''Spies in Disguise'' is a 2019 American animated spy

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

produced by

Blue Sky Studios Blue Sky Studios, Inc. was an American visual effects and computer animation animation studio, studio, which was active from 1987 to 2021. It was based in Greenwich, Connecticut, and was founded on February 22, 1987, by Chris Wedge, Michael F ...

and distributed by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

. Loosely inspired by the 2009 animated short ''Pigeon: Impossible'' by Lucas Martell, the film is directed by Troy Quane and Nick Bruno from a screenplay by Brad Copeland and Lloyd Taylor, and a story by Cindy Davis. It stars the voices of

Will Smith Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, rapper, and film producer. Known for his work in both Will Smith filmography, the screen and Will Smith discography, music industries, List of awards and nominations re ...

and

Tom Holland Thomas Stanley Holland (born 1 June 1996) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, including a BAFTA Award, he featured on the ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 Europe list of 2019. Some publications have called him one of the most ...

, alongside

Rashida Jones Rashida Leah Jones ( ; born February 25, 1976) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is best known for her roles as Louisa Fenn on the Fox drama series ''Boston Public'' (2000–2002), Karen Filippelli on the NBC comedy series ''The Offic ...

, Ben Mendelsohn,

Reba McEntire Reba Nell McEntire ( ; born March 28, 1955), or simply Reba, is an American country music, country singer and actress. Dubbed "Honorific nicknames in popular music, The Queen of Country", she has sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Sin ...

, Rachel Brosnahan, Karen Gillan,

DJ Khaled Khaled Mohammed Khaled (; born November 26, 1975), known professionally as DJ Khaled, is an American DJ and record producer. Originally a Miami-based radio personality, Khaled has since become known for enlisting high-profile music industry ar ...

, and Masi Oka in supporting roles. The plot follows a secret agent who is transformed into a pigeon by an intelligent young scientist; the two must then work together to stop a revenge-seeking cybernetic terrorist, and return the agent to his human form. The film premiered at the

El Capitan Theatre El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States. The theater and adjacent Hollywood Masonic Temple (now known as the El Capitan Entert ...

on December 4, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 25, 2019. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the animation, music, humor, and vocal performances (particularly Smith and Holland). The film was a

box office disappointment A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...

, grossing $171.6 million worldwide against a $100 million budget. The film is the final feature film to be produced by

, with Blue Sky's final production overall being '' Ice Age: Scrat Tales'', an

animated series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ar ...

which premiered on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

in April 2022, one year after the studio's closure. It is also the last animated film to be released under the 20th Century Fox name.

Plot

Lance Sterling, a cocky secret agent of H.T.U.V. (Honor, Trust, Unity and Valor), is sent to recover an attack drone from Japanese arms dealer Katsu Kimura in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. As soon as the buyer, cybernetically enhanced terrorist Killian, arrives, Sterling breaks in against the orders of H.T.U.V. director Joy Jenkins, defeats Kimura and his gang, and manages to escape with the briefcase containing the drone. Sterling returns to the H.T.U.V. headquarters to confront Walter Beckett, a socially inept

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

graduate and outcast young scientist, for equipping nonlethal weapons into his suit. Walter tries to convince Sterling that there is a more peaceful way to save the world but Sterling fires him before he can explain his latest invention: "biodynamic concealment". Sterling discovers the briefcase to be empty and is confronted by Marcy Kappel, an internal affairs agent, who reveals footage of Sterling – actually Killian in a holographic disguise – leaving with the drone, labeling him as a traitor. Sterling escapes the H.T.U.V. and decides to track down Walter to help him disappear. Meanwhile, Killian breaks into the H.T.U.V. covert weapons facility. While searching Walter's home for his invention, Sterling ingests the concoction and transforms into a pigeon by undergoing "

chromothripsis Chromothripsis is a mutational process by which up to thousands of clustered chromosomal rearrangements occur in a single event in localised and confined genomic regions in one or a few chromosomes, and is known to be involved in both cancer and c ...

". Before Walter and Sterling can decide what to do next, Marcy and other H.T.U.V. agents chase the duo through the city, but the duo escape in Sterling's spy car. The two track down Kimura at a resort in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. There, they learn of Killian's whereabouts in

Venice, Italy Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are linked by 438 bridge ...

before Marcy and the H.T.U.V. can capture them again. Arriving in Venice, Walter is confronted by the H.T.U.V., who are unaware of Sterling's condition. Revealing that she knows about Wendy, Walter's mother who was a police officer who died on duty, Marcy tries to convince him to help turn Sterling in, but Walter refuses. Suddenly, a drone distracts the H.T.U.V. and allows Walter and Sterling to escape. The two discover the drone carrying the H.T.U.V. agent database, and Walter manages to retrieve it. However, Killian shows up, takes the database and prepares to kill Walter. With help from hundreds of pigeons in the surrounding area, they distract Killian and flee. Disguised as Sterling once more, Killian escapes the H.T.U.V., shaking Marcy's suspicions of Sterling upon her seeing him with a robot hand. Whilst underwater in a submarine, Walter reveals he planted a tracking device on Killian and locates him at the weapons facility. Walter manages to perfect the antidote and successfully turns Sterling human again. Reaching Killian's hideout, Sterling is concerned about Walter's safety and sends him away in the submarine. Once inside, Sterling confronts Killian, but is knocked out and captured as Killian reveals he has mass-produced hundreds of drones to target everyone at the agency using the database as revenge for killing his crew in a past mission led by Sterling. Noticing Walter returning in the submarine, Killian destroys it; unbeknownst to them, Walter survives with the help of one of his inventions, the inflatable hug. Once Walter frees Sterling, the two escape and contact Marcy for support as the drones approach H.T.U.V. headquarters in

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Walter attempts to hack into Killian's bionic arm but when Killian realizes this, he tries to flee via air with a drone, but Walter catches up. Walter risks his life by trapping Killian in the inflatable hug and deactivates the villain's arm as Walter himself falls, but Sterling, who has turned himself back into a pigeon, successfully flies for the first time and carries him to safety with help from other pigeons, while Killian is found and arrested. Despite saving the world, Sterling – back in his human form – and Walter are fired for insubordination. However, they are quickly rehired by the H.T.U.V. as the agency could learn from Walter's more peaceful ways of handling villainy.

Voice cast

as Lance Sterling, "the world's most awesome spy", who is transformed into a pigeon by Walter *

as Walter Beckett, a socially inept scientific genius who graduated from

at age 15 and designs gadgets. He turns Sterling into a pigeon with a new invention of his, but must now help him return to his human form. ** Jarrett Bruno as a young Walter * Ben Mendelsohn as Killian, a powerful technology-based terrorist mastermind with a left bionic arm that controls an array of weaponized drones that threatens the world *

as Marcy Kappel, a security forces agent of internal affairs in pursuit of Lance Sterling, who she believes is a traitor *

as Joy Jenkins, the director of H.T.U.V. and Sterling's superior * Rachel Brosnahan as Wendy Beckett, a police officer, and Walter's mother who was killed on duty when her son was younger * Karen Gillan as Eyes, an H.T.U.V. specialist in spectral analysis and quantum optical thermography who is paired with Ears. *

as Ears, an H.T.U.V. specialist in communications and ultrasonics who is paired with Eyes * Masi Oka as Katsu Kimura, a Japanese arms dealer and an associate to Killian * Carla Jimenez as Geraldine, a security agent at H.T.U.V.

Olly Murs Oliver Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence after participating on the sixth series of the television talent show ''The X Factor'' in 2009, where he finished as runn ...

appears as a Junior Agent, while

Mark Ronson Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is a British-American DJ, record producer, and songwriter. He has won nine Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year for Amy Winehouse's album '' Back to Black'' (2006), as well as two for Record ...

voices an Agency Control Room Technician. The voice of Lance's car, an Audi RSQ e-tron, is provided by

Kimberly Brooks Kimberly Brooks is an American voice actress. Brooks has voiced characters in video games since the mid-1990s. She has played the voice of Luna in the ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise as part of The Hex Girls, Ashley Williams in the ''Mass Effect'' s ...

. South Korean voice actors So Youn and Jang Min-hyuk provided the voices of Soo-min and Joon respectively, the protagonists in a South Korean television drama series Walter is a fan of in the film. Jang also voiced Lance Sterling in the Korean dub of the film.

Production

On October 9, 2017, it was announced that development was underway on a film based on the animated short ''Pigeon: Impossible'' (2009), with

and

set to voice the lead characters. The film was the directorial debut of Nick Bruno, and the second for Troy Quane, after having directed the short film '' The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol'' (2011). The film was dedicated to the memory of Joe Kwong, who worked at

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that produces animated feature films and short films for the Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a s ...

and

before his death.

Casting

On October 29, 2018, new additions to the voice cast included Ben Mendelsohn, Karen Gillan,

and Masi Oka. On July 23, 2019,

and Rachel Brosnahan joined the cast. On September 9, 2019, Carla Jimenez was added as well.

Music

Score

On June 12, 2018, it was reported that Theodore Shapiro was set to compose the film's score. The film's score album was released by

Hollywood Records Hollywood Records is an American record label owned by the Disney Music Group which focuses on pop, rock, alternative, hip hop and country genres, also specializing in recordings for a more mature audience not suitable for the flagship Wal ...

and

Fox Music Fox Music was the music division label of 20th Century Fox. It encompassed music publishing and licensing businesses, dealing primarily with television and film soundtracks. It was located in Century City, California. During CEO Robert Kraf ...

on December 27, 2019.

EP soundtrack

On June 11, 2019, it was announced that

would be the film's executive music producer. Head of

Danielle Diego expressed excitement at working with Ronson, stating that "his unique blend of vintage soul and funk exceptionally captures the soul of hefilm." On November 22, 2019, an original song for the film entitled "Then There Were Two", performed by Ronson and Anderson .Paak, was released. Two days later, an

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

album titled ''Mark Ronson Presents the Music of Spies in Disguise'' was announced, featuring five new songs written for the film as well as

Rob Base Rob or ROB may refer to: Places * Rob, Velike Lašče, a settlement in Slovenia * Republic of Belarus People * Rob (given name), a given name or nickname, e.g., for Robert(o), Robin/Robyn * Rob (surname) * ''Rob.'', taxonomic author abbrevia ...

& DJ E-Z Rock's " It Takes Two". The EP was released digitally on December 13, 2019, by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

Track listing

Release

Theatrical

The film was originally scheduled for a release on January 18, 2019. The film was delayed to April 19, 2019. The film was delayed to September 13, 2019. The film was delayed to December 25, 2019. The film had its world premiere at the

on December 4, 2019.

Home media

The film was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray,

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

, and digital download by

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) is the home entertainment distribution arm of the Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, a ...

and

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 20th Century Home Entertainment (previously known as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC. and also known as 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment) was a home video distribution arm that distributes films produced by 20th Century Stud ...

on March 10, 2020. The film was released on

on September 23, 2022.

Reception

Box office

''Spies in Disguise'' grossed $66.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $104.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $171.6 million. In the United States and Canada, the film was released on Wednesday, December 25, alongside ''

Little Women ''Little Women'' is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes, in 1868 and 1869. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters— Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details th ...

'', ''

1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...

'', and '' Just Mercy'' as well as the wide expansion of '' Uncut Gems'', and was projected to gross $19–23 million from 3,502 theatres over its five-day opening weekend. The film made $4.8 million on Christmas Day and $4.1 million on its second day. It went on to make $13.2 million during its opening weekend, for a total of $22.1 million over the five-day Christmas period, finishing fifth. In its second weekend the film made $10.1 million, finishing sixth. In its third weekend, it grossed $5.1 million, dropping 50.9% from the previous weekend and finishing at 10th place. The film's budget is undisclosed. IndieWire estimated that it may have been $100 million or more, based on previous Blue Sky films.

Critical response

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave the film a weighted average score of 54 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an average 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Peter Bradshaw Peter Nicholas Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire'' magazine. Early life and education Bradshaw was educat ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' gave the film three out of five stars, calling it an "entertaining family adventure", and praising the vocal work of Smith and Holland. Kwak Yeon-soo, a reporter at ''

The Korea Times ''The Korea Times'' () is a daily English-language newspaper in South Korea. It is a sister paper of the ''Hankook Ilbo'', a major Korean language, Korean-language daily. It is the oldest active daily English-language newspaper in South Korea. ...

'', wrote that the film failed to convey its message because of its "lackluster narrative". Kwak also pointed out that the film tried to attract audiences there by putting references to the

South Korean popular culture The contemporary culture of South Korea developed from the traditional culture of Korea which was prevalent in the early Korean nomadic tribes. By maintaining thousands of years of ancient Korean culture, with influence from ancient Chinese cultu ...

, and that it ended up exemplifying Walter Beckett's "weird" personality.

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{Disney theatrical animated features 2019 films 2019 3D films 2019 comedy films 2019 computer-animated films 2019 directorial debut films 2019 action comedy films 2010s adventure comedy films 2019 American animated films 2010s children's adventure films 2010s children's comedy films 2010s children's animated films 2010s English-language films 2010s satirical films 2010s spy comedy films 2010s teen comedy films 20th Century Fox films 20th Century Fox animated films 20th Century Fox Animation films 3D animated films African-American animated films American 3D films American animated films about revenge American computer-animated films American children's animated action films American children's animated adventure films American children's animated comedy films American action comedy films American adventure comedy films American spy comedy films American satirical films American teen comedy films Blue Sky Studios films Chernin Entertainment films Features based on short films Films about cyborgs Films about drones Fiction about government Films about scientists Films about shapeshifting Films about technology Films about terrorism Films directed by Nick Bruno Films directed by Troy Quane Films produced by Peter Chernin Films set in Venice Films set in Japan Films set in Mexico Films set in Washington, D.C. Animated films set in Japan Animated films set in Mexico Animated films set in Venice Animated films set in Washington, D.C. Japan in non-Japanese culture Films scored by Theodore Shapiro Films with screenplays by Brad Copeland English-language action comedy films English-language adventure comedy films