The Bad Guys

About

The Bad Guys is an animated film released in April 2022 by Dreamworks Animation loosely based on a series of children's books by Aaron Blabey. The movie, set in a world where anthropomorphic animals and humans coexist, follows a group of criminal animals who pretend they want to change their ways after being caught for a crime, the leader discovering he actually wants to change his ways. The movie inspired fan art and memes following the release of its first trailer in December 2021 and was embraced by the furry community shortly after. It received a generally positive reception upon release.

History

On December 14th, 2021, the first trailer for The Bad Guys released, with the YouTube^[1] upload gaining over 34 million views in five months (shown below, left). The trailer highlights how Mr. Wolf, the leader of the criminal group "The Bad Guys," wants to turn a new leaf and become a good guy while his partners don't, leaving him with the choice of going good and losing his friends or staying a criminal. On February 3rd, 2022, the second trailer for the movie was released on YouTube,^[2] gaining over 14.2 million views in three months (shown below, right). The movie was released in theatres on April 22nd, 2022.

Reception

Following its release, The Bad Guys received widespread critical praise, receiving an 88% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.^[5] On April 21st, IGN posted a review to YouTube,^[6] awarding it an 8/10 score (shown below, left). On April 30th, PNGTuber SaberSpark^[7] called the movie "amazing" in his review (shown below, right).

Online Presence

Fan Art

The movie inspired fan art starting shortly after the release of its first trailer in December 2021 on sites including Twitter, Tumblr, DeviantArt and Fur Affinity. For example, on December 17th, Fur Affinity^[10] user st3ph3n posted artwork based on the movie's protagonists, gaining over 2,300 views in five months (shown below).

Mr. Wolf and Diane Foxington became two of the most popular subjects of fan art. On December 18th, 2021, Twitter^[3] user @F0XnR0LL posted art of Diane Foxington, gaining over 19,000 likes and 2,200 retweets in five months (shown below, left). On December 30th, Twitter^[4] user @Rac5700 posted artwork of Mr. Wolf, gaining over 1,200 likes in five months (shown below, right).

Fan art became increasingly popularized following the film's release. On April 24th, 2022, Twitter^[11] user @GenOttr posted a piece of artwork showing The Bad Guys having a post-heist pool party, gaining over 16,000 likes and 2,600 retweets in a month (shown below).

Furry Community

Much of the movie's fan art is created by the furry community. On April 22nd, Rolling Stone^[9] published an article about the furry community's love for the film and Mr. Wolf, in particular, mentioning how people have been making fan art for the film since December. On April 23rd, Polygon^[8] released an interview with Lilly Singh, who voices Tiffany Fluffit in the film, where she calls Mr. Wolf "daddy" and says, "But would I slide in the DMs? I think I would? I think I would. So I do think Mr. Wolf is kind of hot."

Search Interest

External References