Shorts (2009 film)


Shorts is a 2009 Emirati-American comic fantasy family film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film stars Jon Cryer, William H. Macy, Leslie Mann, James Spader, Jimmy Bennett and Kat Dennings.
Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock made its world premiere screening on August 15, 2009 at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. Shortly after that, the movie was theatrically released in the United States on August 21, 2009 by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film grossed $29 million on a $20 million budget. It received a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Performance in a Feature Film. Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 24 November 2009 by Warner Home Video. An Xbox video game of the same name was announced on 23 June 2009 with a prospective July release date in advance of the film's release, but was canceled.

Plot

The film starts with a very busy suburban town called Black Falls Community, where every adult always works and citizens and children use the companies famous product "The Black Box" a technological device that can turn into almost any gadget imaginable.
Episode One
A rainbow colored Wishing Rock appears at the home of Loogie, Laser, and Lug Short, and they eventually wish that one of them was very smart. However, the power is given to their infant sister. She convinces the boys to dispose of the rock, which Cole finds the next day to throw at Toe.
Episode Two
Toby "Toe" Thompson is bullied by Helvetica "Hel" Black and her brother Cole on the way to school. Toe speculates that Hel loves him, infuriating Hel and leading Cole and his gang to start throwing rocks at Toe. One of the rocks they throw is the wishing rock, which Toe uses to wish for friends, which come in the form of small aliens. Toe takes the aliens to school, but their presence causes Toe and Hel to fall from the school's roof. This results in both Toe and Hel having casts put on both arms. The aliens leave, but Toe keeps the rock.
Episode Three
Toe's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomson, like all adults in the town, work for Black Box Unlimited Worldwide Industries Incorporated, which manufactures the "Black Box" universal gadget. They are assigned by Mr. Carbon Black, owner of Black Box, to compete to create a new marketing strategy. Toe's mother finds the rock in Toe's room and takes it. She and Mr. Thompson go to a Black Box costume party. Since they were having trouble with their relationship, she wishes that she and her husband were closer. They become merged into a two-headed person, but Mr. Black thinks that they're wearing a costume.
Meanwhile, Toe realizes that his mother took the rock and rushes to the costume party, but runs into Hel and Cole, who take the rock and dump him in the garbage. Hel wishes that Cole would turn into a dung beetle and then loses the rock. The rock is found by Mr. Black who, unaware of its power, accidentally wishes for all of the employees to go for each other's throats. In the chaos, Toe retrieves the rock and wishes everyone back to normal. Hel takes the rock, wishes off her casts, and escapes before Toe throws the rock as far as he can, where it lands at the Noseworthy's house.
Episode Four
Toe's older sister Stacey arrives to tutor "Nose" Noseworthy, Toe's old, germaphobic friend. Nose picks his nose against his father's wishes and accidentally flicks the booger into his father's radioactive work study. Toe and Loogie, now friends, arrive at Nose's house in time to see Nose's booger mutate into a giant monster. After helping Nose's father capture the monster outside, Toe and Loogie take the rock and leave.
Episode Five
As Toe and Loogie contemplate what to do with the rock, they are ambushed by the rest of the kids and fight until the rock winds up in the hands of Mr. Black. Mr. Black wishes that he was the most powerful thing in the world and turns into a giant Black Box robot. The infant tells them that the rock is starting to feel misused, as shown by the fact that the rock starts undoing all of their wishes. She also tells them the rock could destroy the Earth because of all of the petty wishes they make. Together they get rid of the rock and all of its effects are undone. Toe's parents decide to work on the marketing plan together and Mr. Black agrees. Mr. Black changes the Black Box into the more environmentally friendly Green Box. The Noseworthys lose their germaphobia, Toe's parents become closer, and it is suggested that Hel and Toe will marry in the future. All the children become friends and wished that their story would become a Hollywood movie, breaking the 4th wall.

Cast

Kids

On 11 January 2008, it was announced that Robert Rodriguez would direct, produce and write a 2009 American and Emirati live action and animated family science fiction fantasy adventure comedy movie which features live action and CGI animation titled Shorts also known as Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock.
On 16 July 2008, it was announced that Jimmy Bennett would play the lead role in the film, while Jon Cryer, Leslie Mann and Kat Dennings were in early talks to join the cast. On 17 July 2008, William H. Macy, Jolie Vanier, Devon Gearhart, James Spader and Trevor Gagnon were also in final talks to join the film, Rebel Rodriguez, Leo Howard, Bianca Rodriguez, Elizabeth Avellan, Jake Short, Racer Rodriguez, Rocket Rodriguez, Alejandro Rose-Garcia, Cambell Westmoreland and Zoe Webb were added to the cast.
Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock was filmed in Austin, Texas. The special effects were done by KNB EFX Group, Troublemaker Digital Studios and Hybride Technologies for the animation.
George Oldziey, Robert Rodriguez and Carl Thiel scored the music for the film on its soundtrack and the film's soundtrack contains "Spy Ballet" performed by Robert Rodriguez and "Summer Never Ends" performed by Jimmy Bennett. Warner Bros. Pictures distributed the film.

Release

Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock was released in cinemas on 21 August 2009 in the US by Warner Bros. Pictures, and on DVD and Blu-ray on 24 November 2009 by Warner Home Video.

Reception

Critical response

The film holds a 46% approval rating on critical response aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 101 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Shorts has imagination and energy, but most viewers beyond elementary school will likely tire of the kiddie humor and sensory overload." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 53 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Box office

For its opening weekend, the film made $6.4 million, an average of $2,065 per each of 3,105 theaters. It opened at #6, being overshadowed by Inglourious Basterds, , and Julie & Julia. Overall, the grossed about $20.9 million in the United States and Canada, and about $29 million worldwide.

Awards

Soundtrack

George Oldziey, Robert Rodriguez and Carl Thiel scored the music for the film on its soundtrack and the film's soundtrack contains "Spy Ballet" performed by Robert Rodriguez and "Summer Never Ends" performed by Jimmy Bennett. The soundtrack was released in 2009 by Warner Bros. Records.
;Songs and music