• DreamWorks Animation

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? Everyone! Even if he wears a sharp suit, drives a fancy car and pulls bank robberiesfor fun? Especially then!

What if he's voiced by the always rakishly beguiling Sam Rockwell? Because then you have The Bad Guys, a snappy,snarky, never-ever-sentimental animated concoction of cartoon chaos meets hip heist flick. You know, for kids ... and grownups,too. There are layers at work here.

If everyone is predisposed to be scared of you anyway, why not lean into it? That's the attitude under which Wolf(Rockwell), a pickpocket and all-around thief, and his criminal gang operate. His gang? Oh, there's Snake (Marc Maron), a safecracker; Shark (Craig Robinson), a master of disguise; Piranha (AnthonyRamos), the tiny-but-terrifying muscle; and Tarantula (Awkwafina), the hacker. An actual rogues gallery ofcreatures humans are afraid of, often with little justification but with a lot of accompanying biocultural baggage.

Yes, humans are the dominant species here; The Bad Guys is nothing like a retread of 2016's Zootopia, thoughthe two movies do share some thematic motifs regarding stereotypes and the impacts they have on us. In fact, theredon't seem to be any other wolf-people or shark-people strolling around their West Coast–ish city, which raises thequestion of just what caused these particular animals to acquire human-level intelligence, sentience, a taste for luxurygoods and rap sheets. Are they trickster demigods who have descended to our plane to mess with us? (I have anotheridea, which suggests that film is tantalizingly flirting with some rather profound religio-philosophical notions, but it'ssomething of a spoiler.)

The film opens with a genuinely thrilling car chase—one of the best I've seen onscreen in a long while—as Wolf andhis buddies lead the cops on a merry automotive tour of their unnamed town; it's a lot like Los Angeles, but hasmassive hillsides like San Francisco. The breezy swagger of the sequence extends to the delightful animation style:computer generated, but with an organic lightness that reminds me of watercolors, shot through with a golden hazinessthat lends a mellow insouciance. It's hot and cool at the same time, and not like anything we've seen before onscreenat all.

To be fair, the whole movie is breezy swagger, which only escalates when Wolf makes the unexpected discovery—as hecomes to the assistance of a little old lady who is effusive with her thanks—that being good can be as satisfying asbeing bad. His tail traitorously (hilariously!) wags on its own at this, betraying him ... and he is horrified. So hedoubles down on embracing the bad by concocting a grand scheme in which the gang will pretend to become decent, upstanding citizens as a way to get out of being prosecuted for their first failed heist, which may have failed in partbecause Wolf was so distracted by his personal epiphany.

This requires suavely convincing first the law-and-order governor, Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz), that heand his partners in crime are worthy and capable of reform, and then their benefactor, famed millionaire philanthropistProfessor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade) that they've actually been reformed. This demands Looney Tunes–esque madness, encompassing an artifact in the form of a heart-shaped meteor—there is [gulp] an impact cratersmack in the middle of this city; the disastrous backstory is sidestepped—a veritable tsunami of guinea pigs (yes,really), and much more.

Foxington, by the way, is a fox. Marmalade is a guinea pig, though not like the simple, lowly rodents of the tsunami.They, too, are rare outliers for their species in their sentience and personhood. Though obviously the humans areokay with electing them to high office and elevating them to mega-celebrity status.

Working from the middle-school books by Aaron Blabey, DreamWorks animator-turned first-time director Pierre Perifelwhips kiddie-friendly lessons (ones that grownups can always use reminders of) into frothy fun: Stick by your friends. Don't be deceived by surface appearances, including the ones we see on social media. Embrace second (and third)chances. Wolf and his pals may be bad, but The Bad Guys is all good.