The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday

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.

Not sure why they bothered with this. Completely different voices, very sub par animation, just a b-grade budget version of the original.

Why not just make a completely different one with different characters if it's going to have nothing whatsoever to do with the original?

The story felt obvious and lazy. My child, who loves the first one, was unimpressed and asked to watch something else half way through.

I don't know if they just made this to keep the characters fresh in our minds before the second movie comes out, but if so it was a massive mistake. It just lowers the overall quality of the franchise.

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 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 -.-

The Bad Guys are eagerly waiting for Christmas. Everybody will be at home and all the stores are ready to be robbed. The guys are casing various places when they accidentally destroy the beloved Santa Claus balloon. The city is heartbroken and Christmas is canceled. The Bad Guys need to fix the problem before they can go on their robbery spree.

It's a Christmas special for this second tier animated franchise. I liked Bad Guys well enough. They have some potential and this is sort of the material that I'm expecting. I doubt this is going to become a classic. Maybe it will convince a few more to see the movie.