The Badness are a group of poachers who are the main antagonists in the film Elephant Tales.
Role in the film
Some time prior to the events of the film, or in between the film, they have captured two baby Hamadryas baboons, a warthog, a baby Vervet monkey, and Cub, the lion cub (and most likely killing his father and mother, the king and queen of the jungle), have killed the mothers of Chump, the chimpanzee, and Stretch, the Giraffe, and have massacred many rhinos. They first appear at the beginning of the film, when they spot the young elephant Tutu and go and kill his herd off-screen. Tutu's older brother, Zef, not wanting Tutu to learn of the cruelty of The Badness, lies to his brother that their mother and the rest of the herd were taken up into the sky by a rainbow. Later in the film, Zef is caught in one of their traps and is taken to their camp, but Zef, the baboons, the monkey, the warthog, and Cub are freed by Chump, with the Badness' original camp being destroyed by a fire. Later, when Cub is seperated from the group by exhaustion, Zef tells Tutu the truth about their mother and the herd, with Chump and Stretch realizing that The Badness also killed their mothers. Toward the end of the film, The Badness is attacked by Tutu, Zef, Chump, and Stretch. Three of them were trapped in the exact same cage that Zef was trapped in earlier, When one of them gains the upper hand by tying a rope around the necks of Stretch and Zef and traps Chump in a net. The animals' confidence is boosted when Cub returns.
After two of the poachers mock cub, all of them are trapped in the cage. Zef is about to kill them, but stops, realizing that if he did it, he would be no better than The Badness. What became of The Badness is unknown, but they are either most likely arrested or have given up poaching.