‘The Bad Guys’ Review: Criminals Go Straight — In a Roundabout Way — in a Fun, Frenetic Kids’ Caper
variety.comGuy Lodge Film CriticIt’s a problem that has plagued countless kids’ movies — and more than a few grownup ones — over the course of film history: The villain is conceived and performed with such lip-smacking relish that the nominal hero seems a simpering drag to be around by comparison.
Conscious of that perennial imbalance, “The Bad Guys” takes a simple solution and multiplies it, making a sympathetic protagonist of not just one supposedly dastardly antagonist, but several.
Taking five anthropomorphised animals generally portrayed as violent terrors in the cartoon world — led by a big bad wolf, no less — and centering them as a chummy, lovable criminal collective, this bouncy debut feature from French animator Pierre Perifel gets a lot of value out of that neat high concept.
As it steers them to the right side of the law, however, it still can’t convince us that good guys have more fun. If there’s a downside to this strategy, it’s that an ensemble of villains, while fun to hang out with, isn’t all that easy to care about — cheery and diverting as “The Bad Guys” is, it has all the emotional weight of a few crisp, stolen Benjamins.
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