Tagline: Smaller Heroes. Just As Super.
Sometimes the most amazing superheroes are the ones inside your dreams. So discovers ten-year-old Max (Cayden Boyd), an outcast little boy who has become lost in his own fantasy world in an attempt to escape the everyday worries of dealing with parents (David Arquette and Kristin Davis), school bullies and no-fun summer vacations. But when Max realizes the cool characters, high-flying adventures and incredible secret powers that dwell in his imagination might be far more real than anyone is willing to believe, his whole world changes.
From the wild imagination of a child and the digital vision of director Robert Rodriguez (creator of the hit “Spy Kids” series as well as the recently acclaimed “Sin City”) comes the magical, original, not to mention three-dimensional, family entertainment, The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3D.
Sometimes the most amazing superheroes are the ones inside your dreams. So discovers ten-year-old Max (Cayden Boyd), an outcast little boy who has become lost in his own fantasy world in an attempt to escape the everyday worries of dealing with parents (David Arquette and Kristin Davis), school bullies and no-fun summer vacations. But when Max realizes the cool characters, high-flying adventures and incredible secret powers that dwell in his imagination might be far more real than anyone is willing to believe, his whole world changes.
Now, Max is blasting off on a mission to Planet Drool where Shark Boy (Taylor Lautner) — a kid once lost at sea and raised under the watchful fins of sharks only to become half-shark — and Lava Girl (Taylor Dooley) – a volcanic beauty who emits leaping flames and red-hot rocks – live in a realm of astonishing wonders, one in which the Train of Thought can whisk you off to the mouth-watering Land of Milk and Cookies.
Teeming with mountainous roller coasters and violet skies, Planet Drool looks like the perfect kid paradise until Max meets up with the shocking Mr. Electric (George Lopez) and his sidekick Minus (Jacob Davich) who are trying to do away with all dreams forever. With Shark Boy and Lava Girl in trouble, only Max can guide them – by imagining every clever move of their wily escape from Mr. Electric’s Lair. Speedily conjuring up an incredible array of gadgets, gizmos, contraptions and cool ideas…Max learns the power of turning his dreams into reality.
About the Production
The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3D is an adventure for kids that was literally created in the mind of a child. All of the story’s comic book-style characters – from the underwater wonder known as Sharkboy to the fiery “flame fatale” of Lavagirl to the high-voltage villain that is Mr. Electric – were originally imagined by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez’s son, seven-year-old Racer Max.
Racer Max had been drawing up, dreaming about and spinning tales of Sharkboy and Lavagirl for quite some time before Rodriguez decided to transform them into a motion picture. Rodriguez had earlier made a pioneering splash in family films with his classic trilogy of mini-secret-agent action – “Spy Kids,” “Spy Kids 2” and “Spy Kids 3D” – and was renown for his kid-like sense of playful imagination and unlimited possibility in the film business. He had since turned his digital cameras back to more adult stories, but when Rodriguez pitched the tale of Sharkboy and Lavagirl to Dimension, even adults were hooked by the idea of entering the kind of enchanted, gadget-filled, heart-felt, nonstop action universe only kids can dream up.
So Rodriguez began to take Racer Max’s out-of-this-world characters and incorporate them into a traditional screenplay structure. In honor of his son’s contributions to the storyline, Rodriguez named the lead character Max, turning him a lonely outcast whose only escape into a world of fun and excitement is through his imagination. The story evolved to become about the magnificent power of dreams themselves – especially when combined with action.
Says Rodriguez: “In the world of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, dreams become a metaphor for creativity and the power to change the world around you. The idea of a kid lost in a dream-world – drawing pictures and writing stories when he’s supposed to be paying attention in class – was also drawn from my childhood experiences. That kid was me! But I didn’t want the story to only be about dreamers and dreams coming true. It is also about figuring out the dreams in your life that are worth making real.”
Racer Max remembers first thinking up Sharkboy, the long-lost marine biologist’s son who was raised by sharks in a sea cave only to sprout gills and a fin, while playing “shark” with his dad in the pool. “He kept swimming around saying ‘I’m Sharkboy, you should make a movie about a Sharkboy, and I’ll play Sharkboy.’ We decided to draw a children’s book from it so I could teach him how everything starts with a single idea, and that if you keep building upon that idea and adding to it, it’ll grow.” Rodriguez recalls. “I encouraged him to come up with a female character as well, and asked him what else he loved besides sharks. He thought for a moment then said “Lava.”
He also came up with the villain Mr. Electric and a planet so cool it makes you drool, called Planet Drool.” Planet Drool’s Land of Milk and Cookies was inspired by a dream Racer Max had of swimming through a river of milk, as well as the family’s favorite recipe for “Chocolate Volcano Chunk” cookies.
Recalls producer Elizabeth Avellan, who is also Robert Rodrigeuz’s wife and Racer Max’s mother: “The two of them would sit out by the pool all summer long and Robert would take a Sharpie pen and write down every idea they came up with. You just knew it was going to be a story that would thrill kids because it came right from that place deep in a kid’s imagination.”
Rodriguez continues the story: “By that point Spy Kids 3D was released and had become successful, so I got a call from Bob Weinstein at Dimension asking if I had any other ideas for a 3D family film. I didn’t, but was put on the spot. I looked over at Racer who was drawing his Sharkboy children’s book, and I asked Bob, ‘How about “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl… in 3D’? He said, ‘That sounds fantastic! What is it?” I told him I didn’t know, that my son came up with it, but that we’d work up a script and send it to him. From that point on I was excited about making a movie that truly came from a child’s imagination.”
Then the collaboration really kicked into high gear. “When making a movie like this you have to try and get back to that time when you were 8 years old. But my son was already there. So we decided to work on it together as a family making a movie for other families. Racer’s brothers came aboard as actors and helped draw up designs. We brainstormed every chance we could get, making endless drawings and coming up with different jokes and ideas. Somewhere during our brainstorm sessions we realized we even wanted to include a “brain storm“ in the movie, where at some point brains rain down from above due to imagination overload. That’s what made it so fun — every conceivable idea was up for grabs in this movie.”
Other joyful notions followed from Racer Max’s mind as the story was developed – including the Mt. Neverest roller coaster and the fudge-spewing motorbike ridden by Sharkboy. With each of these wildly uninhibited creative concepts, Robert Rodriguez found his own imagination sparked. He never worried about how to such otherworldly and unlikely creatures, characters and contraptions to life, because he already knew he could conjure absolutely anything inside the digital world. With the latest technology and most talented computer artists at his disposal, Rodriguez was ready to go anywhere his son’s imagination would travel – to the stars and beyond.
“I was really adamant that I wanted to keep all of Max’s original ideas and concepts intact and weave a story around them,” he says. “It was a revelation to see how all these ideas of his kept growing and really fitting into the theme of the power of dreams.”
As Rodriguez wrote, the screenplay became even more of a family project. His brother Marcel and sister Becca made contributions and of course his long-time partner and wife Elizabeth Avellan served as the film’s producer. Later, not only Racer Max, but Robert and Elizabeth’s sons Rebel and Rocket took also took roles in the film. It all seemed to make the film mean even more to the family.
“Sharkboy and Lavagirl was a real family affair right from the beginning – and we were inspired by the idea that we were a family making a film for other families,” says Rodriguez. “It’s been an interesting process to see the kids want to become more and a more involved, because with the first SPY KIDS movies, the kids just watched it.
On the second one, they wanted to be stunt kids and by the third one, they were coming up with design ideas. But now with Sharkboy and Lavagirl, they are becoming storytellers. I hope the passion that our family put into it comes through for the audience and inspires them to follow their dreams, too.”
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3D (2005)
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Taylor Lautner, Taylor Dooley, Cayden Boyd, George Lopez, David Arquette, Kristin Davis, Jacob Davich, Sasha Pieterse, Rico Torres, Shane Graham, Rebel Rodriguez
Screenplay by: Robert Rodriguez
Cinematography by; Robert Rodriguez
Film Editing by: Robert Rodriguez
Costume Design by: Nina Proctor
Set Decoration by: David Hack, Jeanette Scott
Art Direction by: Steve Joyner, Jeanette Scott, Christopher Stull
Music by: John Debney, Graeme Revell, Robert Rodriguez
MPAA Rating: PG for mild action and some rude humor.
Distributed by: Dimension Films
Release Date: June 10, 2005
Visits: 144
