Wolf (Sam Rockwell) and his gang are the baddest of bad guys in town. Along with Snake (Marc Maron), Tarantula (Awkwafina), Shark (Craig Robinson) and Piranha (Anthony Ramos) they rob and steal what they want whenever they want. But when the police chief (Alex Borstein) and the governor (Zazie Beetz) capture them they employ Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade) to help them turn over a new leaf and become good guys. 

I really wanted to love The Bad Guys. I was hoping for some cool and funny heist action with lots of humour for kids and adults alike. But whilst there are some fun moments, all in all this is a very solid, enjoyable but uninspired animated feature. 

Sam Rockwell is fantastic as Wolf and along with Zazie Beetz Governor who goes by the name Diane Foxington (she is a fox) the highlight of the film. Rockwell has always been effortlessly cool in all of his films and yes his character does get to dance here. At times he seems to be channelling George Clooney, either as his character from Out of Sight who happens to have chemistry with the woman trying to capture him or as Danny Ocean organising a meticulous heist. Beetz adds just as much sass to her street smart governor who is more than a match for Wolf. 

Elsewhere the film is bookended by two enjoyable car chases that have thumping soundtracks to go along with the hair raising action. Whilst the character models and animation in general is of a high quality. 

Otherwise though the whole thing is rather predictable and run of the mill. The moral of course is not to judge a book by its cover and that you can get a huge sense of fulfilment from being good to others. 

For context, my kids loved it which of course is the goal and myself and my wife were perfectly happy to go along for the ride. We did all have a fantastic conversation afterwards about the fact this world included dumb animals as well as human size talking animals and humans and how that frankly seemed a little weird. 

Fine, but definitely could have been a lot more.