The central question of The Bad Guys 2 is deceptively simple: Can people change? Can they grow beyond their past misdeeds, not in theory but in the messy, unglamorous reality of everyday life? That such a question sits at the heart of an animated sequel featuring a piano-playing shark, a fart-propelled astronaut escape, and a crew of criminal animals trying (and mostly failing) to go straight is part of the film’s charm. But what makes this DreamWorks sequel unexpectedly affecting is that it genuinely seems to care about the answer.
Directed once again by Pierre Perifel, with JP Sans joining as co-director, The Bad Guys 2 continues the story of its reformed antiheroes where the first film left off: fresh out of prison, trying to reintegrate, and realizing that becoming “good” is far more difficult than it looked on paper. There are no capers here, at least not at first. There are job interviews. Rent. Bureaucracy. And the realization that society may not be particularly interested in giving bad guys second chances.
The Bad Girls.
Voiced with delicious command by Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne, and Maria Bakalova, this new trio of femme-fatale criminals abducts our reluctant heroes and forces them into one last heist. The target: a private aerospace facility owned by a vain tech billionaire (Colin Jost), where a stolen rocket will eventually send the cast into orbit. That the plot makes room for both a musically improvised wedding infiltration and a credible NASA-style launch sequence speaks to the filmmakers’ balancing act of absurdity and sophistication, delivered in somewhat equal measure.
What elevates The Bad Guys 2 above standard animated fare is not just the action or the comedy (though both are abundant), but the emotional integrity of its characters. Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell) remains the soul of the ensemble, the perennial ringleader searching for meaning beyond reputation. His chemistry with Zazie Beetz’s Diane Foxington, the former master thief turned governor, gives the film moments of surprising intimacy. And Marc Maron’s Mr. Snake, drawn like a noir antihero in reptilian form, shares a barbed, unexpectedly tender rapport with Lyonne’s Doom, a raven who flirts like she’s pulling off a long con out of Sly Cooper.
Ocean’s 11 for the Gen Alpha Crowd.
Believe it or not, there is real, honest-to-DreamWorks craft here. The animation retains the kinetic visual energy of the original but with a tiny bit more texture and tonal control. Daniel Pemberton’s music moves from bold brass to soulful grace, while the film’s bookend songs—Busta Rhymes’ kinetic “Taking Everything” and the wistful “Goodlife” by Rag’n’Bone Man and WizTheMc—capture the story’s range, such that it is. The humor can be broad (a flatulence joke becomes a propulsion gag), but it is rarely groan-worthy. In a media landscape saturated with irony, this level of sincerity truly stands out.
Like many sequels, The Bad Guys 2 attempts to go bigger in every way it can. But unlike many, it also goes a little deeper. If the first Bad Guys film was a stylish subversion of heist tropes, this second chapter becomes a meditation on how hard it is to change when no one believes you can. That tension between public perception and private transformation is where the film finds its most resonant moments.
Sure, some characters such as Richard Ayoade’s Professor Marmalade, are woefully underused. And the plot, for all its flair, occasionally races past its own emotional beats with all the grace of a mongoose. But the voice cast is uniformly strong, and the animation team, led by Théophile Bondoux and Floriane Marchix, grounds even the wildest sequences with visual clarity and conviction.
The Bottom Line.
It’s a dumb type of smart in terms of tonal approach, but it’s also chaotic and silly in a generous way for the Gen Alpha kiddos it aims to please more than anyone. And that, more than any heist or punchline, is what makes these guys good.
