Spies in Disguise (2019)

Focused on super-spy Lance Sterling (Will Smith) and his impossibly smooth antics and witty dialogue, there’s no doubt in my mind that “Spies in Disguise” (2019) was both a child-friendly love-letter and an adult-focused teasing lampoon of the spy genre. But it’s more than that: the creators were clearly fans of the movie “Get Smart” (2008) and the TV show “Archer” (2009+).

As the previews showed, a super-high-tech concoction from terminally-misunderstood scientist Walter (Tom Holland) turned Lance into a pigeon who could somehow talk to both humans and other pigeons.
And, with that piece of ridiculous world-building put in place, the movie went all-out on silly, impossible stunts in a way that still felt in-universe believable. They set their internal consistency and followed it throughout; nothing on screen felt like it was too-far outside of reason. In one scene, a dude’s bones turned into jelly and he turned out fine, but that followed other, equally implausible things that we’ve become accustomed to, thanks to decades of impossible James Bond stunts.

Of course, with Lance being the world’s best-known spy (a bit of an oxymoron) and Walter as a painfully underappreciated genius, they both had story-arcs to complete. They followed and ended exactly as you’d expect, so there wasn’t anything particularly ground-breaking there. Fortunately, being a kids movie, it didn’t have to be. It was a tale about using your talents for the betterment of others and finding acceptance without losing who you are – a story that is already plenty complicated in real life. 

Lance worked for a never-named government entity that bore striking resemblance to the “CONTROL” organization from “Get Smart,” including the fact that it was hidden directly underneath the Reflecting Pool in the middle of the D.C. mall, and his initial entrance to the facility was almost exactly the same as Agent 23’s (Dwayne Johnson) introduction in that movie.
Beyond that, Lance’s ‘better-than-thou, I-work-alone’ attitude was plucked directly from the animated Sterling Archer, while the director of the program, Joyless (Reba McEntire), was dressed in the same bland grey outfit and had the same haircut as Mallory Archer.

I did notice two instances of very out-of-place product placement: Audi and Soylent. Lance’s spy car was an Audi E-Tron, a vehicle you could buy at a dealership today if you wanted. I realize that Bond’s traditional Aston Martin has always been a car you could buy too, but at least the Bond franchise existed in mostly our world, so his car never really stood out against the other name-branded things you’d see in the background of scenes. Lance’s Audi, however, stood out like a sore thumb. It was the only car with a logo anywhere on it, and the “E-TRON” name was put front and center in about a half-dozen scenes. No character ever said anything about the car, but it was too obvious not to see.
And the Soylent was only mentioned by name, which is super weird as it’s a very niche product and not something anyone should ever recommend for a kid.
While those two products were obviously planted for the adults in the audience, they felt out of place considering that nothing else got a visibility bump like that.

I don’t remember much about the soundtrack, other than that it was fitting and never distracted or detracted. In this case, that’s good enough. With the exception of the James Bond theme song, no spy movie has ever had a soundtrack that stuck in my mind.

The animation style was pleasantly cartoony and fit perfectly with the physics-defying shenanigans. No complaints there.

So here’s the major highlight for this movie: it was hilarious.
I laughed the entire way through. Not all-out guffawing, but constant chuckling. There were spoken jokes, running gags, and situational comedy pieces throughout.
This was consistently funny in a way that I haven’t seen in a long time, and I give the writers massive kudos for keeping it so jovial the entire way through, never letting the jokes stop or become inexplicably serious.

Finally: The closing scene had a split-second reference to the climax from “BayWatch” (2017), which also had Dwayne Johnson, though as far as I know, Johnson wasn’t involved in the making of this movie.

Going into it, I was mildly concerned that this would be one of those movies where all of the jokes were shown in the trailers. I was proven very wrong. If anything, the jokes in the trailers were middle-tier compared to what we saw in the movie, which was an outstanding thing to witness as an audience member.
I watched this as a Redbox rental, but I would have been more than happy to see this in theaters, whether just Megan and Me, or with a potential future Little Claw. Do yourself a favor and give this a proper viewing at home on the couch. It’s friendly for all ages and you’ll definitely enjoy it.