Das Geheimnis des Regenbogensteins

Shorts (PG, 1:29) — Fantasy: Fairy Tales, 3rd string, original

You might think that "Shorts" refers to the size of the heroes in this film, but in fact it's an allusion to the movie's structure, purporting to be a collection of short films recorded over a 2-day period but shown out of sequence, thus: 0: The Blinkers 2: Alien8ed 1: Wishing Rock 4: Big Bad Booger 3: The Miscommunicators 5: The End

The narrator is Toby "Toe" Thompson (Jimmy Bennett), a geeky kid with braces who's the butt of the bullying inflicted by his school's 2 rich kids, Helvetica and Cole Black, dotter and son of leading citizen Carbon Black (James Spader), whose company, Black Box Worldwide Inc., essentially owns the town of Black Falls.

One day Toe discovers a rainbow-colored rock that keeps whispering "make a wish" to him. Turns out the rock has the power to make those wishes come true. Toe starts out wishing for friends just as interesting and unique as he is and is rewarded by a double brace of tiny flying saucers crewed by LGMs who can use advanced tech to make many of his fondest dreams a reality.

The stone keeps getting misplaced, stolen, thrown away, picked up by accident, or launched at random, however, which means that almost every other character gets a chance to use it at one time or another, invariably with unforeseen consequences. This includes Toe's nabors, the Short boys (Laser, Lug, and notably Loogie), even geekier recluse Nose Noseworthy and his germophobic scientist dad, Toe's parents, and of course the Blacks.

This is all played very, very broadly for yuks. We are tipped off early that none of the cartoonish violence will have permanent effect when Loogie dives straight into the mouth of a huge crocodile to try to retrieve the wishing rock and gets koffed up moments later, slathered with half-digested croc lunch but otherwise unharmed.

There are more than just booger jokes, there's a giant animated booger. (Mercifully, there are no pee or fart jokes and only 1 fast visual gag involving pterodactyl poop. Thank you, Robert Rodriguez.)

The kids aren't very good actors, the jokes are corny, the special effects aren't particularly special, and the make-up is obviously fake (probably intentionally). None of this matters much, since it isn't intended to be taken seriously anyway.

Do all these shortcomings add up to a total loser? Not really. It's good-hearted as well as light-hearted, and the moral (be careful what you wish for) is something worth learning at about the age of the target audience. Plus which, not only does it not repeat itself, most of the ideas and gimmicks are original, and the dialog is occasionally witty.

OK, so I do not like movies like this. But I have to say that this movie was kinda fun, and it had an original plot that is something that kids really want to see. Good clean comedy comes out of this movie every once and a while. A good laugh can be expected from this film. I gotta say that the creator had a really good imagination when making this movie, he really knows what kids would really wish for. The kids acting was fair. On the other hand the adults become a little stupid. The special effects looked a little cheap. And sometimes the imaginative stuff goes a little to far. But I only recommend it for kids 9 and younger. They are sure to enjoy this film and have a thrill. But teens and adults may find this movie to be not so good, because since its meant to be only for kids, people over the age of 13 might find this movie to be way too childish. But it is somewhat fun. This is an ordinary family/kids movie which is slightly a little good as any other.

I saw this with my son (10) and his friend. I expected to fall asleep because of the poor reviews on IMDb, but to my happy surprise it awoke the inner child in me. The wishes were plausible for children and the FX were enjoyable. The two kids with me complained that they would have had better wishes than in the movie or about this and that, but they barely moved a muscle while it was playing, didn't ask for popcorn or snacks.

Overall, this is a great family film in the Disney vein of talking Herbie cars and other implausibilities that I loved as a child and am glad I saw with my child. Better than Spy Kids 2 or 3D, Shark Boy and Lava Girl.

You could do worse than to take your kids to see this film.

I'm rating this on the same level I rated "The Final Destination" and "GI JOE."

"The Final Destination" was a silly gimmicky horror film. "GI JOE" was a silly generic action film. "Shorts" is just a silly generic kids film, and when I say it's a kids film, I mean it's a KIDS film.

Children will either like it or they won't. It's got a lot of stuff in it that will probably keep an undiscerning 5-10 year old entertained for an hour and a half. However, anyone over a certain age will just go... "Hey, that's kind of ridiculous..."

The acting ranges from good to bad. The special effects are mostly obvious CG effects. The story is kind of lame, but it's a kids movie. Really everything in this film is just... OK. It's not a terrible film, but there's nothing that really makes it stand out either. The one thing I kind of liked was the story structure and editing style, but that's just about it.

I just think its a kids film that tries a little too hard to be "just for kids." It doesn't really respect the intelligence of the kids watching it, but if the kids aren't picky anyway, it's not really a problem.

I wouldn't really recommend it, but there's nothing wrong with it. If you just want to take your child to a movie, and this is the only thing playing, I'd say go for it. But its not something you absolutely have to see.

5/10 - Generic kids film, but it's not terrible.

One-man film crew Robert Rodriguez' moonlighting into kiddie fare has at best produced mixed results, here epitomized by his latest juvenile project, "Shorts," a wishy-washy tale about kids finding their inner heroes and saving their smalltime town. Returning to the hyper-earnest mode of his "Spy Kids" trilogy, director-writer-DP-editor Rodriguez nonetheless can't muster enough cheerio for anyone but the youngest viewers to get over an overabundance of special effects and a monotonous feeling.

As well as pertaining to the stature of its young protagonists, the title of Rodriguez' wishful thinking tale concerns his narrative's central gimmick: a series of short episodes shown as per the whims of its young narrator Toe Thompson (Jimmy Bennett). Told in a fractured timeline, the series of interlocked episodes show how the town of Black Falls is dominated by the techno mogul (James Spader), and how a group of kids -- including Toe -- change the neighborhood for the better with the help of a rainbow-colored stone that grants the wishes of anyone who possesses it.

Save for the campy blink-first-standoff between two kids, "Shorts"' subplots never evolve into a compelling unit, with Rodriguez running amok with his "homemade" CGI -- perhaps reflecting the unrestrained euphoria of a kid getting his hands on a magic stone -- that does nothing to add to the novelty of its uncharacteristic style. Ultimately predictable and reeking of half-assed effort, the whole procedure gets exhausting after a few rounds of cutesy moxie, though at least Rodriguez wisely sticks to the context of his movie's title and keeps his film reasonably concise.