Spies in Disguise

This animated spy comedy has some interesting ideas, a great cast, and plenty of child-friendly humour, but when all is said and done, like the other animated films from Blue Sky Studios, Spies in Disguise is not in the same league as the recent Disney, Pixar or even Illumination animated films.

Premise:  Super-spy Lance Sterling (Will Smith) is on the trail of a stolen military drone when he’s framed for the theft by a mysterious robotic-armed villain (Ben Mendelsohn).  With internal affairs agent Marcy Kappel (Rashida Jones) hunting him down, Lance has to turn to eccentric inventor Walter Beckett (Tom Holland) for help … but Walter’s latest invention accidentally turns Lance into a talking pigeon.

Review:

The above premise for Spies in Disguise probably gives you a good idea of the conflicting tones of this film, which on the one hand deals with some fairly serious themes and ideas, and on the other hand, has a main plot line which involves a suave super-spy being turned into a talking pigeon.  It’s probably fair to say that for me, the two different tones within the movie never really gelled coherently – but that said, there’s still a good amount of fun to be had along the way.

Will Smith voices Lance Sterling, the Bond-a-like super-spy, but for me, it sounded like he was someone doing an impression of a clichéd Will Smith delivery for the most part.  Maybe it’s just that Will Smith’s vocal delivery usually goes so hand-in-hand with his physical performances, that it seems odd to have the one without the other – but whatever the reason, it just felt like Lance Sterling’s animated delivery and physical performance didn’t quite match the energy of Will Smith’s vocal performance.

“...veers between child-friendly comedy & more serious themes...”

Maybe that was intentional (perhaps to suggest how emotionally repressed Lance is?), but it’s a problem that only seems to affect the animation of Lance’s character, as the animation for Walter Beckett, Marcy Kappel, and even the robot-armed villain all seem to better match the vocal performances of Tom Holland, Rashida Jones and Ben Mendelsohn respectively.  Outside of the four main characters, the roles are all fairly thinly drawn - Rachel Brosnahan plays Walter’s mother (but only in one flashback scene), while neither Karen Gillan nor DJ Khaled have much to do or make much of an impression as the other internal affairs agents.

Tonally, the film veers between simplistic (but effective) child-friendly comedy, and more serious themes and concepts, such as the perpetuation of cycles of violence, and the moral and practical dangers of fighting fire with fire.  In that respect, I was impressed that Spies in Disguise attempted to have a real, thought-provoking message at its core – but unfortunately, whereas films like Pixar’s recent Onward have seamlessly combined laugh-out-loud family-friendly comedy with emotionally and intellectually satisfying themes, Spies in Disguise lurches clumsily back and forth between the one and the other.

“...never really feels like it’s firing on all cylinders...”

The comedy itself is effective enough, and is likely to appeal to the under-10s market in particular, but it’s more a case of it being “good enough” to keep the kids entertained, rather than it having any particularly memorably comedic moments.

All in all, despite its by-the-numbers plot and inconsistent tone, Spies in Disguise is still enjoyable enough if you’re looking for an hour and a half of family-friend entertainment.  Although it never really feels like it’s firing on all cylinders, the mis-matched buddy chemistry between Will Smith and Tom Holland is effective enough, and credit should be given for making a children’s action film with a message of peace and pacifism at its heart.  But ultimately, there is still some way to go before a Blue Sky Studios film is up there with the big three animation studios.