Nerdy Walter Beckett (Tom Holland) made gadgets for his hero cop mom until her sacrifice. He spends his time making non-lethal gadgets for a secret spy organization. Super spy Lance Sterling (Will Smith) is angered by one of his devices and fires him on the spot. Lance wants things that go boom. Then Lance is accused of stealing and goes on the run to clear his name. The only person who can help is the nerd he fired earlier. Walter has a new secret potion and Lance takes it before being told that it would turn him into a pigeon.

I was expecting worst but this is actually fun. Holland and Smith are a good duo. Smith is being a cartoon Smith which is the normal Smith. Holland is a nerdy kid. They're great together. Solid animation is from Blue Sky. I'm happy that the other birds don't talk but Lance can hear them. The last act does go on a bit too long. It's biggest mistake is probably the forgettable title. I'm looking straight at it and I still don't remember it. Call it James Bird. This is good for adults and probably fun for the kids.

"Spies in Disguise" (or also "Spies Undercover") is an American animated movie mostly in the English language from 2019 that runs for approximately 100 minutes. First of all, I would like to say that I don't like the title at all and it is pretty uncreative because a spy is by definition in disguise. Never a good sign if a film already lacks attention to detail in the title only to create a mediocre rhyme. Many directors and writers worked on this film and I will spare you all the names because you can check out the list yourself if you care, but the one thing that unites almost all of them is that they are not super experienced or prolific. For example, the two directors have worked consistently in less influential positions, but for one of them it was the first directorial effort ever and for the other also only the second after a television short film. But the ones who are maybe more to blame than the directors here are the writers because the story never really peaks on a level that had me on the edge of my seat. So definitely a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth and they should have realized that they need to fix the film first before releasing it. Oh well, it is not all bad admittedly, so maybe it sounds a bit harsh, but I believe the weak and forgettable here is more frequent than the good-quality moments. By the way this film was inspired by another animated short film from actually many years ago, in which a secret agent is transformed into a pigeon. At least they gave credit to the writer of this one, maybe also to avoid legal action. Anyway, now let me talk a bit about this film here: It achieved two nominations at the Annies (animation Oscars) and another for its sound, so it is probably among the 20 most known animated features from 2019 you could say. But to me, it would probably only be somwhere around top50. It was not a particularly good watch. The first thing I actually thought when seeing the agent was that "oh my he looks totally like Will Smith", so I was not surprised at all to read that Smith lent him his voice. They clearly animated the character knowing Smith would be the voice actor. I certainly liked Smith more back in the day than today, also because of these questionable comments about how the Academy treats African-American actors, but let's not get any further into that. I cannot really say how good his voice acting here was anyway because I watched the German dub and that was fine. What I really liked from early on was that the film included really many James Bond references and some were fairly funny. Already the film's intro felt like basically an animated spoof version (because of the pigeons) of a real Bond intro. Of course also the fact that the antagonist has this artificial hand seemed like a trademark from a Bond film. Or when early on the good guy enters the room and we see so many gadgets being tested that very moment. It really felt like something between Bond and Q, for example the hat that is partially a razer blade in disguise (now there the words "in disguise" are appropriate). There is one reference even in which the more likable central character says "Bond" specifically and Smith's character even mocks Bond a little bit when he says that the great thing about being the world's most successful spy is that everybody knows your name. Well, remember how Bond keeps introducing himself with his trademark words? So I guess Lance is more (in)famous. By the way thinking of it, there is not one moment when he or the other guy are actually spies, so yeah that makes the title even worse than I perceived it earlier in my review (which was also already pretty bad).

Another problem this film has is that it loses itself so many times in exaggerated action sequences that are explosions and nothing else basically and these also go for way too long. This was especially disappointing because I felt the film did not even need to do that because on other occasions away from these animated special effects, it was at least partially a good watch and had some creative inclusions. So maybe they simply should have kept it at 85 minutes and gone with a little more substance over style. Then again, some of the kids in my showing liked these, so maybe difficult for me to say and it is just subjective perception. The one moment I myself liked the most was really briefly before he is turned into a pigeon when the young guy says something like it is going to happen in 45 seconds and we see Smith's character's motionless face for like 30 seconds before he decides he has enough of this nonsense. That was genuinely funny and I wish there could have been more scenes like this. Really simple, still very effective. Apart from that, I was not sure if really any of the other characters were interesting enough here. The female agent (voiced by Rashida Jones from Parks and Recreation and most recently also a successful high-profile writer) was okay early on, but got more and more forgettable the longer the film went. I thought initially that she could end up as a love interest for the super agent, then maybe that she could become a love interest for the scientist, but neither happened eventually and that was the right decision. No love story needed here. Then again, I also felt that for example the female pigeon, who was clearly crushing on the agent (when he was a pigeon) could maybe (accidentally) get turned into a human and be super hot or so that Smith's character falls for her immediately. Did not happen either. But who knows, maybe some of these ideas actually come into effect if they ever make a sequel. I have a feeling that this film was not the final chapter yet to these characters. By the way, the young scientist dude is voiced by Tom Holland and he has his own history of course with superhero films as you probably all saw in the last few years. Let's not drift away now, but I actually want to say a bit more about his character here and while I like his looks, there were many aspects to his story (or I should say stories) that really did not work out well at all. The sob story with his mother was totally for the sake of it and so ineffective. Pixar would have turned this into emotional gold I am sure, but it just added nothing. What also added almost nothing for me was the idea about him being called a fool by everybody and how it impacted him emotionally. The film also came short there. And finally, why does he want the agent to stay in pigeon mode? That made no sense. In general, the two did not have the chemistry I would have liked them to have in order to carry this film to a level where I would call it a satisfying watch.

So yeah, I am the last person who thinks/says that animated films are for kids only, but this one here is maybe really more for young audiences than for grown-ups, even if there are okay moments that I liked and laughed at. Or at least smiled at. Funnily these moments were nothing the kids laughed at. And then there were moments that nobody laughed at like "50 Shades of Yay". Come on, did you really go there? This is one of several moments that was not even funny from a cringe perspective, just a joke gone wrong completely and there were many of these. Visually, however we should not take for granted that it was a decent watch, only because this is almost always true when it comes to animated films these days. There are not many that feel flawed from the visual/technical perspective. There was one moment though that I really liked especially. Or two moments actually and that was when they were heading for the bad guy's hideout and we see these gigantic super rough waves there. This looked amazing, I cannot say otherwise. But even there when I was impressed for a moment, it was back to normal quickly afterwards because the film came short right away again from other perspectives. I am talking about these drones. Now when we see them, all thousand, show up behind the agent, this could have been a truly spectacularly hopeless moment for being outnumbered, but it feels so rushed and ineffective. Actually I hated almost all about the drones. We find out he stole this one, so where do the others come from. There are no reports about others being stolen, so he built them himself? That is not even possible because I mean he has no team or so. He is a solo fighter like the agent. By the way, this part about him becoming a team/duo player towards the end did not feel too convincing at all and this is a negative deal-breaker because it is maybe the biggest character development idea this film has. But back to the drones: There is also the scene when we have two of them go for the kid in the sea and they shoot him and he disappears off the radar, but of course we all know he is not dead. Which makes me question the early comment about the missing drone how it is really gritty and won't surrender before the target is dead. Speaking of death, I liked how the film was not scared to make references about characters dying and on one occasion, there is even one character pushed down into the abyss (not a bad guy) and he is probably dead. Kids these days can deal with stuff like that and that was a good decision regardless of the main antagonist being killed in the end or not. Let me add there that this decision to let him live was probably also directly linked to the idea of the scientist being anti-violence and anti-bloodshed, another plot reference that did not work out half as well as it could have. So much from this film feels just incredibly rushed. Overall, this is why I give it a thumbs-down. The comedy also was not high-quality enough frequently enough and some running gags like the glitter with cat pics did get old really quickly honestly. But yeah I don't know. Maybe people with a completely different approach to comedy and what they find funny will have a different perception. I still give it a thumbs-down overall, glad it never had a chance with the Oscars.

Will Smith voices super spy Lance Sterling who is accidentally turned into a pigeon by Walter, a geek inventor. Lance is mistaken for a bad guy and has become hunted by his own agency while being forced to team up with the inventor to save the world in a Bond-style spoof.

The character of Will Smith, who basically played himself is what made the film a joy to watch. I will admit I have grown weary of the fallen cop hero parent background in movies. Couldn't they get hit by a car directing traffic for a change?