The development of empathy, manners, and personal hygiene generally lead the list of parental prerogatives in the early years, but don’t sleep on the fostering of pop cultural taste. After all, each of the topics listed above is subject to interpretation, rounded into form by the opinions and experiences of the guardian in question, which is also true of artistic preferences. It starts with childhood things, like revisiting a cherished Disney classic or foundational picture book, but it’s not long before some Beatles tunes slip their way onto a kiddo’s playlist, or a John Hughes flick is given a too-early whirl. Raising a youngster can be awfully thankless, which marks pushing your entertainment agenda on the next generation as an easy highlight, one that family-oriented fare would be wise to weaponize more often. Age seven is probably a bit early to be introducing anything truly adult, but some training wheels never hurt anyone, and DreamWorks has those squeaky little tires at the ready.

They’ve been sitting in the garage since April of 2022, when The Bad Guys opened to a commendable 24 million dollars in its first three days of business before riding positive word of mouth to nearly nine figures in North America alone. Those kinds of numbers all but guarantee a sequel, but where most animated continuations struggle to justify their existence in non-monitary terms, the nefarious gang of Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) were always ripe for revisitation. Taking marching orders from Aaron Blabey’s series of graphic novels, these anthropomorphic swindlers and their thieving escapades were designed for serialization, affording The Bad Guys 2 the opportunity to jump right in without sweating the small stuff. The plot, concerning a rash of unsolved robbery cases that our reformed anti-heroes are brought in to solve, matters much less than simply sneaking in another hour and a half with our morally compromised companions.

And, of course, the heist sequences, which are as jubilant as they are frequent, propping up a rambling narrative whose primary function is guiding the viewer from one candy colored set piece to the next. Adhering to the same planning, deployment, execution, and twist formula as everything from The Sting to the Ocean’s flicks, Bad Guys 2 plays the hits with a swaggering brio that speaks to the heist genre’s evergreen appeal, adding an over-caffeinated zeal to keep the tots invested. Animated in with the same softened edges and flattened depth of field that’s suddenly become industry standard, the hair-on-fire visual palette will surely draw the ire of a few worn out moms and pops, but the mania doesn’t make it any less ravishing. Besides, when the mature alternative is listening to Tom Cruise explain the plot of the latest Mission: Impossible two straight hours before anything exciting happens, a touch of itchy fervor doesn’t seem so bad.

Perhaps looking to placate the more trepidatious caretakers in the audience, the screenplay, co-written by Yoni Brenner and Etan Cohen, smuggles in hat tips to cinematic classics and current affairs with all the subtlety of a chainsaw. Jerry-rigging an entire scene to pay homage to Silence of the Lambs doesn’t do anyone a favor, and titling an independently-financed space program MoonX isn’t exactly trenchant political commentary. Naming the bogus mineral that drives the plot MacGuffinite is worth a laugh, but the kids won’t be joining in on the chuckles, as the humor pitched in their direction comes from a different place entirely. Their’s is a land of fart gags and slapstick pratfalls, and while meeting every set of eyes and ears at their own level is an admirable pursuit, director Pierre Perifel never lands on a joke that isn’t micro-targeted. Hewing disparate comedic sensibilities together is a tricky business, and rather than following Pixar’s enviable blueprint, this one opts for bifurcation.

At least that sense of splintering is nowhere to be found in the pairing of voices to creatures, with Rockwell’s turn as Mr. Wolf melding intonation to fictitious form on a molecular level. Danielle Brooks, who enters the frame as a yoked-out leopard near the halfway point, is nearly his equal, though the character shading could take a few tips from the casting. The vocal contributions of Robinson and Ramos still pop, but there’s little differentiating their personalities or aims, and Awkwafina and Maron play the same single notes from beginning to end. Brenner and Cohen move them to the sidelines to weave an almost-impressively convoluted yarn, with enough feints and pivots to confound even the most attentive spectator. They really have learned from the greats. 

What is a heist flick if not a logistical mine field, wherein even the slightest hang up or introspection threatens to tear the whole enterprise apart at the seams? Submerging reason and doubt under a pile of enlivening gotchas is an integral part of the format, and The Bad Guys 2 works wonders on as a crash course on not over-thinking things while in the company of brainy thieves. The kaleidoscopic aesthetic and involving plunders are worthy of better writing, but the movie’s gateway drug goals wouldn’t be bolstered by dogged perfectionism. This one is here to pass the time and plant the seed, keeping the tykes glued while allowing parents to dream of the day when Johnny Utah and Michael Mann can finally be introduced. Hang in there, ma’s and pa’s; Heat is only a decade away.