Watching The Bad Guys 2 felt like catching up with old friends - seeing how they've grown, what chaos they're wrapped up in now and having some laughs along the way. (Photo Illustration: Annelise Capossela for Yahoo News, photos: DreamWorks Animation/Universal Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection)This story contains spoilers. Don't say we didn't warn ya.

Hello, Yahoo readers. I'm Suzy Byrne, and I've been covering entertainment in this space for over a decade.I'll be the first to tell you I'm no hardcore cinema buff. Since I had a child, though, I've made it a point to see as many kid-friendly movies as possible. Maybe it's because I'm a big kid ✔ and love a cheerful ending ✔. But also, as a busy working parent, getting two hours to turn off my phone, put up my feet and eat whatever I want while my child is fully entertained is the definition of movie magic.

So that's what this is - one entertainment reporter + her 10-year-old child + friends seeing family-friendly fare and replying all to you about the experience. Welcome to Kids' Movie Club.

Now playing: The Bad Guys 2Three adults, three kids and one crowd-pleasing movie: talk about the perfect recipe for a summer evening with family and friends.

AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Aaron Blabey graphic novel series, on which the animated franchise is based, is a page-turning fave with the kids I took to see the sequel, and the first movie was a howl of a good time, even for the adults.

The sharp-dressed, smooth-talking charmer Mr. Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell) gets much of the credit, along with his core crew of sticky-fingered animal friends. We wanted to see if the Bad Guys really could go good - or what their version of "good" even is.I wondered aloud if that evil hamster from the first film, released in 2022, would be back as we took our seats. "Um, Suzy - it's a guinea pig," my friend's daughter corrected me before schooling me, the clueless adult, about the difference between all the rodents kids demand to bring home after a single visit to Petco. "Sorry, that's what I mean," I replied, remembering very well Professor Marmalade's signature guinea pig chubby cheeks - and sociopathic personality.

The Pierre Perifel and JP Sans-directed sequel - rated PG and running 1 hour, 44 minutes - has a menagerie of new characters and a plot that's a little all over the place, but we walked out feeling good about it, like we pulled off our own heist, stealing a few hours from our hectic lives for some solid entertainment.

The plot 🎬The movie begins with how Wolf and crew - also including escapologist Snake (Marc Maron), the master of disguise Shark (Craig Robinson), the muscle Piranha (Anthony Ramos) and hacker extraordinaire Tarantula (Awkwafina) - came together years earlier, during a heist targeting an obnoxious billionaire in Cairo, and the origin of Wolf's sweet ride, which they speed off in. It jumps five years to when, freshly sprung from the big house, Wolf is driving a beater, which Shark has to push up hills, and none of the ex-cons can find jobs.

AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMaybe Wolf shouldn't have applied at the bank he robbed three times, but ... desperate times!The plot bounced a bit too much - they're at a Mexican wrestling tournament, crashing a wedding to steal a watch from a billionaire, stealing a rocket and going to space and, oh, it's suddenly raining gold - and there are a bunch of new characters to get to know. With the last film's chief villain, Marmalade (Richard Ayoade), in jail for much of this, the new nasties are the Bad Girls.

Led by Kitty Kat (Danielle Brooks), the girl group copycats the style of the Bad Guys, making the world think the crew has gone bad again. They then strong-arm them into participating in a heist robbing a rare metal, MacGuffinite, to ultimately steal the world's gold. Kitty Kat uses blackmail as leverage, telling Wolf that she will expose his love interest Governor Diane Foxington's (Zazie Beetz) criminal past as the Crimson Paw if he doesn't comply. The Bad Guys get the last laugh.

The commissioner (Alex Borstein) is back doing her same bumbling, stumbling and yet endearing thing. She's uncertain whether she can trust the Bad Guys, but they build a bond.

AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThere's also romance of the interspecies variety. "Snakey-cakes" gets charmed by a raven Susan/Doom (Natasha Lyonne), before learning she's part of Kitty's gang - and still can't quit her after. After going round for round, Wolf and Diane get out of the friend zone.

Parts that had the kids talking 👧🏻👧🏻👦🏻The kids, ranging in age from 8 to 10, were locked in - so much so that I didn't order my daughter anything, even popcorn, and I didn't get pestered about it.

The kid crew laughed over Piranha's gas. Seriously, get that guy to a gastroenterologist. He farted room-clearing green puffs throughout the film, with a flatulence finale in a space suit that nearly suffocated his friend.

Ke