Shorts (2009 film): Difference between revisions

Shorts
Shorts
Directed by	Robert Rodriguez
Written by	Robert Rodriguez
Produced by	Robert Rodriguez; Elizabeth Avellán
Starring	Jimmy Bennett; Kat Dennings; Trevor Gagnon; Jon Cryer; Leslie Mann; William H. Macy; James Spader
Cinematography	Robert Rodriguez
Edited by	Ethan Maniquis; Robert Rodriguez
Music by	George Oldziey; Robert Rodriguez; Carl Thiel
Production; companies	Imagenation Abu Dhabi; Media Rights Capital; Troublemaker Studios
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	August 21, 2009
Running time	89 min.
Countries	United States; United Arab Emirates
Language	English

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Shorts (also known as Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock poster title, or Shorts: A Not-So Tall Tale) is a 2009 family comedy/adventure film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. It was released in the United States on August 21, 2009.^[1] A Nintendo DS video game of the same name was announced on June 23, 2009, with a prospective July release date in advance of the movie.^[2]

Plot

In a seemingly perfect neighbourhood, a rainbow-coloured-rock with the ability to grant any wish, suddenly lands in the neighbourhood and causes chaos.

The movie is told in a random order of short stories with different characters whose stories mesh together.

Episode Zero: The Blinkers
Characters: (Unnamed)Twins.

The movie starts with a pair of twins who decide to have a staring contest. The game continues throughout the course of the movie as a running gag. The brother wins after his sister blinks because of the incident that is happening in Episode 5 outside the window.

Episode Two: Alien8ed
Character: Toe Thompson

Toe begins telling the story from his point of view and explaining The Black Box Inc, where all the adults work. It is company that creates the "Black Box", a small cube that can fill any technological need and which every adult at Black Falls works at. Toe goes to school only to be bullied by his worst enemy Helvetica (Hel) Black and her brother Cole. Toe speculates in front of everyone that Hel loves him, which infuriates Hel. Cole starts throwing rocks at Toe, one of which is the rainbow colored wishing rock. Toe wishes for friends which come in the form of small aliens. Toe takes the aliens to school, which leads to a series of events ending with Toe and Hel with broken arms. The aliens leave, but Toe keeps the rock.

Episode One: The Wishing Rock
Characters: Loogie, Laser and Lug Short.

The Wishing Rock appears for the first time in front of the Short's House. The three brothers Loogie, Laser, and Lug use the rock to wish for a giant fort. The rock falls into the fort's "canyon", which Loogie filled with snakes and alligators. The brothers escape with the rock and try to decide what to do with it. Lug and Loogie prefer to use it for fun, but Laser wants to use it wisely. To solve the dilemma, Loogie wishes for one of the boys to be super smart, but the power is instead given to their infant sister, who convinces the boys to lose the rock into a pile of dirt, where Cole finds it the next day to throw it at Toe.

Episode Four: Big,Bad,Booger
Characters: Nose, Toe and Loogie

Stacy, Toe's older sister, arrives to tutor "Nose" Noseworth, Toe's old germaphobic friend. Nose picks his nose against his father's wishes and accidentally flicks the booger into his father's radioactive work study. Toe and Loogie, now friends, arrive at Nose's house in time to see Nose's booger mutate into a giant monster. After helping Nose's father capture the monster, Toe and Loogie take the rock and leave.

Episode Three: The Miscommuniators
Characters: Mrs.Thompson, Mr.Thompson

Mrs. and Mr. Thompson are having trouble with their relationship, as Mr. Black forces them to compete in making a new sales idea for the black box. Mrs. Thompson goes to look at Toe's phone, and finds the rock on the floor in his room. She takes the rock, just as Toe wakes up. She and Mr. Thompson go to a Black Box Inc. costume party. While on the patio of Mr. Black's house, she wishes that she and her husband were closer, due to the fact that earlier, Mr. Thompson texted her hugs and kisses, while literally standing right next to her. They become mutated together and try to hide from Mr. Black. He finds them and invites them inside. Meanwhile, Toe realizes that Mrs. Thompson took the rock and rushes to the costume party, despite Helvetica warning him against coming. Hel finds the rock as Toe arrives to try and explain its power. Toe is interupted by Cole, who dumps him in the garbage. An infuriated Hel wishes Cole into a dung beetle before loseing the rock. The rock is found by Mr. Black who, unaware of its power, accidentally wishes for all of the employees to go for each others throats. In the chaos, Toe retrieves the Rock and wishes everyone back to normal including his parents. Hel takes the stone, wishes off her casts and escapes before Toe throws the rock as far as he could, where it landed at the Noseworth's house.

Episode Five: The End
Characters: Everybody

After the events of episode 4, Toe and Loogie contemplate what to do with the rock. They are ambushed by the rest of the kids and they all fight over the rock until it winds up in the hands of Mr. Black. Mr. Black wishes that he was the most powerful man in the world. He turns into a giant Black Box and the children team up to stop him. Soon, the infant tells them that the rock could destroy the Earth because of all of the petty wishes they make. Together they get rid of it and all of the events that happened because of the wishes disappear. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson state they plan to work together to Mr. Black, who agrees. He later reverts the Black Box into the Green Box, suggesting it to be more environmental. Mr. Noseworth and son loose their germaphobia, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson become closer, and last it is suggested that Hel and Toe will marry in the future. All the children become friends and walk off.

Cast

Jimmy Bennett as Toby "Toe" Thompson
Jon Cryer as Mr. Bob Thompson
Leslie Mann as Mrs. Jane Thompson
William H. Macy as Dr. Noseworthy
James Spader as Mr. Carbon Black
Kat Dennings as Stacey Thompson
Trevor Gagnon as Loogie Short
Devon Gearhart as Cole Black
Rebel Rodriguez as Lug Short
Leo Howard as Laser Short
Jake Short as "Nose" Noseworthy
Jolie Vanier as Helvetica Black
Racer Rodriguez as Bully #1
Rocket Rodriguez as Bully #2

Reception

Reviews for the film have been mixed. The film currently holds a rating of 44% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a Top Critics rating of 56% and an RT Community rating of 34%.^[3]

References

^ Shorts - Release Dates
^ "Majesco Entertainment Announces 'Shorts' for Nintendo DS". Majesco Entertainment. PR Newsire. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shorts/

External links

[1] Shorts - Release Dates

[2] "Majesco Entertainment Announces 'Shorts' for Nintendo DS". Majesco Entertainment. PR Newsire. Retrieved 2009-06-23.

[3] ttp://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shorts/

[1]

[2]

[3]

@@ Line 63: / Line 63: @@
 Characters: Everybody
-After the events of episode 4, Toe and Loogie contemplate what to do with the rock. They are ambushed by the rest of the kids and they all fight over the rock until it winds up in the hands of Mr. Black. Mr. Black wishes that he was the most powerful man in the world. He turns into a giant Black Box and the children team up to stop him. Soon, the infant tells them that the rock could destroy the Earth because of all of the petty wishes they make. Together they get rid of it and all of the events that happened because of the wishes disappear. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson state they plan to work together to Mr. Black, who agrees. He later reverts the Black Box into the Green Box, suggesting it to be more environmental. Mr. Noseworth and son loose their germaphobia, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson become closer, and last it is suggested that Hel and Toe will marry in the future.  All the children become friends and walk off while stating they wished their story became a [[Hollywood]] movie.
+After the events of episode 4, Toe and Loogie contemplate what to do with the rock. They are ambushed by the rest of the kids and they all fight over the rock until it winds up in the hands of Mr. Black. Mr. Black wishes that he was the most powerful man in the world. He turns into a giant Black Box and the children team up to stop him. Soon, the infant tells them that the rock could destroy the Earth because of all of the petty wishes they make. Together they get rid of it and all of the events that happened because of the wishes disappear. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson state they plan to work together to Mr. Black, who agrees. He later reverts the Black Box into the Green Box, suggesting it to be more environmental. Mr. Noseworth and son loose their germaphobia, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson become closer, and last it is suggested that Hel and Toe will marry in the future.  All the children become friends and walk off.
 ==Cast==
-*[[Jimmy Bennett]] as Toby "Toe" Thompson. The main character and narrator of the film.
+*[[Jimmy Bennett]] as Toby "Toe" Thompson
+*[[Jon Cryer]] as Mr. Bob Thompson
-*[[Jon Cryer]] as Mr. Bob Thompson. Toe's father and distant from his wife, with one noticeable action of [[texting]] [[xoxo]] to his wife, while they were in the same room.
-*[[Leslie Mann]] as Mrs. Jane Thompson. Toe's mother who wishes that her husband and her would become closer.
+*[[Leslie Mann]] as Mrs. Jane Thompson
+*[[William H. Macy]] as Dr. Noseworthy
-*[[William H. Macy]] as Dr. Noseworthy. A germaphobic scientists who ironically works with germs. After suffering a meltdown he does all of his work at home which he has completely sealed and only leaves in a [[radiation suit]].
+*[[James Spader]] as Mr. Carbon Black
-*[[James Spader]] as Mr. Carbon Black. A power hungry man who is the [[CEO]] of the company and runs the town with many of the buildings named Black. He is also a bit of an idiot, pitting Bob and Jane against each other to improve the Black Box and threatened the loser that them and their family would be fired and kicked out of town, even though Jane and Bob are married.
-*[[Kat Dennings]] as Stacey Thompson. Toe's stuck up sister. She recently broke up with her boyfriend since he wouldn't grow up. She tutors Nose and Loogie has a crush on her.
+*[[Kat Dennings]] as Stacey Thompson
+*[[Trevor Gagnon]] as Loogie Short
-*[[Trevor Gagnon]] as Loogie Short. He found the wishing rock in the first place. He wanted to use it soley for fun but since he was always extremely vague with his wishes they always turned out horrible.
-*[[Devon Gearhart]] as Cole Black. Son of Carbon and stereotypical brainless jock. He is captain of the football team.
+*[[Devon Gearhart]] as Cole Black
-*[[Rebel Rodriguez]] as Lug Short. Loogie's older brother.
+*[[Rebel Rodriguez]] as Lug Short
-*[[Leo Howard]] as Laser Short. Loogie's older brother.
+*[[Leo Howard]] as Laser Short
+*Jake Short as "Nose" Noseworthy
-*Jake Short as "Nose" Noseworthy. A germaphobe like his fater Dr. Noseworthy yet has a habit of picking his nose and eating the booger, even though his father repeatedly tells him not to. He used to be friends with Toe until his father had the meltdown. He was so scared of germs he didn't even breathe while he was outside.
+*Jolie Vanier as Helvetica Black
-*Jolie Vanier as Helvetica Black. Daughter to Carbon. She has a great fascination with female wasps, mainly by the fact of their domination over the males. She wears braces like Toe, who she regularly bullies, however because of this Toe believes she does this because she actually has a crush on him. She is very talented with her toes, able to use them to handle a spoon and eat using them.
 *Racer Rodriguez as Bully #1
 *Rocket Rodriguez as Bully #2