★★½ (2½ out of 4)
I wasn’t sure I wanted to see an animated sequel to “The Bad Guys,” the 2022 hit that turned those devil creatures into permanent goody-goods. Being bad may send you to hell, but at least you won’t be bored by the sins that got you there. That goes double at the movies, where mischief sells more tickets than piety. It always has. So, yes, the bad guys are playing nice at the start of this follow-up, but these anthropomorphic animal thieves don’t stay wussies for long.
Based on Aaron Blabey’s Australian graphic novels, the sequel—again directed by Pierre Perifel and JP Sans—is about the thrill of recidivism. “The Bad Guys 2,” from DreamWorks Animation, zips into theaters in full, brightly colored visual splendor. That doesn’t count the script, which takes the vow of ordinary and sticks to it. But it strikes the right balance and hits the bullseye with the vibrant voice acting from everyone on the team.
Let’s start with Sam Rockwell, who’s the secret sauce in any movie smart enough to cast him. The Oscar winner is back doing his best George Clooney as Mr. Wolf, the dapper leader of a quintet of animal outlaws who mean to reform, but someone is pulling them back in for one last job, like Al Pacino in “The Godfather 3.”
Who’s doing the pulling? The Bad Girls, baby, a trio of criminals led by Danielle Brooks’ snow leopard Miss Kitty Kat—she means business about returning the Bad Guys to crime, especially for her profit. And stand back for her cohorts, Pigtail Petrova (Maria Bakalova) and the dagger-throwing raven Doom (Natasha Lyonne).
A shoutout here for Craig Robinson’s Mr. Shark, still hilarious in disguises that don’t fool anyone. A mustache on a shark is a great gag, I don’t care what you say. Kudos as well for Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), and his flirty thing with Doom, and just the idea of Mr. Wolf getting it on with Diane (Zazie Beetz) boggles whatever is left of our minds. Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) mainly toots green gas when he’s not losing it. And Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina, love her) is a tritagonist for the ages, an in-house hacker, a pocket search engine, and a traveling tech wizard known as Webs. They’re all looking for a reprieve from boring do-gooding. And they get it.
There’s a new master thief out there, looking to run off with anything made from the rare metal (Hitchcock reference alert) McGuffinite. “It takes a thief to catch a thief,” says Mr. Wolf. And off we go.
Color explodes everywhere from the streets of Cairo in a killer prologue to a finale in outer space that will leave you slack jawed.
For all its tough-guy bragging, “The Bad Guys 2” is a PG-rated family entertainment aimed at kids who like laughing at farts. No harm done. If you were expecting Rockwell to return to his “White Lotus” form as a gender bending criminal who can’t find sexual satisfaction without pretending he’s an Asian girl, you’re barking up the wrong cartoon.
The sophistication adults may be seeking comes in the animation that leaps from hand-drawn graphics to 3D imagery that jumps off the screen. Color explodes everywhere from the streets of Cairo in a killer prologue to a finale in outer space that will leave you slack jawed. Sure, “The Bad Guys 2” is too overstuffed for its own good. It’s likely you won’t remember who did what to whom. Look, the kid inside you won’t care and you shouldn’t either. Just blast off and hold on.