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A post-modern spy spoof with a twist, “D.E.B.S.” originated as a short film and was expanded with $4 million (with an original budget of $ 2 million) by a Screen Gems executive that saw the potential for this teen spy caper. Crossing the spy spoof “Cody Banks” with a subplot about the lead spy coming out as a lesbian might not seem like a recipe for success but the film is surprisingly sweet and funny. For gay teens there aren’t a lot of positive films about the discovery of who they are, acceptance of their peers and feeling “different”. Clearly this film was a labor of love for Robinson and she handles most of the film with a deft hand and sense of humor. ***

The D.E.B.S. are a group of school age teens that have been trained by the government to do covert missions. The D.E.B.S. are shy Amy (Sara Foster), the headstrong leader Max (Meagan Good), bubbly Janet (Jill Ritchie) and amorous man eating Dominique (Devon Aoki). Their latest mission given to them by the mysterious Mr. Phipps (Duncan) is to capture the criminal mastermind Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster). Chaffing under the leadership of Mrs. Peatree (Holland Taylor), the girls feel they need to prove themselves in capturing Lucy. Unfortunately for the D.E.B.S., Lucy has a crush on Amy who, it seems, reciprocates the feeling complicating their mission. ---

“Infiltrating D.E.B.S.” provides a nice brief behind-the-scenes glimpse into the making of the film including the conception of Robinson’s original short film. Featuring talking heads of the actresses, director and various studio executives that were behind the project, even if it does try to sell the concept that this is an important film a bit too much. The video quality for the behind-the-scenes stuff varies from poor to decent. Unfortunately, the original short which had differences in the cast is not presented which is too bad although we are tantalized by clips from it. It would have been fun to compare and contrast the two projects head-to-head. ***

We also get a music video of the band Weekend’s “Into the Morning”, a stills section and a selection of animatics. There are also deleted scenes which are actually quite enlightening particularly the trimmed love scene between Lucy and Amy which works better than the version that the MPAA insisted needed to be cut. We also get the usual assortment of Sony trailers for upcoming projects. There are also the original comic-book sheets that Robinson had. She prepped it for internet animation presentation and eventually got a grant to make her 10 minute short. The comics presented more like a comic strip and are difficult to read even on a big screen/widescreen TV. ---