Mini espías 2: La isla de los sueños perdidos

Sibling secret agents Carmen (Alexa PenaVega) and Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) rescue the President's bratty daughter Alexandra. Siblings Gary (Matt O'Leary) and Gerti Giggles (Emily Osment) are competing fellow OSS agents. Donnagon Giggles (Mike Judge) is promoted to director of OSS over Gregorio Cortez (Antonio Banderas). Juni is blamed for losing the Transmooker device and fired. The device is tracked to a mysterious island off of Madagascar. Gary and Gerti are assigned by their father to go to the island. Carmen and Juni arrive on the island on their own. They discover their gadgets don't work and the island is filled with weird creatures. Their parents Gregorio and Ingrid (Carla Gugino) set off to rescue their kids with Ingrid's parents (Ricardo Montalbán, Holland Taylor) as stowaways.

Robert Rodriguez continues his kiddie franchise with everybody returning for the sequel. I continue to like the arguing Cortez siblings. I also like the Giggles as their foil. Rodriguez stays with his wild CGI style. There are some Ray Harryhausen-like touches such as the creatures and the warrior skeletons. I think some Rodriguez fans judge this franchise too harshly for being kids movies. This franchise exists as its own thing and should be enjoyed as such.

While I maintain the original film wasn't that good, it was still better than this film. Not that 'Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams' is god-awful or anything, it just didn't manage to eliminate the same problems the first film had. That was artificiality! This one felt even more artificial than the first! The visual f/x were fairly were decent in parts but also very fake in others, but the overall artificiality remains in the world of the Spy Kids themselves.

In the sequel, we see an established Spy Kid network which our heroes, Carmen and Juni Cortez (Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara), find themselves having some competition from the Giggles children (Matt O'Leary and Emily Osmont) in the field of saving the world. The plot involves the Cortez kids heading to a mysterious island to retrieve a stolen weapon, while encountering genetically mutated (very fake) looking creatures, as well as a scientist named Romero (Steve Buscemi). Now, Romero is falsely advertised as the villain of the film, but from the onset he befriends the pair. Meanwhile, the Spy Kid's parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) are looking for them with the grandparents (Ricardo Montalban and Holland Taylor) assisting them in their search.

Now, the problem with sequel is the overall storyline is not as good as the first film. There isn't a moment where I am drawn into this bizarre universe nor am I ever afraid for the characters, or feel they are overcoming major hurdles in the adventure or amongst themselves. It is this sort of artificiality that bothers me about 'Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams'. I've seen plenty of kids movies in my time, and many feel like they are genuinely overcoming a hurdle, or uniting a family rift or having a character reach a point of enlightenment. The sub-plot with the grandparents and Gregorio (Antonio Banderas) just didn't work for me at all, although the outcome was decent, the lead up to it was rather formulaic and uninteresting. Similarly, the father/son rift subplot was extremely tame and bland. 'Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams' also lacked villain power, as if the bad guys were doing their thing for the sake of doing it, rather than establishing some madness behind their methods. The overall plot was generally disappointing.

However, there is some decent moments. The interaction between Alexa Vega and Darly Sambara work very well and they are an extremely likable, but the writing and Robert Rodriguez's direction are just having them going through the motions, and the pacing of the film even seems awkward. Cheech Marin, Alan Cummings, Tony Shaloub and Danny Trejo all return in limited roles to further the plot. Mike Judge, of 'Beavis and Butthead' fame, returns in a bigger role as Donnagon Giggles and their is another decent cameo (which I won't spoil). Overall, for the reasons stated, the film lacks the magic of other kid's films and this is partly due to the artificiality of the story/characters and some of the visual effects.

**½ out of *****!

On my estimation, this movie maintained what made the first one a good family movie: fun for kids while bearable (maybe even fun) for adults. The feature also shines in its presentation of family, and how to work things out.

If you have seen the trailers, and read the reviews you have an idea of what is in it, so I will not dwell on that. One thing I have not seen elsewhere and I recommend is that you stay on your seat when the film appears to be over, there are quite a few extra treats during and after the credits.

Another winner in Robert Rodriguez' budding `Spy Kids' franchise, equally as good as the first and showing real potential for the future. Rodriguez is perhaps the only filmmaker of kids' movies that seems to actually listen to what kids want and in the process delivers something every family member can indulge in--it's as delicious as chocolate, with plenty of giggles aimed at the seven to ten crowd and dazzling ideas and humor that parents can appreciate. Rodriguez has an extremely fertile imagination and while his visuals sometimes can't keep up (the digital effects are an occasional letdown) the concepts themselves are so ambitious and delightful that it's easy to look past the brief technological shortcomings. As in the first film, there are plenty of references to family films of the past (most notably `Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory' and the stop-action animation of Ray Harryhausen) and the overall design of both films is very similar. (Rodriguez seems to prefer shooting at twilight, giving everything an orange hue.) But it does seem more expansive, perhaps because he's creative enough to incorporate welcome new characters, such as the kids' grandparents (played with relish by Ricardo Montalban and Holland Taylor) and another brother-sister spy team (Emily Osment and Disney Channel favorite Matthew O'Leary) as well as fresh retakes on characters from the first film (Steve Buscemi takes on the Alan Cumming role). Rodriguez' screenplay once again takes on the theme of family but this time it's carried poignantly throughout (it got dropped rather quickly in `Spy Kids') and the result, coupled with his extraordinary vision, is a film that will thoroughly satisfy just about everyone.

With slightly larger spies, this relatively young series had to grow up a little, taking on more mature jokes and story, but the all the elements of the first film are still evident. The sister- brother fighting, the fantasy-based story details, the wild technology, and of course, the importance of family are all stressed once again amidst the chaos and the outrageous action sequences. While the special effects don't quite mesh well with the live action, the outlandish references to The Clash of the Titans proved to be hilarious (if you find that kind of thing funny). Anyway, this film proved to be a little better than the first, considering young actors Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara feel a little more natural in their roles as super spy siblings. While the whole Spy Kid network seems a little far fetched, at least it is a movie one could take their kids to without the repercussions of too much violence or sexual content.