"Spies in Disguise" and "Sonic the Hedgehog"

Good kids' movies should be recognized when they come around, especially when they defy expectations. So here are some quick, mostly positive thoughts on "Spies in Disguise" and "Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Spies in Disguise" is the latest from Blue Sky, about an egotistical super spy, Lance Sterling (Will Smith), who is framed for evil deeds and goes on the run. He accidentally turns himself into a pigeon using tech created by Walter (Tom Holland), a goofy young gadget inventor, who unfortunately hasn't invented a way to reverse pigeon transmogrification yet. The two have to team up to take down the terrorist Killian (Ben Mendehlson), which is difficult because Sterling doesn't play well with others, and Walter is an idealist with a strict no-kill policy.

I haven't watched a Blue Sky film since their "Peanuts" movie in 2015, and it's nice to see that their output has continued to improve over time. The character designs and animation are very solid. The gags and action sequences are energetic and fun. I could have easily mistaken this for a Dreamworks production, and it certainly looks better than anything Illumination has made in a while. There's still a little of the "Rio" style gross-out humor and comic grotesquerie that I'm not a fan of, but not very much. Instead, the bulk of the artists' energies have been spent delivering well-rounded characters, and a spy spoof adventure that earnestly makes a case for Walter's brand of nerdy optimism - one that involves subduing your enemies with glitter bombs and industrial strength silly string instead of bullets.

After hearing the wacky premise and seeing the trailers, I wasn't expecting much from "Spies in Disguise." However, the filmmakers committed to their concept, got the right talent involved, and really sold it. Will Smith as a self-serious secret agent stuck in the body of a pigeon with giant eyebrows is frequently hysterical. Tom Holland as an over-exuberant science nerd is note perfect. And I was very impressed with the amount of humor the animators managed to tease out of classic pigeon behaviors and Will Smith's familiar screen presence. The amount of angry head-bobbing is off the charts. In short, this should be a perfect watch for action-hungry kids who are tired of Minion antics, and will get some laughs from adults too.

Or then there's "Sonic the Hedgehog." Frankly, this film looked like a disaster waiting to happen. It's based on the beloved Sega game about a super-speedy blue hedgehog. It depends on a CGI character interacting with a live action world, and only "Paddington" and "Ted" have really been able to pull that off. The movie is brimming over with old cliches, steals major sequences from the "X-men" and "Pee Wee" movies, and there's product placement everywhere. Plus, there's the whole fiasco around the film's original design for Sonic himself, a weirdly anthropomorphized CGI monstrosity glimpsed in the early trailers. Thankfully, despite all this, the"Sonic" movie actually came out pretty well.

You can chalk up the film's success to its handling of the three main characters. First, there's Ben Schwarz as the hyperactive, but lonely Sonic, now a refugee from an alien world who lives in hiding on Earth. Newly glowed up and redesigned to look more like a cartoon character, Sonic is super appealing and sympathetic. He's learned about the world mostly by peeking in the windows of Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), the affable sheriff of the pleasant little town of Green Hills, Montana. After Tom accidentally injures Sonic, he agrees to take him to San Francisco, in order to help him recover portal-controlling gold rings. Finally, in pursuit of these two is the evil genius, Doctor Robotnik (Jim Carrey), who wants to hunt down Sonic for his own nefarious purposes. It's Jim Carrey in full-blast, over-the-top, manic '90s wild man mode again, and it is glorious. However, it's Marsden's efforts in the role of sincere straight man that are the lynchpin in keeping the film emotionally grounded and tonally consistent.

The story keeps it very simple. There's a road trip, human-hedgehog bonding, lots of jokes and references, and finally a big boss fight at the end. Everything in the film is familiar, but there's no toilet humor, no crassness, and no cynicism. Instead, we get plenty of charm and heart and nostalgia. The creators clearly knew the franchise and had real affection for it, and took pains to get it right this time. And it paid off very nicely.

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