You're such a good boy.'įor the first time in his life, Wolf realizes that performing good deeds elicits joy.įor the rest of the film, Wolf experiences an emotional tug-of-war between his old 'bad' life and the good life that gives him a positive 'tingly' feeling. 'I'm alive thanks to you!' she tells him. (He was trying to steal her necklace, but in doing so, prevented her from falling down a staircase.) The movie's plot turns during a heist when Wolf accidentally saves an elderly woman's life. Piranha is a loose cannon – and will fight anyone. When they throw Snake a birthday party, he responds, 'Out of all the people in the world, I hate you guys the least.' When they take a group photo, Wolf urges them with a smile, 'Everybody say 'robbery!'' In both cases, though, they're hilarious. Yes, these bad guys start off as bad – robbing a bank and then outrunning the cops back to their underground sewer fortress – but they gradually turn good. The books' positive messages, he said, 'come in almost subliminally' for children.ĭon't let the film's title – or the trailer – fool you. I wanted to write a book for my six-year-old at the time that would be as exciting to read as it was to sit down and play an Xbox or watch a movie.' 'These are characters who have been judged their whole lives simply because of the way they look,' he told Crosswalk. Their name - the 'Bad Guys' – is due to their appearance and reputation. The film is based on a Scholastic book series of the same name that followed the exploits of five anthropomorphic 'bad' animals as they performed good deeds. Photo courtesy: ©DreamWorks, used with permission. Here are four things parents should know about the film: It's all part of the new DreamWorks film The Bad Guys (PG), starring Sam Rockwell as Wolf, Marc Maron as Snake, Awkwafina as Tarantula, Craig Robinson as Shark and Anthony Ramos as Parhana. 'How can we say they're hopeless if they've never been given a chance?' the professor asks. The bad guys, he asserts, can be changed for the better. To make matters worse, a world-famous scientist – Professor Marmalade – has pledged to give Wolf and his friends lessons on how to be 'good' as part of a plea bargain to keep them out of jail. And then his tail spontaneously wags – a tacit acknowledgment that his good deed elicited positive emotions. It appears Wolf is destined for a lifetime of crime.īut then he accidentally saves an elderly woman's life.

Wolf and his gang of friends have embraced their bad reputation by doing what bad characters do: steal money and live underground, in hiding. It's also scared of his four best friends: Snake, Tarantula, Shark and Piranha. His name is 'Wolf,' and he looks exactly as you might imagine: intimidating, sly and dangerous.

Bad guys the book series