story (though far more elaborate), The Bad Guys’ en medias res approach to Blabey’s material chucks the viewer headfirst into a heightened, Bojack Horseman-esque (though far less depressing) Los Angeles where humans and animals co-exist in harmony. Disrupting that harmony, though, are the titular “Bad Guys.” Each animal—sharks, snakes, or spiders—has a notoriously bad reputation; thus, the Bad Guys exist within the box they’ve been assigned. Confined to their stereotypes, they ensue whatever (PG-appropriate) chaos they see fit: bank robberies, jewel heists, and overall miscreantic tomfoolery. The rub, however, lies with Mr. Wolf, who, enticed by the sweet smell of good behavior, leads the crew to a potential redemption arc.
When a personal heist goes horribly awry and threatens the Bad Guys with serious jail time, Mr. Wolf hatches a plan to feign integrity. To his clique, they’re in on the scheme, following their leader in hopes of escape. Mr. Wolf, though, might have ulterior motives. Encouraged by a guinea pig named Professor Marmalade and Governor Diane Foxington (you’ll never believe what kind of animal she is), Mr. Wolf actually wants to go good, much to the dismay of his friends—particularly Mr. Snake. It’s the definition of a moral conundrum, posing questions of whether the Bad Guys could ever rehabilitate into becoming “The Good Guys.” As expected, the journey to making good isn’t the most clear-cut.
The Inspirations Behind ‘The Bad Guys’
Shifting from the books’ undisclosed metropolitan area to the sun-kissed haze of modern Los Angeles, French animator and first-time feature director Pierre Perifel drew from some of California’s finest crime flicks for a film that’s both fresh and inspired. Opening on a two-minute-and-25-second oner—a diner scene à la Pulp Fiction—before a high-octane car chase through several recognizable L.A. locales, The Bad Guys hearkens to the heist films of the late ‘90s and early 2000s. The whole “Mr. [Animal]” bit is an obvious nod to Reservoir Dogs, with the budding romance between Governor Foxington and Mr. Wolf echoing Jennifer Lopez’s and George Clooney’s relationship in Out of Sight. In short: it’s the rare kids’ film that hits all age demographics.
On top of its Tarantino and Soderbergh-esque skeleton, The Bad Guys also mirrors Michael Mann’s Heat and William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A., particularly when the Bad Guys engage in their signature tomfoolery. In an interview with Animation Magazine, Pierre Perifel stated that he intended to pay homage to such films, plus television shows like Starsky and Hutch. There’s a quantifiable amount of cinematic literacy embedded within The Bad Guys’ structure, making it a great way to introduce kids to the crime film genre. It may be too early to show your seven-year-old Pulp Fiction, but it’s not too early to show them The Bad Guys. It’s a great “Film 101” movie, standing as a modern classic.
‘The Bad Guys’ is a New Classic
A strong component of the post-Spider-Verse wave of animated cinema, The Bad Guys is one of the best animated films of the 2020s thus far. Furthermore, the film breathed new life into the creative juices at DreamWorks Animation, following up The Bad Guys with great films like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Wild Robot, and Dog Man, with the upcoming Forgotten Island looking to be another gem in their increasing arsenal. I’ll happily take nine more of these opposed to another Trolls, to be honest. The possibility of a third Bad Guys film remains up in the air, though I can only assume that we’ll receive a third entry sooner than later (sooner than Spider-Verse 3, at least).
