“FAMILY MISSION”
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
SPY x FAMILY CODE: WHITE is an action comedy based on the popular animated series from Japan. It follows the Forger family: Loid the father, Yor the mother, Anya the daughter, and Bond the dog. The family embarks on a family trip that turns into an adventure. Each member hides a secret. Loid is secretly a spy, Yor an assassin, Anya is a telepath, and Bond is clairvoyant. Nobody knows each other’s secrets except for Anya. The Forgers visit the northern region of Frigis as a family outing, but the visit spirals into an adventure where the family must stop a crazy Colonel from starting another World War.
The beautiful animation in SPY x FAMILY CODE: WHITE blends Japanese anime with western-style animation and experimental effects. The movie’s mixture of action, adorable moments and fun comedy is engaging. CODE: WHITE has a strong moral, pro-family worldview. However, it has lots of action violence, many characters lie and have secrets, several non-Christian psychic abilities, and the father, a master of disguise, poses as a woman in one scene. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children
CONTENT:
Strong moral, pro-family worldview about familial love, parental duties, father’s mission is to make the world a better place for everyone, doing the right thing is promoted, and restaurant owner encourages people to have families and to have family centric ideals, but non-Christian psychic abilities, and spy disguises himself in one scene as a woman to accomplish his mission;
Two “s” words and one “d” word, plus some toilet humor as young girl has swallowed some microfilm, and the bad guys kidnap her and wait for it to exit her body (girl; gets comically delirious trying to hold it in);
Lots of strong and light action violence includes woman kills a few traitors in the first few minutes of the movie, little girl gets attacked by army men only to have her adoptive mother beat them up offscreen, the same people kidnap the girl and fight her dog, flustered woman smacks her husband off a Ferris wheel but apologizes immediately, villain kills an agent by shooting them in the head, an agent beats up an entire base of soldiers and shoots two soldiers as well, male spy has an airborne dogfight while in a plane against a war-balloon, woman kicks one man on the air balloon and plays human bowling with other soldiers, two other fights occur, epic gunfight against a cyborg, spy has a shootout and brawl with the villain and his men;
No sex scenes, but there’s some flirting and male spy disguises himself convincingly as a woman and flirts with both a wife and a husband to complete his mission;
No nudity;
There are two instances of alcohol being used, a lady is drunk at the movie’s beginning, and man guides her to rest, woman gets drunk on mulled wine for liquid courage to confront her husband about something, but it’s depicted as bad though humorous;
The Colonel smokes while he is on the ship;
Kidnapping, male spy ends up stealing two identities, comical references to a “Poop God,” and every member of the family lies about their occupation and what they are capable of doing, which is a major part of the story.
MORE DETAIL:
The popular Japanese anime SPY x FAMILY comes out with its first theatrical release in CODE: WHITE, which sees the fraudulent Forger family as they individually try to maintain world peace while on a vacation. The movie is both a continuation of the anime series and its own individual adventures. The world of the spy family is supposed to be a parallel to Europe during the Cold War, where the countries of Ostania and Westalis, fictionalized versions of East and West Germany, are fighting a war of espionage.
The story in SPY x FAMILY is that each member of the family is hiding a secret that requires the family for some reason or another. The father, Loid Forger, is in fact a spy on a mission to preserve world peace between two neighboring countries. Loid pretends to be a mild-mannered psychiatrist. The mother, Yor, is a quiet, quirky, sweet civil servant who moonlights as an assassin. The adopted daughter, Anya, is a telepath who knows everyone’s secrets and tries to help her father’s missions without him, knowing. The dog, Bond, is also a product of experiments with the power to see into the future. Everyone in the family keeps secrets from each other.
In SPY x FAMILY CODE: WHITE, Anya is given an opportunity to earn one of eight awards for merit in her school, where she must make a dessert that will be judged by the school’s principal. When Anya tells her spy father this, he happens to know that the principal’s favorite dessert is a rare dish called merimeri, which seems to be a combination of a meringue and tort, that comes from the Frigis region. So, the Forger family decides to take a trip to Frigis to learn how to make the legendary dessert.
On the way, three things occur. First, Loid is told his mission, Operation: Strix, is being given to another incompetent agent, which gets Loid worried about peace. Meanwhile, Yor witnesses Loid helping a fellow female agent and thinks he’s cheating on her, even though their own marriage is fake. Anya, however, reads the dog’s mind and goes snooping through people’s things looking for treasure. She finds a rare chocolate truffle, which also has important information hidden in it, and eats it. Anya, however, is seen by two Ostanian soldiers, who end up following her around Frigis.
When the family arrives in Frigis, they make their way to the restaurant where the merimeri is. However, before they can have some, the last piece is stolen by Colonel Snider, a cruel and brilliant man with an incredible palate. After Loid loses a taste contest to try to get the merimeri piece, the family goes to get all the ingredients so they can make their own.
While there, Yor talks to Loid about his supposed infidelity, but Loid puts her mind at ease. However, despite looking all over, they are unable to find cherry liqueur. While looking for it, Anya gets kidnapped by villain’s men to try and get the microfilm from the truffle she ate.
Anya’s parents go after her kidnappers. The Colonel tries to take off in a war-dirigible with a unique human cyborg weapon called Type: F. However, Loid and Yor manage to get aboard the ship. Loid takes on the Colonel while Yor takes on the deadly cyborg to save their daughter.
CODE: WHITE is an adorable addition to the Japanese TV series. The animation style is fun, a well-drawn combination of Japanese and western cartoons. The filmmakers also experiment with unique and cool new styles of art for certain action sequences, which add to the drama. The story itself has a simple plot, but it’s weird and endearing enough to keep viewers engaged.
SPY x FAMILY CODE: WHITE has a strong moral worldview. The family always works together to get through life’s challenges. Also, Loid says he took his marriage vows to Yor very seriously, despite the family being fake, and is loyal to her. Finally, Loid and Yor also want to encourage good values in their adopted daughter, Anya.
However, CODE: WHITE has lots of action violence because of the parents’ dangerous jobs. Also, because this is a spy movie, many characters lie and keep secrets. Finally, the movie has brief foul language, two scenes of drunkenness, non-Christian psychic abilities, and a scene where the male spy convincingly disguises himself as a woman and flirts with a married couple to complete a mission.
Overall, SPY x FAMILY CODE: WHITE is a hilarious animated action comedy, with some adorable moments, but MOVIEGUDIE® advises caution for older children.