If you make film series starring children, you have to produce sequels very quickly, otherwise the little stars would grow up too much. Robert Rodriguez was quite aware of it when making the film series based on his big 2001 hit Spy Kids. In this case, however, the haste didn’t result in decrease of quality. On the contrary, 2002 film Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams turned out surprisingly well, becoming in many aspects better than its predecessor.
The plot begins after protagonists Carmen Cortez (played by Alex Vega) and her brother Juni (played by Daryl Sbara) have formally joined their parents Gregorio (played by Antonio Banderas) and Ingrid (played by Carla Gugino) as agents of OSS, albeit in special children’s division. After rescuing president’s daughter Alexandra Anami (played by Taylor Momsen) from dangerous situation in theme park, Carmen and Juni are invited to OSS awards banquet during which Transmooker device will be stolen by mysterious “Magna Men”. Juni is blamed for it and fired from OSS, but Carmen reinstates him by hacking OSS database and two of them go on a mission to find perpetrators of the incidents. Trail leads to mysterious island where eccentric scientist Romero (played by Steve Buscemi) have been creating bizarre animal hybrids and later developed Transmooker device in order to prevent his creations from leaving and wreaking havoc in outside world. Carmen and Juni has to deal with their rivals from children division – Gary Giggles (played by Matt O’Leary) and her sister Gerti (played by Emily Osment) – whose father Donaggon Giggles (played by Mike Judge) might be behind the whole affair.
After the great success of Spy Kids Robert Rodriguez could have easily obtained larger budget for its sequel, but he refused to do so, reasoning that larger budget would have affected his creativity too much. Although The Island of the Lost Dreams suffers from having some of the characters from the previous film brought only in cameos and to serve as fan service, second film doesn’t appear to overwhelming and still looks very fresh. Much of this is due to Rodriguez maintaining his original vision and trying to make film just as he would have if he had adequate resources and talents during his childhood. The result is film that wears its silliness proudly on its sleeve and mixes action, humour and CGI in a way that brings plenty of entertainment both to children and adult audiences. The cast is very good, which includes some young additions that would later, like star of Gossip Girl Taylor Momsen, have great things, and veterans like Steve Buscemi who is having time of his life playing one of the most “out there” characters of his career. Film ends with epilogue in which Alexa Vega even displays his singing talents, making the film one of the most entertaining of the whole series.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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