Spy Kids & Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams | Films No. 19 & 20

Preface: I am aware that anyone who didn’t experience these films as a child will not fully understand the cultural importance and lasting impact that this series had on many lives.

The first Spy Kids movie truly revolutionized the children’s action film industry.  The film dealt with many children’s worst fears (losing their parents and bullying) while maintaining a fun, almost camp, approach to the subject matter. The film also forces Carmen and Juni, a brother and sister who are worlds apart, to learn how to support each other and work together. The Cortez family all must learn how to truly be a family again (that’s the mission they are fighting for…..).  However, the most important lesson that can be gleaned from this film is about shitake mushrooms, see below.

The second film is a reiteration of the strong family messages from the first movie with some other lessons about how boys are manipulative but you can totally punch them in the face and make everything better. Also, Steve Bucemi is a NATIONAL TREASURE! This was the last of Robert Rodriguez’s films that is good.  There are signs that he was beginning to get drunk on his own power (some overly camp spy gadgets, very dumb lines, and a storyline that is much less focused compared to the first film). After this film, Rodriguez leans in too hard to the tech side of things and his next films are ENTIRELY on green screen, with one of the films being written by his children only.  (it was a quick rise and an equally quick fall from grace)

These were among the first children’s movies that had a stylized look and actually put money into producing the films. In all honesty, these are hilarious and over the top.  No one is taking them seriously.  But they are still fun to rewatch and I was genuinely impressed with many of the filming and design choices for both films.

Final thought, if we didn’t have Spy Kids 2, how else would we have had an idea of what a Twilight referenced Spidermonkey would look like?

 

 

This post is part of my year end challenge to watch every movie that I own.  If you want to see the original post with a full list of all of the films.  Click here.