July 30, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Pierre Perifel; co-directed by JP Sans
Culture Representation: Taking place in the Los Angeles area and in outer space, the animated film “The Bad Guys 2” (based on the book series of the same name) features a cast of characters who are talking animals and humans.
Culture Clash: The Bad Guys, a group of five animals who are reformed criminals, are forced back into committing crimes by a trio called the Bad Girls, who want to steal a rocket ship for reasons that are revealed in the movie.
Culture Audience: “The Bad Guys 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of “The Bad Guys” franchise and animated adventures where talking animals are the main characters.
In trying to outdo its predecessor movie, “The Bad Guys 2” almost falls into a sequel trap of overstuffing the plot. Despite some distractions, this animated film still presents an engaging adventure story in a crime caper comedy about anti-hero animals. The action scenes are more elaborate but they’re also more cluttered, compared to 2022’s “The Bad Guys” movie.
Directed by Pierre Perifel and co-directed by JP Sans, “The Bad Guys 2” was written by Yoni Brenner and Etan Cohen. “The Bad Guys” movies are based on Aaron Blabey’s book series of the same name. The first “Bad Guys” movie was directed by Perifel and written by Cohen. Damon Ross is a producer of both movies.
In the “Bad Guys 2” production notes, Ross comments: “The first movie was our love letter to heist films like ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ with a touch of Quentin Tarantino. For the sequel, we wanted to go bigger and explore other genres. We looked to ‘Mission: Impossible’ and James Bond for inspiration—bigger action, bigger spectacle and much higher stakes.”
The titular main characters in “The Bad Guys” movies are five talking animals:
- Mr. Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell), the group’s leader, has a cool and charming personality. He prides himself on being able to talk himself out of almost any tricky situation.
- Ms. Tarantula (voiced by Awkwafina) is an expert hacker and the most logical member of the group. She is usually calm and level-headed under pressure.
- Mr. Snake (voiced by Marc Maron) is a pessimistic safecracker who is Wolf’s best friend. Snake’s prickly personality is softened when he gets an unexpected love interest in the story.
- Mr. Shark (voiced by Craig Robinson) is a master of disguise and is the one most likely in the group to be in a good mood and entertain the others. Shark also has a soft spot for children.
- Mr. Piranha (voiced by Anthony Ramos) is hot-tempered and unpredictable. This “loose cannon” also tends to fart when he gets nervous, which is a personal trait that is used more than once as comedy in the movie.
“The Bad Guys 2” explains how “The Bad Guys” ended: The five members of the Bad Guys became reformed criminals and decided to start over as law-abiding citizens. The beginning of “The Bad Guys 2” shows that this intention is easier said than done.
Because of their criminal records, the Bad Guys have a hard time getting hired for legitimate jobs or applying for apartment rentals. For example, Wolf mistakenly applies to work at a bank that he forgot that he robbed three times. The Bad Guys all live together in a space where they are about to be evicted for non-payment of rent.
In “The Bad Guys,” Wolf became friendly with a fox named Diane Foxington (voiced by Zazie Beetz), who is now the governor of California. In an early scene in the movie, Wolf and Diane are doing some boxing training at a local gym. He tells her about the Bad Guys’ unemployment and financial woes in trying to have law-abiding lives.
Wolf and Diane mildly flirt with each other, which hints that they have a mutual attraction. However, in this moment, Diane wants to keep things between them strictly platonic. And during this boxing session, Diane easily defeats Wolf. Diane has a secret past as a master thief called Crimson Paw. This past comes back to haunt her in “The Bad Guys 2.”
Meanwhile, a mysterious criminal that the media and the public have called the Phantom Bandit has been committing a slew of robberies in the area. The Phantom Bandit hacks into computer systems to gain access to the places that are robbed. Everything that the Phantom Bandit has stolen is made of a rare metal called MacGuffinite.
The Belt of Guatelemango, which is the grand prize in a Lucha Libre wrestling match, is the most famous MacGuffnite item. The Bad Guys are under suspicion for being the Phantom Bandit. And that’s why the Bad Guys end up at the wrestling match, where they think they can catch the real culprit in the act.
At the wrestling match, they meet a raven named Susan (voiced by Natasha Lyonne), who is working as a snack vendor at the event. Snake reveals that he and Susan have been dating each other. And he really seems to be falling in love. Snake’s friends tease him about this relationship because Snake doesn’t seem like the romantic type, and Susan seems too “book smart” and “nerdy” for Snake.
It’s soon revealed (as shown in the movie’s trailers) that Susan’s real name is Doom, who is a master manipulator/con artist. She’s part of a female criminal trio called the Bad Girls, led by a ruthless snow leopard named Kitty Kat (voiced by Danielle Brooks), who is the mastermind of the heist at the center of the movie. The other member of the Bad Girls is Pigtail Petrova (voiced by Maria Bakalova), a Bulgarian wild boar who is the group’s mild-mannered technical engineer.
After a chaotic ambush at the wrestling match, the Bad Guys find out that they’ve been abducted by the Bad Girls, who are the real criminals behind the Phantom Bandit thefts. Kitty Kat orders the Bad Guys to help the Bad Girls steal a rocket ship. In exchange, the Bad Girls will release a video proving that the Bad Guys did not commit the Phantom Bandit thefts.
The rest of “The Bad Guys 2” involves a series of hyperactive scenes, including action sequences in outer space. One of the clumsiest parts of the movie is when the Bad Guys and Bad Girls show up uninvited (and in disguise) at the wedding of a tech billionaire named Jeremiah Moon (voiced by Colin Jost), who is a huge dolt for not noticing all the weird things that these uninvited guests do to call attention to themselves. Let’s put it this way: The Bad Guys are better at being thieves than at being spies.
Reprising their roles from “The Bad Guys” are TV reporter Tiffany Fluffit (voiced by Lilly Singh), who has takes a tabloid approach to her journalism; imprisoned Professor Rupert Marmalade IV (voiced by Richard Ayoade), who was the villain in the first “Bad Guys” movie; and Misty Luggins (voiced by Alex Borstein), who has been promoted from police chief to police commissioner and loves to remind people about this promotion. New to “The Bad Guys 2” is an Egyptian billionaire named Mr. Soliman (voiced by Omid Djalili), an art collector who was robbed by the Bad Guys five years earlier.
Although “The Bad Guys 2” story is messier and not as entertaining as the story in the first “Bad Guys” movie, the voice cast performances remain among the best assets of this animated film series. Rockwell, Awkwafina, Brooks and Lyonne are the standouts because they bring personalities to their characters that make them instantly memorable. Borstein also brings some laughs as a sometimes-bumbling law-enforcement official.
Daniel Pemberton’s musical score (he also wrote the score for “The Bad Guys”) is a highlight that keeps up with energetic pace of the movie. The movie’s visuals are very competent but not award-worthy. This is a sequel that could’ve used the concept of “less is more.”
For better and for worse, the Bad Girls get almost as much screen time as the Bad Guys. On the one hand, the Bad Girls are undoubtedly interesting characters that keep the story lively. However, some of the Bad Guys and their camaraderie get sidelined in the process. For example, the friendship between Wolf and Snake is solid but not as strong as it was in “The Bad Guys.”
“The Bad Guys 2” makes the Bad Girls such a huge part of the story, it seems almost like a test for a spinoff series for the Bad Girls. Professor Marmalade’s brief appearances in the movie (including a mid-credits scene) seem to be purely for nostalgia purposes. There’s no need to bring back past villains into every “Bad Guys” movie.
“The Bad Guys 2” doesn’t surpass “The Bad Guys” in terms of overall quality. However, it’s a very good option for an animated film with an entertaining story. “The Bad Guys” movies need to stick to using the “Ocean’s” and “Mission: Impossible” movies as inspirations—or “The Bad Guys” could easily lose their way and turn into the animated equivalent of the bloated and ridiculous “Fast and Furious” franchise.
Universal Pictures will release “The Bad Guys 2” in U.S. cinemas on August 1, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on August 19, 2025. “The Bad Guys 2” will be released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on October 7, 2025.
