The ‘Will Smith’ Spy: First time in Venice?
The ‘Tom Holland’ Inventor: Nah… I was here just a year ago, fighting a Hydro-Man that turned out to be Mysterio. They’ve rebuilt well.
Hello, and welcome to another review from Today Junior; I’ll be leaving the live-performance stuff aside for the next few reviews and going all the back to the start of the year to catch up on some animation. Spies in Disguise came out on the 1st of January in Australia, so it’s technically a 2020 release down under; in fact, it couldn’t be more so. The movie follows Lance Sterling (voiced by Will Smith), an international super spy who prefers to work alone, and Walter Beckett (voiced by Tom Holland), the laughing stock of the agency’s weapons division, just because he believes in developing violence-avoiding gadgetry. The two must team up when Walter mistakenly turns Sterling into a pigeon… that’s right, a pigeon. Hey, Boss Baby is an Academy Award nominated movie; give this thing a chance! The movie is directed by Troy Quane and Nick Bruno, and produced by the company of Ice Age fame, Blue Sky Studios.
With all due respect, this is a very ‘pigeony’ movie right of the bat, making the point that pigeons are practically everywhere, often seen as a nuisance, and could definitely be capable of being covert spies, for infiltration, if they wanted to be. Walter even uses ordinary pigeons as a weapon at one point, manipulating their love of gluten-free breadcrumbs to escape the bad guy, and when Sterling is a pigeon himself, he finds usefulness in a flock, that helps out on the mission, as well as providing some silliness. If I was an illtreated rat-of-the-sky, I’d be pretty happy this movie has my back, for it’s very favourable to pigeons. For instance, I just learnt that pigeons are one of the fastest birds on the planet, and can see in front and behind them at the same time. That’s pretty cool. I already knew what good homing birds they are too, capable of expert navigation. I also now know what a cloaca is, and may never forget.
The animation cinematography, if that’s what it’s called, sets this movie up very well. I love the way the opening scene soars through Washington D.C., and the way the movie tracks the action when required. Walter’s creative technology allows the movie to pull off a colourful finale, without blood being spilled. The visuals, especially locations like Venice, are astonishing. I bitched about the way the townspeople were drawn in The Addams Family, and I have similar concerns here, around the legs of our characters; so long and unnatural. (I just think, if Sterling was an action figure, wouldn’t he be too top heavy?) Apart from that, the animation across the board gets a big tick of approval. The villain, Killian (voiced by Ben Mendelsohn), is a terrifically evil-looking bastard, with a claw and a bionic eye, up there with perhaps, Shan Yu from Mulan, for character design. Mendelsohn does too well at voicing this jaded Australian; and I’ve always yearned for an ill-tempered Australian international villain, and now I’ve got a good one. Yippee! Tom Holland has been smashing out the voicework recently – Spies in Disguise, Dolittle and Onward – but this is easily the better character, helped insurmountably by Walter’s setup as a child, along with clever dialogue throughout, and his partnership with Sterling. Sterling also succeeds at being as cool and capable as I imagine Will Smith to be… Walter and Sterling; I want this duo around for a couple of sequels.
There’s really not a lot to dislike about this movie – it’s smart, it’s funny; it’s smart AND funny, which is a natural winning combination. There’s slapstick cartoon violence that hails back to the classic Looney Tunes days. My particular favourite funny moment(s) come from the agents who believe they hold a magic hand because Sterling touched it. Even smaller details, like the establishing subtitles that mix up Walter’s house with ‘Wilbur’s’, because Sterling can’t remember the inventors name, are golden. When Sterling first enters the agency, he comes across as a selfish guy, but as the movie does on, it’s clearer that he just doesn’t work well with others. Walter and Sterling both seem to have lost people they cared about, and handle preventing that happening again in different ways. Sterling believes in fighting fire with fire, but hasn’t even given kitty glitter a chance, (can you believe it?), until Walter comes along.
The movie props itself up to be a respectful spy film with a classy James-Bond-like opening title sequence and an action-packed introduction. Of recent animated movies, Spies in Disguise reminded me with similarities to Storks, when it comes to birds and wit, and that’s a good thing.
4.0
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