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daydreamer named Max (Boyd) reads a report to his class about what he did during summer vacation. He details how he met his superhero friends Sharkboy (Lautner) and Lavagirl (Dooley). After the report, he is teased by his classmates and berated by his teacher, Mr. Electridad (Lopez), who tells him to stop dreaming and get a grip on reality. Max, of course, is the hero.
Max insists his characters are real, and his mom (Davis) doesn't pay much attention to the footprints burned into the grass by Lavagirl, nor does his dad (Arquette) notice the jagged teeth marks made in the cookies by Sharkboy. His parents are too busy fighting because his dad can't make any money as a writer.
Things come to a head when the school bully, Linus (Davich), pushes a bit too far, and Sharkboy and Lavagirl come to Max's rescue in the middle of his class and then take him to Planet Drool—a world he created in his mind. Things are breaking down and fading away on the fanciful Planet Drool because Max is suppressing his dreams. So they head to the planet with the Land of Milk and Cookies, the Mt. Neverest roller coaster, which doesn't stop, and other places that seem taken from a Candyland board game.
On the planet, evil Mr. Electric (guess who?) is now a giant TV-set-like monstrosity that tries to foil Max and his friends by chasing them with his Plug Hounds, snapping electric plugs. You know that things can't get too scary, and apart from a few frightening tornadoes no one ever seems very much in jeopardy in this fast-paced 3-D romp.
Kid-friendly, adult-unfriendly
Labeled a "Rodriguez Family Movie," there's a feeling that this is a peek at the Rodriguez family's home movies—along with 3-D glasses. All of the director's three sons, Rocket, Rebel and Racer, participated somehow in the story and even have cameos as younger Sharkboys.
And perhaps that's part of the problem, because although the backstory of Sharkboy is pretty well developed, Lavagirl seems to be thrown in without much rhyme or reason. The logic is simplistic and straightforward, and if it doesn't make sense, this is shrugged of with sort of a childish "oh well." So, even when Lavagirl is trying to make sense of her background and powers, she becomes increasingly aware that she's an afterthought.
The message of following your dreams and hanging on to your childhood is pretty much told with a sledgehammer, so there's not much subtlety for adults to appreciate. And when it turns out that the superheroes with such opposite powers are actually counterparts to Max's parents, it's not going to be an astounding revelation.
The places they go to are pretty punny—as in "the Sea of Confusion is frozen over" and "we're going to catch the Train of Thought" and "head to the Passage of Time." Of course brains fall from the sky (and in your face because of the 3-D) during the Brain Storm, and then there's a Brain Freeze and Brain Fart that occur soon after. It's not as clever as the Slizzards, Flying Monkeys and Flying Pigs created in Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, and for some reason the 3-D doesn't seem as clean as in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, but preteen kids will like the nonstop action.
The child actors are decent performers all around, and young Max looks like Macaulay Culkin in his Home Alone days. Mom and dad are wasted roles, and Lopez tries his best to play up his unsympathetic teacher part, but this isn't his hysterical uncensored club act. It's the kids and the special effects that make this movie interesting.
The visuals like the flying candies were enough to spellbind my 3-year-old nephew for more than an hour. He kept his glasses on through most of the film, he remembered the characters' names, and he didn't potty in his pants. That alone is worth the price of admission. —Mike
Also in this issue: Howl's Moving Castle and The Hitchhiker: Volume 2 DVD
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