The Bad Guys is a 2022 American animated heist comedy film loosely based on the children’s book series of the same name by Aaron Blabey.
Let’s find out more about the movie!
- The beginning of this film mirrors the beginning of Pulp Fiction (1994) where two characters are sitting opposite one another in a diner having what seems to be a rather idle conversation, before revealing that both characters are actually on the verge of launching into a robbery.
- When Wolf proposes the gang to pretend to be good, Mr. Shark tells the story about a brother who had an anchor falling on his head. This refers to the previous DreamWorks Animation film Shark Tale (2004), which had two shark brothers: Frankie who died from an anchor dropping on him, and his brother Lenny, a good guy, who briefly pretends to be bad.
- Wolf jokingly asks Snake if he can hear colors and see sounds. In fact, snakes have an excellent sense of smell and they actually can “smell” the air. They have no sense of hearing, however, but they are able to detect vibrations, including vibrations caused by sound. When Snake is “listening” to the safe to crack it, this is accurate as he is actually “feeling” the vibrations caused by the safe mechanisms.
- The film’s opening diner scene is the longest one-shot in DreamWorks Animation history, lasting two minutes, 25 seconds and seven frames.
- The $100 bills in the movie feature the face of DreamWorks president Marjorie Cohn.
- Based on the children’s book series of the same name written by Aaron Blabey.
- The multiple mentions of Wolf going ‘Clooney’ are a reference to actor George Clooney, who is known for playing charming, charismatic characters and many parallels can be drawn between Mr Wolf and Clooney’s roles of Fantastic Mr Fox from Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Another adaptation of a children’s stories about a heroic thief) and Danny Ocean from the “Ocean’s Eleven” film series (the leader of a gang of thieves). Also, Rockwell was the star in Clooney’s directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
- In the scene where Mr. Wolf and Diane dance, the choreography was conceived by a real professional choreographer. And for a moment, Mr. Wolf uses a “one leg sweeps behind the other leg” move. This is part of Sam Rockwell signature dance style, who voices Mr. Wolf.
- The filmmakers cite Spider-Man: A new universe (2018) as an influence, wanting to try a stylish animated film.
- In the books, it’s mentioned that Mr. Snake is a childhood friend of Mr. Wolf, but in the movie Mr. Snake is 26 years older than Mr. Wolf.
- Snake’s bucket hat and shirt is an homage to Johnny Depp’s character Raoul Duke in the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
- The German dub of the second trailer was met with extremely negative reactions on social media. While the first one was dubbed by professional and well known voice actors, the other trailer revealed that the actual German voice cast consisted of B-list celebrities and YouTubers. It was instantly widely ridiculed as a “bad fan-dub” or “porn dub”, and petitions were started to convince the studio to use the professional voice actors from the first trailer.
- A number of characters/equipment/scenes/stunts pay tribute to Monkey Punch’s “Lupin III”, a Japanese manga comic about the exploits of an unstoppable gang of outlaws.
- At the construction zone, a container can be seen with “Pierre” graffitied on it, in reference to the film’s director Pierre Perifel.
- Mr. Wolf is modeled after actor George Clooney, and his appearance is based on actors Logan Lerman and Dylan O’Brien.
- While practicing being good, Wolf briefly dressed as a little old lady with a bonnet, a clear reference to Little Red Riding Hood.
- Pierre Perifel’s directorial debut.
- Mr. Wolf’s date of birth given on the placard in his mugshot reads 10.19.1991 (October 19, 1991).
- When Mr. Piranha gets his mugshot photo taken, his birthday is revealed to be 12.13.1996 (December 13th, 1996).
- Wolf jokingly asks Snake if he can hear colors and see sounds. There actually is a medical condition called synesthesia in which the brain overlaps senses and their sensations in various ways, and they include hearing colors and seeing sounds.
- Inspirations for Mr. Wolf and Diane Foxington’s dynamic include Fox Mulder and Dana Scully from The X Files (1993) and Han Solo and Leia Organa from Star Wars (1977).
- The film’s opening resembles the opening of Pulp Fiction. Both films feature a character referred to as Mr Wolf.
- A quick flashback shows Mr. Wolf laying on a beach towel with a pink and white heart pattern, the same pattern revealed to be on Wolf’s underwear when his pants are ripped off by a grappling hook a few scenes later.
- During the character introductions, Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), is referred to as Big Tuna. Robinson starred in The Office (2005), where Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) has the nickname of Big Tuna.
- In Paddington 2, Richard Ayaode plays a professor who uses marmalade as evidence in court to have Paddington convicted. In this film, he plays Professor Marmalade.
- During the scene when Mr. Snake steals the password by fake finger-printing a briefcase he receives the official code that says 12345. This references King Roland’s combination and President Skroob’s luggage password in the parody movie Spaceballs.
- When Piranha disguised himself as a chef, and then hides inside a cloche to gatecrash a party, he is dressed as celebrity chef Salt Bae. After the film was released, Salt Bae became infamous, and faced public backlash, for gatecrashing the Argentinian international men’s football teams World Cup party.
- This is the 20th DreamWorks Animation film to be produced in widescreen, after Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), Kung Fu Panda (2008), Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), How to Train Your Dragon (2010), Shrek Forever After (2010), Megamind (2010), Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), Puss in Boots (2011), The Croods (2013), Turbo (2013), How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014), Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016), Trolls (2016), The Boss Baby (2017), How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019), Trolls World Tour (2020), The Croods: A New Age (2020), Spirit Untamed (2021), and The Boss Baby: Family Business (2021).
- When Ms. Tarantula is hacking security cameras, the smiley faces on the guards’ computer screens are a reference to the cult classic anime Cowboy Bebop, where one of the characters – Radical Edward – hacked electronic devices in a similar fashion.
- When Professor Marmalade forces the Bad Guys to wear animal onesies, Mr Wolf wears that of a sheep, in a reference to the term “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, which he is also figuratively as well as literally at that point because he is a bad guy pretending to be good.
- Diane Foxington is an existing character in “The Bad Guys” book series, except there she had the name of Ellen Fox and was also a member of the International League of Heroes as opposed to a former criminal mastermind.
- During the Gala, when the cops move in and surround the BadGuys, they’re all repeating “hut, hut, hut” referencing the end of Blue Brothers (1980).
- On July 22, 2017, Australia’s The Daily Telegraph reported that several studios had expressed interest in adapting Aaron Blabey’s book series The Bad Guys into a feature film.
- In March 2018, DreamWorks Animation announced the development of a film based on the book series, with Etan Cohen writing the screenplay.
- The following year, in October, it was reported that the film would be directed by Pierre Perifel in his feature directorial debut, with Cohen and Hilary Winston set to co-write the film’s script.
- Throughout the development of the film, the crew worked remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The film was described as having “a similar twist on the heist genre that Shrek did on fairy tales, and what Kung Fu Panda did for the kung fu genre”.
- Winston was only credited for Additional screenplay material with Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs writer Yoni Brenner while the film was executive produced by Cohen, Blabey, and Foundation Media’s Patrick Hughes.
- The cast was announced on July 28, 2021.
- The Bad Guys grossed $97.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $153.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $250.9 million.
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