Spies in Disguise (2019)

Blue Sky animation studios has produced about one (count em) film I've enjoyed in their entire run. Now they have been bought out by Disney and will be folded into the Mouse House which I hope means Blue Sky will pretty much disappear and not that they will start to influence how Disney makes their animated movies. While lately I haven't been a big fan of what Disney and even their other division Pixar have done, I still have hopes they will return to making great films soon. The influence of Blue Sky not withstanding.

But I digress. I am here to review their latest (and second last as I understand it) animated feature Spies in Disguise a Bond spoof where the superspy is turned into a bird which naturally turns out to be the best thing that could happen to him and his spying career. Along the way he learns the meaning of friendship and trying something different. I know, I know. It is as predictable and as common as it sounds but coming from Blue Sky that is what we have come to expect. They aren't known for being revolutionary but for producing mass market, assembly line, cookie cutter crowd pleasers with no lasting impact. I mean does anyone truly have any nostalgic love for the Ice Age or Rio movies? No matter how many of them they make.

But it turns out Spies in Disguise is one of their more entertaining outings. Mostly it works due to the unending charm of its lead Will Smith who plays his self centered super spy with all the charisma he can muster. I'm sure he adlibbed some of the lines and some of his riffs end up being really funny. Holland's character is less successful but overall the film ends up being fun enough to suffer through.

As these animation studios seem want to do, Spies in Disguise sets up what could be a franchise and a series of spy/bird movies. I hope Disney shelves this stuff and just leave it at this. It really wasn't terrible so don't tempt fate. Focus instead on mining whatever talent was at Blue Sky and putting them to good use on the Disney aesthetic.

Spies in Disguise
Starring: Will Smith, Tom Holland, Rashida Jones, Ben Mendelson, Karen Gillan, DJ Khalid, Masi Oka, Reba McEntire, Rachel Brosnahan
Directors: Troy Quane, Nick Bruno
Writers: Brad Copeland, Lloyd Taylor