DreamWorks Animation, the studio behind beloved franchises such as Shrek, The Boss Baby, How to Train Your Dragon, and many more is set to release another exciting animated film this April 27 titled The Bad Guys.
The upcoming movie revolves around a gang of animal outlaws–Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Shark, and Ms. Tarantula– who are notorious for pulling off legendary heists. When they finally got caught, they are given the chance to avoid prison sentence, but only if they transform themselves into model citizens.
Pumped up to see the film this Wednesday? Here are a few facts about the movie that you might want to know about!
1. The film is based on a book series.
The Bad Guys is based on the popular Scholastic book series of the same name that’s written and illustrated by Aaron Blabey. He is also known for the books Pig the Pug and Thelma the Unicorn, with the latter being adapted by Netflix into an animated musical.
2. A cast of ‘bad guys’.
The voice cast members of The Bad Guys aren’t new to being the bad guys on films and TV. Sam Rockwell who voices Mr. Wolf played the villain Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2; Ms. Tarantula, Awkwafina was part of the team of thieves in Ocean’s 8; Craig Robinson who voices Mr. Shark is the Pontiac Bandit Doug Judy in Brooklyn Nine-Nine; Mr. Piranha’s voice actor, Anthony Ramos, is a corrupt FBI Agent in Liam Neeson’s The Honest Thief; while Marc Maron who voices Mr. Snake is also set to voice Lex Luthor in DC League of Super Pets.
3. The film is director Pierre Perifel’s feature directorial debut.
The Bad Guys is the first feature film from director Pierre Perifel. Prior to the upcoming film, he has worked as an animator on DreamWorks Animation films such as Monsters Vs. Aliens, Kung Fu Panda, and Shrek Forever After. He has also directed the short films Bilby and Le Building.
4. The author wrote ‘The Bad Guys’ because his kids were made to read “boring books.”
In an interview with Bianca Schulze for The Children’s Book Review, Aaron Babley shared the reason why he came up with The Bad Guys: “Predominately I have got two sons and they are 14 and 16 now but when they were young, when they were six and eight, my six-year-old had a series of unforgivably boring books sent home with him from school… Some of them were just so boring that they would make him cry and I thought you know what I just I could see every night I could see his will to read draining from him. So, I thought I’m going to write him something cooler than this.”
5. Aaron Babley’s favorite character to write is Mr. Snake
In the same interview, the author of the original book series also shared who his favorite character is: ” They are all my children obviously,” Aaron Babley began. “I love them so much but look if pressed if I had to choose, I would have to say Mr. Snake has always been—he’s my favorite to write because he’s the most complicated and he’s the most challenged by what they are trying to do. And it’s funny I have always in my head I have always thought of snake as being almost like a recovering alcoholic. He’s trying to stay on the path of being good, but he really struggles with it, and he keeps falling off and I think that it makes him so much fun to write.”
Don’t miss The Bad Guys on the big screen! Buy your tickets here and enjoy a more convenient cinema experience on your next trip to the movie theaters.
