September 1, 2009 -- The potential was there for a decent kids movie like “Spy Kids,” the very successful earlier family film by Robert Rodriguez, who also wrote and directed “Shorts.” The adults and kids are likeable enough and there are plenty of neat special effects. The basic idea of the story certainly has a lot of potential. That potential is not realized in “Shorts” primarily because of the chaotic structure of the story, which lurches back through a series of disjointed flashbacks.

The idea of the story is simple enough. A boy finds a multi-colored rock which, when held, grants his every wish. A wide variety of children and adults get their hands on the rock and make a lot of wishes. As you can imagine, this leads to chaos. One child mistakenly wishes for “telephonesis” instead of “telekinesis” and instead of being granted the power to move objects with his mind, gets a big, cartoonish telephone implant in his head. One girl wishes her boyfriend would “grow up” with unanticipated results. Another child gets the power of invisibility. One child talks about super powers, but never gets around to actually getting them. There is also talk about wishing for “world peace” but somehow, the kids never end up wishing for that, although the idea is intriguing (“world piece” ?). How about fixing the world economy, or the health care system or ending hunger in the world or fixing the world climate? When the adults in the town find out about the rock, they wish for power and money, causing even more destruction and chaos. The main adult characters are Mr. Thompson (played by Jon Cryer of “Two and a Half Children”), Dr. Noseworthy (William H. Macy of “Wild Hogs”) and Mr. Black, head of a large corporation that runs the company town where all the action takes place (James Spader of the “Boston Legal” TV show).

As you would expect in a movie made for children, the adults are none too bright, and some, like Mr. Black, are mildly threatening. It is up to the children to solve the problem of the wishing rock and the misuse of its power. There is a lesson to be learned about the misuse of power caused by a lack of wisdom. In the movie, the greatest wisdom is demonstrated by the youngest child in the movie, although some of the adults also show they are not totally clueless. The main problem I had with the movie is the structure of the story. It was structured around a child's recollection of the events. He would often leave out important facts, forcing him to backtrack and tell parts of the story over, adding in the new information. The idea is interesting, but it doesn't work well as a storytelling technique. Effective storytelling requires more than a gimmick, it requires careful thought and discipline to work right. This film rates a C.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2009 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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