Martin Lawrence and Chloe Bailey Get Animated in ‘Sneaks’

Anthony Mackie, Martin Lawrence and Chloe Bailey are among the star-studded voice cast for the new animated film, Sneaks.The family movie is an ode to sneaker culture — told from the perspective of the shows themselves. Directed by Rob Edwards and Chris Jenkins, Sneaks also features the voice talents of Swae Lee, Ella Mai, Quavo, Laurence Fishburne, Keith David and manymore. It’s in theaters today.

Macy Gray, Roddy Ricch and Chris Paul are also part of the voice cast. And the soundtrack is executive produced by DJ Mustard. Bobbito Garcia was brought in as a consultant on the film.

“This whole process has been five years in the making,” Garcia told SLAM. “They first hit me up in 2020. I did most of my script consulting in 2021, 2022. I did the voice-overs in 2023. You know, animated features, it’s a big project.”

Garcia said that he emphasized the finer points of New York sneaker culture in order to give the film’s story authenticity.

“They kind of did really well with the sneaker stuff,” he said. “Truth be told, I didn’t have to change too much in that world. But what I did do was, the film is based in New York, up in Harlem, and in certain scenes, [I was like,] This word is not really used. This slang would be better. And then I started tinkering, particularly with the basketball scenes, too.”