NOTE:I wrote this when I found out that "The Bad Guys" weren't nominated for Best Animated Feature Film and then re-wrote it when I saw the 2023 Oscars that year to make it more fitting. "The Bad Guys" was the one movie I really wanted to be nominated and was greatly disappointed when it got squat. Bad enough at the Oscars, but also on The Kid's Choice Awards and The MTV Movie and TV Awards! C'mon! I thought they would at least make a cameo as presenters for Best Animated Short Film, but even that didn't happen! So I decided to give that movie justice and write my own invitation to The Bad Guys in this fanfic.

The 95th Academy Awards is taking place at The Dolby Theatre. A laughter is heard from some jokes made and then an applause as Jimmy Kimmel was Bollywood danced off stage. Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson appear on stage with an envelope.

Emily:"Can you do any of those moves?"

Dwayne:"I can! Yes!"

"I would like that as I watch that later" Emily turns to face the audience. "Hello, we know the show just started so we're going to get straight to the point. We're here to present the award for best animated features"

"Yes! Animation, but where does one even begin to adequately capture the magic that is animated film?"

"I don't know, but that's why we're here, so these are the nominees for best animated-"

Dwayne was going to interrupt her for a joke, but something else beat him to the punch.

the lights suddenly go out.

Dwayne:"What the?"

Emily:"What just happened?"

The audience gasped and murmured to the blackout that just broke out. Was this all planned out as a gag for the ceremony? Or was this an unexpected technicality? Or was it something else?

Outside the Dolby Theatre, we pan up to the roof and there's a full moon. A silhouette of an anthropomorphic wolf is standing and we zoom in to see it's Mr.Wolf wearing his snazzy white suit, his paws behind his back and a smug look on his face. He raises a paw and presses his ear which seems to hold a tiny listening device "Webs, you hear me?"

We cut to Ms.Tarantula wearing a black turtleneck and headset as she's in front of her laptop hacking into the Dolby Theatre lightning and security system in Mr.Wolfs car. "Hear ya loud and clear Wolfy, it's a total black out and I shut down the whole system"

Mr.Wolf:"Excellent" he presses his device again to talk to someone else "Piranha, you there?"

We cut to Mr.Piranha inside the Dolby Theatre peeking through a door as he's pressing his own listening device in his ear while various security guards scatter around in the dark with flashflights. "Yeah I'm here, these like fireflies or somethin'" he laughs "they don't know it's gonna get worse for 'em!"

Mr.Wolf:"Perfect" presses his device once again to talk to another crew member "Shark, you still keepin' cool?"

We cut to inside the theatre where we the celebrities and staff are whispering to one another about the black out. Mr.Shark is, unknown to everyone, disguised as Domee Shi, the animator for "Turning Red", wearing a dress. He leans down and presses his listening device and whispers "Yeah, their (the celebrities) cellphones aren't working no one's leaving yet"

Mr.Wolf:"Nice, I'm goin' in now" he presses his device to turn it off and turns to someone off-screen "You ready for this?"

A slithery snake wearing a Hawaiian shirt and hat comes in view from the shadows. It's Wolfs old friend Mr.Snake. "Oh, I'm ready for this" flashes a fanged grin.

-

The Dolby Theatre is still in black out before the nominations for Best Animated Feature Film were announced. The celebrities were shocked and whispering to one another on the events, security was doing everything they can to fix this and Jimmy Kimmel was speaking to Glenn Weiss, the producer/director of this years Oscar's, backstage.

Jimmy:"Whattya mean this wasn't part of your doing!?" Glenn shrugs and Jimmy points a finger at him "You better have told me the whole shtick cuz this is worse than the Slap Heard Around the World!?"

The Bad Guys were doin' what they do best. Stealing. They had the Hacker (Tarantula) disabling the system for easy access, the Muscle (Piranha) to stop any interferences, the Master of Disguise (Shark) to hide in plain sight and give the intel and of course, the mastermind himself (Wolf) with his partner in crime/safe cracker (Snake) making sure it all goes smooth as steel, but what's the excuse for this theft of the Oscars? Especially for the Best Animated Feature Film award? Why!?

Snake is sawing an opening on the roof with Wolf and as he's sawing Wolf laments to him on the nominees.

Wolf sighs "Can you believe the nerve of these guys"

Snake knew where this was goin' as he sawed cuz he's heard this complaint one too many times and rolls his eyes as he says "Oh boy!"

Wolf vented "I mean, I get that movie with that girl turning into a giant plushie as a family friendly version of" does air quotes ""growing up" and Guillermo's movie cuz that guys a genius of course, but that dang Puss in Boots movie using "me" as the bad guy like that" tries to find the words, "I-I jus-I just can't deal with that" turns away.

Snake wasn't having it. He continued to saw as he said "Can we please talk about something else!?" stood sawing for a moment "Like-like that Sea Beast movie where that main guy looks like Flynn Rider and Hans love child!?" smiles and raises his eyebrows up and down as if to signify an interesting conversation. Wolf wasn't amused. Snake drops his excitement and slouches goin' back to his sour disposition "Ah never mind" goes back to sawing.

"I'm serious! I know I said I was a "cliche bad guy", but our movie came BEFORE his and I thought I was revolutionizing a new "Big Bad Wolf"! And they just had to go and make me the bad guy again" shakes his head in shame and waves his paw in front of him "Low blow man! Low.blow!"

Snake sighs with a concerned look on his face and stops sawing again. He leans with his coils against the saw as it's still in the rooftop "Look kid, I get what you're saying, you were trying to paint a better picture of your character for a new era and then some stupid cat came in and coughed a hairball on it making it look worse" Wolf looked defeated, but was glad Snake understood his statement. "But that's not why we're stealing the Oscar, we're stealing it……." gets angry and makes the tip of his tail a fist "cuz those rich snobs" voice gets angrier "DIDN'T NOMINATE OUR MOVIE FOR THIS CATEGORY!" voice gets even louder as he raises his head to the Heavens "OR FOR ANYTHING FOR. THAT. MATTERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" his last words echoed throughout Hollywood, from Ripleys Believe it Or Not museum to The Pantages Theatre and cosplayers on the streets who stopped acting and interacting with tourists who all look around for the noise. Snakes was heavy breathing trying to recompose himself. He stops and looks towards Wolf. Wolf was looking at him dumbfounded. He blinked a few times. Snakes clears his throat and goes back to sawing. He quickly darts his eyes to Wolf as he softly says, "Sorry"

-

The blackout at the Dolby Theatre was still in effect as the celebrities in the audience murmured to one another and Mr.Shark, dressed as Turning Reds animator, Domee Shi, was sitting quietly to himself and just so it won't look too suspicious that he's not concerned by all this, he leans over and whispers to Lindsey Collins, the film producer for Turning Red, about the sudden events.

Mr.Shark:(in a high pitched female voice) "So um…….this would be more than necessary if someone was wearing that glowing colorful dress like how Claire Danes wore at the Met Gala huh?" grins knowing Lindsey can't see his fangs in the dark.

Lindsey Collins just nodded as she was too worried to respond and looked around to see if any lights came back on. Mr.Shark whimpered hoping the other Bad Guys were speeding up their process.

Jimmy Kimmel was now talking with both producer/writer Glenn Weiss and co-producer, Ricky Kirshner, about the blackout backstage.

Jimmy:(frustrated) "I'm serious, if this is all part of your writing as a joke to make me look bad I will NOT be hosting the 100th Oscar's later! You have to tell what you had planned!"

Outside the Dolby Theatre, in Wolfs car, Ms.Tarantula was typing on her laptop and since she hacked into all the cameras, she saw every footage of the theatre and as she was scanning each camera, she gasps and sees the security guards with flashlights goin' into a room where the power box was so they can turn the lights back on. She presses her listening device in her ear to contact Piranha.

Mr.Piranha had his back against a wall and looked left and right to see if any guards came by. He hears a beep and turns on his listening device in his ear. "Hello"

Ms.Tarantula:"Piranha! The security guards are entering the room where the power box is! Where the heck are you!?"

Piranha answered as he ran down a hallway holding/pressing his listening device and sounding exasperated "Ugh! I lost them!"

Ms.Tarantula:(groans) "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! How could you have lost 'em!? You were supposed to keep an eye on them you tiny fish brain!"

Piranha stopped and peaked from behind a wall "Gee, I don't know, maybe cuz, THERE'S A FREAKIN' BLACKOUT! I don't have echo location over here! I'm not a damn dolphin!"

Ms.Tarantula groans again.

-

Back on the Dolby Theatre roof, Snake had already finished sawing the opening for himself and Wolf to sneak in through and now he (Snake) slithered over to the buildings edge to coil himself around it. As he did that, Wolf was sitting down slouched over resting one arm on his lap and the other held up for him to rest his head on. He was still upset over his movie not nominated, but now, he looked more sympathetic.

Snake was tightening himself well for good measure to sure he was steady enough and when he was, he made a satisfied nod and a "Mmhmm" and slithered over to his sawed opening. As he got close, Wolf turned to Snake, "Hey Snakes". Snake stopped and looked toward Wolf with a "Huh"

Wolf:"You think maybe we're" waves a paw ""overreacting" to this non nomination thing?"

Snake looked annoyed "Hey! Don't go having second thoughts about this now! I did not saw this hole" gestures with his head "cuz I wanted this building to have a skylight you know!"

"No! No! No! I mean, we're not the "only" animated movie to not be nominated" lists the other movies with his fingers "there's "Strange World", "Luck", "Wendell and Wild", "Chip n' Dale"

Snake stops him there "Oh great! We're on the same level as two chipmunks from an overrated 90's tv show!"

Wolf saw hypocrisy in that "A'hem! WE were based off a children's book!" He's interrupted by a beeping noise in his listening device. He presses it to answer "Webs!? What up?"

We cut to Ms.Tarantula at her laptop holding onto her listening device and watching Piranha on the cameras her screen failing to locate the security guards in the theatre "Wolfy! Piranha lost track of the guards and now he's more lost than Nemo!" from the camera, Piranha was indeed lost and blind as a bat. He ran toward some stairs and started tumbling down and screaming while going "Ah!" "Ee!" "Ooh!" With each step. Ms.Tarantula cringed with each step he fell. She face palmed with two of her hands and groaned as she said under her breath "I told him to check the perimeter before infiltrating the area"

"What!?" cried Wolf. "While guide him through so we can get through with this quick!"

"Don't worry! The security's flashlights are dimming so they're still looking for the power box, but I'll guide the anchovie while you and Snake just go through the plan" she presses her listening device to sign off.

-

Wolf turns off his listening device and goes back to talking to Snake "I know those chipmunks are a bit "kiddie-ish", but WE are semi kiddie-ish too from a storybook! Also, what I'm trying to say is, the others (animated movies) aren't making a big deal out of it for not being nominated themselves and I just think with our movie ending with us "redeemed" it's kinda…..lowbrow that we're stealing again isn't it? Shouldn't we just appreciate the fact that we got a movie and be happy with that?"

Snake stared at Wolf with a deadpan expression and answers "Okay, first of all, Yes, I KNOW we're based off a kids book, but we weren't a "recognized" children's book like that wizard boy or even those unlucky rich kids running from that kook! And Second, the reason those other animated movies are just "willy nilly" sitting at home watching the Oscars and not taking action is cuz they don't got the talents that we do to take action and take what's rightfully ours!"

Wolf raised an eyebrow "What's rightfully ours!?" he chuckles "Was our movie that big a deal?"

"YES! The opening scene with you and me was the longest one-shot in DreamWorks Animation history! 2 minutes! 25 seconds! And SEVEN FRAMES!!!" Wolf was silent. Yeah that was a big deal for the company on their movie and darted his eyes away in embarrassment. "I'd like to see that wooden puppet and that stupid cat try THAT! Now" gestures to the hole he sawed with his head "Are we gonna slide down and do this or not!?"

Wolf thought about this for a moment. Him and his crew were "lesser known" children's books that now got media attention thanks to the movie (and helped the writer of said books break outta his depressed funk) and despite the Pinocchio movie being made by one of the most genius directors ever and Puss being a breakout character to have his own movies, they did not have the style to make a record for themselves on something new.

"You're right" said Wolf "Let's do this!"

Snake smiles at that and jumps into the hole he sawed as Wolf grabs ahold of him and they slowly slide down.