| “ | A Wolf and a Fox, are not so different. Maybe they will believe you, maybe they won't, but it doesn't matter. Don't do it for them, do it for you. This is a chance to write your own story, to find a better life for you and your friends. Come on, what have you got to lose? | „ |
| ~ Diane showing her thievery skills to Wolf, holding the ring he stole from her earlier and then motivating him to redeem himself. |
| “ | Nope, I'm still the best! Just like riding a stolen bicycle. | „ |
| ~ Diane on her abilities as a criminal. |
Diane Foxington is one of the two deuteragonists (alongside Mr. Snake) of The Bad Guys, Dreamworks' 2022 animated film adaptation of Aaron Blabey's book series of the same name.
The popular Governor of Los Angeles, she is, in fact, a reformed criminal as she used to be the infamous, mysterious master thief Crimson Paw until she saw the error of her ways and joined politics so as to help people and atone for her former dark life.
She is initially skeptical when Mr. Wolf, the dastardly leader of the thieving gang the Bad Guys (made up of Wolf, Mr. Snake, Ms. Tarantula, Mr. Shark and Mr. Piranha), suggests that he and his team be given a chance to redeem themselves, but she gradually finds out that she and the wolf aren't so different and the two even become love interests, as Diane and the Bad Guys end up working toghether and using their thieving skills to take down a far larger threat.
She is voiced by Zazie Beetz.
What Makes Her Magnificent?
- She is given a very delightful performance by Zazie Beetz.
- She is very snarky, sarcastic and witty, which leads to her a lot of entertaining banter and chemistry with the equally as charming Mr. Wolf, her love interest in the film.
- She looks very attractive and appealing, with her fashion sense always being on point: from elegant power suits, to fancy dresses to a badass black and yellow ninja-like suit as the Crimson Paw.
- Through athleticism, very advanced gadgets, strategic planning, creativity and stealth, Diane was a very successful thief as the Crimson Paw, becoming a legend among criminals.
- She would successfully steal treasures of all kinds, sometimes for profit, other times for mere fun, like with the Zumpango Diamond, which she stole twice and later kept as a ring hidden in plain sight.
- She always managed to evade the police and not even her true identity was ever discovered.
- She went where no criminal before or mostly after her ever went and almost stole the Golden Dolphin, with complete ease and a clear getaway, and only didn't go through with the hit of her own volition. Even the Bad Guys, who are 5 very skilled criminals (3 of them even being Magnificent Baddies themselves) stole the Golden Dolphin with some huge difficulties in the way.
- Upon realizing that she was endorsing the stereotypes about foxes being sly thieves, she returns the Dolphin and, ashamed of herself, she gives up crime altogether. She is noticeably the one villain in the film to have redeemed herself all on her own, while Wolf needed her as a good influence and the rest of the Bad Guys needed him as theirs.
- She successfully disappears from the criminal scene and joins politics so she can help people and atone for her life of crime.
- She rises to the rank of Governor and becomes a very beloved official thanks to her honesty, charisma and good policies, to the point where even Ms. Tarantula voted for her due to Diane's attention to climate issues.
- She competently runs Los Angeles even after a terrible accident where a Meteorite crashes and leaves a huge crater.
- She offers criticism on the sloppy way the Bad Guys run their heists, which, she adds, are predictable, and sees right through their exterior of villainous bravado and correctly deems them as insecure and frustrated.
- At the Golden Dolphin award ceremony, she correctly guesses the hidden meaning of a statue that Mr. Wolf (disguised as a Mr. Poodleton) dismisses as a pile of garbage: although the statue looks like a grotesque, shapeless metallic mass, it actually casts the shadow of a beautiful swan when looked at from a certain angle, signifying that things aren't always as they seem and need to be looked at from different perspectives. This shows Diane is well versed in the arts.
- When the disguised Wolf asks Diane to have a pic with "the Governor and a pile of garbage" (as Wolf needs the photo to bypass security), Diane playfully implies he's the pile of garbage by telling "Mr. Poodleton" to not be too hard on himself.
- This leaves some ambiguity as to whether or not Wolf's disguise actually fooled her. If it didn't, this would imply all she said of the statue was actually her subtly moving Wolf to redemption from the start.
- Although initially a hypocrite for not entertaining the idea the Bad Guys could reform despite being a redeemed criminal herself, she acknowledges her own hypocrisy when Wolf retorts her speeches on the goodness within everyone and how things need to be looked at from different perspectives and she does give their redemption the benefit of the doubt, while still skeptical about it being just a ruse (which was originally the case).
- When Wolf finally expresses his pent-up frustrations about the world hating and fearing him for being a wolf, Diane stealthily steals back her ring from Wolf (who had snatched it at the ceremony) to show him that "a wolf and a fox are not so different" and encourages Wolf to redeem himself and the rest of the gang not to prove a point or find popularity, but for their own sake.
- At the Gala, when Mr. Piranha starts the "Good Tonight" musical number so that Mr. Snake isn't caught, she indirectly invites Wolf to dance and the two show they are very good dancers, their bond strengthening to the point of implied romance all throughout.
- Her hidden agility and strength is also foreshadowed during the dance with both her slick dance moves and her, at one point, lifting Wolf over her head and spinning him around effortlessly.
- Her dance with Wolf contributes to the charity gala amassing 1 billion dollars.
- The newfound trust and possible feelings she has for him are two of the main reasons why Wolf finally decides to redeem himself for real at the end of the gala, if not the main one.
- After Marmalade incriminates the Bad Guys for the theft of the Love Meteorite and then provokes Wolf into looking like an homicidal maniac, Diane is the only one who still trusts Wolf, as she has seen him at his most genuine, and that trust only grows more when she sees that the coordinates to the Bad Guys' hideout that Wolf had given her were true.
- She also immediately smells something rotten about Marmalade when he goes from seemingly panicking after Wolf almost attacked him "unprovoked", to immediately calm and chatty the second he's interviewed.
- Disguised as the Crimson Paw, she goes to the S.U.C.M. Prison and, through athleticism, strength and sheer trickery (including knocking out two fleeing guards by kicking a shoe at them), she takes down dozens of guards single-handedly so as to free the innocent Bad Guys and, after taking on even more guards, escapes with them via boat.
- She shows she has a bit of scientific know-how by using the correct terminology to describe how the Meteorite can be used for mind-control thanks to its electromagnetic properties.
- When the Bad Guys split up from Wolf due to feeling betrayed by his redeeming himself, Diane consoles him, telling him of her own redemption and assuring him that, if his friends are really that, they'll forgive and join him.
- A small detail, but it's shown she practices what she preaches about climate awareness since her house has solar panels on the roof.
- She is revealed to have an hidden base under her house and takes Wolf there to gear up with all her gadgets.
- With Wolf's help, she deciphers Marmalade's plan of using mind-controlled guinea pigs to hijack the vans carrying the charity money and bringing it all to him.
- Uses hacking to determine the vans' coordinates and directions. She could've used her position as Governor to get that information, but the paperwork would've have slowed things down.
- Having stolen Wolf's car to give it to him, the two head off to stop Marmalade by stealing the Meteorite from him and almost succeed were it not for Wolf falling for a trap Diane even warned him about.
- Rescued by the reformed Webs, Shark and Piranha (while Snake, redeemed as well, is pretending to have joined Marmalade), she and Wolf steal the Meteorite (actually a lamp) and escape the compound.
- When having stolen the "Meteorite" doesn't seem to have stopped the mind-control, the gang opts to using gadgets of Diane's and hacking from Webs to redirect the hijacked vans back to their destinations.
- During the mission to attach the redirectors to the vans, Diane has a very cool action scene chasing them with her motorcycle, including a slow Mo moment where she slides beneath one of the trucks.
- Plans to have the gang return the "Meteroite" to the police so they're at least partially pardoned.
- At the end, to defend the Bad Guys, she is willing to reveal she was the Crimson Paw and ruin her political career for them before Wolf and the rest turn themselves in to protect her.
- She tells Wolf how proud she is of him because of his redemption.
- She takes care of Wolf's pet cat while he is in prison with the gang.
- When the Bad Guys are released just a year later for good behavior, Diane comes to retrieve them via car and her, the Bad Guys and the cat ride off into the horizon, ready to do some hero work.
- Although she is initially nothing but condescending and contemptuous of the Bad Guys for being sloppy, insecure and shamelessly enforcing their species' stereotypes, she eventually comes to befriend and care for them, especially for Wolf, her implied love interest, helps in their redemption and is even willing to ruin her life for their sake by the end.
- In the end, she was the main force behind Wolf's redemption and, indirectly through him, that of the rest of the Bad Guys.
What Makes Her a Baddie?
- Before seeing the error of her ways and reforming, she was the Crimson Paw, a master thief who stole any treasure she could get her paws on for either profit or just fun.
- Even post-redemption, she kept the Zumpengo Diamond, an artifact she stole (twice), as a ring as "[She] is sentimental".
- Although it was needed for the Bad Guys to be freed, which was the right thing to do, she nonetheless assaulted, incapacitated and locked up dozens of innocent guards, even the fleeing ones (though even they were a possible threat as they could've sounded the alarm). Making it worse is some of the ways she takes her out being overly mischievous (i.e. leaving one of them with no pants) and she isn't remorseful about it at all, being instead outright proud of her work.
Trivia
- She is based on Agent Ellen Fox from the original book series.
- She's the only Magnificent Baddie in the film to not be a member of the Bad Guys.
- In spite of how close both of them are to Wolf, Diane and the fellow MB Mr. Snake never interact with each other.
- With 4 characters in it qualifying, The Bad Guys is currently the individual film with the highest number of Magnificent Baddies.
- She is the 200th page in this wiki.
External Links
- Diane Foxington at the Heroes wiki
- Diane Foxington at the DreamWorks Animation wiki
- Diane Foxington at the The Bad Guys wiki
 Magnificent Baddies
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Animated Features Animated Television | ||