Review: Spycies
Vladimir is a super spy cat who loves getting his claws into every mission. During a seemingly routine assignment, things go badly wrong, and Vladimir takes the blame. Because of this he is sent away to a remote rig in the middle of the ocean. Here he meets Hector, who is a whiz with technology, but lacks any real experience of being a spy. Vladimir hates Hector because he’s a slob, and watches terrible soap operas. A surprise attack on the rig brings them back into active duty, but will they learn to get along with each other to save the day?
Spycies is an odd movie! The animation looks good, especially in certain scenes where it looks almost photorealistic. The moments of action are decent with some exciting set pieces, and it shares similarities to the excellent Zootropolis. It has all the ingredients to be great, so the big question is why did I find it incredibly dull?
A huge part of the problem is the characters aren’t particularly interesting. As I was watching the movie, I didn’t care one jot for any of them. You can argue, it’s hard to become emotionally engaged with an animated animal etc, but Disney Pixar (and other studios) have shown that simply isn’t true. I’ve cried at many an animated movie, because the voice acting and writing has been sharp and funny. Unfortunately, Spycies is neither sharp or funny, and I didn’t raise a laugh, or even a smile if I’m being perfectly honest. I appreciate every movie can’t be of the quality of Disney Pixar, (and even they don’t always get it right), but Spycies falls way below the mark of quality.
However, as always, it doesn’t matter what I think. I watched Spycies with my 7-year-old daughter, so I asked her what she thought.
- “I liked that they were super spies”
- “I liked the name Spycies”
- “I liked Mia, (a bee actress) because she reminded me of my favourite cuddly toy (a bee called Bumbly)
- “I liked the bunny nurse because she had purple hair”
- “I didn’t like the part where the rhino was hurt and had to go to hospital”
As you can see, based on my daughter’s comments, she didn’t seem particular bothered with the movie either. I normally watch animated movies with my 7 and 3-year-old, but my youngest daughter lost interest, which possibly tells you something about who the movie is aimed at.
Spycies is another movie released around half term to try and capitalise on bored children, and exasperated parents looking for something to do. It lacks quality and to be quite blunt, isn’t very good. If you do decide to take the kids, then maybe you can catch up on a bit of much needed sleep! Just try not to snore too loud in the cinema.
Review by Chris from a streaming link kindly supplied by Witchfinder PR.
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