Villains leading their own movie/franchise is all the rave these days. Morbius, Black Adam, Kraven the Hunter are all villains (or villain-ish) who are the lead of their movies. So you can’t blame DreamWorks for trying to jump in on the trend with their latest animated venture, The Bad Guys.

The Bad Guys included Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson) and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos)as a crew of criminals who were robbing banks across the city. When they were finally captured, the lovable guinea pig philanthropist Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade) convinced the Governor (Zazie Beets) to let him attempt to rehabilitate them.

This movie was fine. Younger kids will enjoy it and parents won’t hate watching it. It is just that this is not in the same category as Pixar or Disney. Heck, it is not even in the same category as DreamWorks own How to Train Your Dragon. It’s more like The Boss Baby or The Croods. It is not bad, somewhat watchable but just not very remarkable. It won’t stand out in your memory.

The animation was fine. I actually kind of liked the way these characters’ eyes were shown. The character designs were fine, with Mr. Wolf a definite standout (and also The Crimson Paw…cool)

Story wise, the film was average, at best. It was so obvious about what was going to happen that it is telegraphed to most. I certainly figured out the (other) villain immediately. The film did have a nice message of friendship and acceptance of others, despite who they may be.

There were some funny parts too. Some of the heists moments were the best parts of the film, seeing how the Bad Guys came together to accomplish their goals. However, there were some really coincidental parts of the plans that had to work perfectly for the plan to be completed and, of course, they all fit right in the spot.

It could have been much worse (Like Minions), but it just is not good enough to become a great animated film. It could be a good introduction to young people and heist films because that aspect of The Bad Guys was the strongest part.

3.1 stars