The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D Review
Summary: A young boy is recruited by his imaginary friends Sharkboy and Lavagirl to help save their planet.
- Starring: Cayden Boyd, George Lopez, Kristen Davis, Taylor Dooley, Kristin Davis
- Director: Robert Rodriguez
- Writers: Robert Rodriguez, Marcel Rodriguez, Racer Rodriguez (story)
- Rating: PG
- Runtime: 1h 33m
- 3D Type: Native
Story:
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl was created based on characters and themes based on Robert Rodriguez’s son Racer Max’s imagination. I first watched this film as a kid over a decade ago, and am now reviewing it as a 29-year-old.
Ten-year-old Max (Cayden Boyd) is struggling to fit in at school. He is bullied by a kid called Linus and dubbed ‘dream boy’ for keeping a dream journal. The fictional superheroes he creates come to life and take him away to their home planet, ‘Planet Drool’, a weird oz of his own imagining.
Though the child acting is not great, the underlying message of the film is good. It encourages children to pursue their best dreams. When a dream doesn’t work out or when knockbacks occur, persist and chase the good dreams, ignoring the bad ones.
Picture:
Reviewing this in 2023, the picture is far from great. The CGI effects look dated with not a lot of detail. Planet Drool kind of looks like a video game with low textures and live-action people thrown in. The colour palette looks saturated, diluted, and a bit lifeless consisting of dark purples, dark blues, and blacks.
Sound:
The audio is decent, it is punchy and crisp. The Blu-ray features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that sounds very immersive, especially with headphones on. For example, both the faint rumbling of storms and underwater effects sound great.
3D
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl is Robert Rodriguez’s second 3D movie after Spy Kids 3D: Game Over. Three-quarters of the movie is in 3D, taking full effect from when they reach Planet Drool. In cinemas, viewers were given the old red and cyan cardboard-style glasses.
I felt like the 3D effects were a real novelty in this having seen the 2D version before, though it will appeal to small children.
Pop:
Kids will enjoy the amount of ‘come out at you’ moments. Some of the pop-out effects include water droplets floating away from the viewer in the underwater scenes. Paper being thrown at Max in the classroom popping out of the screen, a rocket flying out of the screen and a cuckoo clock popping out.
Depth:
Planet Drool looks quite large with the 3D depth though clarity is compromised and the colour palette doesn’t really help. The kids travel through different stages of Planet Drool. A train of thought, a stream of consciousness, a brain storm, a brain freeze, and of course, a brain fart. These various stages of the planet are all unique and offer something different in 3D.
Verdict:
Overall the film is ok for younger viewers and will keep them entertained for an hour and a half. Watching it again, as an adult though, it has not aged very well, especially the CGI effects. There are much better options out there for children visually, though this does have some good underlying messages.
Also, I cannot recommend this one for the 3D, it is fairly gimmicky. You’re better off going with the 2D version if possible.
Category | Scores |
---|---|
Story: | ★★★ |
Picture: | ★★ |
Sound: | ★★★★ |
Pop: | ★★★★ |
Depth: | ★★★ |
TOTAL SCORE: | 16/25 |