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Acting
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Directing
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Story
Starring: Tom Holland, Will Smith, Rashida Jones
Director: Nick Bruno, Troy Quane
Running Time: 102 mins
Spies In Disguise is an American film about a superspy who, after being turned into pigeon, must team up with a lowly IT kid to save the world.
While it’s a perfectly harmless, light-hearted kids’ animation, Spies In Disguise is far from the most entertaining family movie you’ll ever watch. Never quite striking up great laughs, nor telling a particularly great story, this is a pretty run-of-the-mill animation that’s easy to forget once the credits have begun rolling.
Now, a kids’ movie about spies (in disguise) is not the place to go if you’re looking for complex, original storytelling. There are countless better family movies which fit that bill, but Spies In Disguise tells a story that’s often so non-sensical and simultaneously bland that it’s not even good to watch as a kind of turn-your-brain-off bit of fun.
A far cry from the blend of captivating, charming and heartwarming storytelling that Blue Sky Studios delivered with Ice Age, Spies In Disguise has very little to offer from start to finish, with uninteresting characters, and a plot that pushes beyond the bounds of sense and reality, making for a confusing and plainly messy watch throughout.
Lead actors Tom Holland and Will Smith do their best to bring some liveliness back into the mix, although the pair – whether in human or pigeon form – never really gel together. In fact, of all the performances here, it’s actually Rashida Jones in a slightly smaller but more grounded role who delivers most of the fun, never quite ending up in the same shrill realm as her two co-stars.
Overall, then, I really didn’t think much of Spies In Disguise. While there’s nothing particularly terrible about the film, it’s a really rather dull, bland family animation that lacks laughs, good storytelling and heart, core ingredients that make up some of the most memorable animated movies of the last few decades. So, that’s why I’m giving Spies In Disguise a 6.0.
