Spy Kids 3D: Game Over

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Spy Kids 3D: Game Over's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Spy Kids 3D: Game Over completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 13 December 2003.

Overall comments and recommendations

Spy Kids 3D starts with the promise of an interesting concept, mixing reality with virtual reality but quickly slips into a simplistic plot. Quips such as “revenge doesn’t solve anything” and “can you forgive yourself” are thrown in, in an attempt to justify the story. Grandfather Valentine is apparently able to forgive the Toymaker for putting him in a wheelchair; the Toymaker is able to forgive himself and gives up his ambition to take over the world. The 3D effects are what make this movie entertaining.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Spy Kids 3D: Game Over contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Juni Cortez. ex-OSS agent, is called back to active duty to rescue his sister Carmen who is trapped on the fourth level of a computer game called Game Over. The game, invented by the evil Toymaker, is a trap intended to take over the minds of the world’s children and thus the future of the world. Carmen was sent into the game to shut it down and now Juni has just twelve hours to close it down before the game goes online.

Juni lands in the virtual reality game and has to battle pogo trolls, robots, programmers, the deceiver and various robotic monsters to reach level 5. He starts with nine lives and quickly loses several. He enlists the aid of his grandfather, a cripple, who lost the use of his legs due to the Toymaker several years earlier. In the game, Grandfather regains the use of his legs and is transformed into a large and powerful ally. Together they overcome all the obstacles to reach Carmen. From there they have to reach the next level which has never been done before and where they will be able to shut down the game. To get there they have to swim through a lava ocean. Once there Grandfather has an old score to settle with the Toymaker with interesting results.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is quite a lot of ‘virtual violence’ in this movie enhanced by the 3D effects. There is a lot of fighting, falling and crashing into objects with no real life consequences. The following scenes are an example of what happens:

• Pogo trolls chase Juni and poke out their long tongues. Juni grabs a tongue and twirls the troll through the air knocking the troll out.
• Juni bounces off a target which propels him into space – he crash lands on the moon.
• Juni has to fight Demetra from the top of giant robotic monsters. The children do the actions with their hands, but the robots do the actual fighting.
• During a high speed motorised machine race, a large machine with pincers grabs Juni’s machine from above him leaving him on a wheel hub.
• Juni and another boy Arnold, have to fight with laser beams; Arnold traps Juni with claws.
• A giant lava monster throws lava rocks at the children.
• Large robotic monkeys leave the game and enter the real world where they cause much destruction. Juni’s family fight them off managing to destroy them all.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Younger children in this age group would probably be scared by the monsters and robotic creatures in this movie. The virtual reality makes it all very unrealistic and the older children in this age group might not find it scary.

The 3D effect adds to the fun and would also increase the scariness for younger children. As well as the violence mentioned above, children in this age group would probably also be scared by the following scenes:

• Carmen floats in suspended space while she is trapped in the game.
• Grandfather transforms from being in a wheelchair into a large powerful person while he’s in the game then reverts back to being in a wheelchair afterwards.
• The fact that the robots leave the game and enter the real world.
• One of the robotic monkeys almost swallows Carmen.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened

Children in this age group would probably not be scared by this movie as they would understand it is only portraying a video game.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children over the age of thirteen would not be scared by this movie.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in this movie.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity in this movie.

Use of substances

There is no use of substances in this movie.

Coarse language

There is no coarse language in this movie.

The movie's message

The underlying theme of this movie is forgiveness of others and self.

Values parents may wish to encourage include:

• friendship
• co-operation
• forgiveness of others and self.

Values parents may wish to discourage include the use of violence as a way to get ahead.