History WesternAnimation / TheBadGuys2022

---> '''Diane:''' I gave you an opportunity! A chance to show the world that you're more that just a scary stereotype! But you're too proud or too gutless to take advantage of it!\\
'''Mr. Wolf:''' ''Gutless?!'' I'm ''gutless''?! (''angry laughter'') I'm sorry, have we ''met?!'' I'm the villain of ''every'' story! Guilty until proven innocent! And even if by some ''miracle'' we ''did'' change: Who's gonna believe us?! HUH?! Of course you wouldn't know ''anything'' about that, with your Little Miss Perfect power suits!

* TheBigBadWolf: Pulling from the intro of the first book, Mr. Wolf addresses the audience and describes himself as "the big, bad wolf" during the opening chase sequence. This gets alluded to twice more in the movie: once when he has to dress like a grandma in one of Marmalade's goodness exercises, and again when [[spoiler:Marmalade directly invokes ''Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs'' after he frames the gang for stealing the meteorite, mocking how "the big bad wolf got outsmarted by a little piggie".]]

** As a caper film, there are various references to ''Franchise/LupinIII''. The lead character is a wolf ("Lupin" is French for "Wolf") who wears a slick suit and goes on heists, Chief Luggins shares Inspector Zenigata's obsessive pursuit of Mr. Wolf alongside commanding a legion of police officers with the same exaggerated machine-like running animation shared across all of them, and a RunningGag has everyone doing "sky-swimming" at several points after being launched into the air. The scene of Luggins grabbing onto Wolf's car through the passenger-side window [[https://youtu.be/1ZudTpzRZZw is even a shot-for-shot remake]] of a similar scene from ''Anime/TheFumaConspiracy'', along with Wolf pointing to the truck that's about to hit Luggins.

** As a caper film, there are various references to ''Franchise/LupinIII''. The lead character is a wolf ("Lupin" is French for "Wolf") who wears a slick suit and goes on heists, Chief Luggins shares Inspector Zenigata's obsessive pursuit of Mr. Wolf, and a RunningGag has everyone doing "sky-swimming" at several points after being launched into the air. The scene of Luggins grabbing onto Wolf's car through the passenger-side window [[https://youtu.be/1ZudTpzRZZw is a shot-for-shot remake]] of a similar scene from ''Anime/TheFumaConspiracy''.

* MissionImpossibleCableDrop: A variant; Snake is used as the cable by Wolf and Piranha, who grab onto him as they enter the room with the Golden Dolphin during their big heist. Piranha climbs up to the top of the air vent Snake came out of and holds him there, with Wolf being lowered along with Snake towards the trophy. Things go well until a machine designed to prevent the Bad Guys from stealing the bounty turns on, forcing Tarantula to hack into it.

* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: When Mr. Snake retrieves the passcode for the safe holding the Golden Dolphin, it turns out to be "12345".

* NiceJobBreakingItRivals: Diane taunting the Bad Guys on live TV ends up setting off ''the entire plot''. The mockery leaves the Bad Guys seething and Wolf plotting to get revenge on Diane by stealing the Golden Dolphin during the Good Samaritan Awards. Not only does the heist end with them both publically humiliating themselves at the ceremony, but [[spoiler: Marmalade uses the vendetta to sow the seeds of his own heist and induct the Bad Guys as patsies for his FakeReformedVillain scheme. The end result leaves the Bad Guys getting framed for his crimes, Diane's secret identity as the Crimson Paw in jeopardy, and both her and Wolf nearly murdered by Marmalade.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Piranha's singing and the improvised dance number does manage to distract the gala attendees long enough for the rest of the crew to set up the Golden Dolphin heist. It also increases donations from around a million dollars at most to ''a few dollars short of a billion''. [[spoiler:Considering Marmalade's plan to steal from his own charity, their efforts to keep their own heist from failing only managed to increase his ultimate take ''a thousandfold''. When Mr. Wolf's HeelFaceTurn finally takes full effect, they don't even get the loot they were going for in the first place. This does however make them retrieving money for the intended charities afterwards all the more satisfying.]]
** Diane taunting the Bad Guys on live TV ends up setting off ''the entire plot''. The mockery leaves the Bad Guys seething and plotting to get revenge on Diane by stealing the Golden Dolphin during the Good Samaritan Awards (Diane intentionally baited them into this as she had a high tech security system and Luggins' squad ready to capture them, which nearly costs her the Dolphin and her publicity when they get past it). Though they get caught, Wolf uses the opportunity to bait Marmalade into a rehabilitation program for the gang [[spoiler: not knowing that Marmalade had actually been baiting ''him'' the whole time, and had also used Diane's ruse to sow the seeds of his own heist.]]

* BatmanGambit: The inciting incident of the movie is Diane pulling one of these, claiming to feel sorry for the Bad Guys on live television. This causes them to pull a repeat offense, get sloppy, and get caught. This also hints subtly at Diane's nature.

* HardTruthAesop: Being famous, popular and loved by the public is tenuous at times, and people can easily turn on you if they perceive you've done something wrong. [[spoiler: This is driven home when Snake points out in prison that despite Wolf's claims that people were starting to "love" them, the public were quick to fall back on their presumption that the Bad Guys stole the meteor, proving their love was artificial.]] Actual redemption and ''earning'' trust is in turn often a very difficult ongoing task and often involves accepting big sacrifices and consequences, [[spoiler:the Bad Guys are vindicated in the end but still go to jail for all their crimes to show their redemption is genuine]]. Even then, [[spoiler:as shown with Wolf and Diane's lingering StickyFingers]], ditching old habits and flaws won't always happen overnight.

* TooPowerfulToLive: A non-character example with [[spoiler:the Love Crater Meteorite, which is eventually shown to be an extremely potent energy source. Part of Mr. Snake's FakeDefector act involves him getting rid of the meteorite because, as he mentions near the end and as was earlier proven by Marmalade's mind-control scheme, that kind of power is simply too dangerous for anyone to handle in an ethical way. So once the decoy meteor was stolen by the others, Snake put the real one in its place and overloaded it, destroying both it [[CollapsingLair and Marmalade's mansion]]]].

** As a caper film, there are various references to ''Franchise/LupinIII''. The lead character is a wolf ("Lupin" is French for "Wolf") who wears a slick suit and goes on heists. Chief Luggins shares Inspector Zenigata's obsessive pursuit of Mr. Wolf.

** Diane Foxington's diamond ring, which Mr. Wolf steals from her during the Golden Dolphin job, and which she later picks from his pocket. [[spoiler: It turns out the diamond in question is the Zumpango Diamond, which she stole back when she was the Crimson Paw. Toward the end, the diamond is discovered in Marmalade's possession, having taken it off Diane while she was in his death trap, prompting him to be arrested on suspicion of being the Crimson Paw.]]

* ChekhovsGunman: Among the thieves mentioned to have tried and failed to steal the Golden Dolphin is the Crimson Paw, who is the only one to have evaded capture. [[spoiler:The Crimson Paw later turns out to have been Diane, who uses her own skills to help the Bad Guys stop Marmalade.]]

* EnhanceButton: Ms. Tarantula is able to instantly recreate Foxington's pupil from a selfie Wolf took to bypass a retina scanner. With the film being what it is, it's PlayedForLaughs.

* CaughtByArrogance:
** Diane tries to pull this off on the Bad Guys, mocking them on TV before unveiling the Good Samaritan awards, knowing they won't be able to resist trying to steal the Golden Dolphin to spite her. While the plan does get them caught ultimately, Diane's own arrogance led to them actually pulling off the heist, only failing during the getaway due to Wolf's GoodFeelsGood epithany.
** [[spoiler: While Diane successfully avoided getting discovered by the public, Marmalade manages to figure out her secret identity, the solid proof being she was cocky enough to wear the Zumpango Diamond she stole as her personal ring. Combined with her earlier gambit kickstarting the whole plot, the Bad Guys covering for her is the only reason her overconfidence didn't ultimately get her publically exposed as the Crimson Paw.]]
** [[spoiler: Marmalade in turn is caught by a long calvalcade of this trope. First he privately gloats to the Bad Guys after framing them, making them aware of his real intentions. Then during a news interview he breaks character to talk about "their" scheme to steal the meteorite, unable to resist bragging about how he pulled it off, instantly making Diane suspicious in turn. While he did take precautions against them retaliating, the combined {{Villain Ball}}s of falling for Snake's FakeDefector plan, not bothering to keep an eye on Wolf and Diane while they were placed in a DeathTrap and stealing said Zumpango Diamond from Diane, all play a role in his heist being destroyed, his plan being publically exposed, and to worsen it, him getting framed and arrested for the Crimson Paw's crimes as well.]]

** [[spoiler: While Diane successfully avoids getting discovered by the public, Marmalade manages to figure out her secret identity, the solid proof being she was cocky enough to wear the Zumpango Diamond she stole as her personal ring.]]

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty:
** [[spoiler: Marmalade suffers this twofold in the finale. His heist involving the meteorite and mind-controlled guinea pigs is foiled, but he could and by implication would try again by safeguarding the meteorite back home. Mr. Snake reveals that he switched the meteorite with the imitation lamp, overloading the real one to destroy it and Marmalade's compound, revealing the professor as the real thief and clearing the crew’s names. Then, when the Zumpango diamond falls out of his pocket -- the same diamond he took off Diane earlier and discovered she's the Crimson Paw -- Chief Luggins recognizes it and all of Diane's crimes are pinned on Marmalade instead.]]
** [[spoiler: Deconstructed with the Bad Guys and Diane, as when the former are still being persecuted for the meteorite theft, Diane tries to defend them, becoming desperate enough to expose herself as the Crimson Paw. The Bad Guys however step in to prevent her and willingly turn themselves in. The group go to jail, though by their own free will, and ultimately only for the crimes they ''did'' commit due to Marmalade getting caught out, even getting off early for good behaviour. Diane gets off free due to both their's and Marmalade's warranties covering for her, though does lose the one theft she kept for herself as a light repurcussion for her earlier hypocrisy, meaning both of them still have to go fully legit.]]

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler: Marmalade suffers this twofold in the finale. His heist involving the meteorite and mind-controlled guinea pigs is foiled, but he could and by implication would try again by safeguarding the meteorite back home. Mr. Snake reveals that he switched the meteorite with the imitation lamp, overloading the real one to destroy it and Marmalade's compound, revealing the professor as the real thief and clearing the crew’s names. Then, when the Zumpango diamond falls out of his pocket -- the same diamond he took off Diane earlier and discovered she's the Crimson Paw -- Chief Luggins recognizes it and all of Diane's crimes are pinned on Marmalade instead.]]

* HardTruthAesop: Being famous, popular and loved by the public is tenuous at times, and people can easily turn on you if they perceive you've done something wrong. [[spoiler: This is driven home when Snake points out in prison that despite Wolf's claims that people were starting to "love" them, the public were quick to fall back on their presumption that the Bad Guys stole the meteor, proving their love was artificial.]]