Spies in Disguise

Spies in Disguise is far more kid-friendly cartoon than a typical episode of the side-splittingly raunchy FX series Archer, but it features enough action and suspense to keep parents from staring at their watches, hoping for a hidden compartment that will get them out of the theater more quickly.

Actually, Walter Beckett (voiced by Tom Holland) could probably invent such a device. Since he was a child, he has been making a variety of gizmos and chemicals designed to protect people or to help spies get out of compromising situations.

Walter spends most of his time toiling alone in a small office, but his primary client is not happy with the shy scientist's work. Daring field agent Lance Sterling (Will Smith) prefers gadgets that include grenades or other weapons instead of Walter's defensive tools. The younger man had a cop (Rachel Brosnahan) for a mother, so his instincts are for avoiding danger.

Sterling courts it.

The spy thinks little of getting into fights while abroad and has little concern over how many people he must defeat in the process.

He might have benefited from Walter's caution. While Sterling can retrieve a briefcase from an airborne helicopter, he has failed to extract the lethal drone that was once hidden inside it.

If failing to retrieve the weapon wasn't enough of a concern, an enemy agent named Killian (Ben Mendelsohn) has not only replicated it, but he has framed Sterling for the theft.

Having fired Walter, Sterling tries to get into the tech geek's graces and impulsively drinks a new potion Walter has concocted.

Unfortunately, this is one time Sterling's "ready, fire, aim" approach has backfired. Essentially, Walter has concocted a liquid disguise, but it works by turning Sterling's body into that of a pigeon.

Neither Killian nor a determined internal affairs agent (Rashida Jones) can find Sterling in his new identity, but Walter hasn't had time to make an antidote. Worse, Killian is in the process of acquiring the names of every agent he can so that he can send a drone after each one.

Being a bird doesn't excuse Sterling from his mission of saving his peers.

The script by Brad Copeland (Ferdinand) and Lloyd Taylor (The Wild) is a little short on surprises, but they do give Will Smith plenty of solid wisecracks to toss at Holland. This is the first role in ages that has properly exploited the star's charm. Sterling looks a lot like the actor providing his voice, so it's easy to imagine Smith punching out bad guys without rumpling his suit.

What is refreshing about Spies in Disguise is that Copeland and Taylor seem to prefer Walter's approach to problem-solving over Sterling's. The former's devices are designed to distract villains and protect heroes. He also understands that taking out individual bad guys doesn't remove evil from the world. Much of his energy is devoted to completing missions without death, dismemberment or property destruction.

Holland is basically playing an animated version of Peter Parker without the Spidey powers and does it well. Reba McEntire is an odd but effective choice as the CIA director. (Perhaps more DC officials would sound smarter and more capable with Oklahoma drawls.)

Some of the other voice actors like Karen Gillan and D.J. Khaled have been cast for their recognizable names but aren't given much to do. Without a score that capitalizes on Khaled's tunes, his involvement seems as perfunctory as sweeping the floors at Langley, Va.

Thankfully, there's enough energy and whimsy to keep the tale moving like one of the drones. Sometimes the delights of a movie about spycraft are anything but covert.

MovieStyle on 12/27/2019