Spies In Disguise

Official Australian release date: 1/1/20. Viewed: 4/1/20.

Directors: Nick Bruno & Troy Quane

Actors: Will Smith, Tom Holland, Ben Mendelsohn, Rashida Jones

Genre: Action / Comedy

Rating: PG

  

‘Spies in Disguise’ is essentially a family-friendly James Bond, with the minor twist that the spy gets turned into a pigeon! It’s got plenty of action and adventure for an animated film, with Lance (Smith) the super-spy fighting the Yakuza in one of the opening scenes. He’s assisted by the weird gadget guy, Walter (Holland) as they’re framed by the villain, Killian (Mendelsohn – great to hear his Aussie accent), who has a robotic hand, and are chased down by Marcy (Jones) from a FBI-like agency.

It’s a bit like ‘Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs’, in that Walter is an awkward inventor of weird and wonderful gadgets, but wants to make the world a better place and make them non-lethal, rather than just guns and bombs. This obviously clashes with Lance’s views, especially when he’s transformed into a pigeon via gene-editing (100% impossible). Hence, Will Smith spends most of the film voicing a pigeon, which is also where much of the humour comes from.

There are quite a few funny moments, especially as pigeon-Lance inadvertently befriends other pigeons. It’s mostly fun and fast-paced. The main thing I didn’t like is that Spider-Man spent most of ‘Far From Home’ fighting drones in Venice, which is essentially what Tom Holland ends up doing here. I guess they’re easy to have as disposable bad guys. Cool to hear some of the voices, but the film’s heart comes from the friendship and teamwork formed by Lance and Walter, as well as the positive message that we’re all weird in our own way – and that’s a good thing.

Overall: Fun family pleaser.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.