The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl / YMMV

Awesome Music: Sharkboy and Lavagirl by Ariel Abshire & The Lava Girls is a very catchy and upbeat Bragging Theme Tune.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Lavagirl losing her leg and sticking it back on; it comes completely out of the blue, and is never mentioned afterwards.
Cult Classic: The movie is a classic Guilty Pleasure flick for audiences who either grew up with it or watch it as adults to enjoy how cheesy and narmy it is.
Ham and Cheese:
- Those who don't like the movie will love Linus/Minus' overacting. Those who like the movie will definitely love his overacting.
- George Lopez was clearly under no illusions about the kind of movie he was in, and naturally the entirety of his screen time as Mr. Electric is an extended hamfest. His scenes as Mr. Electricidad are downright unkosher.
- Special mention goes to Taylor Lautner for literally Chewing the Scenery at several points.
Iron Woobie: Lavagirl. Everything she touches burns to ash because her body is made of lava, which often causes problems for our heroes, and makes her think that she's actually evil. Nevertheless, she soldiers on past each obstacle to save Planet Drool.
Jerkass Woobie: Linus/Minus. He only wants to destroy the dream world because his dreams are broken, which explains his negative attitude.
Memetic Mutation:
- "He ruined my dream journal!" "I did NOT! Mr. Electric, send him to the principal's office and have him EXPELLED!!"^ExplanationThe second quote, from Linus, quickly became infamous for its over-the-top delivery, even for being in this movie. While the whole scene this exchange is from became a popular copypasta, this line is a particularly big source for parodies, which often make it even more outrageous than the original (e.g. "Mr. Electric, send him to HELL").
  - "Mr. Electric, KILL HIM, KILL HIM NOW!"^Explanation
- "Shark Lava and Boy Girl."^Explanation
- Sharkboy's rap for its hilariously aggressive lyrics, doubly hilarious because it's supposed to be a lullaby. All together now: "DREAM DREAM DREAM DREAM DREAM DREAM!"
- "For every person who dreams up the electric lightbulb, there's the one who dreams up the atom bomb."^Explanation
Narm: Several instances, mostly the ridiculous faces Mr. Electric keeps making. Though it could be justified, as his silly facial expressions seem to be done on purpose.
- Also, Max's parents' horrendously unemotional sentiment when admitting their love for each other in the climax of the movie. Dear God... It's very apparent that neither David Arquette nor Kristin Davis particularly wanted to be there from their toneless deliveries.
Narm Charm: Robert Rodriguez based the film solely on dreams and drawings from his young son, so naturally, there was absolutely no way that the movie could be anything but an extended cheesefest with more holes than a sieve in the writing, made to appeal to elementary school-age kids and no one else... and the way it shamelessly embraces all this is why some people find it so enjoyable.
Nightmare Fuel: Minus's head growing gigantic is quite horrifying, especially given the shoddy CG effects work.
Retroactive Recognition:
- Is that Taylor "Jacob Black" Lautner as Sharkboy?!
- Furthermore, is that Alison DiLaurentis as Marissa?!
So Bad, It's Good: To a fair amount of viewers. Yes, it's beyond cheesy, but that's part of the charm.
Special Effects Failure: In spades. Like Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, the film has very poor 3D and green-screen effects combined with CG that would have been terrible even for a direct-to-DVD film, despite costing 50 million dollars to produce and the special effects being produced by 11 different studios, including Industrial Light & Magic of all companies.
Signature Song: The Dream Lullaby that Sharkboy sings to Max due to its hilarious lyrics and its recognition as a meme.
Spiritual Successor: This is The Wizard of Oz but made for adolescents of mid-2000s and with emerging special effect technologies of that time. There is a clear parallel with Max and Dorothy Gale with them unsatisfied with their life and wished for the land they have been dreaming of. Then tornado appears and taken to the fantasy world. The people they interacted with in their real world show up in their fantasy world as different characters, with people they dislike appear as main villains. They have to do a special ritual to return to their home. And they wake up and realizing it was all a dream. And both movies have a projection of floating head controlled by one person. Robert Rodriguez even confirmed in the audio commentary that this is his spin on Wizard of Oz-like stories.
Tear Jerker:
- Max crying over Sharkboy and Lavagirl, who appear to be dead.
- Sharkboy's dad being lost at sea. He calls out to his son as he's being drifted away.
- Lavagirl's despair over the destruction her powers cause and her own fear that she is naturally evil is genuinely heartbreaking, and is made more so by how she clearly wants so desperately to do good and be accepted by others, but can't even touch her best friend without hurting him and destroys Max's dream journal by accident.
  - Related to the above, during Lavagirl's rant about how she and Sharkboy are incompatible, Sharkboy has a brief but clearly heartbroken look on his face. Considering Sharkboy has a crush on Lavagirl, one can only imagine how rejected he felt — in addition to likely being terrified he was about to lose his best friend.
Toy Ship: In-universe, Max with Marissa and Lavagirl with Sharkboy.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Despite being half the title, Lavagirl spends most of the film failing to have any sort of effect on the plot, when she's not being outright defeated. Even her main Running Gag is her lava powers making things worse.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- So Sharkboy gets his own origin story, having been raised part of his life by sharks. What's Lavagirl's backstory? Never explained in the movie.
- The psychological aspects of Max and his dreams aren't really explored much outside of surface references. The movie's overall message is supposed to be, "as long as you work hard, dreams can come true" as well, so this helps muddle it, but Max's parents are fighting a lot and thinking about getting a divorce. Max is cognizant of this and it's represented in his dreams that he's worried about them. He even imagined Sharkboy, Lavagirl, and an entire planet to escape reality and convinced himself they're real. Until they show up in person, the movie treats them as imaginary, so the setup of the movie could've involved what a kid goes through when they're worried about their parents splitting up, but the film gets too wrapped up in dealing with Max's bully and proving to him his dreams were real to have more than a handwave-y reconciliation between his parents in the climax.
The Woobie: Max. He's a bully magnet and just wants to be left alone to dream in peace. Interestingly, this is inverted at the end when his own invention makes him realize that he's only been dreaming for himself and didn't care enough about others, implying that everyone else needed his help and the real Woobie was actually all of them.

YMMV / The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl

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