14 details you probably missed in 'The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl'
Erin Ajello
- "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl" hit theaters in 2005, but even superfans may have missed these clever details.
- There are a few inconsistencies surrounding Max's dream notebook.
- Sharkboy's stunt choreography shows off actor Taylor Lautner's martial-arts training.
- Some of the toys and locations in Dream Land have clever names.
"The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl" (2005) follows Max (Cayden Boyd) as he meets and teams up with the heroes from his dreams.
The movie helped launch the careers of stars like Taylor Lautner and Sasha Pieterse, and 15 years later, it inspired the Netflix sequel "We Can Be Heroes" (2020).
Here are some details you may have missed in the original film:
The movie's stories are credited to "Racer Max," the director's son.
The movie opens with a title screen that reads, "Based on the stories and dreams of Racer Max," the son of the film's writer and director, Robert Rodriguez.
Rodriguez continued to write and direct for the film's recent sequel, "We Can Be Heroes," and Racer made a cameo appearance as a helicopter pilot.
Sharkboy's wet suit features both a fin and a flame.
During the scene that shows Sharkboy's backstory — where he's feeding sharks with his father before they get separated in a storm — the character is wearing a wet suit that has a shark fin and flames on the front of it.
Later, Max explains that shark fins and flames are Sharkboy and Lavagirl's symbols.
Max may be an inventive storyteller, but he's still mastering spelling.
Max's Book of Dreams is important throughout the film, and he can be seen reading from it in both the real world and Dream World.
The book shows words and drawings in different colors and styles, and his writing throughout switches between cursive, print, and bubble letters.
When Max reads from his Book of Dreams during class, viewers can spot a spelling mistake where he forgot an "L" in "normally."
Max's notebook contradicts what he says during his back-to-school report.
On the first day back at school, Max tells his class how he met Sharkboy and Lavagirl while giving his report about what he did over summer vacation.
But the pages he refers to in his dream journal are dated April 14, which would've been last school year, not over the summer.
Max eats shark-themed cereal for breakfast.
The opening scenes in the real world show Max interacting with people who later reappear on Planet Drool.
Certain objects around Max's house are also tied to the Dream World, including a lava lamp on his nightstand and the shark-themed cereal he eats for breakfast — which foreshadows Lavagirl and Sharkboy.
The shark rocket ship the kids travel on was shown earlier, in Max's dream.
When Max falls asleep after his parents find him in the kitchen, viewers see a brief glimpse of his dreams.
The sequence includes watching a shark-shaped rocket ship fly away from Earth.
When Sharkboy and Lavagirl show up at Max's school the next day, they're traveling in that same rocket ship.
There's a scene that tells the audience to put on their 3D glasses - even when it's not in 3D.
When Max gets into the rocket ship with Sharkboy and Lavagirl, a sign flashes that says, "Glasses On."
In the film, the sign is for Max, Sharkboy, and Lavagirl, who need to put on their goggle-like glasses before takeoff. But in real life, it indicated that it was time for the audience to put on their 3D glasses.
Both the theatrical and DVD releases of "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl" had 3D options.
One of the landmarks on Planet Drool is a clever twist on a real mountain.
The villain of Max's Dream World, Mr. Electric, keeps children from sleeping so they can't dream up a better Dream World.
Part of this evil plan involves keeping kids trapped on a roller coaster that never stops running.
The coaster is called Mount Never Rest, which is a clever twist on Mount Everest.
There's a discarded "Game Man" in the Dream Graveyard.
The Dream Graveyard on Planet Drool is full of toys that Max stopped playing with in the real world.
One such toy that can be seen in the background is a handheld video game that has "Game Man" written on the front.
Between the name and the design, it's clearly intended to be a spoof on a Nintendo Game Boy.
The name of Max's robot isn't completely random.
The robot that Max gave up on in the real world is also in the Dream Graveyard on Planet Drool.
Max calls him Tobor, and he ends up helping Max, Sharkboy, and Lavagirl escape from the Dream Graveyard.
Max never explains the reason behind the robot's name, but "Tobor" is "robot" spelled backward.
Sharkboy's fight scenes allowed actor Taylor Lautner to showcase his real martial-arts skills.
During the fight against Mr. Electric's Plug Hounds, Sharkboy defends himself by whipping around a piece of his Shark Scooter.
The piece he fights with bears some resemblance to a bo staff, a weapon that Lautner was trained in as a kid.
Throughout the film, the fight scenes allowed Lautner to showcase the martial-arts skills he'd honed for real-life national competitions.
When Minus holds the Book of Dreams, it is upside down in one shot but right side up a few seconds later.
Max's class bully, Linus, appears as the evil Minus on Planet Drool.
When Minus first shows Max that he's stolen the Book of Dreams, the bully is clearly holding the book upside down. A few seconds later he's suddenly holding the book correctly, even though he apparently hasn't moved.
Linus has drool on his desk when he wakes up, which has important implications.
Mr. Electricidad wakes Max up after his visit to Dream World with Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
Linus had also fallen asleep at school, and when Mr. Electricidad wakes him up, there's a visible puddle of drool on his desk.
This is likely meant to imply that Linus did actually visit Planet Drool.
By the end of the movie, Linus changes his attitude.
Linus earns a minus for his behavior in class after bullying Max at the start of the movie — which inspires his Dream World persona, Minus.
By the end of the movie, Linus seems to have been changed for the better after his trip to Planet Drool.
He earns a plus in class, and afterward, Linus can be seen drawing a hero named Mr. Positive in his notebook.
Read More:
READ MORE ARTICLES ON
Popular Right Now
Popular Keywords
Advertisement