The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D
Directed by Robert Rodriguez

Adventures, sharks, lava and 3-D all figure in the title. Give Robert Rodriguez this much: He can make a kid’s movie an easy sell. The sugar-amped Saturday morning junk binge The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D finds Rodriguez at his most stylistically undisciplined but morally direct. Perpetual dreamer Max (Cayden Boyd) is shunned by his schoolmates for his fantasies about life on Planet Drool — a fantasy alternative to his parents’ decision to move into a house directly across the street from his dreaded grade school. The “don’t let go of your dreams” mantra figured less blatantly in The Faculty, El Mariachi and Spy Kids 2, and Shark Boy and Lava Girl’s second half veers too closely to that of Spy Kids 3-D. But Rodriguez’s child’s eye sensibility is such that his movies are most knowing when they’re honest about being for children. Nobody familiar with the way video games and television inform children’s imaginations should conclude this movie’s embracing of gimmickry is out of touch. The problem is Rodriguez doesn’t venture past the gee whiz aspect, unwittingly appraising Max’s fantasy world as the rejection of real life.

The breathless desire to please displays more energy than ambition, probably wearing most post-pubescent viewers out in the process. But Rodriguez assures that even this minor film can be overflowing with invention and comedic alertness.

The technical illusion of the 3-D has improved since the final Spy Kids installment, although the glasses drain the colour palette. If one of your eyes is stronger than the other, Shark Boy and Lava Girl will look overwhelming red or blue. When Lava Girl is introduced as having purple hair, several viewers exclaimed, “That’s purple?”