MOVIE REVIEW – Doing good is good: but maybe you can make the world better as a bad guy too, at least the bad guys’ psyches get caught up in this dilemma from time to time.  They are now TV celebrities, but their scornful perception forces them into hiding, or at least into a loveless lifestyle. Mr. Wolf and his similarly creatively named allies foreshadow that an underpaid comedian has been hired by the scriptwriters. Sing 2 was much funnier all along. I had fun with it even the second time around.

The fairy tale world of Dreamworks and Universal Pictures throws five super-active characters into constant bickering or mischief, although the graphics remind me a bit of the Dog City universe. The frames aren’t quite smooth, here trying to be more like the graphics of ‘Into the Spider-Verse’, which won an Oscar for visuals. But here the colours are duller, real slow motion is rare: freeze frames are most noticeable in the ‘narrative’ section, when those ‘Mr Cuts’ appear.

Mr Wolf – the founder of ‘WolfGang’

The bad guys want to steal the entire show follow in Gru’s footsteps. The time has come, after routine robberies, for a charity prize: a golden dolphin they want to steal from a golden hamster – or more precisely, a guinea pig. This paragon of benevolence had been seen on TV by the kings of predators, and even then they got angry and hungry at him at the same time. The wolf shows a much more human side here than in Sing 2, even turning to the audience at times to explain events, especially at the beginning and end of the movie, so he’s was fully inspired by Deadpool in this ‘hi friends who see me’ behavior. In fact, they all use the camera with due restraint, well-balanced way.

Mr. Wolf has the same needs as humans, he just needs kind words and being appreciated in the depths of his soul. If someone touches him as a signal of love, he goes happy-lepsy and happy tail wagging like an angel who just wants to fly up. This is a promissing sign and a good reference – he will probably find his right way, or at least we cross our fingers for it. However, situations can happen, when he should not be revealed as a wolf. In all tales, he is the notorious one: a dedicated bad guy who no one believes, who is stigmatized as a criminal (let’s say he is, or at least definitely was).

Who will be the best bad guy?

You have to mature into a good guy, a process that is ennobled with age, but for many, the turning of the tables is unlikely to come. And yet this struggle would discourage several of the main villains if the others: the deppy gang, didn’t try to pull them back.

The awards are led by a fox (she is more cleverly named: Diane Foxington), who in turn takes the concept of potential friendship between animals to a new level. Will there be love, will love win out in the crucial moments of the robbery? The question is rather right: who to turn our backs on in a tense moment? The action-comedy: The Bad Guys’ story is not short of unexpected surprises, so the points lost for the graphics are made up for by the story. In a world where you can’t really trust anyone (very common in gangs) and you don’t know who’s in whose skin (not to mention the ‘sneaky’ molting ).

What does the fox say? Is there any fox news?

Let’s not be hypocritical. Many parents have long believed that they are raising one (or two) little devil seals. This movie is not about fixing bad parenting, but about having a light conversation with your mischievous or unrepentant kid in the evening. Nowadays, kindness is cool, in fact much more a moral duty. Just think of Sonic, he’s cool too, isn’t he? I can also follow the right path, without spoiler-danger for you. We do get a certain psychological calming from the film, but it will not cause us to cry or be moved (but it will surprise us many times). The film scoots along at gangster-car pace, occasionally meandering, but almost non-stop blue blazes. The film is suspenseful but edgy, relatively restless, but at least the family members who fall asleep can stay awake without coffee.

Can you see the depth beyond the bends?

Every press colleague is accompanied by a few friends who will watch anything for free, but their opinions should not be taken as canon. I’ve never animated 3D (apart from a moving chrome cube) but I do know that it’s appropriate to add shadows to the three-dimensionality. And in this bandit story, the shading effect converges mischievously towards 0. To me, this is why the film looks 2D, and sometimes the distant backgrounds are ‘projected planes’. I’d listen to the critics who say that’s what makes it good, but for me, it’s just a strange genre or a miss of overwork. And between 2 random kicks of the ever-moving characters, there are so many frames missing that Sonic would go around Greenhill twice in the meantime.

One thing is for sure: whatever we do, let’s take responsibility for it because that’s what we were, we started somewhere: but we can also be more polished versions of ourselves – after reflection and confrontation. The crown will not fall from our heads, but we can be the uncrowned kings of showing a good example for little and bigs, animals and humans. Ready for your next level ride?

Jay P. Sonix