Island of Lost Dreams

Welcome back to Spy Kids month. So you know what I thought of the first film, where it was a clever, new idea about a couple of kids as spies. It had a great family theme, and they grew close to one another as the film went on, much like William Faulkner's classic novel, As I Lay Dying. But what can be said about the 2002 sequel, "Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams?" Well, if you want to know, let's take a look at the film.

The film starts off with Carmen and Juni facing a very tough competition between two other spy kids, Gary and Gerti Giggles, played by Matt O'Leary and Emily Osment. They are the children of Donnogan Giggles, played by Mike Judge. You know, one of the agents that Carmen and Juni rescued from the first film, that had a very minor part? He's the villain in this one. Juni has a really awesome looking device, a robotic bug that he keeps in his pocket as a personal valet. Also, Gary and Juni fight a lot since Carmen has a crush on Gary. Does Juni have a crush on Gerti? Actually no, he has a crush on the bratty Alexandra, played by Taylor Momsen, the daughter of the President of the USA, played by Christopher McDonald. Going to a theme park, where the owner, Dinky Winks (I did not make that up), played by Bill Paxton, invites them in. Is it me, or was this guy doing marijuana before shooting this film? He has surprisingly a lot of energy here. At the park, she devises a plan to ruin a theme park ride with the transmooker device, a device that can shut off all electronic devices. Juni and Gary go to save her, Alexandra is punished, Gary starts a fight with Juni that makes him lose his award for best Spy Kid of the year, and Juni is also fired. Jeez Louise, Gary is one of those kids you want to just strangle, don't you?

Now here is a shocker, Donnogan wants to use this Trasnmooker device to, you guessed it, take over the world. To stop him, Carmen and Juni go on to their second mission, which is to follow his trail to an island that has a strange name...Liki-Liki. Sounds like an African island, doesn't it? Hold on a second, it's near Madagascar. A scientist named Romero, played by the great Steve Buscemi, who attempted to create genetically-miniaturized animals, but instead ended up with his island of weird animals, like a pig with wings and a spider man for instance. Talk about something that will make your kids scared. He is just one of your typical lune scientists, which is just cliché. Fighting skeletons, being captured by sporks, Gregorio and Ingrid go to rescue the kids, and are accompanied by Ingrid's parents, Valentin and Helga Avellan, played by Holland Taylor and Khan from "Star Trek 2," the late Ricardo Montalban.

Overall, I would say that this sequel still has the light-hearted entertainment that made the first one so loveable, but it does get dark, Gary and Donnogan are just over-the-top, Gary and Gerti just want the fame, and Romero is your clichéd scientist. Parents, just be careful and hold your children tight if they get scared at any moment that you think makes the film too dark. The late Roger Ebert described that this film "uses the same formula as the wonderful 2001 original: bright colors, weird gimmicks, fanciful special effects, goofy villains, sassy dialogue and lots of moxie" (Ebert). The dialogue still has some very clever lines, like when Carmen and Juni find the Transmooker, Carmen exclaims, "There it is!" Juni asks, "How do you know?" and Carmen responds, "Because it's big and round and in the middle of the room." So don't worry, this film still has a lot of the the same stuff from the first one, for it stays true to be like a James Bond series for kids.

One last thing to note is that Alexa Vega started a supposed singing career by singing the main theme to this film, "Isle of Dreams." Also to let you know, in case if you didn't, Vega can speak fluent Spanish. Imagine if this series just keeps on going, with Carmen and Juni's children as Spy Kids eventually? It could work, but stay tuned next week for the third installment in this series.