Spies in Disguise (2019) Review!!!

Synopsis – When the world’s best spy is turned into a pigeon, he must rely on his nerdy tech officer to save the world.

My Take – While one might have thought his participation as an aging assassin in the misguided experiment called Gemini Man and his CGI filled yet enjoyable turn as Genie in the Disney‘s billion dollar live action, Aladdin, was enough Will Smith for one year (we also got Bad Boys For Life coming out next month), you were wrong, as this time around he is a super spy on the likes of James Bond, the old school one with the cool gadgets, outlandish bad guys with over the top plans of destruction.

But the catch here is that the said film is instead an animated from 20th Century Fox‘s Blue Sky Studios, and Smith‘s spy unfortunately turns into a pigeon in the first thirty minutes of the film. Loosely based on Lucas Martell‘s 2009 animated short ‘Pigeon Impossible,’ the crazy premise that doesn’t sound all that enticing, is actually quite the harmless entertainment, the studio has always churned out.

With tons of zippy action set pieces and an infectious chemistry shared between Smith and Tom Holland‘s childlike exuberance, the film directed by first timers Troy Quane and Nick Bruno also manages to be quite hilarious, with inaudible on-screen gags that left me in splits the entire time. The entire sequence in which Smith‘s character is transformed being the standout. While the film is never big on ideas it still manages to be passable fun if you’re looking for a casual diversion from the real mundane life.

The story follows Lance Sterling (voiced by Will Smith), the world’s most awesome spy, who finds himself in trouble, when he is outsmarted by Killian (voiced by Ben Mendelsohn), a new yet powerful technology-based terrorist mastermind with a left bionic arm, and is framed for stealing the very device he sent to retrieve from Katsu Kimura (voiced by Masi Oka), a Japanese arms dealer.

On the run from his very own agency and a team led by Marcy Kappel (voiced by Rashida Jones), an internal affairs officer and her associated Eyes (voiced by Karen Gillian) and Ears (voiced by DJ Khaled), Lance is forced to turn Walter Beckett (voiced by Tom Holland), one of the agency’s quirkier tech people who Lance himself fired. Mainly as Walter, whose job was to develop weapons for spies, but instead made gadgets which used cuteness instead of mass destruction, to disarm enemies, has been working on an invisibility formula.

But when Lance accidentally drinks the said formula, it transforms him into a talking pigeon. Without an active antidote to revert him back immediately, Walter convinces Lance to use his new form and his unconventional gadgets at disposal to stop Killian and his master plan.

The spy genre, especially as portrayed in the James Bond and Mission: Impossible franchise, is one where filmmakers can let their creativity go wild, however, here, because this is an animated feature, there’s a certain expectation of silliness to go along with the proceedings and the film delivers.

Here, directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, who have previously worked in the animation department of films like Rio, Ice Age: Collision Course and 9, along with writers Brad Copeland and Lloyd Taylor dream up innumerable outlandish concepts and transcend all the spy clichés with one hilarious sight gag that sort of becomes a play on spies literally in disguise.

The filmmakers squeeze the said gag by placing Lance’s character in a variety of ridiculous situations that undermines everything respectable about him, starting with his physical transformation as he comes to grips with his corporeal condition, to his sudden compulsion to eat food left on the ground. The layer of slapstick is persistent and goofy enough to get you through the swift run-time, even if you will probably never revisit this film again.

The stunts and action sequences are also fast-paced and sleek, following animated film logic of large teams getting taken out at once and gravity not being an issue. While the screenplay has nothing new to offer to the spy comedy genre it sets itself apart from the traditional spy thriller by its emphasis on gentler methods of conflict resolution, or at least less bloody ones. It’s refreshing to see bubbles, bubblegum and lots of kitty glitter defeat murderous robots.

More importantly, the film implies that violence just perpetuates a cycle of violence that creates bigger bad guys and necessitates the need for stronger good guys and that the desire for protection over destruction makes someone weird or abnormal, when, in truth, hate for a person is taught. While there is the typical opposites-forced-to-work-together trope, none of the rest of the film feels forced in either narrative, character development, or humor. Everything evolves naturally as the situation calls for it.

Voice performance wise, Will Smith is in usual cool guy element, which comes through loud and clear here, even in animated form, and Tom Holland brings his now familiar Peter Parker/Spider Man goofiness that continues to work well for him. While Ben Mendelsohn continues to extend his filmography of playing the antagonist ably. In supporting turns, Rashida Jones, Karen Gillan, Masi Oka, DJ Khaled, Reba McEntire and Rachel Brosnahan also function well. On the whole, ‘Spies in Disguise’ is a fun-filled comedic spy adventure which deserves a watch for Will Smith and Tom Holland‘s undeniable chemistry.