Director Robert Rodriguez shares sweet story behind Sharkboy and Lavagirl

Fifteen years ago, a movie called “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl” hit theaters.

We all watched two young super heroes go on an exciting adventure in an amazing dream world called Planet Drool, but did you know that Sharkboy and Lavagirl were really a product of the imagination of a boy named Max?

According to director Robert Rodriguez, his son—who liked to be called “Racer Max”—came up with the idea when he was seven.

“We were playing shark in the pool,” the filmmaker told GMA News Online.

“I was chasing around as a shark trying to eat my kids and he was kind of nervous and scared. He didn’t want to get eaten, so he said: ‘Hey, how about you’re the shark dad, and I’m the Sharkboy?’ [So I said] ‘Oh, that’s smart, I’m going to eat your brothers. We can chase your brothers around.’”

“And then that’s stuck in his head, and every day he kept saying ‘I’m Sharkboy, I’m Sharkboy.’ He said, ‘You should make a movie called Sharkboy,” he added.

The father and son started working on a children’s book about Sharkboy, but then Max noticed there was something missing.

“What if girl wants to read the book? We’ll draw it ourselves and everything, but you probably should come up with a girl, too,” Robert said.

“What else do we love besides sharks? [I asked him] and he said, ‘Lava!’ and I was like, ‘Okay, we’ll do Sharkboy and Lavagirl, you go write the rest.’”

“So he started writing it out and then we turned it into a movie, after all. So yeah, that totally came from his brain, a kid being half-boy, half-shark,” he added.

And now, 15 years later, Sharkboy and Lavagirl embark on another adventure as parents in “We Are Your Heroes,” which is coming to Netflix this Christmas.

The family-friendly adventure film centers on a group of powerful kids who try to work together to save the world and their superhero parents who have been abducted by alien invaders.

And even after making movies like “Spy Kids,” “Alita: Battle Angel” and “Sin City,” Robert proudly admits that he would not have never thought of “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl” without his kids.

“That's what kids love—empowerment,” Robert said.

“They love to be empowered, and I wouldn’t have thought of that idea because as adults we’re already empowered, we can get in the car, we can drive to the store, where kids need their parents to do everything. So for them to have that empowerment,” he added.

“And that’s why families, parents could never understand why kids love that movie so much, it’s because it came from another kid’s mind, and it spoke to the need for empowerment at that age.”

“We Can Be Heroes” premieres globally on Netflix Dec. 25.

The film also stars Vivien Blair, YaYa Gosselin, Pedro Pascal, Priyanka Chopra-Jonas, Christian Slater, Boyd Holbrook, Christopher McDonald and Adriana Barraza. – RC, GMA News