Based on the best-selling children's books by Aaron Blabey, The Bad Guys has transitioned into the feature film realm with a hilarious and meaningful story that contains stellar voice casting and top-notch animation with a super-quick, cool pace. The criminal masterminded bad guys here are led by the suave pickpocket Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell) who leads his team of other animal friends, including Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) that pays tribute in the best ways to iconic heist films. All ages are welcome in this movie as The Bad Guys satisfies everyone's funny bone along with some great messages about friendship, loyalty, and of course, change.
Directed by the lead animator of all the Kung-Fu Panda movies (Pierre Perifel) and written for the screen by Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder, Idiocracy), The Bad Guys takes its shape, which is molded by some fantastic movies that came before it. The film starts out with a wonderful and hilarious homage to Pulp Fiction that quickly turns into Ocean's 11 territories. Even the characters joke, "Never go full Clooney". It's easy to see elements of Edgar Wright at play here with some intense, fun editing magic along with some Fast and Furious type of absurd action and even a little bit of Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange in relation to a criminal changing to a good citizen. Of course, some of the references will go over the younger generation's head, but for those adults, these jokes will land perfectly.
Read The Full Theatrical Review HERE...
Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
The Bad Guys steal their way to Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy via Universal Studios. The discs are housed inside a hard, blue plastic case with a cardboard sleeve. The artwork features the animated characters of the movie in their '70s wardrobe. There is an insert for a digital code.
The Bad Guys come with a solid 1080p HD presentation that combines some amazing, different animation styles throughout the movie. The colors are robust and ooze an amazing amount of mid-century modern palettes to form their unique '70s visual style. Tans, browns, yellows, and the color of beige all look exquisite here. The sunny expositions in the outdoor animated sequences look amazing and drop with golden amber lighting. White levels are balanced and black levels are mostly inky, but have some murkiness to them. Primary colors of blues, reds, greens, and purples all look wonderful as well and contrast nicely with those lighter colors.
The detail is vivid as well with smooth animation fluidity and great closeups that reveal individual hairs and textures in the animal's skin and clothing. Background items and buildings in the distance also look detailed as well, never giving off a softer image. Unlike the 4K presentation, the filmic look and simulated grain aren't as present here. Still, this is a great-looking picture with no video problems to speak of.
This release comes with an amazing Dolby Atmos track that prioritizes balance and atmospherics rather than just loud noises. The sound effects are boisterous and dynamic with some nuanced sounds of technology sounding off, action sequences imploring explosions, vehicle chases, and debris falling down. Each of these sound elements comes with fantastic use of low-end bass that has a glorious rumble to it and never moves into an over-bearing, rocky territory. The score and needle drop always add to the film's fun and suspenseful comedy and utilize the full speaker systems.
Atmospheric sounds of animals running around, people talking or screaming, along with those cartoonish noises all sound wonderful. The height speakers give way to the bigger action sequences and animals running around on different height levels, along with some great reverb voices that are made to sound loud. This is a great-sounding Dolby Atmos track with a clear dialogue track that comes with zero issues.
The Bad Guys is a high-octane, super-fun, and highly entertaining animated film for the whole family that is modeled after some great heist movies and one certain Kubrick film. The voice-acting is amazing and the animation is out of this world. This is a great, original animated movie that everyone will enjoy. The 1080p HD Blu-ray looks very good and the Dolby Atmos track is dynamite. The bonus features are worth the time as well. Highly Recommended!
