Three years ago, The AU Review’s Peter Gray spoke with author Aaron Blabey about seeing the first book in his Bad Guys series come to life on the big screen. Now, The Bad Guys 2 has arrived, and Blabey is once again chatting with us – and, if it’s possible, even more enthused – about seeing his work translated into a cinematic language.
Ahead of the film’s release on Australian screens, the author shared details about his trick to writing good “bad” characters, how he has seen the series become a gateway collection for hesitant readers, and if there was anything in the filmic version that went beyond anything he could have imagined.
I had an absolute ball with The Bad Guys 2. It really is this perfect balance of a comedic temperament for adults, as well as kids, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do.
Thank you so much. I’m really glad you felt that way. That’s always been the driving impulse behind The Bad Guys books and movies, to make it work on multiple levels for grown-ups and kids. For the record, I really love the second movie. I feel like it was a big jump from the first. I loved the first one, but I think the second one feels more relaxed and loose and spectacular. I was always chuffed that I had a crossroads of sorts when I making the book. I thought I could just keep doing these antics of these small time crooks, or I could blow the world out in the universe, in a way that gave it more possibilities. In my case, it was introducing that (the character of) Professor Marmalade was an alien, and, to my amazement, it wasn’t easy. It took a few years, but the studio eventually got on board with that, and the fact that they jumped to the moon launch and the space sequence, which hinted at an alien, was really gratifying. I thought that was awesome.
And we jump right into the action in this one. And as naughty as these characters are, you root for them. Is there a trick to writing “bad” characters that we like?
I think it’s really hard for me to have any perspective on it, because it was me locked in a room for 10 years, with my own madness and neuro-divergence. I think it was always about grounding them in a way, having the characters relate to each other in an edgy and real way. What it is at its core is that I was always interested in taking things that you would never think would work as children’s entertainment, or literature, like the gangster movies or crime movies from when I grew up, taking elements of iconography, and blending them together. Putting them through a filter of what would make my 6-year-old laugh. That’s where it came from.
In mapping that stuff out, is there a relationship for you in plotting versus spontaneity? Do you map out elaborate schemes for your characters? Or do you prefer to let chaos guide the story as it’s going?
What I tended to do, especially once I realised that the first book was going to balloon into a series, it was a little more free form. I realised I had the opportunity to do something with a really long, satisfying arc. I got ahead of myself in the schedule, and I took six months off to figure out the big markers that I wanted to hit, and I wanted to make sure that I ticked them off. Then I would figure out each episode. I figured out the cliffhangers. First I thought the most satisfying way to end each of the books, and then I had a loose sense of overall arc. But then each time I sat down to write each one, it was completely free form, other than knowing where I wanted to end up by the end of it.
In terms of the characters themselves, they always just talk to themselves. That was really odd, because the books have been done for a few years now, so there was never a single moment where I ever sat wondering what Mr. Shark would say to somebody. They just talked. I was just dictating conversations between these lunatics in my head, really.
Going off that, the books have a very specific comedic voice. It’s quick. It’s self aware. How do you maintain that voice across so many volumes?
It’s a good question. When my kids were younger, I wrote it with them in my mind. I still had to keep them in mind when they got older, so I had to time travel a little bit in my head, and ask myself what they would find funny. But then it just sort of had a life of its own. When I write stuff, and I’m working on a new series at the moment, it’s always a good sign if I find myself laughing out loud. If I write something that tickles me, I usually figure it’ll work on my kids.
The books have been described as gateway stories for readers that might be a bit reluctant to read. Have you heard from parents or children about how The Bad Guys got them into reading?
All the time. It’s one of the loveliest (thing). I say all the time that I’m a hermit, and I don’t really have a social media presence, or anything like that. So I’m quite hard to get a hold on. But we had a screening in Melbourne, and there were lots of kids there, and one of them asked me to sign something. I knelt down to do it, and when I looked up there was a cue. I had half a dozen parents saying how these books got their kids reading. That’s wild. I never thought about that kind of stuff. It’s not an agenda. It’s just a lovely byproduct that makes me very, very happy. I try not to dwell on stuff too much, because it’s just the processing of continuing to make work, and then hoping that it connects. But it’s a good, glorious side effect.
Obviously the first film really captured that cartoon anarchy of the books, whilst very much having its own cinematic style. What have you noticed specifically about the film’s approach to tone and storytelling?
The thing that was most pleasing in many ways to me, in both films, but specifically with this second one is that it locked even harder. I was never precious about the story itself. With the films, I didn’t really mind if they varied from my story. What I felt deeply concerned about was that they got the tone of the sense of humour right and the relationships between the characters. It had to be familiar, whether you’re watching the movie or reading the book, they were enormously respectful of that all the way through. And now including three of my girls into the mix (the characters of Kitty Kat, Doom and Pigtail Petrova), and they all feel like there’s a difference between the books and the movie, but the DNA is exactly correct. It’s that tonal thing, and the joy of watching this fabulous animation that, especially in this second movie, is effectively all the stuff that was happening in my head, filtered through my limited drawing skills, which then became the books.
Was there a moment in The Bad Guys 2 where you thought, “Oh, this is something only the film could do?”
Not really. But what did happen that was very specific, there were two (moments). The first time, I was watching cuts of the film until the story was locked, about 10 months ago, and once the story was locked I couldn’t contribute anything to it. I made the choice this time to not watch (the film) again until it was finished. Then when I came back and watched it, there were actually two bits at the first screening in Los Angeles that made me quite teary. It was the beginning of the space station sequence, where they were in the suits, and the other one when they come strutting down at the end in their black and white suits, which was very much like originally in the books.
It was this beautiful full circle moment where I was sitting there thinking, “These are scenes that I sat in my studio inventing, right down to the fart in the spacesuit.” That was just me in my little studio in the Blue Mountains, and now suddenly it’s here on this gigantic screen rendering. It made me really teary when I saw those. It was really cool.
The Bad Guys 2 is screening in Australian theatres from September 18th, 2025, following Advance Screenings on September 6th – 7th and 13th – 14th.
