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Spy Kids

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Alexa Vega as Carmen in Spy Kids
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Alexa Vega as Carmen in Spy Kids

Spy Kids is a name of a movie trilogy released from 2001 to 2003. The Spy Kids movies are about the children of a married spy couple who become involved in their parents' espionage. The rest of their family are also spies as well, including their uncle Machete (who supplies the OSS with gadgets) and grandparents.

Spy Kids was heavily influenced by James Bond. Director Robert Rodriguez says the first film was the "Willy Wonka and James Bond mix" and the second was the "Mysterious Island and James Bond mix"; by this pattern the third film could be described as the "Tron and James Bond mix". Technology in Spy Kids is almost always portrayed as looking friendly, and a bit cartoonish.

The Spy Kids films are like James Bond, but with twists which are usually humorous. For instance, in the first film, a robot army is built to conquer the world. The twist is the robots are made to look exactly like children under about the age of 15 (these are the "Spy Kids" that the first movie title refers to: Carmen rips off the robot Juni's dog tags in one scene. There are 500 robot spy kids). There are often jokes about how routine saving the world is.

The spy organization featured in Spy Kids is called the OSS, presumably named for the Office of Strategic Services. Note there is a character named Donnagan Giggles, after William Donovan, the director of the real OSS. It is never mentioned what the initials stand for in the Spy Kids OSS.

One of the chief themes of Spy Kids is the unity of family. The films also play with the idea of children having adult responsibilities, and how keeping secrets from family members can have a negative effect on relationships. The first film also deals extensively with sibling rivalry and the responsibility of older children.

The second and third films were shot with High Definition digital video, parts of the third film using an anaglyphic process to create the 3-D effects. Audiences were given red/blue glasses with their ticket purchase. Four sets of these glasses were also included in the DVD release. The third film was also used as a test for a special Texas Instruments digital projector which is supposed to be able to project polarized 3D, a process that does not require the red-blue lenses.

Even though the Spy Kids movies are espionage-based, MSN Movies ranks the original Spy Kids movie as the ninth best superhero movie to date, behind X-Men, Batman Returns, Spider-Man, The Incredibles, Superman II, Darkman, The Super Inframan, and Hellboy.[link]

Contents

Story

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Prologue

About ten years before the films are set, there was a period of enormous political turmoil. Fearless agents were recruited for espionage, fearing only enemy spies. The way Gregorio Cortez and Ingrid Avellan met is a classic Romeo and Juliet story, they were enemy spies assigned to kill each other that instead fell in love. After their atypical wedding, they retired from espionage and started a family.

Spy Kids ( After nine years of retirement, Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez were pulled back into duty by a huge assignment, but they were a little rusty and easily captured. Their kids, Carmen and Juni Cortez, discovered the truth of their parents' past, which Gregorio and Ingrid had neglected to tell them, and decided to rescue them.

Carmen and Juni managed to bring around their father's estranged brother Machete and Juni helped to redeem Fegan Floop. Together, they thwarted Minion's plans to develop an army of androids resembling young children for an evil mastermind by the name of Lisp.

Spy Kids 2: The Island Of Lost Dreams ( As agents of the OSS, Carmen and Juni are facing particularly hard competition with Gary and Gerti Giggles, the children of double-dealing agent Donagan Giggles, whom Carmen and Juni helped to rescue in the previous film. Donagan wants to steal the transmooker, a device that can shut off all electronic devices, so he can take over the world.

Carmen and Juni follow the trail to a mysterious island, which is home to an eccentric scientist called Romero, who tried to create genetically-minaturised animals, but instead ended up with his island inhabited by mutant monsters, who don't turn out to be so monstrous in the end. Eventually, Donagan is fired and the transmooker is destroyed. In order to take a break from the OSS, Juni retires.

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over ( Juni is thrust back into service when the Toymaker, an evil mastermind, creates a video game, appropriately named Game Over, that mesmerizes its users. Carmen was sent on a mission to disable the game, but disappeared on Level 4. Juni is sent after her and with the help of his wheelchair-bound grandfather, Valentin Avellan, helps to disable the game and save the world. However, the Toymaker was the one who disabled Valentin in the first place. Instead of avenging his former partner, Valentin forgives him and Sebastian, alias "the Toymaker," is redeemed.

This 3-D movie was filmed using James Cameron's Fusion Camera system.

Film Actors

 

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