The Bad Guys seemingly came out of nowhere and was immediately hailed as one of DreamWorks Animation's finest films in recent memory. While everyone who saw the film was hoping for more adventures of the titular gang of thieves, no one was expecting a holiday special so soon after the film's released. While I was originally intrigued, my hopes were dashed when they first trailer dropped and it looked HORRIBLE! I was hoping to go the rest of my life never seeing this, but the insistance of my 4 year old niece convinced me to give it a watch this Christmas. Despite hoping for the very bare minimum, this was exactly as terrible as I thought it was going to be! From the atrocious writing to the abominable animation, this is what the worst case scenario would've been for The Bad Guys' debut film had things gone South during production!
Directed by Bret Haaland, this holiday special takes place before the events of the film and focuses on the Bad Guys saving Christmas in order to pull off a holiday heist. Right before the word go is uttered, the special is already off to a sour start. The beginning of this story is painfully slow, with unnatural expository dialogue, unfunny jokes and a severe lack of chemistry between the leads. It does the exact opposite of how the film starts; and what's worse is that it doesn't get much better from here! Despite being 25 minutes, it feels like 25 days with its sluggish pacing. They just go on and on with trying and failing to save Christmas, and they mostly just stand around doing and saying nothing of value. The humor is just non-existent as it's mostly lousy puns, weak slapstick, and dull visual gags. This kind of writing would give the writers a big, fat lump of coal in their stocking for how bad it is!
Good gravey, are the characters in this special complete departures from their film counterparts. Not a single on of them is likable, funny, relatable, or entertaining to watch. Starting with Wolf, he's the typical narcissistic leader of the group whose ego engulfs whatever charisma he had from the film. Snake is a grumpy curmudgeon that acts more like a co-worker to Wolf rather than his best friend. Tarantula is the tech savy hacker that says techno babble to make up for her lack of a personality. Shark is the unfunny comic relief that never once got a smirk out of me. Piranha is such a liability that he might as well not be in this special. The worst characters in the special, though, have got to be the people of L. A. who have been reduced to a flock of mindless sheep that worship a giant Santa balloon like he's baby Jesus! There's also a massive Chief of Police sized hole that makes the city feel even more barron.
I'll never understand why they couldn't bring the original actors from the film to reprise their roles for this special. The actors they got in their place are doing such bad impressions of the original actors, it just feels like a waste of their talents and a waste of resources. Michael Godere sounds very flat as Wolf, and never brings the charisma and nuisance that Sam Rockwell brought to the character. Chris Diantamopoulos really isn't doing his talents any favors putting on a phoney Marc Marron impression for Snake yet not sounding nearly as crusty or natural. Ezekiel Ajeigbe sounded less like Shark and more like a guy pretending to be Shark, which is a fools errand as Shark is a master of disguise and Craig Robinson played that brilliantly. Mallory Low doesn't do a good job voicing Taranula because Awkwafina has a very distinct voice and Tarantula doesn't sound nearly as sassy or clever with an imitator. Raul Ceballos didn't give Piranha the same unhinged energy Anthony Ramos brought and his singing just doesn't even compare. No one else left a lasting impression and just sounded as stiff as their director told them to be. All the actors felt underutilized when playing imitations of actual good actors and I can't help be feel sorry for them.
Visually, this special doesn't even look good if they were going for intentionally cheap. DreamWorks hired 88 Pictures for the animation, and it looks bad from every angle. The characters don't have that cel-shaded look from the film and instead just have the standard 3D model appearance. As such, their textures are flat, the clothes looked slapped on, and the facial expressions are very limited. The character animation is very stiff and weightless with the frame rate having to be choppy to give the illusion of movement. The backgrounds also feel very empty and the buildings look like they're made of clay. The worst of the visuals are the effects, which look unpolished and amateurish. This is especially true when the balloon Santa is destroyed in a burst of flames. The first looks very phoney and when the balloon disintegrates, it looks like its on a different plain of existence. It takes time and money to produce quality animation; this special had NEITHER of those luxuries!
I loathe this special entirely! The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday is a great disservice to the film and Christmas specials everywhere! The writing is atrocious, the characters are flanderized, the acting is terrible, and the animation is abominable. This is as notoriously bad as the Star Wars Holiday Special is for die-hard Star Wars fans. The big difference though is while their can be some ironic enjoyment out of that, I can't even thing of a good reason for anyone to spit in this special's direction. It deserves the worst fate to bestow on a piece of media this bad: to be ignored and forgotten! Do NOT watch The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday! Just watch the film or read the books. This special is NOT canon and even if the producers say it is, it's nothing but a stain on the franchise's legacy -.-
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