Random Movie Review - Spies in Disguise

So Blue Sky. One of the many animation studios out there that have made quite a number of films. Despite having a few misfires, their most recent films have actually done pretty well. Today we look at their first film released under Disney following their buyout of various Fox assets and its one of those few where the main characters actually look or come close to looking like their voice actors (though despite both actors being quite muscular, only one of the characters is such in the film or it's made out that way). Its also one of two animated films released in near proximity to one another to have Tom Holland as one of the main stars. It's also a spy comedy which hasn't had the best of times in recent years. But you can still get a laugh or two in them even if the films in general are just not all that great. So let's see what's going on in this film:

 

Will Smith voices Lance Sterling, a cocky secret agent who works for HTUV which stands for Honour, Trust, Unity and Valor. He is sent out to Japan to recover a drone from a local arms dealer there. But when a cybernetic terrorist called Killian (voiced by Ben Mendelsohn) arrives, Sterling breaks orders and engages in battle with him and the arms dealer's minions. Upon returning to base, he confronts his quartermaster Walter (voiced by Holland) and fires him out of refusal to believe that killing can't always be the answer to the world's problems. When its discovered that Killian used Sterling's face to take to drone, Sterling is labelled a traitor and is forced to team up with Walter to find the drone and stop Killian's plans from coming to fruition. Even if it means becoming a pigeon to do just that.

To be quite honest, this film is OK at best. It uses a lot of clichés that have been used in so many spy films (comedy or not) such as a James Bond like title sequence, the idea of an unlikely duo working together and so many other things. But that's OK because the film works well with all of that and the chemistry between Smith and Holland is great. I guess the only original thing this film is going for is the idea of having a pigeon as a spy and the name of the agency being something other than say FBI or MI6. So yeah that's all I have to say, but it gives me hope that Blue Sky are finally moving on from doing more Ice Age films and films with a celebrity cast and with Disney now in charge, things can only get better for them we hope. 8/10