Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Bad Guys’ on Peacock, a Modestly Clever Cartoon Riff on Heist Capers

Now on Peacock after a good, solid theatrical run, The Bad Guys is an animated comedy taking author Aaron Blabey’s series of kid books (in the vein of Captain Underpants and the like) and transforming them into a spoofy riff on action-heist movies. It’s been described as Shrek crossed with Quentin Tarantino, which, OK, sure, whatever, but at least it’s not yet another Pixar tear-duct milker or earwormer of a Disney musical, right? Now let’s see if that skewed-angle approach works or just clunks.

THE BAD GUYS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Los Angeles. A diner. Mr. Wolf (voice of Sam Rockwell) and Mr. Snake (Marc Maron) chat about the deliciousness of guinea pigs and other such frivolities. They get up to pay the bill and everyone cowers in the corners, and this is when we realize that this particular narrative world blends anthropomorphic bipedal versions of quadruped animals with humans, which is interesting, just interesting. Traffic slams to a halt as Wolf and Snake cross the street, walk into a bank and rob it. This has been one long shot, the type of virtuoso maneuver usually reserved for live action movies that inspire film wonks to use the phrase “virtuoso maneuver” so much you just want to stuff Giannis Antetokounmpo’s game-worn sweatsocks in their mouths.

Our lead duo leaps into Wolf’s convertible sports car and they zoom through a Michael Mannish stretch of L.A., the cops, led by the easily flustered Chief Misty Luggins (Alex Borstein), on their tail. They gather the other members of their criminal fivesome: crazy berzerker Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos of In the Heights), hacker extraordinaire Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina) and master of disguise Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson). They are the Bad Guys, notorious and feared everywhere and by all. They live in a secret lair by the reservoir, and it’s piled with cash, gold and even the Mona Lisa. Wolf leads them and Snake is the grouchiest of the bunch. They’re tight: Out of everyone in the world, “I hate you guys the least,” Snake grumbles.

The new governor, red fox Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz), drags the Bad Guys on TV, inspiring Wolf to Clooney-voiceover a heist scheme to embarrass her – something about snatching a gold statue intended for a goody-goody gazillionaire guinea pig named Professor Rupert Marmalade IV (Richard Ayoade). Before we can parse whether the statue is a MacGuffin or not, two major developments occur: First, Wolf accidentally saves an old woman from falling down the stairs, and might actually almost possibly maybe feel good about doing something good, and his tail wags involuntarily. Uh oh. And then the Bad Guys get busted, and scooped up by Marmalade so he can rehab them into the Good Guys, which Wolf sees as an opportunity to pretend to be good but actually be bad, although that tail-wagging bit tells us this conceit is a slippery slope. In fact, there are so many more twists from here on out, this whole movie is a slippery slope.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Despicable Me did this ne’er-do-well-as-protagonist thing first. Pedal-to-the-metal action sequences cop a thing or two from The Incredibles 2. Clooneyisms are cribbed from Ocean’s 11 and Fantastic Mr. Fox equally. And then there’s the stuff kids aren’t supposed to watch: Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Heat and a couple of those Fast and Furious movies. Oh, and Snake plays bass guitar like no limbless creature since Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas.

Performance Worth Watching Hearing: In his first cartoon-voiceover gig, Maron is unrecognizable beneath a kind of Alan Arkin patois; it’s true voice acting, not just another celebrity voiceover gig.

Memorable Dialogue: “Do not Clooney me, Wolf.” – The ever-sharp Foxington knows an attempted Clooneying when she sees one

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Three things keep The Bad Guys from being a winking reference-fest lashed to a familiar makeshift-family-sticks-together (quoth Vin Diesel: “Fambly”) morality fable: One, the amiable dynamic between Rockwell’s conflicted Wolf and Maron’s irascible Snake. Two, some fun, skillfully conceived action sequences. And three, a Looney Tuned chaotic sensibility that finds comedy in exaggeration and wholesale silliness. There’s just the right amount of No. 1, plenty of No. 2 and not enough of No. 3.

Much of the film consists of farting around with some direction, since this plot whipcracks us with a twinkle in its eye, and the younger you are, the more you’ll appreciate its attempts at being “unpredictable.” For any adults in the audience, well, those Clooney double-entendres and clean-scrubbed Tarantinoisms are for you, and the rest is tolerable, occasionally worth a chuckle (I liked the recurring bit in which Wolf is ashamed to be smitten with a kitten). So as a whole, this is medium-functioning family entertainment that’s content to amuse without exerting too much creative ambition. It’s not always memorable, but it works for the most part.

Our Call: STREAM IT. File The Bad Guys under Good Enough.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.

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