‘I have a very child-like imagination’
Director Robert Rodriguez and child star Vivien Lyra Blair talk to about their new family superhero movie
ROBERT Rodriguez never planned to make a sequel to his 2005 children’s film The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. The 52-year-old filmmaker, responsible for adult fare such as Sin City, From Dusk Til Dawn, Machete and Desperado, has also made children’s films such as Spy Kids and its many sequels and the aforementioned big screen hit about a young boy recruited by his imaginary friends Sharkboy and Lavagirl to help save their planet.
But when he was approached by Netflix to make a brand new family film, he couldn’t help but remember all the fun stuff he came up with 15 years ago.
“It wasn’t meant to be a sequel at all,” he says frankly over Zoom. “In fact the order I got from Netflix, they came to me and said: ‘ We love Spy Kids and Sharkboy-type movies work well on our service, kids watch those over and over. We need original family, live action’.”
It was not a coincidence that Disney+ was about to launch at the time, with its wealth of family-friendly content, and Netflix was keen to step up its game, he adds.
What he came up with is not strictly a sequel to the original film, but there is some distinct overlap.
We Can Be Heroes tells the story of the children of the earth’s superheroes, which includes Sharkboy and Lavagirl’s daughter Guppy.
The original characters do also make brief appearances, with Taylor Dooley reprising her role as Lavagirl and Sharkboy concealed under a helmet so you can’t see that Taylor Lautner has been replaced by JJ Dashnaw.
“I said: ‘ Wow you want one of those? I love to make those!’ Rodriguez continues animatedly.
“And I would much rather make it for Netflix than for the theatre because kids watch them so many times.
“So I came up with an original story of superheroes, an Avengers-type superhero team. I thought I will wait ’til they approve the movie and then I was going to ask them if we could go to the other studio and borrow Sharkboy and Lavagirl to have them on the parent team because then people will know those names, even if they never saw the movie.”
The film stars Vivien Lyra Blair who audiences might recognise from the previous Netflix hit Bird Box, starring Sandra Bullock.
The eight-year-old actress charms as Guppy, the offspring of two superheroes who is wrangling her own powers.
“I used to play this card game with Robert called avocado smash,” the little girl remembers, “and it was my favourite thing in the world. So every time Robert wanted me to get excited, he would say ‘Guppy, think avocado smash’ and I would get super-excited and I had a little avocado smash push.”
Vivien is too young to remember Sharkboy and Lavagirl from its first outing, but she did watch the film when she auditioned for the role — and again when she won the part.
“We had snacks like popcorn and it was very fun and that same day I learned I had gotten my next belt on taekwondo, so it was an exciting day for me, and we had this big party with all my favourite food and watched Sharkboy and Lavagirl again and all that kind of stuff.”
It is that desire by children to rewatch their favourite films that is the reason Rodriguez loves making them so much.
“Family films are my favourite,” he enthuses. “I’m from a family of 10 kids, I have five kids of my own, and you get to use the totality of your creativity.
“I have a very child-like imagination, I’m always inspired by children, my siblings, so these really use all your imagination.
“I only stopped making them because it just didn’t seem to make sense to make them for the theatre because parents would take their kids once and even if the kids loved it, they would say: ‘Wait until it comes out on video and then you can watch it 100 times’.
“So now that there is Netflix I would totally just keep making family films for streaming services only because then kids have instant access.
“When my daughter wants to watch Glitter Force (a Japanese anime series also known as Smile Precure!) I don’t have to take her to a theatre, she can just sit there and click in and watch as many times as she wants, it’s a great babysitter, so that is really what made me realise that is where the audiences is for family films, especially ones aimed towards children.”