Nerd Reactor had the chance to play a game of “Good Guy or Bad Guy” with the voice cast including Awkwafina, Anthony Ramos, Danielle Brooks and Maria Bakalova. Check out the video below!

One of the highlights was showing an image of Shadow, a character in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe.

“Well, I mean, [Shadow] is hotter,” Awkwafina tells Nerd Reactor about the character when compared to Sonic.

Bakalova played Cosmo in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, and she lit up when seeing the image of Cosmo.

“I’m going to say good, because I get really hurt when somebody calls me a bad dog,” said Bakalova. “She’s a good dog.”

About The Bad Guys 2

Synopsis: In the new action-packed chapter from DreamWorks Animation’s acclaimed comedy smash about a crackerjack crew of animal outlaws, our now-reformed Bad Guys are trying (very, very hard) to be good, but instead find themselves hijacked into a high-stakes, globe-trotting heist, masterminded by a new team of criminals they never saw coming: The Bad Girls.

The returning voice cast includes Sam Rockwell as Mr. Wolf, Marc Maron as safe-cracker Mr. Snake, Craig Robinson as master-of disguise Mr. Shark, Anthony Ramos as Mr. Piranha and Awkwafina as hacker Ms. Tarantula, aka “Webs.”

Zazie Beetz is Governor Diane Foxington, with Richard Ayoade as Professor Marmalade, Alex Borstein as Police Chief (now Commissioner) Misty Luggins and Lilly Singh as Tiffany Fluffit.

The Bad Girls include Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple) as Bad Girls leader Kitty Kat, a dangerously clever snow leopard; Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Movie Film) as Pigtail, a brilliant Bulgarian wild boar engineer; and Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll, Poker Face) as Doom, a wry raven with a knack for deception.

Pierre Perifel returns as the director, with Damon Ross as the producer. JP Sans is the co-director, who was the head of character animation in the first film. Daniel Pemberton (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) is the composer.

The Bad Guys 2 releases in theaters on August 1, 2025.

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The one sequence I want to mention is how the live-action take on Hiccup and Toothless’ first flight was breathtaking. I felt emotional with how it was brought to life as we saw the rush and beauty of the two friends flying in the sky. Some of the scenes’ CGI wasn’t finished yet, but it made me excited to see the full version.

Dean DeBlois on Why He’s Making a Live-Action How to Train Your Dragon

Since this is a live-action film adapted from a classic animated film, some critics have voiced their concerns. And yes, the director knows about their concerns and has something to say about that.

“There are always going to be people who are like, ‘I boycott this,’ you know,” DeBlois tells a group of us during the reception. “They can watch the animated movie, but I also think that we are making it with a lot of love and a lot of respect for what the animated movies are. Not to replace those animated movies, because I’m proud of them. But I also think there’s room to play with it a little bit and expand it and enrich some of those relationships in the way that live actors can do when you put a camera on them, and if you get the right chemistry.”

DeBlois on Capturing Iconic Scenes

The film will have new and expanded scenes while also adapting iconic scenes from the animated film. These include the forbidden friendship where Hiccup and Toothless are drawing in the sand and they touch for the first time, flying together for the first time, and more.

“We very carefully tried to mimic with the live-action crew in our set and our camera tried to mimic those scenes almost shot for shot, knowing that we’re going to use John Powell’s music through that,” DeBlois replied to Nerd Reactor about bringing the iconic scenes to life.” Because we thought that would be a neat way to kind of honor what came before and sort of acknowledge the fans. We deliberately were very close in terms of shot for shot.”

DeBlois described a new scene involving Stoic and the dragon’s nest.

“In other places, we just expand,” the director said. “We kind of take a scene into a place that was never there. One example would be when Stoic first ventures into the fog, looking for the nest. In the animated movie, the ship literally goes into the fog and there’s a flash and a dragon silhouette and the scene’s over. In this movie, we can indulge that.

“And so we play into the mystery that we go into the fog with them. We can hear the dragons around us, they slowly attack and you get to rachet up the peril and the seriousness of Stoic’s purpose. As Hiccup is befriending dragons and he’s telling the audience essentially, ‘Oh, they’re just all misunderstood and they’re just big pets,’ we also remind them they’re dangerous as ****.”

About How to Train Your Dragon

Synopsis: On the rugged isle of Berk, where Vikings and dragons have been bitter enemies for generations, Hiccup (Mason Thames; The Black Phone) stands apart. The inventive yet overlooked son of Chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler, reprising his voice role from the animated franchise), Hiccup defies centuries of tradition when he befriends Toothless, a feared Night Fury dragon. Their unlikely bond reveals the true nature of dragons, challenging the very foundations of Viking society.

With the fierce and ambitious Astrid and the village’s quirky blacksmith Gobber by his side, Hiccup confronts a world torn by fear and misunderstanding.

As an ancient threat emerges, endangering both Vikings and dragons, Hiccup’s friendship with Toothless becomes the key to forging a new future. Together, they must navigate the delicate path toward peace, soaring beyond the boundaries of their worlds and redefining what it means to be a hero and a leader.

Genre: Epic Action-Adventure

The film was written and directed by Dean DeBlois. It stars Mason Thames (The Black Phone), Gerard Butler (300, How to Train Your Dragon), Nico Parker (HBO’s The Last of Us), Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead), Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2), Gabriel Howell (Nightsleeper), Bronwyn James (Wicked), Harry Trevaldwyn (The Acolyte), Ruth Codd (Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher), Peter Serafinowicz (The Guardians of the Galaxy) and Murray McArthur (The Northman).

How to Train Your Dragon flies into theaters on June 13, 2025.

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Curses! will be premiering globally on Friday, October 27, exclusively on Apple TV+.

Check out the synopsis for the series below:

“When a generations-long family curse turns Alex Vanderhouven to stone, it’s up to his two kids, Pandora and Russ, and his wife Sky, to return artifacts stolen by their ancestors to their rightful homes to finally lift the curse for good.”

The show is created and executive produced by Jim Cooper (DreamWorks Dragons) and Jeff Dixon (The Hurricane Heist) with John Krasinski and Allyson Seeger (A Quiet Place) also serving as executive producers. Joining as supervising producer is Leo Riley (Guardians of the Galaxy, Tron: Uprising), with Chris Copeland (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts) and Justin Copeland (Woman Woman: Bloodlines) as creative consultants.

The voice cast includes Gabrielle Nevaeh (Monster High) as Pandora, Andre Robinson (The Loud House) as Russ, Lyric Lewis (Waffles + Mochi) as Sky, Reid Scott (Veep) as Alex, Rhys Darby (Our Flag Means Death) as Stanley, James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as Larry, Rhea Perlman (Barbie) as Margie, Phylicia Rashad (A Raisin in the Sun) as Georgia Snitker, and Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street) as Cornelius.

Featured image courtesy of Apple TV+ and DreamWorks Animation

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Nerd Reactor had the chance to sit down and chat with Condor, Annie Murphy (Schitt’s Creek, Black Mirror), and director Kirk DeMicco about the film, their background in helping them with their role, and more.

“I think as an actor, at least for me, I pull from my own personal experiences when I do a character,” Condor tells Nerd Reactor. “But I’ve done a lot of high school roles. So I have cousins that are in high school and college and I pull from that. I’ve done a lot of young adult roles, so it’s a little bit slipping into that. Feels kind of like second nature.”

DreamWorks Animation is a studio that has worked on films including Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, Puss in Boots, and more. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken marks the studio’s 44th theatrical film. Condor talks about her life working from gig to gig and how her DreamWorks project is important to her.

“I think after every project that I finish, I do have a sense of pride and accomplishment from each project,” Condor said. “Because to be completely honest, having a job in this industry is an honor. It’s not guaranteed. I work job for job, and so I think I do have a sense of pride after filming anything that I do, but I think specifically with Ruby Gillman, I was very, very honored to work with DreamWorks period. And then I was very honored to play such an endearing relatable character. And so to me, it’s a big career highlight for me, I would say.”

Annie Murphy voices Chelsea, a mermaid masquerading as a human at Oceanside High. As a child, she had dreams of wanting to become a mermaid.

“1,000%, like I remember my parents having this cottage in Canada,” Murphy recalls. “And I remember sitting on a rock at the cottage just like willing myself to turn into a mermaid every single summer. Like for days and days every single summer, and it didn’t work. But this is kind of like the second-best thing.”

Murphy teased about what audiences can expect from Chelsea.

“It was a surprise,” Murphy said. “That was one of the big shifts that kind of happened at the very end. And one of the rewrites is that I found out that I was even more than I thought I was in the script. And that was very cool and also a big challenge because my voice… I’m not a singer. I don’t have like a strong voice. And so to have to go to those deep, loud evil registers was a big challenge. And I have to say that after the first four hours that I recorded my voice, I called my friend and he was like, ‘Are you well, like, what’s going on?’ My voice was just shot.”

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken has been in the works for many years, and the film has seen some changes in the story as production went on.

“Well, this was an original pitch by some writers that had come into the studio about seven years ago,” Director Kirk DeMicco said. “And it was a story of the Gillman family and being a sea monster family living on land. And then as time goes through development, we start pulling focus. And as we started pulling focus, it was really Ruby’s story. And the excitement that generated around everyone at the studio was that this was the first time we can have a female, titled character in a DreamWorks film. And we wanted to give her a journey, a hero’s journey that we would have given any of the guys before. So the opportunity really came with building at scale. And that scope of this adventure of a girl who goes from just hiding as a teenager to being a Kaiju Princess at the end of the film.”

About Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

“Sweet, awkward 16-year-old Ruby Gillman (Lana Condor, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before franchise) is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High, but she mostly just feels invisible. She’s math-tutoring her skater-boy crush (Jaboukie Young-White, Ralph Breaks the Internet), who only seems to admire her for her fractals, and she’s prevented from hanging out with the cool kids at the beach because her over-protective supermom (Toni Collette, Knives Out), has forbade Ruby from ever getting in the water.

But when she breaks her mom’s #1 rule, Ruby will discover that she is a direct descendant of the warrior Kraken queens and is destined to inherit the throne from her commanding grandmother (Jane Fonda), the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas.

The Kraken are sworn to protect the oceans of the world against the vain, power-hungry mermaids who have been battling with the Kraken for eons. There’s one major, and immediate, problem with that: The school’s beautiful, popular new girl, Chelsea (Annie Murphy, Schitt’s Creek) just happens to be a mermaid. Ruby will ultimately need to embrace who she is and go big to protect those she loves most.”

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken also stars Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead) as Ruby’s supportive dad, Sam Richardson (Ted Lasso) as Ruby’s enthusiastic uncle, and Blue Chapman (Council of Dads) as Ruby’s little brother, Will Forte (The Last Man on Earth), Nicole Byer (Nailed It!), Liza Koshy (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts), Ramona Young (Never Have I Ever), Eduardo Franco (Stranger Things), Echo Kellum (Arrow), and Emma Chamberlain (Anything Goes podcast).

The film is directed by Kirk DeMicco (Vivo, The Croods) from a script by Pam Brady (Lady Dynamite) and Brian C. Brown (Briarpatch) & Elliott DiGuiseppi (Lucy in the Sky). It’s produced by Kelly Cooney Cilella (Trolls World Tour, Trolls), with Faryn Pearl (The Croods: A New Age, Trolls World Tour) serving as co-director. The executive producer is Mike Mitchell (director of next year’s Kung Fu Panda 4) and the co-producer is Rachel Zusser (associate producer, The Croods: A New Age).

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