Parents' Guide to

Shorts

Movie PG 2009 89 minutes
Shorts Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

Sandie Angulo Chen By Sandie Angulo Chen , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 7+

Funny, imaginative fantasy from Spy Kids director.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 7+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 8+

Based on 17 parent reviews

age 9+

holy guacamole

I just watched this movie last weekend with my family.
age 11+

Confused

The movie took so many different vantage points and rewound to previous situations that I am unsure how a child could comprehend what was going on.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (17 ):
Kids say (40 ):

The "one-man film crew" that is Robert Rodriguez (writer, director, producer, co-editor, composer) returns to his love of kids' imagination in this loopy funfest. Partly inspired by Rodriguez's own five children, the boisterous adventure is perfectly attuned to its audience, who no doubt will spend the entire 89 minutes laughing in delight at a booger monster, a girl bully turning into a male-swatting wasp, an army of crocodiles, parents literally stuck together, a boyfriend told to grow up (he ends up a giant), and much, much more.

Rodriguez's homegrown special effects aren't anything to write George Lucas about, but kids will be too busy reveling in the slapstick antics to notice that the walking CGI crocodiles are kind of unsophisticated. Instead, audiences will focus on the goofy, tween-targeted action. Anchoring the ensemble are newcomer Vanier (a Christina Ricci lookalike) as the deliciously named Helvetica -- even her own pop calls her "Hell" -- and veteran Bennett (who stole an early scene in Star Trek as the young James T. Kirk). Their appealing characters are two of the many reasons kids will love this unpredictable, pleasantly zippy adventure.

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