The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl
Short description
Max is a ten-year-old with a vivid imagination whose home-made superheroes, Sharkboy and Lavagirl, are dismissed by everyone around him as pure invention. When the two characters cross over into the real world and ask for his help, Max learns that their home planet is under attack and that his own imagination may be the only thing capable of saving it.
Robert Rodriguez directed and co-wrote the film with Marcel Rodriguez, with Elizabeth Avellan producing for Troublemaker Studios. It was the twelfth of the twenty-four features Rodriguez has directed, arriving between Sin City and Planet Terror, and it belongs to the run of family-oriented films he made alongside his darker work. Cayden Boyd plays Max, Taylor Lautner and Taylor Dooley play the title characters, and David Arquette and Kristin Davis appear as Max's parents, with Jacob Davich as the school bully Linus.
Made for a budget of fifty million dollars, the film took about seventy-two million dollars worldwide. Audiences have been unenthusiastic: it holds a rating of 3.8 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly forty-six thousand votes and 5.2 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 4.3 out of 10 from around one hundred and twenty reviews places professional opinion close to the audience response, with neither group regarding the film as a success.
What's left behind the scenes
- The main character in the film is named Max, after the middle name of Robert Rodriguez’s son, Racer Max Rodriguez.
- The majority of the film was shot against a green screen using over a thousand computer-generated special effects, with 11 studios working on them simultaneously. Scenes taking place in the 'normal' world were filmed in Austin, Texas.
- Professional wrestler Dean Roll, performing under the name Sharkboy and trademarking it in 1999, filed a lawsuit accusing Miramax studio of infringing on his rights and demanding monetary compensation. The proceedings lasted almost two years, and in April 2007, the dispute was settled out of court, with the amount of compensation paid remaining undisclosed.
- Robert Rodriguez's name is listed in the credits fourteen times, including as director, producer, screenwriter, special effects supervisor, cinematographer, editor, camera operator, composer, and actor.
- Coinciding with the film's release, Robert Rodriguez published two children's books in collaboration with renowned American science fiction writer Chris Roberson, titled “Sharkboy and Lavagirl Adventures.” The first book was called “The Day Dreamer” and the second, “Return to Planet Drool,” with illustrations by Alex Toader, who was involved in the development and design of characters and landscapes for this film and the three “Spy Kids” installments.
- The story that formed the basis of the film's plot was conceived by Robert Rodriguez's seven-year-old son, Racer, at the time, and he received special mention in the film’s credits. He also played seven-year-old Sharkboy in one of the scenes.
- The film was shot so quickly that by the time Robert Rodriguez was ready to send the finished material to the studio, even the planned promotional materials were not yet ready.
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