Zip & Zap and the Marble Gang

Director(s): Óskar Santos
Country: Spain
Language: Dutch w/ English subtitles
Live Action | 2013 | 106 min
Genre: Adventure, Mystery
Recommended for ages 10+ (Parental Guidance: Bullying, juvenile behavior)
Themes: bullying, friendship

Two of Spain’s most beloved comic book characters, Zip and Zap, come to life in this rollicking adventure. With summer coming, the twin brothers are caught stealing the answers to their final exams, so instead of the fun-filled vacation they expected, Zip and Zap are sent to a strict boarding school run by a no-nonsense headmaster named Falconetti. The school is worse than they could have imagined. Fun is absolutely forbidden, and the suspicious Falconetti and his security guards seem to watch their every move. But that doesn’t stop the brothers from enjoying their summer. After making new friends, they form the Marble Gang, and their ongoing mischief and resistance to authority lead them to discover a mysterious secret that MUST be investigated!

The Marble Gang have to solve Rube Goldberg-inspired puzzles to unlock each door along the way using seemingly trivial items picked up along their journey—and applying video game logic that might be familiar to the young audience. The drab flesh tones and dark rooms that occupy the first half of the film are replaced with flashing lights and mechanical wonders as the gang quite literally travels through the looking glass into secret passages filled with danger and intrigue, a combination that generates “fun, the very thing the headmaster is hopelessly attempting to eradicate.

ZIP & ZAP AND THE MARBLE GANG will entrance kids and speak to their intrinsic rebelliousness with its charms and message to never underestimate the value of fun. It is filled with twists and turns and unexpected whimsical surprises that put the characters in harm’s way (sort of), making it just dangerous enough to be fun for the whole family.

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