Spies in Disguise

It's really a rip off of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and was quite disappointing. Walter is essentially like if Flint and Sam had a baby but more obnoxious with his can't-shut-his-mouth, self-righteous attitude. There's even some elements in the story taken from cloudy like the whole invention goes wrong thing. I was expecting it to at least be average because characters barring Walter didn't seem bad but it turned out worse than I thought. The characters are two dimensional with predictable arcs and Walter had no flaws so no character development besides a predictable bonding with Lance. Even the pigeons are one-dimensional. It's one of the top 10 or 15 worst animated films of the decade even if it came out at the tail end. Avoid it, it's so overrated.

_Spies in Disguise_ has a genuinely interesting methodology put forth revolving around the core ideals of teamwork, and non-lethal measures. Or at least it has that in the opening 5 minutes and closing 10. In between it has a pigeon instead. I don't mean "The pigeon thing is so ridiculous that it distracts from it", I mean they drop it altogether for the lion's share of the runtime because "WILL SMITH VOICES A PIGEON HAHAHA!" And sure those early concepts were laid on a little heavy while they were there, but this is a kids' movie, nuance isn't mandatory. It also didn't help that literally every single supporting character (but most especially Ben Mendelsohn's "Robot Hand") were far more likeable than either of the leads. Buuut it was okay. Okay. At a stretch. Okay. At best.

More than anything though, I just want to know if somebody goes into this without any idea of what the story is actually about, does it hit you as hard as the trailer did? Like is this _From Dusk till Dawn_ for pre-teens?

_Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product._

"Lance" is the super-effective, suave and sophisticated secret agent and "Walter" is his "Q" type of undervalued supporting boffin. It's fair to say that the former man treats the latter with disdain - he doesn't, after all, ever have to actually take the field! Desperate to impress, "Walter" convinces "Lance" that he can make him invisible! Snag? Well, it's a much more reliable formula for turning a man into a pigeon! "Rats with wings"? Well as our escapades become gradually more surreal we learn that pigeons do, actually, have some neat skills that are positively useful in the espionage game - and they are going to be really helpful as the two have to work together to restore "Lance" to his sharp-suited self whilst also apprehending the baddies bent on world domination. There's way too much dialogue here, but the last half hour is quite entertaining with plenty of action, some daft humour and a few messages about teamwork, trust and inter-reliance to underpin the predictability of it all. The animation is a bit too linear for my liking, but it's still an engaging testament to brain complementing brawn that is watchable enough.