I think I may have found my favourite Dreamworks movie so far. The Bad Guys is (somewhat loosely) based on a children's book series. The film's approach is predictably more conservative than the books, with the title characters starting off wacky crooks who pull a Falsely Reformed Villain scheme only, duh-duh-DUH, it seems one of them might be having inklings of turning legit for real due to their virtuous love interest.
The reason it is my favourite however is that, despite following a ton of cliches and even a lot of the twists being predictable, it is actually pretty low of lethargic "Oh jeez, they're doing THIS old thing again" moments for me. The dialogue and character dynamics MAKE this movie and really give the whole thing new life, something I really appreciate with so many cookie cutter plots with interchangable characters and scripts being made these days. There's also a bastion of Rewatch Bonus twists and cool poetic and thematic touchs that give this whole movie a load of depth for such a silly formulaic premise.
It does a pretty great job developing six protagonists with all these clever tricks (Wolf, Snake and Diane get the lion's share, but Webs, Shark and Piranha get plenty good moments and don't feel like background dressing). The voices match the characters perfectly and all give the right enthuasism and sass, never feeling obnoxious despite the stereotypical personas. I think what is REALLY impressive about their handling however is the depiction of teamwork and "goodness" in an animated movie, as in not just being super goody goody close and together, but actually all having trademark abilities that all bounce off of each other wonderfully as well as knowing each other well enough to tactise and perform according to how each of them work. Even the strong girl that is meant to be all their qualities combined doesn't dominate and feels like they organically have a synergy with the others without needing to be dumbed down. Wolf is also a pretty awesome depiction of a leader while still being a very flawed character, a guy who understands all his allies' character strengths and how to nurture them over just barking generic orders, making him a great contrast to the manipulative villain. The care for character nuances is incredible.
There's a couple nitpicks I must give I suppose:
The villain, Marmalade, after the big reveal, is set up as a super elaborate chessmaster that can outplay all the Villain Protagonists and can anticipate all their actions, though inevitably dumbs down into a standard arrogant Genre Blind dumbass when the protagonists fight back. The one time he offers a real roadblock is through Wolf holding the Idiot Ball, when I think it would have been more effective having him legitimately outsmart both him and Diane, especially with both of their earlier hubris. I do still LOVE how Marmalade is taken down, especially in how it shows he contrasts the main characters following their Heel–Face Turn, and really from the start we know he's meant to be an arrogant clown, but yeah, it might have been more satisfying if he hadn't lost nearly all his IQ points.
While Luggins is a funny foe for the protagonists, it is maybe a bit easy to feel TOO sorry for the other police officers, who feel kind of like the mooks of this movie that the protagonists know to have zero restraint on. Even the atoning former villain will gleefully annihilate them. This complaint is only a niggling though given the clear Cartoon Physics involved.
Even with those in mind though, I kinda struggle to moan about it given the movie is clearly meant to be a silly cartoon in nature. In fact it's almost the perfect mix of a silly farcical comedy that still has sincere characterisation and moments of slow earnest development or drama that don't bog the story down (think Kung Fu Panda but sliding slightly more dominantly into comedy). If they can keep up the quality, I'd actually be all for a sequel or maybe even another film trilogy that Dreamworks is so fond of.
WesternAnimation Character Synergy: The Animated Movie
WARNING: Obvious potential spoilers incoming.
I think I may have found my favourite Dreamworks movie so far. The Bad Guys is (somewhat loosely) based on a children's book series. The film's approach is predictably more conservative than the books, with the title characters starting off wacky crooks who pull a Falsely Reformed Villain scheme only, duh-duh-DUH, it seems one of them might be having inklings of turning legit for real due to their virtuous love interest.
The reason it is my favourite however is that, despite following a ton of cliches and even a lot of the twists being predictable, it is actually pretty low of lethargic "Oh jeez, they're doing THIS old thing again" moments for me. The dialogue and character dynamics MAKE this movie and really give the whole thing new life, something I really appreciate with so many cookie cutter plots with interchangable characters and scripts being made these days. There's also a bastion of Rewatch Bonus twists and cool poetic and thematic touchs that give this whole movie a load of depth for such a silly formulaic premise.
It does a pretty great job developing six protagonists with all these clever tricks (Wolf, Snake and Diane get the lion's share, but Webs, Shark and Piranha get plenty good moments and don't feel like background dressing). The voices match the characters perfectly and all give the right enthuasism and sass, never feeling obnoxious despite the stereotypical personas. I think what is REALLY impressive about their handling however is the depiction of teamwork and "goodness" in an animated movie, as in not just being super goody goody close and together, but actually all having trademark abilities that all bounce off of each other wonderfully as well as knowing each other well enough to tactise and perform according to how each of them work. Even the strong girl that is meant to be all their qualities combined doesn't dominate and feels like they organically have a synergy with the others without needing to be dumbed down. Wolf is also a pretty awesome depiction of a leader while still being a very flawed character, a guy who understands all his allies' character strengths and how to nurture them over just barking generic orders, making him a great contrast to the manipulative villain. The care for character nuances is incredible.
There's a couple nitpicks I must give I suppose:
Even with those in mind though, I kinda struggle to moan about it given the movie is clearly meant to be a silly cartoon in nature. In fact it's almost the perfect mix of a silly farcical comedy that still has sincere characterisation and moments of slow earnest development or drama that don't bog the story down (think Kung Fu Panda but sliding slightly more dominantly into comedy). If they can keep up the quality, I'd actually be all for a sequel or maybe even another film trilogy that Dreamworks is so fond of.