Spy Kids: Armageddonshares many attributes with the originalSpy Kids. However, no matter how hard it tried, the original film just did a better job at world-building and character development.Spy Kidsmanaged the line ofchild-appropriate action scenes, while still allowing Carmen and Juni to participate in violent fighting scenes. While the reboot took similar storylines and beats from the original movie,Spy Kids, as an original project, was brand new and unique when it was released. Therefore, everything that occurred felt creative and different compared to the reboot’s attempt at trying to find the magic of already explored conflicts.
Spy Kidscreated a family that was fun and interesting, filled with mystery, bickering, and action. The Cortez family was not perfect. They bickered and were not always on the same page. However, that is what made them morerelatable to audiences. The original film also introduced a world of possibilities to kids, expanding their imagination in ways that encouraged them to stand up to others.Spy Kidsempowered kids in ways that not every movie was capable of doing, by suspending one’s disbelief and allowing kids to envision a world where they could be heroes too. WhileSpy Kids: Armageddontried to capture the fun of the original movie, there were just some things that they could not match up to.
Conflicts Between Carmen and Juni
InSpy Kids: Armageddon, Patty and Tony disagree on some things, and they pick at each other a little bit. However, for the most part, their relationship is fairly stable. They can easily work together without arguing and do not have that much fighting or angst in their dynamic that they need to work through. The opposite is the case for Carmen and Juni. From the beginning, they are already at each other’s throats, Juni playing the frustrating little brother to Carmen’s annoyed older sister.
They capture the frustration and love of the sibling dynamicand trying to grow up. Only after they are forced to work together do they accept that they only have each other to lean on, and even then, they bicker and fight. However, that is what makes their teamwork even better and stronger. It is more earned when they let the arguments settle and show their colors as caring siblings.
The Parents' Backstory
Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez have a much more exciting and interesting backstory than Terrence and Nora are given. The mostSpy Kids: Armageddongives Terrence and Nora is their history with Operation: Fireball, which is a mission that ended up being important to the plot. However,Spy Kidsreveals far more about Gregorio and Ingrid’s history in just a few minutes. Their past as enemy spies told to assassinate the other, only to fall in love, eventually get married, have kids, and retire from espionage, gives a lot more depth to their background.
Discovering the Parents are Spies
InSpy Kids: Armageddon,Tony and Patty realize their parents are spies when a fight breaks out in their home, and then their parents lead them to an escape car only to be separated later. InSpy Kids, Carmen and Juni are left to realize the truth only after their parents had been taken hostage. Since Juni and Carmen are not with their parents at the time of their capture, they do not even have the chance to hear the truth from their parents themselves. This creates an intriguing sense of isolation for Carmen and Juni on their way to the safe house, as they are left with questions about their parents' past.
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The Stakes are Higher
InSpy Kids: Armageddon, the film follows a villain preventing anyone from using their electronic devices and technology, forcing them toplay a video gamebefore continuing their lives. His goal is to force the world to be a better place through his game. However, it is unclear what, other than making the world better in his twisted image, his goal is. InSpy Kids, Floop and Minion physically alter captured OSS agents into Fooglies that appear on the children’s show. Carmen and Juni spend the movie worrying that Floop will change their parents as well.
The Conflicts Between the Parents and the Kids
Tony and Patty do not have many struggles with their parents. While Terrence lied to Tony about the final pieces of Armageddon, which led to Tony’s refusal to tell the truth due to getting in trouble, this is mostly a happy and honest family. Other than, of course, the parents lying about being spies. However,Spy Kidsreveals early on that not only areIngrid and Gregorio lying to Carmen and Juni about their past, but the kids are lying to them too.
Carmen lies about going to school when she is skipping twice a month and Juni’s friends do not exist. This is a family of issues, but it is also a more relatable one. Not everyone can relate to a more perfect family where everyone gets along. However, bickering is something that most people can relate to.
The Gadgets
InSpy Kids: Armageddon, the gadgets are used in more child-friendly circumstances, such as cuddles and random bursts of hunger. However,Spy Kidscreates gadgets that play faster and looser with danger. Machete offers the kids spy gadgets, not just child gadgets. In the following films,Spy Kidsintroduces new and different technology gadgets that help Carmen and Juni work their way through missions.
Carmen and Juni are in This Alone
While Patty and Tony are mostly alone in this, there is one massive difference. When they are in the safe house, OSS agents come to bring them back to headquarters. This interlude introduces the kids to various other gadgets, but it also, at least briefly, attempts to make the movie’s adults come across as being more useful and involved. In Carmen and Juni’s case, from the moment they escape their house, the duo is on their own.
They are also visited by adults at the safe house, but in their case, it is the villains masquerading as OSS agents, and it highlights justhow alone Carmen and Juni really are in this situation. The only person they can eventually turn to is Machete, their estranged uncle, who gifts the kids gadgets and then refuses to help them, leading to Juni and Carmen stealing his plane. While they do get brief help from an adult, for the most part, Carmen and Juni are on their own for this mission, without the help of other spies in any way.
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The Danger
Since the kids are in this alone, the danger is heightened. They are attacked by robot doppelgängers of themselves, and because they hold the one thing needed for the villain to win, they are under constant threat. Gregorio is physically transformed into a Fooglie.Spy Kidsdoes not downgrade the danger for the kids' sake, with their robot duplicates even casually throwing around Carmen and Juni like dolls at a park.
The Hero/Villain Talk
InSpy Kids: Armageddon, the hero-to-villain talk is basically Rey Kingston being convinced by Patty and Tony to be a better person. When he confronts Terrence and Nora, his discussion is brief, but it is clear he wants the Armageddon code. In the original film, when Floop confronts Ingrid and Gregorio, Floop is casually nonchalant about it.
He does not sound particularly evil but makes it clear that he knows things about them and their kids. When Floop is alone placed with Juni it is used as a way to discover that Minion is the true antagonist of the movie, which helps Floop make his own decision, while being inspired by Juni, to turn to the side of good.
The OSS plays a huge role inSpy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams.However, it does not play a massive role inSpy Kids, other than understanding that to be the agency Ingrid and Gregorio worked with, and that their spies have gone missing. Keeping the OSS out of most of the original movie, and expanded upon in the sequel, gaveSpy Kidsthe chance to portray that Carmen and Juni could do a lot with a little.
Spy Kids: Armageddonintroduces The OSS in a big way in the first film, not only suggests the agency is fairly incompetent from the start with how the adult agents lose an integral device immediately but is nearly useless in the entirety of how the film uses them, which only hurts the agency in ways that the original storylines had not.
