The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday

Voices of: Michel Godere, Ezekiel Ajeigbe, Raul Caballos, Chris Diamantopoulos, Mallory Low, Zehra Fazal, Kari Wahlgren
Directed by: Christo Stamboliev, Bret Haaland
Rating: TV-Y7
Genre: Short, Animation
Length: 22 minutes
2023

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: The Bad Guys reluctantly must save Christmas so they can rob the citizens of the city during the holiday.

Review:

Tim: The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday should have been subtitled A Very Bad Short. I have no idea why Dreamworks and Netflix would create a short without bringing in the voice cast from the original film. It's this kind of cost-cutting, phoned-in effort that has no place in modern cinema. The Bad Guys was a surprising success, a thoroughly enjoyable film, beautifully animated. So, let's decrease the budget, make the animation forgettable, and bring in a bunch of replacement voices for this animated holiday short. What could go wrong?

As much as the lack of the real voice cast drives me absolutely batty, it's not the only problem with the film. The script isn't very good. Oh sure, it's fine, I suppose. A prequel wasn't the best idea, but I get it- we get to see the Bad Guys being "bad", but the twist is that for them to be "bad", they need to act good by saving Christmas. It's a clever concept that fits well within the tone of the film (and the books, which I've been reading with daughter since we watched the movie). It's a good concept, but the writing is just lacking. I never felt invested in any of the events going on in this film. It felt like a forgettable, lackluster product that no one really cared about. It's the kind of "make it for the kids" thought where no one seems to care about the end quality. That translates into a film that's fine, but disappointing. I don't think my kids hated this movie at all- they were appropriately engaged. But, they never seemed to love it. When it ended, they kind of collectively shrugged and went on with their day. There's nothing too exciting in this short film.

Now, I do want to mention that my anger at the voice cast is more about the producers replacing the real voices. Michael Godere isn't bad as Mr. Wolf- he even sounds a bit like Sam Rockwell. Ezekiel Ajeigbe is actually decent as Mr. Shark- he has the film's funniest moment, a perfect delivery of a line about not looking at him. My kids and I laughed and rewatched that line a half dozen times. It was sadly the highlight in an otherwise lackluster film.

Look, The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday is an okay short film. It's never terrible, but man, the film was so good. I had high expectations for this short. I was genuinely excited when I saw it pop up on Netflix. To get a film that's such a low quality effort felt extremely frustrating. Dreamworks should have cared more and invested more here.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Bad Guys