Spies in Disguise

If you think the animated animals in The Lion King lack the ability to express emotion, you might find them warmer than you thought once you see the birds in Spies in Disguise. One thing the glut of computer animated features in the past 20 years has taught us is that birds can be quirky or funny but rarely heart-warming (see, for example, Storks, which few people, in fact, did see).

But Blue Sky Studios, which built its reputation on the Ice Age movies, produced the rare exception to the “birds are boring” rule with its two Rio movies, about the adventures of a couple of parrots, so perhaps they thought they could bring the same magic to this new film about a cocky spy named Lance who’s turned into a pigeon by a teenage inventor named Walter.

They could not.

Apparently parrots and friends of Nemo remain the exceptions that prove the boring birds rule.

It’s chiefly a design problem, but it’s compounded by a story line that rehashes the supervillain tropes already worn out by the Despicable Me movies, as well as the original Incredibles and Megamind and so on. Did we need another comic take on the “solo spy saves the world” plot? We did not. No matter how many lively action sequences and explosions the filmmakers throw in — and they throw in a LOT — they can’t make the tale less tired.

Nor do the voice talents help. Tom Holland, as Walter, gives it his Peter Parker best, but he’s paired with a somnolent Will Smith as Lance. Ben Mendelsohn also seems to have run out of variations on evil white dudes, voicing the dastardly … does the villain’s not-at-all-clever name matter? No, it does not.

There’s no reason for anyone of any age to see Spies in Disguise, but if you find yourself accompanying some small child with low standards, it’s not quite as painful as all these failures make it sound. The upside to Blue Sky Studios is that their movies always have a certain visual panache, even when the story does not, so Spies in Disguise looks and plays a bit better than it deserves to. That’s not a recommendation, but is it some small compensation for the unwise choices in every other area?

That it is.

Grade: D. Rated PG. Playing at the AMC River Hills, Carolina Cinemark, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: 20th Century Fox)