Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids franchise is a staple of 2000s children’s movies, but which is the best, and how do they all rank against each other? The first Spy Kids released in 2001, performing well enough at the box office to spawn two direct sequels in 2002 and 2003, and a standalone fourth film in 2011. It’s a weird, campy, silly series packed with gadgets and endearingly simply practical effects, but only one Spy Kids movie can truly be called the best.
The Spy Kids movies are unmistakably products of the early 2000s. Their lower-budget action-adventure stories featuring some big-time stars weren’t always critical darlings. Still, they became hits with kids at the time and put a Latinx family front and center of a major film franchise. When Pixar was still establishing itself as a family film studio that valued thematic weight and emotional writing in movies like Toy Story, Spy Kids took a different route to the same target demographic – one lined with ridiculous costumes, gratuitous green screens, and laughably, lovably cliché scripts about the value of family and believing in oneself.
The power of the Spy Kids movies is their willingness to follow the fun above all other priorities. The adventures of Carmen (Alexa PenaVega) and Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) put the young characters front and center. They drive the action, rescue the grown-ups, and ultimately save the day. In Spy Kids, Rodriguez embraces a childlike approach to storytelling and pacing that gives the films both a unique tone and a wacky sense of humor, both of which play into what made the series such a hit from the start. Here’s every movie in the Spy Kids universe ranked from worst to best.
4. Spy Kids 4: All The Time In The World
At the bottom of the Spy Kids tier list is the only entry in the franchise truly devoid of merit – Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World. After almost a decade away from the franchise, Rodriguez returned to tell a new story in the Spy Kids universe, starring some fresh faces. Jessica Alba and Joel McHale joined the franchise as the parents of new spy kids Rebeca (Rowan Blanchard) and Cecil (Mason Cook). The plot revolves around an apocalyptic scheme involving time control, which is used as a sort of quasi-metaphor for people wasting the time they have with their family.
It’s a very Spy Kids story, blending popcorn sci-fi with simple family values, but the film simply lacks the pop that made the original trilogy so special. Spy Kids 4 ends up feeling like a retread of the earlier films, only with a less inspired script, less interesting characters, and no real iteration on the franchise despite the eight-year wait. While there are some shining moments here and there, Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World comes off feeling more like a soulless parody of the original trilogy rather than a true successor worthy of the name. Although it is one of the only films to use “Aroma-scope” scratch-and-sniff cards to add smell to its story, so there is that.
3. Spy Kids 2: The Island Of Lost Dreams
Though it’s only third on this list, Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams is leaps and bounds better than Spy Kids 4. The second film in the franchise continues everything that made the first Spy Kids successful, delivering more wild sci-fi plotlines and classic family-friendly comedy from Carmen, Juni, and their friends and family – a supporting cast that grows considerably in Spy Kids 2. The story is a true hodgepodge but in the best way. There are new, rival spy kids undermining Carmen and Juni’s authority. There are doomsday EMP weapons. The President even shows up at one point, and it doesn’t even feel out of place amidst everything else going on. And of course, there’s the titular island of giant hybrid animals and other bizarre fantasy creations roaming loose and causing general chaos, all created by the rogue scientist Romero, who’s played to spectacular absurdity by actor Steve Buscemi.
From start to finish, Spy Kids 2 delivers laughs, simple lessons, silly action, and fun twists – everything a Spy Kids audience could ask for. The only reason it ranks in the bottom half of this list is because it’s not as good as the original, and it doesn’t do enough to really set itself apart. Spy Kids 2 is great family-friendly fun, but it’s outshined in a few big ways by the film that followed it.
2. Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over has a 45% on Rotten Tomatoes – notably lower than the score for Spy Kids 2. But what the third film may lack in objective cinematic quality, it more than makes up for in abject silliness. Spy Kids 3-D is a camp masterpiece. The movie features Sylvester Stallone in his most over-the-top performance since Over The Top, and nearly every major and minor character from the previous two films returns for the finale in some shape. It's a family adventure film jam-packed with so many absurd action sequences and so much obvious CGI that it can’t help but become entertaining despite its flaws. There are video game-style competitions with real-world consequences that feel like low-budget mimics of the Tron franchise. There are giant floating CGI powerups that sync into the characters' ridiculous sci-fi suits. Lord of the Rings’ Elijah Wood even shows up for approximately 90 seconds, declares himself the equivalent of The One in The Matrix, then immediately dies.
It would be dishonest to act like Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over isn’t a mess. The plot is all over the place, the special effects are maybe the most hilarious in the entire franchise, and the series loses some of its luster the third time around. But it’s so absurd and entertaining that none of that matters all that much, yielding a Spy Kids movie that’s a little less polished but a whole lot of fun.
1. Spy Kids
When it comes to Spy Kids, the original just can’t be beaten. When the first movie released in 2001, it was both immediately recognizable and refreshingly fresh. There were standard beats, like the love/hate sibling relationship between Carmen and Juni and the various spy gadgets they employ, and more surprising moments, like the introduction of Danny Trejo’s Machete character. The cast is great, they’re great on screen together, and the adventure they embark on is silly while still remaining exciting. Rodriguez has tried many times to recapture the magic of Spy Kids, both with the sequels and with more recent fare like the Sharkboy and Lavagirl sequel We Can Be Heroes, but nothing has quite hit the high heights of the original.