August 17, 2002 -- "Spy Kids" was a surprise hit last year. This year the surprise is that the sequel is a lot better than most sequels. "Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams," is a wildly imaginative, energetic, colorful, carefree romp through a kind of magical gadget kingdom.

The sequel brings back all of the major characters of the original, and adds a lot more. It is a huge cast of characters. The Cortez spy family is back, with Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino reprising their roles as Gregorio and Ingrid, the parents and Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara back as the spy kids Carmen and Juni. Danny Trejo returns as Uncle Machete. This time, the grandparents join the fun with Ricardo Montalban playing the grandfather and Holland Taylor of "Legally Blonde") playing the grandmother. Many of the other actors in the original film are also back reprising their roles. Bill Paxton ("A Simple Plan") does a funny comic turn as an over-the-top amusement park empire mogul named Dinky Winks.

The hybrid spy caper, sci-fi, fantasy story starts out with the spy kids rescuing Alexandra (Taylor Momsen of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"), daughter of the U.S. president, from a mechanical juggling octupus kind of amusement park ride (even the amusement rides show a lot of imagination). Later, the kids go after a device which can stop all other electronic devices in the world from working. It is located on the Island of Lost Dreams. The device was created by a mad scientist, Dr. Romero (Steve Buscemi of "Ghost World") to keep curiosity seekers away from his island while he invents new animal species. One of Romero's ideas is to create tiny replicas of large animals so that kids can have their own private zoos. Then he decided to make the animals larger, which resulted in big problems. The strange animals, like the living skeletons, the flying pig, and the spider-monkey are the filmmaker's heartfelt salute to those wonderful stop-motion animated creatures created by Ray Harryhausen in movies like "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad," "Jason and the Argonauts" and "Clash of the Titans."

The spy kids are up against a rival team of spy kids in this film. The rivals are Gary and Gerti Giggles (Matthew O'Leary of "Frailty") and Emily Osment (sister of Haley Joel Osment). Gary and Gerti are the son and daughter of Donnagon Giggles (played by Mike Judge of "Spy Kids"). Donnagon is also a rival of Gregorio Cortez. Both are candidates for the directorship of the spy agency they work for. The Giggles family has effectively sabotaged the ambitions of the entire Cortez family. The Cortez spy kids feel they must recover the electronic nullifying device (called a "transmooker") in order to redeem themselves.

There is a large cast of characters, a whole island full of strange animals, various factions chasing the transmooker and a vast array of new spy gadgets in the film. It is an impressive display of visual imagination. It is amazing that director Robert Rodriguez can balance all of these elements into a coherent story, but he manages it very nicely. The fun doesn't end at the beginning of the credits, either. While the credits are rolling, the audience is treated to a song and dance number, followed by some funny outtakes which continue right up to the end of the credits. Not only does Rodriguez do a good job of directing the film, he also wrote the script, was a producer of the film, was director of photography (it was shot with digital cameras), was director of visual effects, wrote some of the musical score, was the production designer and re-recording mixer for the film as well. He edited the film in his garage. He calls it a big-scale home movie. It doesn't look like a home movie. It is hard to imagine anyone with more talent and versatility than Rodriguez. This guy is amazing, and his film is a lot of fun to watch, too. This film rates a B.

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