Writer-Producer Etan Cohen on the Power of Toons:

“I think our exec producer Aaron Blabey came to me because he liked my work on Tropic Thunder, which like The Bad Guys is also a meta movie about making movies. I liked that the books weren’t talking down to any part of the audience. I think kids are smart: They are savvy about movies and know about these tropes. They don’t want to be spoon-fed the same things over and over again. I also liked the film’s powerful themes — which include everyone’s assumptions about who you are. My own kids are in junior high and high school, and those preconceived perceptions are something that speak to all of us who work in animation.

“One of the things I love about animation is that story-wise, the gloves are totally off, and you can do anything and go anywhere. I mean, we have a laser beam that controls the minds of guinea pigs all over the planet. You’d have a very hard time doing that in live action! One of my first jobs was writing on Beavis and Butt-Head for Mike Judge, and that taught me how you can combine smart and stupid — which is what we did in Idiocracy as well. You can have slapstick jokes that are also hopefully commenting on important things. I think that’s what we were going for in this movie, too. It’s a real luxury to be able to appeal to all kinds of people and make everyone laugh.”