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 and grandparents.

Related Topics:
2001 - 2003 - Espionage

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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.

Related Topics:
James Bond - Director - Robert Rodriguez - Willy Wonka - Mysterious Island - Tron

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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.

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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 Donagan Giggles, after William Donovan, the director of the real OSS. It is never mentioned what the initials stand for in the Spy Kids OSS.

Related Topics:
Office of Strategic Services - William Donovan

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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.

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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 set 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 polorized 3D, a process that does not require the red-blue lenses.

Related Topics:
Digital video - 3-D - DVD

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