YMMV / Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Did Romero really "accidentally" mix up his test tubes to create the hybrid animals, as he tells Carmen and Juni? Because his gleeful look in the flashback seems to suggest otherwise.
• Ass Pull: Donnagon Giggles (or "Michael Donnagon") was introduced in the first film as just another OSS agent who gets transformed into one of Floop's Fooglies before being ultimately rescued by the Cortezes. This film abruptly makes him the main villain, revealing that he's actually an evil traitor who secretly wants to rule the world and kill the Cortezes, despite him owing them his life; there's absolutely zero buildup or foreshadowing for this. It's also implied that this isn't his first time trying to take over the world, making it extra baffling.
• Awesome Music: "Isle of Dreams", played during the credits.
• Contested Sequel: Some say this movie is along the same lines of the original, while others think it's not nearly as good.
• Critical Dissonance: The film has 75% (6.6/10) on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively, but an audience score of 38% (2.6/5). Also, on IMDb, the average rating is 5.1.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Gary Giggles. Carmen seems to think so too, at first.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Large Ham theme park owner Dinky Winks.
  • Juni's spy robot Ralph. The scene where he follows and spies on the Giggles is well regarded.
  • Romero, the charmingly played Reluctant Mad Scientist behind the island who has the honor of stating the film's strangely deep "God stays in Heaven..." line.
  • Gerti, for being a spunky Action Girl and a bit of a Wild Card in regards to her family's plans.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Steve Buscemi plays Romero who created hybrid creatures that inhabit his island and asks a memetic existential question about how "God stays in Heaven because He too lives in fear of what he's created here on Earth?" More than a decade later, Buscemi would play God in Miracle Workers.
  • The movie has a watch that can do virtually everything but tell time. Seems like Apple took this concept seriously.
  • "I can't sing!" says Alexa Vega, playing Carmen Cortez, who sings beautifully in another film.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Do you think God stays in Heaven because He too lives in fear of what He's created?" ^Explanation An extremely popular quote from Spy Kids 2, which a lot of people feel was way too good of a line for the movie it was used in. It's often used in a similar vein to Futurama's "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" to express horror at the apparent stupidity of the human race. The line has been paired with various disturbing or outrageous images online and often isn't attributed, leading people to discover on their own that it originated not from a famous philosopher or theologian but from a doofy children's film.
  • "shit-talking mushrooms" ^Explanation Another meme quoted line from Island of Lost Dreams during Carmen's fight with Gary Giggles. The actual line was " You're so full of shiitake mushrooms", however due to Carmen's off beat pronouncation, it make it sound like "shit talking mushrooms". The skeletons gasping during the line makes it obvious the writers knew what they wrote.
  • *skeletons oohing*
  • "How long have we been falling?" "I don't know, my watch doesn't tell time."
• Padding:
  • Juni's relationship with Alexandra, whose daddy issues are barely explained and who doesn't reappear for the third film.
  • To add to that, Juni is terminated from the OSS for all of a few hours before Carmen signs him back up, and nobody makes any fuss about this change.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Emily Osment would later become known for the Disney Channel Kid Com Hannah Montana, and as an adult for shows like Young & Hungry and Young Sheldon.
  • Taylor Momsen became best known for her role as Jenny in Gossip Girl.
• Squick: Gerti and Gary wind up in a desert (due to Carmen and Juni's meddling) and are unsure of where they are. They fall into what at first seems to be a mud pit, only to look around and see camels surrounding them. Horrified, Gerti exclaims that it is, indeed, camel poop. Skip a few seconds into the future, and you see Gary opening his mouth and spitting a big chunk of...er, "mud" out of his teeth.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Part of the memetic charm to the "Do you think God stays in Heaven..." line is Steve Buscemi's dead-serious-to-the-point-of-surreal delivery.
• Toy Ship: Juni and Alexandra.
• Trailer Joke Decay: The joke about Juni's watch not being able to tell time, and the Brick Joke when Carmen asks him how long they've been falling and he responds, "I don't know; my watch doesn't tell time!" Both jokes were seen in multiple trailers, and always back-to-back (thus defeating the whole purpose of it being a Brick Joke).

---