Written by Jambareeqi

Posted 2nd November, 2018

Blue Sky Studios have just released a brand new trailer for their upcoming animated feature “Spies in disguise”. It stars Will Smith as a secret agent, who ends up being transformed into a pigeon by a teenage scientist voiced by Tom Holland.

A lot of people are amazed by the twist of this trailer, which opens up with slick badass action clips, and then reveals that our secret agent star is now a pigeon. Personally, I don’t think this is THAT subversive, because the animation industry factory produces talking animal movies every year, there’s no surprise in seeing an animated character being turned into a pigeon for me.

Why can’t this movie be about a secret agent’s mission? Or why can’t he be turned invisible? What’s stopping Blue Sky from mutating Will Smith into an alien vampire wizard? It’s like the animation industry can’t think outside the box of talking animals, when animation has the potential to create ANYTHING, are studios that afraid of doing something different? Look, I have nothing against talking animal stories, I really don’t, I just don’t like them dominating a medium with no imagination limits. If this was a live action movie, then sure, the twist would be shocking, but that’s not the case.

I also don’t know how the film will carry it’s premise of a secret agent disguised as a pigeon, what can be done with this concept? Yeah, Pigeons are common enough to help the secret agent stay inconspicuous, but what if his mission requires going indoors? Pigeons don’t tend to hang inside buildings; except churches maybe. While the trailer features a joke about Pigeon-vision, I can’t imagine what other jokes can be played out, especially when “Valiant” (2005) has already crossed off all the obvious pigeon gags.

However, let’s look at what MIGHT be cool about this film, there’s got to be some things that could work. It might be awesome to see a pigeon using unique gadgets while on his mission, like enhanced cyber wings or a potion that turns his poop acidic. It’s also great to hear Will Smith’s charming voice as an animated character (Smith’s last voice role was in “Shark Tale” over 14 years ago), perhaps that will be the strength of the film, because what we do hear of him so far is very funny.

I just don’t feel that excited about the movie’s premise, as the trailer doesn’t go beyond the joke of “Derpy Derp Secret Agent Will Smith is a Pigeon now”, but maybe a longer trailer will be released soon? Until then, I’m not as charmed as everyone else is, and the next trailer will need to prove that there’s more here than one simple joke. What do you all think of the trailer? Let me know in the comment section below!

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