Product Description

A GROUP OF NEIGHBORHOOD KIDS DISCOVER A SPECIAL ROCK THAT ALLOWS ANY WISH TO COME TRUE.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4849 in DVD
• Brand: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2009-11-24
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Widescreen, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 89 minutes

Amazon.com
A fantastical story, relayed in the form of short vignettes by director Robert Rodriguez, Shorts is the story of a magic wishing rock and kids' imaginations gone wild. The film plays a lot like the The Little Rascals (Our Gang) films from the 1920's-1940's: it's made up of short, comical episodes that focus on kids adventures and how imagination drives their play. When a magical rainbow rock falls from the sky and lands in the middle of tech-town Black Falls, a young boy Toe (Jimmy Bennett) discovers that the rock has the power to grant his every wish. The victim of constant bullying, Toe wishes for friends as unusual as himself and ends up with a posse of aliens who protect him while seriously complicating his life. As narrator, Toby quickly stops the film, explaining that his experience is really the middle of the story, and then rewinds repeatedly to relate various encounters between neighborhood kids and the magic rock. Each short is its own journey into a kid's imagination where wishes for everything from a treasure hunt, to a fortress guarded by crocodiles, a super smart baby with telepathic powers, and a booger monster grown from one boy's booger are immediately granted. These fantastical wishes wreak havoc on the entire Black Falls community: the children, the technology obsessed, disconnected Black Box employees, and the tyrannical Black Box boss Mr. Black (James Spader). In the end, the magic rock is a catalyst for change, encouraging kids and adults to work together and inspiring serious reflection regarding one's wishes, dreams, and goals. Rodriguez does a great job of portraying the wildness of kids' imaginations and viewers that delight in over-the-top ridiculousness and the overtly gross will laugh hysterically throughout the film. Unfortunately, those who demand restraint may find it overdone. (Ages 10 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Awesome Family Fun!!!
I thought this was a really good and very funny movie that the whole family will love! It has an awesome plot, funny situations, and lovable characters. The movie is told out of order in a series of 'short' episodes! In the town of Black Falls, all the adults work for Black Box Unlimited Worldwide Industries Incorporated. Toby Thompson is a lonely kid who gets picked on gets picked on by Mr. Black's kids, until Toby finds a Rainbow colored wishing rock that will grant his every wish. Toby is just one of the many kids who have found the rock, like Nose Noseworthy, Loogie, Cole, and Helvetica Black. When Mr. Black gets ahold of the rock, he uses it for world domination. Can the kids of Black Falls stop him before he becomes mad with power? I highly recommend SHORTS!!!

Shorts Movie Review from The Massie Twins
Robert Rodriguez' Shorts is childish, unrealistic and immature - in a good way. It's by no means a masterpiece, but once again the director has proven he has a way with children's films. The plot is jumbled up and out of order like a Tarantino movie and doesn't demonstrate a particularly unique idea; what it does masterfully accomplish, however, is creative entertainment. The look and feel of Shorts is wildly inventive, fantastical, definitely kid-worthy, and quite simply a whole lot of fun.

To tell the tale of the crazily kooky adventure granted to the usually uneventful town of Black Falls, narrator and star Toby "Toe" Thompson (Jimmy Bennett) skips ahead, rewinds backwards onscreen and dodges through the timeline of events. He decides to tell the story completely out of order in a series of shorts. While messing with chronology is typically a nuisance, it works well for Rodriguez, keeping things continually interesting and building upon minor characters, while effectively holding the attention of kids.

Black Box Incorporated is the center of interest for the entire town. It's run by the ruthless Mr. Black (James Spader), who is only concerned with upgrading his all-in-one black box multi-tool invention to outdo his many competitors. The box works like a Transformer, reconstructing itself automatically into a cell phone, vacuum, toaster, grenade, dog trimmer, baby monitor and much, much more. His team leaders (Leslie Mann and Jon Cryer) are the parents of Toby, and his daughter Helvetica (Jolie Vanier) - or "Hel" for short - makes Toby's life miserable, bullying him incessantly at school. When neighbor Loogie (Trevor Gagnon) discovers a magical rock that grants wishes, Toby's real troubles are about to begin.

Although a movie about wishes run amok isn't entirely new, the family-friendly, clean setting and bright tone of the film contributes to solid entertainment. While it serves as a fantastical, quixotic tutoring on wishing for something worthwhile and being careful what you wish for, the execution and planning of the muddled events is truly worthwhile. Little green aliens can't fix Toby's "lack of friends" problem, prevent an army of crocodiles from eating Loogie's homework, protect the Short brothers from pterodactyl abduction, or save Nose Noseworthy from the Big Bad Booger. Boiling down to the basic carefree fantasies of kids, the welcome notion of getting anything you can imagine, and the realization that understanding and friendship can resolve more than wishing yourself out of a predicament, Shorts playfully amuses with a vastly creative eye for merriment and nonsense. This is a film that proves pure fantasy can be pleasant and adults don't have to be bored to death with the material their children drag them to.

- Mike Massie

NO.
Look, this movie was the worst kid's movie I've EVER seen. Why don't I review it chapter by chapter.

Chapter 0: Dude. TOTALLY Wasted Part. A staring contest. Ha. Ha Ha. "SOOO" funny. I really don't need to say anymore. 2/10 star chapter.

Chapter 2: OK. Amnesia? You remember how that part goes, but you can't put it in order? SAD. So you have Toby. NERD. And the bully. NERD. And how did the fish survive out of water for 2 minutes. And she pretends to eat it. Toby almost cries. SAD. Now you see this kid with Butterfingers storming out of his pockets, being dragged by people. Then it goes into the first chapter. 1/10 star chapter.

Chapter 1: This chapter is where they find the wishing rock. Let's call the guy who finds it A. A finds a rock painted rainbow. He wishes he knew what it was. COINCIDENCE. They meet some crocodiles, and get stuck in a tower way up high. This is where A wishes for telephonesis. Now, if you have'nt seen the commercials, then that is pretty funny. If you have, it REALLY gets old. 2/10 star chapter.

Chapter 4: Wow. A booger monster. Incredible. DON'T GET ME STARTED. -1/10 star chapter.

Chapter 3: The adults have a party. The rock gets in their hands, and Toby's mom wished that her and her husband were closer together. They are morphed into each other. Stuff happens. BORING. 1/10 star chapter.

Chapter 5: I will not tell you the end, but I will tell you how it is. TERRIBLE. -10/10

Total: -4 out of 5 stars total. Grade: WASTE OF MONEY!!!