Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)

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.