MANILA, Philippines?Thank goodness ?Shorts? is short. A hyper-speedy, all-over-the-place kids? adventure flick from Robert Rodriguez, the film is chaos on overdrive. The film is chock-full of elements that will appeal to viewers 11 years old and below, however.
For one, the movie is probably the only production out there featuring a giant booger monster. Then, there?s a crocodile army, tiny beings from outer space, a giant robot, a pterodactyl, and loads of other elements that kids will like?including the rainbow-colored wishing rock that ties all of them together.
Chronology
The movie is a series of shorts told without chronology by its narrator, Toby ?Toe? Thompson (Jimmy Bennett), a slight, 11-year-old kid with braces and a pack of bullies perennially at his back. He gets regularly dumped into trash bins by the gang?s leader, Helvetica (Jolie Vanier) and her brother, Cole (Devon Gearhart).
The children live in a suburban neighborhood owned by Cole and Helvetica?s dad, Carbon Black (James Spader), whose Black Box Inc. is where all the kids? parents work. The grown-ups are preoccupied with upgrading the company?s reason for being?the Black Box, a device aiming to be the be-all and end-all of devices, that can morph from a toaster to a baby monitor. In the meantime, their children end up being ignored.
Brothers
Things get shaken up when a multihued rock drops from the sky, into the hands of three clueless brothers. Then, it rolls its way into Toe?s life, gets inside his mother?s purse, lands in the backyard of a germophobe scientist (William H. Macy) and his son, and ends up being fought over by Helvetica, her father, and the rest of the town.
?Shorts? is not one of those films that will stand the test of time?it lacks a resonant story and sympathetic characters. But, parents desperate to find something amusing for their children to watch can haul off their offspring to a screening. The film is fast-paced and colorful, and it?s peppered with enough gross-out details to satisfy today?s attention-challenged youngsters.
