‘The Bad Guys’ is awesome family fun

In the Universal Pictures/DreamWorks presentation of ‘The Bad Guys,’ based on the New York Times best-selling children’s book series, a crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws are about to attempt their most challenging con yet - becoming model citizens.

Never have there been five friends as infamous as these bad guys - dashing pickpocket Mr. Wolf, seen-it-all wisecracker Mr. Snake, chill master of disguise Mr. Shark, short-fused 'muscle' Mr. Piranha and sharp-tongued expert hacker Ms. Tarantula, a.k.a. 'Webs.' But, when, after years out countless heists and being the world’s most-wanted villains, the gang is finally caught, Mr. Wolf brokers a deal (that he had no intention of keeping) to save them all from prison: 'The Bad Guys' will go good. Under the guidance of Professor Marmalade, 'The Bad Guys' set out to fool the world that they’ve been transformed. Along the way, Mr. Wolf begins to suspect that going good for real may give him what he’s always secretly longed for: acceptance.

So, when a new villain threatens the city, can Mr. Wolf persuade the rest of the gang to become … The Good Guys?

The latest animated feature from DreamWorks Animation is extremely entertaining and is filled with lots of light-hearted fun. ‘The Bad Guys’ delivers quite a few fun-filled moments that the kids will really enjoy.

Even though the main characters start off as “bad guys,” all of them are really likable and all of them have their own moment to shine in this movie. Quite a few gags and humorous bits are scattered throughout that will have the kid in all of us laugh out loud.

In between all the laughs, there are also quite a few segments that are really heart-felt: especially when the Wolf character secretly realizes that he might actually want to be good.

‘The Bad Guys’ also features some really awesome looking animation and even some twists and turns that give this “heist” flick more of a caper feel.

So, give yourself a little break and take the family out to see the animated feature ‘The Bad Guys.’ This funny, heart-felt family flick is perfect for a family movie night at the Dietrich!

The cast: Sam Rockwell (Disney Plus’ The One and Only Ivan) as Wolf; Marc Maron (Respect) as Snake; Awkwafina (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) as Tarantula; Craig Robinson (Peacock’s Killing It) as Shark; Anthony Ramos (In the Heights) as Piranha; Richard Ayoade (Disney Plus’ Soul) as Professor Marmalade; Alex Borestein (Amazon’s Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; Family Guy) as Police Chief Misty Luggins; and Lilly Singh as Tiffany Fluffit. ‘The Bad Guys’ is written by Eton Cohen (Holmes & Watson; Men in Black 3; Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa) and is the feature film debut of Pierre Perifel.

This DreamWorks Animation film is based on a children’s book series by Australian author Aaron Blabey. Around July 2017, numerous studios had expressed interest in adapting the book series, which DreamWorks Animation eventually got the rights to and announced the development in March 2018.

Inspiration for the design of the film came from ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,’ which opened an opportunity for the studio to pitch something that was more illustrative and stylized than their own films.

‘The Bad Guys’ is rated PG for action and rude humor and has a running time of 100 minutes.

What did you think of this latest family feature? Let me know on my Facebook page Wyoming County Press Examiner reviews by Matt Palmer.