Shorts
PG for mild action and some rude humor.
Running Time: 1 hour 29 minutes
Originally posted on Frame by Frame: A Family-Friendly Guide to the Movies Blog
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Shorts is set in the suburb of Black Falls, where all the houses look the same and everyone works for Black Box Unlimited Worldwide Industries Incorporated. Mr. Black's Black Box is the ultimate communication and do-it-all gadget that's sweeping the nation. However, other than keeping his parents employed, Mr. Black's Black Box has done nothing for 11 year old Toe Thompson who just wants to make a few friends.
Then, when a mysterious rainbow-colored rock falls from the sky, everything changes.
Hit in the head with rock which is thrown at him by some neighborhood bullies, Toe discovers some amazing wishing powers.
Make A Wish...
While the Black Box does some pretty amazing things, the Rainbow Rock does it one better. The Rainbow Rock grants wishes to anyone who holds it. But, as it ricochets around town, from kid to kid and parent to parent, wishes come true and very quickly the whole neighborhood is turned upside down in a wild rampage of everything from tiny aliens to giant boogers.
As the title implies, Shorts is a collection of short movie segments strung together to fill out an hour and a half movie. While the "shorts" do tell a story, they're pieced together in a somewhat random order as the events surrounding the Rainbow Stone are told by the main character Toe. We applaud the scriptwriters on a couple levels here.
First off, they deserve kudos for knowing
their kid-friendly audience well.
Young kids do not have long attention spans. As a result, it's very hard to have them sit through an hour and a half movie without squirming. Through the use of "shorts" the younger audience does not lose interest in what's going on.
Secondly, the filmmakers especially, need to be applauded
for how they string the "shorts" together.
As already mentioned, the storyline is told out of order. While this could be very confusing, the filmmakers tap into a very unique storytelling tool. Through narration they keep what could have been a somewhat fragmented storyline, hooked together as the story cycles back to important facts along the way. Of course this is all done as a way to keep the dots connected along the way.
But the genius, of really knowing their audience well, is found in "how" they string the "shorts" together. They turn the movie into a type of stop action video through the use of fast-forward, pause and rewind techniques. As the story unfolds, and at times gets ahead of itself, the narration suddenly says, "But, I'm getting ahead of myself." A pause and rewind button appears on the screen, and we find ourselves transitioned to another part of the story.
In my opinion, this is a stroke of genius! The filmmakers have very successfully tapped into the world of kids. They know about fast forward, pause and rewind. This becomes a great tool to keep the kids attention throughout the movie, and the storyline.
This Could Be A G-Rated Movie
Shorts carries PG rating. But, for all intents and purposes, this could have been a G-rated flick. While it says PG for mild action and some rude humor, the action is extremely mild and the rude humor almost non-existent. Honestly, we've seen worse in some Disney G-rated movies! The crocodile army sequence is more like a laughable crocodile that chased after Hook in Peter Pan. As for a snake sequence, it's more like a video game Mario experience where Super Mario has to find a way to easily defeat the danger.
With that in mind, this is a fun movie to watch with your kids.
Shorts falls squarely into the Family-Friendly Arena.
While the middle to older teen crowd will probably quickly lose interest, the younger crowd will find lots to laugh at. As parents, remember, Shorts is not directly aimed at you. It's aimed at your kids. However, there are enough good lessons in this movie making it worthwhile to watch together so you can talk about teamwork with your kids after the movie. It's also nice seeing Jon Cryer on the big screen again. That alone should help keep the interest of parents who liked him in their younger days, and now watch him every week on Two and a Half Men.
Overall, Shorts is a fun, cutesy movie. While it has a campy feel to it, the storytelling techniques help soften the lowest common denominator feel.
A final refreshing aspect of Shorts revolves around the acting. Sometimes movies that are aimed directly at kids, contains actors who simply over-act. It's almost like they do baby-talk-acting. Actions become over-blown and dialogue becomes over-stated. At times it looks like the actors think they're on a big stage play where they have to over-act. Such is not the case with Shorts. While it's true the dialogue is not deep, at least the actors don't over-act.
Enjoy the show!
Dr. Rus
