The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday

The Bad Guys movie was really enjoyable and charming, plus the beautiful animation but what happens if you take the fun heist antics of the bad guys and take away the great animation? Your left with what feels like the cutscenes of a 2000s licensed bad guys video game.

The holiday special itself is a basic but enjoyable time that still has those characters and the heist fun that came from the original film. I do think that the limited animation definitely hinders the special as the original film had a unique and fun visual style that they try to emulate in this special, for the most part all the character designs do look good and match the films style but the rigid movement and somewhat choppy animation makes it a bit disappointing as a follow up/prequel to the movie. I do think this was do to the special having a lower budget which is something out of the control of the animators.

Overall I think it's a fine enough special that kids and adults can get some enjoyment out of during the holiday season, but not an instant classic like Charlie Brown or Garfield's Christmas specials.

The Bad Guys seemingly came out of nowhere and was immediately hailed as one of DreamWorks Animation's finest films in recent memory. While everyone who saw the film was hoping for more adventures of the titular gang of thieves, no one was expecting a holiday special so soon after the film's released. While I was originally intrigued, my hopes were dashed when they first trailer dropped and it looked HORRIBLE! I was hoping to go the rest of my life never seeing this, but the insistance of my 4 year old niece convinced me to give it a watch this Christmas. Despite hoping for the very bare minimum, this was exactly as terrible as I thought it was going to be! From the atrocious writing to the abominable animation, this is what the worst case scenario would've been for The Bad Guys' debut film had things gone South during production!

Directed by Bret Haaland, this holiday special takes place before the events of the film and focuses on the Bad Guys saving Christmas in order to pull off a holiday heist. Right before the word go is uttered, the special is already off to a sour start. The beginning of this story is painfully slow, with unnatural expository dialogue, unfunny jokes and a severe lack of chemistry between the leads. It does the exact opposite of how the film starts; and what's worse is that it doesn't get much better from here! Despite being 25 minutes, it feels like 25 days with its sluggish pacing. They just go on and on with trying and failing to save Christmas, and they mostly just stand around doing and saying nothing of value. The humor is just non-existent as it's mostly lousy puns, weak slapstick, and dull visual gags. This kind of writing would give the writers a big, fat lump of coal in their stocking for how bad it is!

Good gravey, are the characters in this special complete departures from their film counterparts. Not a single on of them is likable, funny, relatable, or entertaining to watch. Starting with Wolf, he's the typical narcissistic leader of the group whose ego engulfs whatever charisma he had from the film. Snake is a grumpy curmudgeon that acts more like a co-worker to Wolf rather than his best friend. Tarantula is the tech savy hacker that says techno babble to make up for her lack of a personality. Shark is the unfunny comic relief that never once got a smirk out of me. Piranha is such a liability that he might as well not be in this special. The worst characters in the special, though, have got to be the people of L. A. who have been reduced to a flock of mindless sheep that worship a giant Santa balloon like he's baby Jesus! There's also a massive Chief of Police sized hole that makes the city feel even more barron.

I'll never understand why they couldn't bring the original actors from the film to reprise their roles for this special. The actors they got in their place are doing such bad impressions of the original actors, it just feels like a waste of their talents and a waste of resources. Michael Godere sounds very flat as Wolf, and never brings the charisma and nuisance that Sam Rockwell brought to the character. Chris Diantamopoulos really isn't doing his talents any favors putting on a phoney Marc Marron impression for Snake yet not sounding nearly as crusty or natural. Ezekiel Ajeigbe sounded less like Shark and more like a guy pretending to be Shark, which is a fools errand as Shark is a master of disguise and Craig Robinson played that brilliantly. Mallory Low doesn't do a good job voicing Taranula because Awkwafina has a very distinct voice and Tarantula doesn't sound nearly as sassy or clever with an imitator. Raul Ceballos didn't give Piranha the same unhinged energy Anthony Ramos brought and his singing just doesn't even compare. No one else left a lasting impression and just sounded as stiff as their director told them to be. All the actors felt underutilized when playing imitations of actual good actors and I can't help be feel sorry for them.

Visually, this special doesn't even look good if they were going for intentionally cheap. DreamWorks hired 88 Pictures for the animation, and it looks bad from every angle. The characters don't have that cel-shaded look from the film and instead just have the standard 3D model appearance. As such, their textures are flat, the clothes looked slapped on, and the facial expressions are very limited. The character animation is very stiff and weightless with the frame rate having to be choppy to give the illusion of movement. The backgrounds also feel very empty and the buildings look like they're made of clay. The worst of the visuals are the effects, which look unpolished and amateurish. This is especially true when the balloon Santa is destroyed in a burst of flames. The first looks very phoney and when the balloon disintegrates, it looks like its on a different plain of existence. It takes time and money to produce quality animation; this special had NEITHER of those luxuries!

I loathe this special entirely! The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday is a great disservice to the film and Christmas specials everywhere! The writing is atrocious, the characters are flanderized, the acting is terrible, and the animation is abominable. This is as notoriously bad as the Star Wars Holiday Special is for die-hard Star Wars fans. The big difference though is while their can be some ironic enjoyment out of that, I can't even thing of a good reason for anyone to spit in this special's direction. It deserves the worst fate to bestow on a piece of media this bad: to be ignored and forgotten! Do NOT watch The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday! Just watch the film or read the books. This special is NOT canon and even if the producers say it is, it's nothing but a stain on the franchise's legacy -.-

I usually don't write reviews. But it is a typical bad guys adventure. Nothing wrong with it besides being not that long plot wise. The timeline is a tad off to the movie for obvious non spoiler reasons. But whatever. The animation downgrade is something my eyesight has to get use to. I have seen worse. I know some ppl type way of the og cast not returning. This ain't the first time in animation history it's happened so it is what it is. I mean sure Raul Ceballos' singing voice isn't Anthony Ramos. But why should it be? You can tell the difference with certain voices, but it's solid voice acting. If you like the movie. You might like this, or you might not. If another movie of the bad guys happens it's possible with hopefully this doing well that we'll get a tv show which I think would be dope. Either way I'm supporting this IP.

The quality of animation, physics, details, the atmosphere, the "lived-in" feeling of the world, the details of the fur, the dialogues, and almost everything about this movie took a trip to the "budget" lane.

It's surprising to see the director and the studio destroy something that could have been treated better, but maybe it's also a good thing, seeing that there are too many franchise-sequel-prequel-reboot movies around.

This looks graphics-and-world-building-wise comparable to 90ies Crazy Taxi videogame but unlike it or the Star Wars Holiday special won't leave fond memories due to being terribly boring even for the children!

The Bad Guys : A very Bad Holiday (2023)

The Bad guys movie is one of the Best movies by dreamworks , it made dreamworks even better , the animation style the character design the story that took from the book the movie was So Good

Now after the movie came two shorts one titled The Maraschino Ruby which was Really good .

And the other one is this one , and its kinda alright it delivers what promised but the animation style is kinda on a low budget which is understandable and i respect that they still gave us the movie with the budget cost

The story of it is great too and some scenes are well made , some jokes even landed which is good too Overall this Short is sweet and worth your time IF you loved The Bad Guys Movie.