Movie Review: Spies in Disguise

Movie Review: Spies in Disguise                                                                                                  2-17-22

In the final movie from Blue Sky Studios, Lance Sterling (Will Smith) is the greatest spy in the world. While all his other colleagues invent devices and gear that kill people, younger scientist Walter Beckit (Tom Holland) feels that’s it wrong to kill people. When Lance is framed for stealing a top-secret weapon, he has no choice but to seek help from Walter, who claims that he can make Lance disappear. He drinks Walter’s serum, but it turns him into a pigeon. Now Lance and Walter have to track down Cyborg villain Tristan McFord (Ben Mendelssohn) from killing every spy on the planet, while also trying to find a way to turn Lance back into a human.

The strengths of Spies in Disguise come from character animation that rival Disney and Pixar, top notch voice acting, and a good score from Theodore Shapiro. The weaknesses, unfortunately, come from the film’s protagonist Lance Sterling. Much like Kuzco in The Emperor’s New Groove, Lance cares only about himself and, at first, wants absolutely nothing to do with Walter.

Lance wishes he could push Walter out of the plane, but he can't.

I know it’s Will Smith’s shtick to play somewhat unlikable characters, which goes as far back as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but there are lots of actors who can play a variety of personalities, even if it does mean stepping out of their comfort zone. For example, Jim Carey is known for his crude humor in movies like The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He also, however, starred in non-crude family movies like The Truman Show and Sonic the Hedgehog. If Carey can master all that, why not Will Smith? Luckily, Lance does go through character development.

Lance is not at all impressed about Walter's kid-friendly weapons.

Disney and Fox wanted to turn Spies in Disguise into a major franchise, but the movie flopped at the box-office because it had to compete against Frozen 2, Jumanji: The Next Level, and Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker. With the failure of Spies in Disguise and COVID-19 running amuck, Disney decided to shut down Blue Sky Studios in spring 2021, even though they were 75% done on their next project, a feature film based on Noelle Stevenson’s web comic Nimona.

For those unfamiliar, Nimona is what would happen if you crossed Adventure Time with Treasure Planet. The comic centers around a teenage shapeshifter named Nimona, who becomes a sidekick for villain Ballister Blackheart. The movie adaptation would’ve been directed by Patrick Osborne, who won the Oscar for the Disney short Feast. Chloe Grace Moretz and Riz Ahmed were cast as Nimona and Blackheart, and the movie was reportedly 75% complete when Disney announced that the project would be cancelled.

Anyways, while not the best animated movie of 2019, Spies in Disguise is a fun film to watch during Black History Month.

Rating: 3.45 stars out of 5

PS. As for which studio now fills in Blue Sky’s niche, I’d say that title belongs to WAG (Warner Animation Group), the studio behind The LEGO Movies, Storks, Smallfoot, and Scoob! I’ll do a 2-part article about the company on January 7th 2023, when WAG turns 10.