Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and in this video I'm revealing all the super-cool easter eggs
and details hidden in We Can Be Heroes, including a secret cameo from the real original Sharkboy.
Just before we begin, many thanks to the sponsor of this video, Raid Shadow Legends.
Obviously, spoilers ahead, so take care. When it comes to breakfast time, Missy is
a fan of Great White Bites cereal, as Max was in the original movie.
In fact, you can see several packs of the shark-inspired
cereal in the Moreno family's kitchen. After they're captured by the aliens,
the Heroics can't stop bickering and fighting amongst themselves.
"Why don't you cheer us up by singing one of those songs you sing so well, Sharkboy?"
Here Miracle Guy is mocking Sharkboy about the lullaby he sang in the first
film to help Max fall asleep so he could dream a solution to their problems.
"Close your eyes, shut your mouth. Dream a dream and get us out."
Although Sharkboy's song was initially successful, it actually ended up giving Max nightmares!
While the original Lavagirl, Taylor Dooley, is back to play the adult version of her character,
Taylor Lautner doesn't return as Sharkboy. Instead adult Sharkboy's a non-speaking
character played by a mask-wearing JJ Dashnaw, who was the Stunt Co-ordinator
for both the sequel and the first film. There are some awesome easter eggs to the
original movie in Missy's bedroom. Look carefully at her bedside table
and in the corner you'll spot the first of two children's novels that were co-written by the
film's director Robert Rodriguez and published around the time of the movie's release in 2005.
There's The Day Dreamer which tells the film's story from Lavagirl and Sharkboy's point of view.
And I suspect the book below that is Return to Planet Drool,
the second in the Sharkboy and Lavagirl series. Also on Missy's nightstand is her Heroics-themed
alarm clock, and a fun detail here is that while the other superheroes are
doing the hard work of holding up the clock, Miracle Guy is just standing there, posing.
Which given that he stops to take a photo during the alien invasion at the start of the movie,
seems like a perfect reflection of reality! "Just a quick selfie for my
socials while I stop this thing." In the sequel, Missy's bedroom is space-themed,
with planets, stars, and moons on her bedhead and walls, and constellations on this fabric;
which is just like in the first film where Max's bedroom also had a cosmic theme, with mobiles of
the solar system, moons, stars and galaxies on the walls, and stickers of planets on his bed frame.
And both lead characters also wear space-themed pyjamas.
Max has planets on his, while Missy has stars on hers and she also has
stars on the black trousers she wears throughout the film.
After sneaking on board an extra-terrestrial supply ship, Missy and her super-powered
friends desperately try to get away from the aliens about to attack them:
The fact it's more difficult to fly this ship than simply pressing the 'green for go' button is a
send-up of the scene in the original movie where hitting the green 'Go' button was all Max had to
do to blast off in his shark-shaped rocket. "So, how do you fly it?"
"You don't know?" "That's sort of been the whole problem!"
"You press go." Also when Guppy
puts on a pair of blue sunglasses during the kids' training session,
I couldn't help but think of her father's blue 3D shark-shaped glasses in the previous movie!
Vivien Blair who plays Guppy was actually given the glasses as it was so bright filming
outside that she couldn't stop squinting; but then the filmmakers decided she looked so
cool that they made them part of her character's costume whenever she went into a shark frenzy!
"Guppy, listen to me. Shark frenzy."
And that behaviour is another thing she has in
common with her dad! "Shark frenzy!"
All of Ojo's tablet pictures were actually drawn on set during the filming
of those scenes by Rhiannon Rodriguez, daughter of director Robert Rodriguez.
As for the squiggle monsters, the filmmakers wanted them to look like a child had created
them with her own pen as they wanted to illustrate the idea that "the pen
is always mightier than the sword". The fact that Ojo's drawings come to
life also reminds me of how the imaginary worlds and superheroes Max doodles and
writes about in his dream journal also come to life in the first movie.
When Guppy demonstrates her powers for Missy, the pint-sized superhero takes a gulp of water,
then spits out a liquid shark, which she moves into a position
that's a clear hat-tip to the theatrical poster for the 1975 shark-infested blockbuster, Jaws.
Later in the film, as Slo-mo desperately tries to outrun the aliens chasing him, A Capella
starts singing the iconic theme to the Oscar-winning movie Chariots of Fire,
whose tale of British athletes vying for the 1924 Olympics famously featured
several slow-mo running sequences set to composer Vangelis' legendary score.
By the way, in order to give A Capella's voice an extra-otherworldly effect,
"Adios." when she sings the higher notes,
the filmmakers blended together the voice of actress Lotus Blossom who plays A Capella with
the voice of American Idol singer Haley Reinhart who plays her mother Mrs Vox.
Sharkboy and Lavagirl's daughter Guppy is named after a type of small tropical fish,
which is perfect for her character as she's both little and has water-related powers.
Continuing the aquatic theme, on her t-shirt, there's a picture of a fish.
And her clothes and water bottle are blue, pink, and purple, which are the colours of her parents.
As for the rainbow on Guppy's necklace, that's a subtle symbol at the start of the film that
she and her fellow super-kids are humanity's hope for a better world, which is exactly what
Ojo tells them at the end of the movie. While Missy's starry clothing is a shout-out
to the first movie, it also reflects the fact she's the real star of the new team, as without
her inspiring them to work together, they'd be in the same mess as their bickering parents.
But Missy's not only at the heart of the new Heroics, she's also a
character with a lot of heart, which could be why the film's
costume designer chose to put some subtle little hearts on her outfit,
from her T-shirt to her heart-shaped necklace. Like many of the other kids whose clothing
signals their powers, Wheels has a W-style symbol on his shirt, which suitably enough
also looks a little like jagged skid marks. Taylor Lautner may have skipped the sequel, but
two of the other original Sharkboys do return. Look out for the pilot of the helicopter during
the Heroics' big battle scene: "You ok, Sharkboy?"
That pilot is Racer Rodriguez who played a young Sharkboy in the previous film.
In fact, Racer truly is the original Sharkboy because as a 7-year-old child he actually
created the character of Sharkboy when he playing a game of fish vs shark with his dad,
Robert Rodriguez, in the family pool. And while Racer also co-produced the new
sequel, his brother Rebel, who played the five-year-old Sharkboy in the first movie,
wrote the music for the new sequel! And there's a Rodriguez family in-joke
at the end of the film. The film's alien spaceship
sets were in fact designed by Rogue Rodriguez, another of the director's kids.
By the way, I've got another video that reveals all the clues that
pointed to the movie's big twist. There'll be a link to that at the end
of this video and in the description below. Another Rodriguez sibling, Rhiannon, is the voice
of Missy's alarm clock at the start of the movie, singing 'Wake Up Sleepyhead' in a little shout-out
to Max's rocket alarm in the first film which displays the words 'Wake Up,
Max!' when the alarm goes off. ♪ Wake up, sleepyhead ♪
♪ Wake up.. ♪ Rhiannon was also the
inspiration for the film's lead character whose name Missy is actually Rhiannon's nick-name
and whose initials were intended to reflect the alliteration in Rhiannon's name too.
And, of course, that also fits very nicely with the world of comic-book superheroes,
especially Marvel ones, whose names often rely on alliteration.
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Now, what do you think about the Sharkboy & Lavagirl sequel?
And did you notice any other cool details in the film?
Let me know in the comments.
Tap left to find out all the hidden clues you missed to the movie's big twist ending!
Or tap right for something else you're sure to like.
And if you enjoyed this video, a thumbs-up is hugely appreciated!
Thanks for watching and see ya next time. Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!