In The Bad Guys Haunted Heist, What Can Go Horribly Wrong?

Although DreamWorks The Bad Guys isn’t the greatest work in their movie catalogue, I still wanted to see what this studio would dream up for this year’s special. When it’s simply labelled The Bad Guys Haunted Heist, I was morbidly curious.

Unlike this studio’s past works, which are enjoyable to watch, this latest lacks the spice that made past specials–Shrek: Thrilling Tales and Scared Shrekless, along with Monsters vs Aliens’ Mutant Pumpkins and Night of the Living Carrots–a joy to watch. These pieces were basically about the title characters celebrating the season and I always play the compilation release, Six Spooky Stories (Amazon link) when Halloween weeks rolls around. Hopefully there’ll be an update that will include the ones that are part of their animated series rollout (My favourite episode is “The Po Who Cried Ghost” from Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.

What The Bad Guys do is invert the formula from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? and tell it from a villain’s perspective. To say who would have gotten away with it isn’t all that surprising, as I easily guessed how the tale would go.

Although there are some cute moments to sell the Halloween flavour, a lot of the concepts are the same ol’ same ol’ all over again. From creepy piano music to moving eyes, this haunted house scenario isn’t all that scary. I would’ve preferred to see them crashing a Halloween party, stealing something they shouldn’t, and discover that it’s cursed! Just whether they’ll save one of their own depends on them being willing to return the said stolen item whence it came, and have the terrors be real rather than made up.

When considering this work is no improvement over the previous instalment, A Bad Holiday, maybe I should turn to The LEGO Group as their staff writers at least put more thought into a tale. What’s set up is too basic, and perhaps too Disney. It doesn’t live up to what DreamWorks previous Halloween specials thrilled audiences with. Had it, I’d be wanting to insert some Lupin the Third moments to at least give this seasonal short some bite. Wolf is kind of like Arsène Lupin the Third ‌and to not really play that up is a shame.

The Bad Guys Haunted Heist Teaser

Author: Ed Sum

I'm a freelance videographer and entertainment journalist (Absolute Underground Magazine, Two Hungry Blokes, and Otaku no Culture) with a wide range of interests. From archaeology to popular culture to paranormal studies, there's no stone unturned. Digging for the past and embracing "The Future" is my mantra. View all posts by Ed Sum