Spy Kids 2

Spy Kids 2 (2002)
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Steve Buscemi, Mike Judge, Cheech Marin
Extras: Commentary Track, Deleted Scenes, Featurettes, Music Video, Photo Gallery and more
Rating:

Being a mixture between James Bond for kids and a Ray Harryhausen fantasy, ’Spy Kids 2’ has quickly made its way into the hearts of fans of the original movie, an lovers of colorful fantasy adventures alike. The movie itself is a racy and high-spirited story in which Carmen und Juni Cortez are taken to strange world in which a scientist creates strange fantasy creatures in the best Dr. Moreau fashion. Witty, and funny, the film is filled with special effects, cool action scenes and exciting gadgets.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment has been preparing ’Spy Kids 2’ as a Special Edition on this DVD, featuring the movie in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio in a transfer that is enhanced for 16×9 TV sets. The picture is clear and free of defects and blemishes and reveals a good level of detail. Colors are vibrant and lush, well saturated and perfectly balanced to reproduce the movie’s lively settings. Black levels are good, creating sold shadows that never break up. Slight signs of edge enhancement are evident and occasionally the image displays the slightest compression artifacts, but nothing that ever becomes distracting.

The audio on the DVD is presented as a 5.1 channel Dolby Digital mix that is aggressively making use of the surround channels. The mix is bold and dynamic with a very wide frequency response that reaches well into the subwoofer area to create some big rumbles. High ends are clear and free of distortion, and the dynamic range of the track is as you would expect wide and well capable of handling the subtlest ambiances as well as the big booms.

The disc features an exciting commentary track by director Robert Rodriguez that is full of information and little tidbits, as well as his own humor. Further you will find a collection pf featurettes and behind-the-scenes montages on the disc that are entertaining and informative. Eight deleted scenes can also be found here, as well as a music video, photo galleries, trailer and other small extras.

Like the movie, ’Spy Kids 2’ is full of surprises in the form of small extras. The feature presentation is good and everyone who saw and enjoyed the film should get his hands on this DVD.