All photos courtesy of the aptly named Dimension Films.

Even though every studio is scrambling these days to create 3D-animated cinema, don’t believe the hype. For all of the deliciously palpable visual gluttony awaiting our voracious eyes, when everything is said, done, rendered and projected, 3D animation still conforms to the flat canvas of the silver screen. Where’s the depth?

Enter, stage right, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.

Situated unassumingly within the risk-averse, entertainment savvy of Hollywood, there lies a beating heart of truth. With a tip of its hat, what bigger biz is there than movies? That’s right — games!

Spy Kids 3-D is a simple, straightforward amusement park thrill ride. It is cotton candy for the inner city child in all of us. The premise of its story is the attraction, the fantasy, of being fully immersed in a gaming environment. Though Jeff Bridges, as a curious aside, opened with his own biscuit of a movie the same weekend (July 25, 2003), Spy Kids 3-D is no gimmicky throwback to Tron. Delving into the theme — really, the mire — of virtual reality, the thread/threat of the story hinges on whether a sinister toymaker will take over the minds of the world’s youth. For he who controls the youth, controls the future, mwahahaha!

Piggybacking on the franchise’s earlier successes, Spy Kids 3-D is a parade of celebrity cameos* and three-dimensional gags, sprinkled with enough moral morsels to make the whole adventure somehow seem worthwhile. Amidst the car racing, lava surfing, mech-warrior arena battles, platformer collecting and stylized cartoony architecture — there are lessons of revenge and forgiveness, love and sacrifice, honoring our elders, respecting persons for their inner qualities and valuing each other as family.

* While Daryl Sabara (Juni Cortez) and Alexa Vega (Carmen Cortez) reprise their roles as the titular spy kids, performances from other well-known personas are peppered throughout the pelicula, including: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Alan Cumming, George Clooney, Bill Paxton, Steve Buscemi, Mike Judge (the King of the Hill creator has starred in all three Spy Kids movies as Donnagon), Elijah Wood, Cheech Marin, Ricardo Montalban and (the not-so-much-evil-as-misunderstood) Sylvester Stallone.

Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega as the titular (and soon to be glandular) Spy Kids.

More Than Meets the Eye
The trilogy of Spy Kids films comes to us via Austin, Texas. In particular, the films seem to have sprung perfectly formed from the Zeusian head of Robert Rodriguez — the 35-year-old creator, writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor, production designer, music composer, all-around good guy and chief bigwig of Troublemaker Studios. Yes, he’s even a father.