{"id":24665,"date":"2022-04-21T01:16:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T08:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=24665"},"modified":"2022-04-21T01:16:48","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T08:16:48","slug":"the-bad-guys-snatches-some-laughs-but-isnt-a-flawless-caper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=24665","title":{"rendered":"THE BAD GUYS Snatches Some Laughs, But Isn\u2019t a Flawless Caper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This feature from DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures\nopens in cinemas on April 22nd<\/sup>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Pixar and Disney are well known as trailblazers when\nit comes to animated family fare, many forget that DreamWorks have made their\nfair share of memorable features. In fact, their productions have included the\nlikes of the Shrek<\/em>, Kung Fu Panda<\/em>, How to Train Your Dragon<\/em>,\nThe Boss Baby<\/em>, and Trolls<\/em> movie franchises, not to mention the\nvery underrated Mr. Peabody and Sherman<\/em>. The company\u2019s latest feature is\nThe Bad Guys<\/em>, based on bestselling children\u2019s book series by Aaron\nBlabey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This tale is set in a Los Angeles where humans and anthropomorphic\nanimals coexist. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Snake (Marc Maron), Piranha (Anthony\nRamos), Shark (Craig Robinson) and Tarantula (Awkwafina) make up the titular\ngroup of criminals, known for their impressive thefts that continually\nembarrass the Chief of Police (Alex Borstein) and officers around the city. However,\nwhen their latest heist goes awry, Mr. Wolf is forced to make a deal with new\ngovernor and fox Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz) and guinea pig Professor Rupert\nMarmalade (Richard Ayoade) to reform his entire gang. The wolf initially considers\nthis another con, but suddenly experiences strange sensations while doing good\u2026\nfeelings of happiness and pride that add serious complications to his grand plans.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reviewer has never read the source material, but the\nmovie does have an unusual and stylized visual approach to the characters that\nlikely emulates the source material. They have large eyes and, depending on the\nangle, at times look like they\u2019ve been drawn in almost like a picture from a kid\u2019s\nbook. When the feature is focused on dialogue exchanges between Wolf and the Foxington\nwith little going on around them, the movie doesn\u2019t look as striking as one\nmight hope for. However, the technique is more effectively utilized during\nchase and heist scenes when the oddballs are being pursued through the streets.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As one might have already guessed, the main theme of the\npicture is not to judge or make assumptions about an individual based on their\noutward appearance. It also tackles reform, redemption and the benefits of doing\nthe right thing, no matter what the personal cost. It seems the heart of the\nstory is the relationship between Wolf and Snake. The conflict that builds between\nthem as the central protagonist begins to feel a need to help others instead of\nsimply hurting (or consuming) them is an interesting one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The film\u2019s voice cast also gets plenty of comic mileage out\nof the concept, contrasting their nefarious personalities with being forced to\ndo something sweet and selfless. And the duplicitous nature of these robbers\nallows for some amusing double and even triple crosses over the course of the\nstory\u2026 there is a really funny running gag involving misadventure with an\nescape tool. The climax features another memorably entertaining sequence\ninvolving the reveal of an evil plot featuring a rampaging army of possessed\nlittle rodents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even though the movie features some genuinely funny bits, just as many of the jokes land with a thud. There are a number of gags about the shape of a valuable meteorite that aren\u2019t as cleverly written and will only get giggles from the youngest of viewers. It was very strange to this reviewer that the story introduces L.A. as home to anthropomorphic animals and then doesn’t really show anyone but the seven of these individuals over the running time. Everyone else in the story is human. The film would have been more visually interesting had there been other animal characters in the story and appearing in the backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Admittedly, it\u2019s nice to see a kid\u2019s flick with story twists,\nas well as characters struggling with biases from others based on their\nreputations. It\u2019s just unfortunate that the screenplay doesn\u2019t maximize the\ncomedic potential of the concept. This film could have benefitted from a\nsharper and more biting wit, rather than resorting to broad jokes about the\ndimmer characters or gags about derrieres. The Bad Guys<\/em> is a reasonably\nentertaining family feature, but one that is unlikely to leave as lasting an\nimpression as other classic DreamWorks titles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This feature from DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures opens in cinemas on April 22nd. While Pixar and Disney are well known as trailblazers when it comes to animated family fare, many forget that DreamWorks have made their fair share of memorable features. In fact, their productions have included the likes of the Shrek, Kung Fu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":24667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[209,1454,1455,1594,2114,4660,4852,6271,7287,13093,16975,17566,18571,19961,19962,19963,19964,23562,24399,24752],"class_list":["post-24665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-209","tag-animals","tag-animated","tag-anthony-ramos","tag-awkwafina","tag-comedy","tag-craig-robinson","tag-dreamworks","tag-family-film","tag-marc-maron","tag-richard-ayoade","tag-sam-rockwell","tag-snake","tag-the-bad-guys","tag-the-bad-guys-film-review","tag-the-bad-guys-movie-review","tag-the-bad-guys-review","tag-universal","tag-wolf","tag-zazie-beetz"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}