Spy Kids (film)

Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez are spies with two children, Carmen and Juni, whom they shield from their lives to protect them from inherent danger. They work for the Organization of Super Spies (OSS) doing office consultant work, but are suddenly called back to active field work to find missing agents. Gregorio suspects children's television host Fegan Floop has kidnapped them, mutating them into his "Fooglies" – creatures on his show. The children are left in the care of their uncle, Felix Gumm.

The couple is captured by Floop's "Thumb-Thumbs", robots whose arms, legs, and heads resemble oversized thumbs, and taken to his castle. Felix is alerted to the parents’ capture, activates the fail-safe, and tells the children the truth about their parents, and that he is not their uncle, but an agent sent to watch over them. The house is attacked by Ninja Thumb-Thumbs, and Felix is captured while the children escape alone on the submarine, the NIX Super Guppy, set to autopilot to a safe house.

At the safe house, the children accept that their parents were spies and decide to rescue them. Inside Floop's castle, he introduces his latest creation, small child-shaped robots, to Mr. Lisp. They plan to replace the world leaders' children with these super-strong robots to control the world. The androids have no artificial intelligence yet, so they can't function outside their regular programming. Lisp is furious, demanding usable androids.

Floop, with his second-in-command Alexander Minion, interrogates Gregorio and Ingrid about 'The Third Brain'. Ingrid knows nothing of it, while Gregorio claims he had destroyed the brain years ago. After Floop leaves, Gregorio reveals to Ingrid that the Third Brain was a secret OSS project he had worked on: an AI brain with all the skills of the entire OSS. The project was scrapped as being too dangerous, but Gregorio didn't want to destroy the final prototype.

At the safe house, Carmen and Juni are visited by OSS agent Ms. Gradenko. Giving Carmen a bracelet as a sign of trust, she asks about the Third Brain, but she doesn't know anything. Gradenko orders the house to be dismantled, and Juni sees Ninja Thumbs outside destroying the submarine because she works for Floop. With Gradenko's intentions revealed, Juni accidentally exposes the Third Brain, and a BuddyPack chase ensues. Carmen gets the brain, and she and Juni escape. She realizes too late the bracelet from Gradenko has a tracking device, and she and Juni are attacked by their robot counterparts. Though Juni tries to destroy it, he can't, so the robots take the Third Brain and fly away.

Meanwhile, back at the castle, Gregorio tells Ingrid that Minion used to work for the OSS, but was fired after he reported him tampering with the Third Brain project. With it, Floop can achieve his goal, but he wishes to continue his children's show. Minion has different plans and takes over, locking Floop inside his "virtual room", the chamber where he films his television series. Carmen and Juni receive reluctant help from Gregorio's estranged brother Isador "Machete" Cortez when they show up at his spy shop. He refuses to accompany them, so they steal some gear and take his spy plane, the RX Express, to fly to Floop's castle. After a few mishaps, Carmen and Juni eject themselves from the plane before it crashes into the castle, and they enter via the underwater entrance.

While their children infiltrate the castle, Juni rescues Floop who helps him and Carmen release their parents. Together they trap Minion in Floop's Fooglies machine, mutating him into a Fooglie, and, confronting Lisp and Gradenko, the family is beset by all 500 robot children. Machete busts through the window, reconciling with Gregorio and joining the family to fight. However, at the last moment, Floop reprograms the robots to change sides. The 500 super-strong robots quickly overpower Minion, Lisp, and Gradenko. With advice from Juni, Floop introduces the robot versions of Carmen and Juni on his show. At home, some time later, the family's breakfast is interrupted by Devlin, the head of the OSS, with a mission for Carmen and Juni. The children tell him they will only accept if all the Cortezes can work on the mission together as a family.

• Alexa Vega as Carmen Cortez, the daughter of Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez.
  • Vega also portrays Carmen's robotic counterpart Carmenita.
  • Addisyn Fair as Infant Carmen Cortez
• Daryl Sabara as Juni Cortez, Carmen's brother and the son of Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez.
  • Daryl also portrays Juni's robotic counterpart Junito.
• Antonio Banderas as Gregorio Cortez, retired OSS agent turned consultant worker and father to Juni and Carmen.
• Carla Gugino as Ingrid Cortez, retired OSS agent turned consultant worker and Gregorio's wife, mother to Juni and Carmen.
• Alan Cumming as Fegan Floop, the host of Floop's Fooglies.
• Teri Hatcher as Ms. Gradenko, a former OSS agent turned associate of Mr. Lisp and Minion.
• Cheech Marin as Felix Gumm, an OSS agent who poses as Carmen and Juni's uncle.
• Danny Trejo as Isador "Machete" Cortez[nb 1], a gadget inventor, Juni and Carmen's uncle, and Gregorio's estranged brother.
• Robert Patrick as Mr. Lisp, a businessman.
• Tony Shalhoub as Alexander Minion, Floop's assistant.

Additionally, Mike Judge portrays Donnagon Giggles, George Clooney portrays Devlin, Kara Slack portrays Carmen's friend Leticia[nb 2], Evan Sabara portrays 'Intruder' Spy Kid, Angela Lanza portrays Newscaster, Richard Linklater portrays Cool Spy, Johnny Reno portrays Agent Johnny, Guillermo Navarro portrays Pastor, and Charles Crocker portrays Thumb People.

Robert Rodriguez's first family-oriented production was the short film Bedhead (1991); since the release of El Mariachi (1992) a year later, he desired to make the same type of full-length family features as he experienced in his childhood.[7] He wanted a product that felt like it was written, directed, and produced by a kid.[7] His initial plan for that type of film was children initially not knowing their parents were spies until they had to save their captured parents, and an antagonist with the juvenile fantasticism of Willy Wonka.[7] He noted the villains' imaginativeness was the man who seems to be the main bad guy at first turns into a protagonist and his comedic sidekick becomes the main villain.[7] Designs such as the Thumb Thumbs were drawings Rodriguez did as an adolescent.[7]

Tony Shalhoub joined the project as a Robert Rodriguez fan and a father of two children wanting to act in a children's film. After reading the script, he met Rodriguez and his wife Elizabeth Avellán, and was shown concept drawings of designs and animations for the actor to get an idea of the style of the film.[8] When acting, Shalhoub's experience of reading books and playing with his kids enabled him to view Rodriguez's child-like scenarios from the perspective of his children.[8] Elizabeth Olsen auditioned for a role.[9]

The distorted heads growing out of Alexander Minion when mutated by the machines were gel molded by Rodriguez and, according to Shalhoub, very lightweight.[8]

Most of Spy Kids' 48 days of filming was in Austin, Texas, although some exterior shots were done in South America.[7]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Filmtracks
Music from the Movies
SoundtrackNet

The film score is written by John Debney and Danny Elfman, with contributions from a variety of others, including director Robert Rodriguez and Marcel Rodriguez. Among Elfman's contributions is "Floop's Song (Cruel World)", which is performed by Cumming. Los Lobos covers the Tito Puente song, "Oye Como Va" (adapted as "Oye Como Spy" by David Garza and Robert Rodriguez). The song was nominated for "Outstanding Song in a Motion Picture Soundtrack" at the 2002 ALMA Awards. The closing theme, "Spy Kids (Save the World)", is performed by the Los Angeles indie pop band, Fonda.[10]

The score won an award at the ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards.

1. "Cortez Family" (Gavin Greenaway, Heitor Teixeira Pereira, Harry Gregson-Williams) – 1:39
2. "My Parents Are Spies" (Danny Elfman) – 2:09
3. "Spy Wedding" (Los Lobos, Robert Rodriguez) – 2:11
4. "Spy Kids Demonstration" (John Debney, R. Rodriguez, Marcel Rodriguez) – 1:06
5. "Parents on Mission" (Debney, Elfman, Greenaway, Pereira) – 1:17
6. "Kids Escape House" (Greenaway, Pereira) – 3:14
7. "Pod Chase" (Debney, Elfman, Gregson-Williams) – 1:38
8. "The Safehouse" (Debney, Elfman) – 0:47
9. "The Third Brain" (Debney, R. Rodriguez, M. Rodriguez) – 1:00
10. "Buddy Pack Escape" (Elfman) – 1:39
11. "Oye Como Spy" (Davíd Garza, Tito Puente, R. Rodriguez) Performed by Los Lobos – 2:59
12. "Floop's Song (Cruel World)" (Elfman) Performed by Alan Cumming – 0:59
13. "Spy Go Round" (Greenaway, Pereira, M. Rodriguez) – 2:11
14. "Minion" (Chris Boardman, Greenaway, Pereira, R. Rodriguez) – 1:03
15. "Sneaking Around Machetes" (Elfman) – 0:35
16. "The Spy Plane" (Debney, Elfman) – 1:29
17. "Floop's Castle" (Boardman) – 1:29
18. "Final Family Theme" (Gregson-Williams) – 1:44
19. "Spy Kids (Save the World)" (Emily Cook, David Klotz, Dave Newton) Performed by Fonda – 2:20

Retrospective pieces consider Spy Kids significant in 2001 for starring a Latino secret-agent family. Shalhoub added other reasons it was a unique family film: "I don't think there was anything ever like this before. So it had that whole component going for it, too. It was comedic. It was a little creepy in places. I think it had a bit of a darker side. It just checked a lot of boxes".[8]

Vulture writer Iana Murray positively described Spy Kids, with oddities like the Thumb-Thumbs, as an example of an era where films "could just be weird without having to explain themselves". She called Shalhoub's performance of the best in the film, reasoning he plays "everything so hilariously straight-faced that it only enhances the chaos around him".[8]

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