The Bad Guys 2

I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed The Bad Guys so I decided to see the sequel last night as part of my double feature at the Megaplex.  The plot is a little bit silly and farfetched but it is funny and I loved the dynamic animation.  The Bad Guys, including Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos), are finding it difficult to fit into society after giving up their criminal ways so, on the advice of Governor Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz), they attempt to help the newly promoted police commissioner Misty Luggins (Alex Borstein) capture the Phantom Bandit.  However, they soon realize that the Phantom Bandit is really a criminal gang of Bad Girls, including a snow leopard named Kitty Kat (Danielle Brooks), a raven named Doom (Natasha Lyonne), and a wild boar named Pigtail Petrova (Maria Bakalova), who eventually blackmail them into helping them with one final caper.  They steal a smartwatch that controls the MOON-X rocket from the billionaire inventor Mr. Moon (Colin Jost) so the Bad Girls can hijack it to use a substance known as MacGuffinite (this Alfred Hitchcock reference made me laugh out loud) to steal the world's gold from space.  Will the Bad Guys choose the allure of power offered by the Bad Girls or will they choose to be respected rather than feared?  The story is surprisingly convoluted for an animated movie for children but it has a great message about not being defined by past mistakes and there are a lot of hilarious references to each animal's defining characteristics (I laughed out loud again when Mr. Snake accuses another character of being duplicitous).  I really enjoyed the vivid animation, particularly in the action sequences (which pay homage to the Mission: Impossible franchise and other heist movies).  My favorite scenes include a high-speed chase through the streets of Cairo after stealing a car and an infiltration into a high security society wedding.  The voice cast is outstanding with the back and forth banter between Rockwell and Brooks as the highlight.  I enjoyed The Bad Guys 2 and I recommend it to fans of the first movie.