📅 Release Date: September 22, 2023
🎬 Platform: Netflix
📜 Official MPAA Rating: PG
🌟 226Flix Rating: Kid Safe
The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.
Proverbs 11:3
Violence & Action ⚔: The film depicts survival-related violence, such as a bird consuming an entire frog, a few intense moments where lions attempt to hunt elephants, but no harm comes to anyone, and an elephant peacefully passing away from natural causes.
Language 🗣: Very mild language. There is talk of “cheating” in games, but there is no cursing or inappropriate insinuated language.
Romantic Themes ❤: The mother and father kiss twice. The mother has cleavage showing when she is wearing a black tank-top shirt.
Spooky Elements 👻: There are moments when the kids fall through a hole in the ground, and have to escape some tight situations. However, there is nothing spooky, other than the skeleton warriors. There is also an enemy character that has red glowing eyes.
Introduction
Spies, spy gadgets, flying boat planes, and video games, are all things that get kids excited to watch a kids spy movie! The kids are spies, and the parents are spies, fighting together to save the world while teaching lessons about honesty and integrity.
Summary
Tony (Esterson) and Patty (Carganilla) are kids who have no idea that their parents are spies. At the same time, their parents have been going back and forth on deciding whether or not this should be the year to tell them (they’ve been trying to decide every year since the kids were 4 years old). But they soon have no choice as Tony and Patty, who love to play games, are being attacked in their home by enemies from a popular video game (Skeleton Their parents, who aren’t very good at video games, cannot defeat the video game enemy and so the fate of the world rests in the hands of the Spy Kids. With super gadget upgrades and spy wear, Tony and Patty, along with their parents, fight bad guys and have fun.
Overview of the Movie
Like the other Spy Kids movies, the movie has some funny moments, but they are pretty cheesy, making it appropriate for younger audiences. The parents joke around, and so do the kids. It has exciting moments, like when the kids drop through a secret opening on the floor when they first see their parent’s spy layer and try out new gadgets and costumes, and when they defeat some enemies.
With the many dialogues between Patty and Tony, you feel the obvious lessons taught in the movie. It’s not very subtle for adults watching, but the straightforwardness of it makes those lessons easier to understand. Even the enemy is trying to get a message across.
Key Takeaways
One of the main lessons in this movie is honesty being the best policy, even when it seems like not being honest gets what you want. Patty is the moral compass of the show. She holds her parents and her brother accountable. She says things like, “Our parents tell us to be honest, but they aren’t honest with us” (ouch, right in the accountability!). Then, when her brother Tony recounts a time when he was honest but got in trouble for it, Patty says, “At first telling the truth may get you into trouble, but in the end, honesty always wins”. She is constantly reminding her brother, and the audience, about choosing to be honest even if it doesn’t seem like the better choice.
Personal Insights
This movie is definitely family-friendly. Other than the skeletons and the red, glowing eyes of an enemy character, it isn’t very scary. As an adult, it does become a bit of a struggle to stay engaged after about an hour. However, children will stay engaged because of the action sequences, the friendly banter, and the video game visuals. It’s always cool to have a movie where both parents and the kids are superheroes working together to save the day. The main lesson in the movie is a great one because it is central to everything else. As people, we should work to be honest with our families and with others. In the end, honesty yields a better result, even if it doesn’t always feel that way.
Question for the Readers
How does this compare to the older Spy Kid series?.
This is a movie for all ages, although the MPAA recommends it for ages 8 and up. Other than some intense action scenes, it is appropriate for young children. There is nothing inappropriate that is insinuated and usually, PG movies do this. So, that’s a big relief with this movie. Parents can be stress-free in that regard.
We also recommend watching Pinocchio.
226 Flix 
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