The Bad Guys 2 keeps the zippy, sketchbook energy that made DreamWorks Animation’s first film easy on the eyes, then stalls once the heist machinery starts clicking. The hybrid 2D/3D look still pops, indebted or comparable to the splashy stylings of Sony’s Spider-Verse and The Mitchells vs. The Machines and even Pixar’s Turning Red. The trouble is everything wrapped in that packaging. Two movies in, this world and its reformed crooks still feel thin.
Our core crew is back: Sam Rockwell’s ultra-suave Wolf, Marc Maron’s perpetually sour Snake, Craig Robinson’s genial Shark, Awkwafina’s hacker Tarantula, and Anthony Ramos’ eager Piranha. Now that they are on the straight and narrow, a string of real-world job interviews goes about as well as you would expect, their reputations shadowing every attempt at normal life.
Enter a rival crew, the Bad Girls, who kidnap and blackmail the gang into a new caper. Danielle Brooks’ Kitty Kat, Maria Bakalova’s Pigtail Petrova, and Natasha Lyonne’s Doom are a fun idea in theory, a mirror image with attitude. In practice the movie treats them like a gimmick more than a shakeup.
Set piece after set piece is competent and candy colored, yet the character beats land soft. The banter rarely rises above light chuckles, and the story coasts on familiar arcs about second chances and found family without finding a sharper angle. Sam Rockwell’s breezy charm still carries scenes, Marc Maron gets a few cranky zingers, and Awkwafina sparks whenever the film lets her riff, but the ensemble mostly spins its wheels. Compared with other big studio franchises that also lean on polish over personality, this sits closer to Sing and the later Despicable Me entries than to the true standouts of family animation.
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If all you want is brisk, bright, Saturday-matinee entertainment, The Bad Guys 2 gets the job done. If you were hoping the sequel would deepen these characters or sharpen the comedy, the style outruns the substance again.
Score: 5/10
The Bad Guys 2 (2025)
- Cast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Zazie Beetz, Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne, Maria Bakalova, Alex Borstein, Richard Ayoade
- Director: Pierre Perifel
- Genre: Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Crime, Family
- Runtime: 104 minutes
- Rated: PG
- Release Date: August 1, 2025
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