The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D (2005)
Credited as "A Rodriguez Family
Movie," "The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl
in 3D" is just that - in both senses of the term.
It's a film geared towards the very desirable "family"
demographic. Rated PG, the film is very saccharine
and very tame. There's almost nothing in the film
to offend anyone. And only the most lily-livered of
small children will find anything here to scare them
or make them cry. The term "innocuous" could easily
be applied to the film. But "The Adventures of Shark
Boy and Lava Girl in 3D" is also a "Rodriguez Family
Movie" in that it is produced, written, directed,
shot, and edited by father Robert, produced by mom
Elizabeth Avellan, based on stories by son Racer,
and uses some of the sons as actors in the piece.
In essence, the entire Rodriguez family is represented
here.
But "The Adventures of Shark Boy
and Lava Girl in 3D" is really aimed at kids. Not
teenagers. Anyone over the age of 12 will be bored
silly with this kiddie treacle. This film indeed seems
like some wild, senseless, crazy story coming from
the mouth of a 10 year old. It is impossible to make
heads or tails out of anything happening here. There's
some nonsense about the meaning of dreaming and being
a dreamer but this message nearly gets lost in the
indecipherable, incongruous mess that is this film.
Trying to figure this film out is pointless. It might
even make a few adults get frustrated, especially
those who regard Rodriguez, the matriarch, a cinematic
genius.
At least it has some really adorable
young people in it. Cayden Boyd is so cute you just
want to pinch off a lump of him and sweeten your ice
tea with it. This kid is the definition of adorable.
He's also a good little actor and is quite capable
of carrying the film. Rodriguez (Dad) has always been
quite adept at picking wonderful young actors for
his films and his abilities again prove able with
this film. Boyd is an incredible find and a kid that
will surely be cast in a ton of films. He's great.
(He's also Jenna Boyd's little brother - so how he
got such good acting chops hanging around her is quite
a mystery). When this kid smiles, your heart will
melt. If it doesn't, you need to seek medical attention
because you, my friend, are dead.
Jacob Davich is awesome as villainous
Linus/Minus. Davich also proves himself a young actor
to keep an eye out for. While Boyd is sweetness and
pabulum goodness, Davich has an edge that will surely
make him a unique young talent. And while Taylor Lautner
and Taylor Dooley are good as the titular Shark Boy
and Lava Girl respectively, they are outshined by
their young co-stars in more "normal" roles. Lautner
tries way to hard and Dooley seems like a clone of
Alexa Vega (Carmen in "Spy Kids"). But it really doesn't
matter, they do a good enough job and make the film
more fun than the script suggests it will be.
The biggest problem with "The Adventures
of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D" is the last part
of it's title: The 3D. This film has two segments
using that film technology, one in the beginning at
about 10 minutes and a second one, the body of the
film, lasting about 45 minutes. The technology used
is the old 3D glasses popularized in the 50's with
cardboard cutouts having one eye blue and one eye
red to be worn by the viewer. Subtitles on the screen
tell you when to put "GLASSES ON" or take "GLASSES
OFF."
The lenses in the glasses I got
were way too dark. It was nearly impossible to see
the screen images well during the 3D portions of the
film. And since some of the scenes are in regular
35mm, the theaters can't bump up the power to the
xenon bulb during the running of film. This would
look awful during the "GLASSES OFF" portions of the
film, which is about a third of the running time.
The second 3D segment is also way too long, giving
the adult viewer a massive headache and forcing them
to twist, crane and extend their neck during the sequence
trying to keep it in focus and keep the 3D working.
It gets to be too much. Eventually "The Adventures
of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D" gave me a big headache.
Notes:
Also with George Lopez and David
Arquette (both of whom are quite horrible here) as
well as Kristen Davis.
Filmed in Austin, mainly on soundstages
with bluescreen/greenscreen technology.
Viewed at a press sneak in Austin
in May of 2005. I thought I would miss this but they
had trouble getting the 3D glasses and had to postpone
the sneak until a day later which happened to fall
on a day I could go. I saw my friend Liz Lopez of
"El Mundo" at the screening as well as Martin from
cable TV's "The Reel Deal," Jegar Erickson (I found
out this week that he is musician Rocky Erickson's
son - and I have been spelling his name wrong) of
the film show on Austin Music Network, and Victor
Diaz of News 8 Austin among others.
