The Bad Guys (2022) was a shock to the DreamWorks Animation system. Loosely based on the series of children’s books by Aaron Blabey, the movie was a heist comedy for all ages — an animated Ocean’s movie with anthropomorphic animals that stood out from what the studio was doing at the time. It brought hyper-stylized visuals and 2D textures to the 3D world much in the way that Sony’s Spider-Verse franchise did, revitalizing DreamWorks. Soon after, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) took what The Bad Guys had done and pushed it even further.
Now, director Pierre Perifel is back, and he’s bringing the titular Bad Guys for another adventure in The Bad Guys 2 (2025). This animated sequel doesn’t merely go bigger for its own sake, though. Rather than just another heist, the titular band of robbers — Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) — come out of retirement for a total genre shift, joining forces with an all-female criminal team known as “The Bad Girls” to do one last job in a globetrotting adventure in the vein of Mission: Impossible.
From Heist Flick to a High-Stake Global Adventure
The “Bad Girls” and newcomers to the cast are Kitty Kat, a snow leopard voiced by Danielle Brooks, Susan/”Doom,” a raven voiced by Natasha Lyonne, and Pigtail Petrova, a wild boar voiced by Maria Bakalova. Of course, Alex Borstein and Zazie Beetz reprise their respective fan-favorite roles as Chief Misty Luggins and Governor Diane Foxington/Crimson Paw, too. The Bad Guys 2 is a bold continuation of the first DreamWorks hit, cementing this franchise as one of the studio’s current crown jewels.
Unlike other modern animated films, Pierre Perifel and his co-director, Juan Pablo “JP” Sans, craft spectacular visuals using anamorphic lenses and other live-action techniques. We sat down with the directors of The Bad Guys 2 to discuss their unconventional filmmaking methods and how the sequel continues to push the boundaries of 3D animation. In our exclusive interview, animation fans will learn key visual cues to look out for when watching The Bad Guys 2 on the big screen.
Exclusive Interview with Directors Pierre Perifel and JP Sans for The Bad Guys 2
I’m curious, as co-directors on a single project, how do you guys divide the work? What’s the working relationship like?
Pierre Perifel: We have been working together for 15 years at this point. First, on Rise of the Guardians (2012) as animators, so we know each other super well. JP was head of animation on the first Bad Guys. As a director, I love having a voice that I can bounce ideas off of. The idea was not to split the work but to share it.
JP Sans: We split the work when scheduling required it. There weren’t enough hours in the day to see everyone’s work, so we split up a bit. It was important, however, to be together in the same room and to reflect on the same concerns and problems. Otherwise, you start separating the visions and play catch-up on what the other person is thinking.
Pierre Perifel: When you’re together, you’re brainstorming together, and you’re deciding together.
The Bad Guys 2 pushes the series into the realm of a globetrotting adventure film. Can you discuss adapting the story and characters into this new setting?
Pierre Perifel: I think starting with the heist movie was super fun. But once you’ve done it, you want to do something slightly different with a heist element still, which is naturally big action. I love the way you call it “globetrotting.” The book series also helped us go there because each book is embedded in a different genre. It was important, artistically, to go there because it’s a genre that we absolutely love and adore. Then, from a practical and even business standpoint, we wanted the sequel to be bigger and more cinematic, and naturally, you go there as well.
There is a cinematic, live-action feeling and approach to the first movie. How did you work to push that further in the sequel?
Pierre Perifel: There were already certain types of live-action camera movements, cuts, and editing in the first film. Embarking on a global adventure, we sought to expand on that and further push the live-action sophistication. We wanted the sequel to be more visceral. In 3D, you have no constraints; you can put the camera wherever you want. However, if you do that, you can easily just be watching something from the outside and not be fully engaged in it. For us, it was crucial to immerse viewers in these expansive settings and elaborate set pieces, as if we were right alongside the characters on screen.
After all, everything is a bit ridiculous; we’re bending the laws of physics by having the guys running on top of a rocket going into space. We knew the laws we were breaking, but then we needed to ground it in a way that still felt visceral for the audience. A lot of that came from the effects, not only the camera work. In the camera work, though, we were telling ourselves to push the lens and do a fisheye to expand the animation, but then bring it back to the ground somehow.
JP Sans: The fact that we’re playing within the action genre, there’s a whole language behind that genre that has been established across decades by many incredible filmmakers. There is a language that has been established, and I think you can’t really claim to do that genre if you don’t use those codes. It’s interesting because you still have those very quick zip bands, crash zooms, and animation language that we brought in the first one. So, it’s a combination of everything. There’s the stylization of the looks, the speed lines, and all that, but also the sophistication of something that’s a bit more grounded in the live-action. It does that melting pot that we love so much.
Speaking of cameras, how does the use of anamorphic lenses impact the things you can and can’t do in animation?
JP Sans: We started playing with anamorphic lenses in the first Bad Guys, which I believe is a rare animated movie to use that type of lens, iconic to live-action cameras. It is made for film, so reproducing it in CG gives you something that, interestingly and deep down, we have seen before. We know that most movies are made this way, so it evokes the familiar taste and look that we all recognize. Fisheye lenses are something we’re all familiar with, too, as they were extremely prominent in the ’90s, particularly in skate and hip-hop videos. They lend a great deal of intensity and energy to the action.
Pierre Perifel: Anamorphic lenses ground the movie a little because you’re used to watching movies that way. You might not realize it, but it does make it feel more like live-action because it’s the same type of image that it gives you.
Then, on top of that, you’re also pushing the stylization, such as the cut to 2D anime-like expressions.
Pierre Perifel: We did it mostly for this big sequence that bridges acts 1 and 2. The scene keeps building and building, so we wanted it to be visually stunning and cut to the guys after a crazy five to six-minute sequence. We needed those pushed lenses, the anime-style expressions, and the vibrant lighting and colors to draw the audience in and convey the insanity for that scene. It lends the movie an additional graphic quality, a little jolt of energy when we change the character designs to a flatter image.
The Bad Guys 2 hits theaters on August 1!
Release Date: August 1, 2025.
Directed by Pierre Perifel & JP Sans.
Screenplay by Yoni Brenner & Etan Cohen.
Based on The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey.
Produced by Damon Ross.
Executive Producers: Aaron Blabey, Etan Cohen, & Patrick Hughes.
Main Cast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Zazie Beetz, Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne, Maria Bakalova, Alex Borstein, Richard Ayoade, Lilly Singh, & Katherine Ryan.
Composer: Daniel Pemberton.
Production Company: DreamWorks Animation.
Distributor: Universal Pictures.
Runtime: 104 minutes.
Rated PG.
