JacobsonCinemas

The Bad Guys is one of my personal favorite DreamWorks films thanks to the film’s gorgeous Spider-Verse inspired animation, the amazing voice acting, unique character designs, and fun premise. Another reason I hold the film dear to me is because it gives out a lot of Sly Cooper vibes which is one of my favorite game series. When I found out that there would be a sequel, I was really excited. The Bad Guys 2 takes place after the first film where Wolf and his gang are trying to fit into society after being released from prison. After struggling to adjust they are brought back into the crime life by a new group called the Bad Girls who were inspired by them and want to team up to pull off the ultimate heist.

Everything that was great about the first film such as the fun characters, the outstanding voice acting, Daniel Pemberton’s tremendous score, and especially the gorgeous animation is all right here. SPOILERS: my favorite visual of the film has to be near the end when Kitty uses the space magnet to pull all the world’s gold into space and you see it all floating around in gold streams. Sure, Kitty’s plan seems extremely unrealistic but man is it worth it for possibly my favorite amazing piece of animation of 2025 so far. What’s also great is that it does away with some of the first film’s problems such as the “twist villain” and the “third-half breakup” and focuses more on the heists which were some of the more fun parts of the first film.

The Bad Girls work as a great foil to the Bad Guys. Each member has terrific voice acting, their own unique design, and roles to play in the group. Kitty in particular is the big standout. My one major problem with the film is technically not in the film but actually cut out. A deleted scene reveals that Diane and Kitty were actually close friends when Diane was the Crimson Paw but after Diane turned a new leaf and abandoned Kitty she becomes resentful and vengeful. I feel like this backstory made Kitty more complex and tragic instead of just having your basic “outcast that decided to be a bad guy” backstory. It would’ve also explained why she wanted to expose her as the Crimson Paw more. Perhaps if we get another sequel maybe they’ll actually reveal this.

SPOILERS: Kitty ends up uploading evidence that Diane is the Crimson Paw which costs her governor job and ends up having to fake her own death along with the Bad Guys and become secret agents. I love that the status quo changes a lot here and you don’t usually see that in a lot of animated sequels other than the Toy Story films. It would’ve been cheap if Diane got her job back but she doesn’t which is refreshing. The Bad Guys 2 is just as great as the first film with everything that made the first film great. It has amazing animation, fun voice acting, and a fun premise that brings me back to when I watched my brother play the Sly Cooper games.

Verdict:

+Change to the status quo

+The Bad Girls

+The animation

+The voice acting

-Changing Kitty’s backstory

Score: A