Shorts (also known as Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock poster title or Shorts: A Not-So-Tall Tale trailer title) is a 2009 family comedy/adventure film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. It was released in the United States on August 21, 2009.^[2] 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.^[3]

Plot[link]

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (July 2011)

The movie starts before the logo with a pair of twins (Cambell Westmoreland and Zoe Webb) who decide to have a staring contest. The game continues throughout the course of the movie as a running gag. Both brother and sister lose because their mom snapped her fingers in front of their faces, causing both to blink at the same time. As they wondered who won the game they began a new round, which starts the logo and begins the film.

Toby "Toe" Thompson (Jimmy Bennett) begins telling the story from his point of view and explaining The Black Box Inc, where all the adults work. It is this 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 (Jolie Vanier) and her brother Colbert "Cole" (Devon Gearhart). Toe speculates in front of everyone that Hel loves him, which infuriates Hel and ends with Toe head first in a trash can. As Toe walks home, Cole and his gang chase him into a construction site filled with piles of dirt and up a tree and start throwing rocks at Toe.

When Cole runs out of rocks, he demands another one, and one of his goons grabs the wishing rock from a pile of dirt and hands it to him which he then throws at Toe and hits him square in the head. Toe wishes for friends as interesting and unique as he is 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 falling from the school's roof with broken arms. The aliens leave, but Toe keeps the rock. One alien says Toe has friends all around, but he doesn't know it.

During a thunderstorm, The Wishing Rock falls out of the sky, and gets struck by lightning several times before it lands in the forest behind the Short's House. The three brothers, Loogie (Trevor Gagnon), Laser (Leo Howard), and Lug (Rebel Rodriguez) see the beginning of the rainbow and go looking for a pot of gold, but instead find the rock. Loogie picks it up and wishes that he knew what it was, and the rock tells him as he is holding the rock up to his ear. Loogie tests out the rock by wishing for an unlimited supply of chocolate bars, which come flying out of his pockets. The brothers start an argument on what to do with the rock and Loogie wishes for the instructions causing a giant book labeled instructions to fall out of nowhere.

Claiming they can't possibly read the book, Loogie wishes for the short version of the instructions and a fortune cookie falls into Laser's hands which contains a fortune reading "Make a wish". Loogie then proceeds to wish for a fortress with a canyon around it filled with man-eating crocodiles and venomous snakes to protect the rock from thieves. Laser wants to use it wisely, such as wishing for an end to world hunger and global warming and to wish for world peace. The brothers get into a tug of war and the rock rolls into the canyon. The brothers venture into the canyon, find the rock, and are attacked by the crocodiles and snakes. Loogie jumps into the stomach of the crocodile who swallowed the rock and recovers it, and then wishes the snakes away just as they are attacking Laser.

Loogie comes out claiming that the crocodile ate the science homework that was in his pocket and that he felt it make a wish. They turn around and see the crocodiles standing on their hind legs who proceed to chase them. Loogie wishes that something would take them away, but because Loogie wasn't specific, a giant pterodactyl swoops out of the sky and snatches them up dumping them into the fortress. Laser sees the crocodiles climbing out of the canyon and climbing up the wall, Lug hears their baby sister crying on the baby monitor they brought and demands that they get home. Loogie accidentally wishes for telephonesis (thinking it's telekinesis) and a red telephone pops out of his head. After being corrected by his brothers, he wishes for telekinesis and a giant gust of wind blows the crocodiles away. The pterodactyl flies overhead and, accidentally poops all over Loogie.

Loogie then wishes that they could just go back home and start over. The screen goes black and when it comes back on, the boys are back home, but Loogie still has "telephonesis" and the wishing rock. They then argue over what to do with the rock. To solve the dilemma, Loogie wishes that one of them was super-smart, but, as he was not more specific, the power is given to their baby sister (portrayed by Bianca Rodriguez and voiced by Elizabeth Avellan) Loogie then hands the rock to Laser agreeing that his hands are the wrongs hands for the rock. Laser steps outside and wishes for a catapult and put the rock in the launcher and is about to get rid of it and is talked out of it by Loogie who promises to wish for world peace, but the catapult it launched by their sister, making them lose rock in a pile of dirt, which is where Cole found the rock to throw at Toby.

Toe's older sister Stacey (Kat Dennings) arrives to tutor "Nose" Noseworthy (Jake Short), Toe's old germophobic friend. Nose picks his nose against his father's wishes and accidentally flicks the booger into his father's radioactive work study. Nose takes the rock from Stacey and wishes that his dad's inventions worked the way they were supposed too. He gets his wish, but it causes his booger to mutate. Toe and Loogie, now friends, arrive at Nose's house in time to see Nose's booger mutate into a giant monster. They leave as quickly as possible, but Toe gets caught by the booger. Nose rescues him by saying that if the booger mutant should eat his friend, Nose will eat the booger's friend (another booger), and the two run out of the house as soon as the booger mutant gives in to Nose's commands. However, it goes ahead and tries to eat Toe and Nose. After helping Nose's father (William H. Macy) capture the monster outside of the house, Toe and Loogie take the rock and leave.

Mr. and Mrs. Thompson (Leslie Mann and Jon Cryer) are having trouble with their relationship, as Mr. Carbon Black (James Spader) 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 into a two-headed person and try to hide from Mr. Black.

He finds them and invites them inside (thinking they're wearing a costume). 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 to take it back. Toe is interrupted by Cole, who dumps him in the garbage. An infuriated Hel wishes Cole into a dung beetle before losing 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, Hel takes the rock and tries to tell her dad about it, but he won't listen to her. So Hel wishes that her dad would listen to her for a change, causing his ears to become gigantic.

Hel, now drunk with power, wishes off her casts and for a rocket bike to escape with the rock, but hits a curb and lands headfirst into a trash can, losing the rock. The rock rolls back to Mr. Black's house and smashes through the door, landing at Mr. Black's feet. He picks it up and is tackled by some of the guests. Toe runs in and grabs the rock and wishes everyone back to normal. The doorbell rings and Toe answers it and comes face to face with Helvetica who is furious. She threatens to break every other bone in Toe's body if he doesn't give her the rock. Toe smartly answers "You Wish" before throwing the rock as far as he can, where it lands at the Noseworth's house.

Toe and Loogie contemplate what to do with the rock. They are ambushed by Helvetica and Cole when the rest of the kids show up and they all fight over the rock until it winds up in the hands of Mr. Black. Mr. Black tells all his employees that they are all fired because he has the rock and claims it is the only upgrade the Black Box needs and then considers stopping the business altogether wishes for a giant pile of money. Helevetica tricks him by asking him if he's joking, he states, "My girl, I wish I were," which makes the money disappear and he falls to the edge of the Black Box company building where he is forced to hang on, dangling for his life.

He loses his grip on the rock which falls into the hands of his chief security guard. It is unknown what he was going to wish for because it was interrupted by Hel who wishes that the man was an Oscar-Meyer wiener, which he turns into and thus rolls away. Suddenly a giant teenage boy appears and Mr. Black offers him $10.00 if he helps him down. Stacey realizes that the giant is her 23 year-old ex-boyfriend (which she caused by wishing he would "grow up") and faints, but is revived by Loogie who uses the Black Box as a fan. Mr. Black wishes that he was the most powerful thing in the world and turns into a giant man-like Black Box and the children team up using their previous wishes to stop him. Soon, the infant tells them that the rock is starting to feel misused, as shown by the fact that the rock starts undoing all of their wishes. She also tells them 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 that 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. Noseworthy and son lose their germophobia, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson become closer, and last it is suggested that Hel and Toe will marry in the future, then Hel said "I didn't say that". In the end, all the children become friends and walk off while Loogie wishes that their story became a Hollywood movie, to which Hel replies "like that's gonna happen."

Cast[link]

• Jimmy Bennett as Toby Thompson.
• Jon Cryer as Mr. Bill Thompson, Toby's father who works at Black Box, Inc.
• Leslie Mann as Mrs. Jane Thompson, Toby's mother who also works at Black Box, Inc.
• Kat Dennings as Stacey Thompson, Toby's older sister.
• William H. Macy as Dr. Noseworthy, A germophobe scientist who doesn't like Contamination.
• Jolie Vanier as Helvetica Black, a girl who secretly has a crush on Toby and is the leader of her own gang.
• Devon Gearhart as Colbert "Cole" Black, Carbon’s son and captain of the football team. He's Helvetica's right hand boy as that he cares deeply for her.
• James Spader as Mr. Carbon Black, a greedy man who invented the black box and founded the Black Box Community.
• Trevor Gagnon as Loogie Short, a boy who found the wishing rock. When he had the wishing rock he wished for unreasonable stuff. He flirted with Toby's older sister throughout the movie.
• Rebel Rodriguez as Lug Short, Loogie's older brother. He is the most video game obsessed and easily angered of the three Short brothers.
• Leo Howard as Laser Short, Loogie's older brother. He seems to be the smartest of the three Short brothers.
• Bianca Rodriguez as the Short brothers' infant sister, simply referred to as "(the) Baby". She is voiced by Elizabeth Avellan
• Jake Short as "Nose" Noseworthy, a germophobe scientist like his father.
• Racer Rodriguez as Bully #1, a member of Helvetica's gang.
• Rocket Rodriguez as Bully #2, also a member of Helvetica's gang.
• Alejandro Rose-Garcia as John, Stacey's boyfriend.
• Cambell Westmoreland as Blinker #1
• Zoe Webb as Blinker #2

Reception[link]

Critical response[link]

Reviews for the film have been mixed to negative. The film holds a rating of 45% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 93 reviews, with a Top Critics rating of 56% based on 19 reviews."Shorts (Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shorts/. Retrieved 2011-07-27. 

Box office[link]

For its opening weekend, the film made $6,410,339 upon an average of $2,065 from 3,105 theaters. It opened at #6, being overshadowed by Inglourious Basterds, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and Julie & Julia. Overall, the film was a minor success at the box office, grossing about $21 million in the United States and Canada, and about $26 million worldwide. It is considered a financial disappointment compared to other films that Robert Rodriguez has directed, making only a third of what the Spy Kids films had made. However, the film was made on a low budget, and the overall box office return recouped it and made a huge profit for distributor Warner Bros.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Site
• Official Facebook
• Shorts at Metacritic
• Shorts at the Internet Movie Database
• Shorts at Rotten Tomatoes