I’d Rather Go Barefoot the Rest of My Life Than Watch This Movie About Talking Shoes Again

A movie like Sneaks feels like an easy target. It’s a cheaply animated movie about talking shoes that rips off every single Toy Story movie and somehow has a staggering ensemble cast of celebrities, including Anthony Mackie, Laurence Fishburne, and Martin Lawrence. Some might say you can make a quality movie out of almost anything. Still, the very concept of a theatrically released animated film about talking sneakers feels like it’s a cut-away gag on Family Guy, making fun of Pixar movies.

Sometimes you have to just call a spade, a spade, because Sneaks is one of the worst animated movies to get a wide theatrical release in years. It’s right up there with Norm of the North and The Emoji Movie. It’s a never-ending collection of puns, lousy character designs, and a soundtrack where every song must throw in the word “sneaks” every other line, making this an experience that even your child who dragged you to the movie will want to immediately leave.

What Is ‘Sneaks’ About?

Have you seen Toy Story 2? Of course, you have. Then you already know the basic premise of Sneaks. Just replace Woody and Buzz with a pair of expensive sneakers and Andy with a creepy-looking aspiring teenage basketball player named Edson (Swae Lee). Edson and his mother, Shawna (Kiana Ledé), attend the Sneakerhead Gala, where the teen enters a raffle to win a pair of fashionable white-and-gold designer sneakers. Against all odds, Edson manages to win the sneakers, but not before the shady influencer, The Collector (Fishburne), tries to buy them off of him. Obviously, Edson refuses, which angers The Collector.

Meanwhile, inside the velvet-lined shoebox, we learn a bit more about these sneakers, a brother and sister named Ty (Mackie) and Maxine (Chloe Bailey). While Maxine strives for a life of adventure, Ty would rather stay untouched and comfy inside his shoebox. Unfortunately for them, The Collector has other plans and steals the pair from Edson’s home, planning to sell them to the mysterious scalper The Forger (Roddy Ricch). In the process, Ty and Maxine become separated, with Maxine being held captive in the Collector’s home, and Ty being abandoned on the streets. To save his sister, Ty ends up seeking help from the grizzled, also abandoned sneaker JB (Lawrence), who has his own ulterior motives, but as they journey through the streets of New York City, they begin to form a strong bond.

The premise of Sneaks is about as predictable and uninspired as its animation style. Every single trope of these “what if we gave these non-human characters human emotions” animated movies is unapologetically on full display. There’s not a single shred of creativity. Remember when there were those lousy-animated movies like Happily N’ever After that tried and failed to rip off Shrek? That’s basically what Sneaks feels like.

‘Sneaks’ Lacks a Sole

It’s not that Sneaks never attempts to have a heart to it. It tries to teach a lesson about confidence and embracing oneself. Unfortunately, that’s the same kind of message that we get from most bad family movies. Sure, it’s a good lesson to have, but the way Sneaks goes about conveying it is lousy. You can make the argument that the intended audience for Sneaks isn’t going in for the story, but kids deserve better than this. There is not a single ounce of creativity on display. It’s as if writer and co-director Rob Edwards was going through his closet to look for an idea for a film. It’s disappointing, especially when you consider that the filmmaker previously wrote the underrated Disney films The Princess and the Frog and Treasure Planet.

Edwards’ collaborator, Chris Jenkins, also has a pretty impressive resume, including working as an animator on all-time Disney classics like The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid. It’s understandable why they may have taken this job. Given their previous work, there was potential for them to take this silly idea for a movie and make something somewhat decent out of it. Yet, they fail to do so.

Sneaks is the kind of movie where the bare minimum amount of effort is put in. The movie lacks any sort of ambition, and the inconsistent animation quality isn’t doing it any favors either. There are moments where the animation attempts to have an intentionally choppy flow, similar to movies like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, only to ditch the style just a few minutes later. In some ways, the movie’s animation feels similar to Sausage Party, which already wasn’t a great movie to begin with. However, it did have the benefit of being a parody. While Sneaks isn’t in on the joke, it is the joke.

‘Sneaks’ Wastes Its Shockingly Stacked Cast

Image via Briarcliff Entertainment

When you take a look at the cast list of Sneaks, you’d probably be shocked by the sheer number of names on the list. How did any of them even become involved with something like this, that typically would feature names like Rob Schneider and Pauly Shore, not Captain America himself? If Lawrence’s performance is any indication, none of them really wanted to try that hard when delivering their lines. While Lee, Ledé, Bailey, and Fishburne try to bring some effort to their voice acting, the rest of the cast just feels like they’re reading their lines off the page without any emotion or context as to what is unfolding on the screen. It makes the already tough sit even more difficult to get through, especially since not even the characters are cutesy enough for you to root for. Which begs the question: what kind of person would root for a talking shoe anyway?

So, while it is correct that a movie like Sneaks is an easy target for criticism, its poor animation, plethora of corny shoe puns, uninspired story, and bland voice-acting help earn its title as one of the very worst movies of 2025. Snow White and A Minecraft Movie may be far from perfect, but at least they held some sort of merit. Sneaks is borderline unwatchable.

Sneaks opens in theaters on April 18.

Sneaks

Sneaks is one of the worst theatrically released animated movies since The Emoji Movie. Not even its stacked cast can save it.

Release Date

April 18, 2025

Director

Rob Edwards, Christopher Jenkins

Writers

Rob Edwards

Producers

Helen Sugland, Laurence Fishburne, Robyn Klein, Jeremy Ross, Quavo, Gil Cloyd, Len Hartman

Pros & Cons

• Laurence Fishburne at least gives some effort?

• The story shamelessly rips off much-better animated movies like Toy Story.
• Martin Lawrence’s voice performance feels phoned in.
• The animation quality is inconsitent.
• The puns.

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