Spies in Disguise (2019)

[Malcolm R]

Title: Spies in Disguise

Tagline: Super Spy. Super Fly.

Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure

Director: Troy Quane, Nick Bruno

Cast: Will Smith, Tom Holland, Ben Mendelsohn, Karen Gillan, Rashida Jones, DJ Khaled, Masi Oka, Rachel Brosnahan, Reba McEntire, Peter S. Kim, Rashawn Nadine Scott

Release: 2019-12-24

Runtime: 102

Plot: When the world's best spy is turned into a pigeon, he must rely on his nerdy tech officer to save the world.

 

[Malcolm R]

Started seeing ads for this on TV. Looks like fun, and it's been far too long since we've had a Blue Sky animation film (last was Ferdinand back in 2017). The main characters are voiced by Tom Holland and Will Smith.

Blue Sky is now part of Disney due to the Fox merger. It will be interesting to see if they promote this at a level similar to their Disney/Pixar animation titles.

It's been delayed a few times. Not sure if that's indicative of issues with the film itself, or if it was just caught up in the Disney/Fox merger maelstrom.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Blue Sky is now part of Disney due to the Fox merger. It will be interesting to see if they promote this at a level similar to their Disney/Pixar animation titles.

I think the release date indicates otherwise. Disney has decided to release this five days after their own mega-blockbuster which will also be targeting family audiences, and everybody else. There's no way they don't know that Star Wars will crush this. If they wanted it to do well, they would move it.

I suspect that they will use this movie bombing to either justify the closure of Blue Sky (it's not like Disney needs another animation studio) or, if they're merciful, turn it into a Disney+ content engine.

 

[Edwin-S]

I think the release date indicates otherwise. Disney has decided to release this five days after their own mega-blockbuster which will also be targeting family audiences, and everybody else. There's no way they don't know that Star Wars will crush this. If they wanted it to do well, they would move it.

I suspect that they will use this movie bombing to either justify the closure of Blue Sky (it's not like Disney needs another animation studio) or, if they're merciful, turn it into a Disney+ content engine.

This scenario is exactly why the Disney/Fox merger never should have been allowed to go forward.

 

[Malcolm R]

EW Review, Grade B:

https://ew.com/movie-reviews/2019/12/16/spies-in-disguise-review/

 

[Edwin-S]

People who hate spoilers of any kind should avoid reading that. Not that I think there will be much interest for the film around these quarters.

I'll probably go to see it though.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Has anybody seen this movie?

 

[Edwin-S]

Has anybody seen this movie?

I went to see it yesterday.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I went to see it yesterday.

Well, how was it?

 

[Edwin-S]

Well, how was it?

Well, I thought it was okay. The 'B' rating that the EW review gives it is about right, at for me. It is a bit odd because it has quite a bit of violent action in it and yet the theme is about the consequences of violence and whether there is a better way of managing conflict. The non-lethal gadgets that one of the protagonists invents give the film a kid-friendly vibe. On the other hand, Will Smith's violence prone agent gives it a more teen to adult quality.

The villain of the piece is the typical Bond film style bad ass; although, his motivation for doing what he does has a twist to it. I thought there were some good laughs with Smith's pigeon persona, but the trailers for the film did give away some of those bits.

My viewing was 2D. They never brought the 3D version in for this film which was unfortunate because there were some sequences in the film that looked like good setups for 3D viewings.

Overall, I enjoyed it. It is probably worth the price of a matinee or using one of those movie subs that you guys have down there like A-list. Of course, I do have a propensity to give an animated film a pass that I may not do for a live action film. It definitely is not to the level of Pixar, Disney Animation or Laika but it is still good quality animation on the technical level.

 

[Edwin-S]

It will be too bad if this film ends up being used as an excuse by Disney to shutter Blue Sky if it underperforms. The other thing that can be said about this film is that, no matter what one thinks of it, it is an original story, not a prequel or a sequel. I wish people would give original content more of a chance to succeed.

 

[Jake Lipson]

My viewing was 2D. They never brought the 3D version in for this film which was unfortunate because there were some sequences in the film that looked like good setups for 3D viewings.

My multiplex, which has 20 screens to fill, is currently showing this on two of them. One showtime per day is in 3D and the others are all 2D.