by MARK SLUTSKY

The seesaw that is Robert Rodriguez’s delightfully self-constructed career continues. Veritably nipping at the heels of the dark, mostly monochromatic, adult comic book fantasy that was Sin City comes his The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3-D, a bright, mostly monochromatic kid’s comic book fantasy. And, like Sin City, with its unprecedented three-director team-up (Rodriguez, Frank Miller and “guest director” Quentin Tarantino), Shark Boy & Lava Girl is also an unusual collaboration, as the film is based on the dreams and stories of Rodriguez’s son, Racer Rodriguez, and is billed as a “Rodriguez Family Production.”

As you may have guessed by the title, Shark Boy & Lava Girl is in, well, 3-D. But unlike his previous multidimensional kid flick, Spy Kids 3-D, Rodriguez didn’t use the fancy new 3-D technology. For whatever reason, the new movie uses the old-fashioned red and blue glasses method instead.

The movie starts with our imaginative hero Max (Cayden Boyd), who gets pushed around by school bullies every day, and whose parents (David Arquette and Kristin Davis) are having problems with their marriage. To escape, Boyd invents a pair of characters named Shark Boy and Lava Girl. These ideal superhero kids live on a planet named Drool (so named because “it’s so cool it makes you drool”). Our young hero gets mercilessly teased for his fantasies, but one day his hero buddies actually show up at school and whisk him off to Drool, where something has gone terribly wrong: the planet is doomed!

And so begins a good-hearted, extremely cartoony adventure, with Rodriguez’s trademark homemade special effects and music. Shark Boy & Lava Girl is sweet-natured and entertaining, full of lots of creative ideas and stuff that should really appeal to kids. I only wish it hadn’t been in 3-D. The old technology washes out the colours, making everything look flat and grey; the glasses kind of gave me a headache, and frankly, the payoff just isn’t good enough. The opening and ending of the movie, in regular (and colourful!) 2-D, look a million times better and are a lot easier to watch. Still, points for trying, and the movie is highly entertaining regardless.

The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3-D opens Friday, June 10

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