Based on all the Spy Kids films, this is a Mr. Conductor crossover focusing on Carmen and her friends. Main Centrals Mr. Conductor 1, 2 and 3 (Ringo Starr, Alec Baldwin and Michael Brandon), Carmen Cortes (Ashley Bornancin), Glitch (Caitlyn Bairstow), Scorpion (Nesta Cooper), Juni Cortes (Carter Hastings), Ace (Nicholas Coombe), Buster Bunny (Charlie Adler), Yakko Warner (Rob. Jun 28, 2012 What kid doesn’t love spy missions? The spy craze is in full force: spy gadgets, spy books, and super secret agent activities absolutely thrill boys and girls alike! So why not take advantage of this trend? Keep clicking, and you’ll see the wonderful world I’ve created to help kids stay engaged in their learning process all summer long. May 02, 2018  The series centers around brother and sister team Juni and Carmen Cortez as they attend Spy Kids Academy, a top secret spy school for kid agents. When a new counter-spy agency threatens the safety. Jun 07, 2018  Netflix Kids & Family is an inclusive channel that features everyone’s favorite dinosaurs, princesses, superheroes, villians, animals, and more! Stay up to date with Netflix Kids & Family.

Isador Cortez,^[a] also known as Machete, is a fictional character in the Spy Kids films, the Grindhouse fake trailer, and the Machete films.^[1] The character is played by Danny Trejo.^[2]

Auto-Tune can also be used as an effect to distort the human voice when pitch is raised or lowered significantly, such that the voice is heard to leap from note to note stepwise, like a synthesizer. Auto-Tune has become standard equipment in professional recording studios.

History[edit]

According to Spy Kids and Machete director Robert Rodriguez, the character Machete was always intended for Danny Trejo: 'When I met Danny, I said, 'This guy should be like the Mexican Jean-Claude Van Damme or Charles Bronson, putting out a movie every year and his name should be Machete.''^[3] Rodriguez also said, in an interview, that he 'wrote [Trejo] this idea of a federale from Mexico who gets hired to do hatchet jobs in the U.S. I had heard sometimes FBI or DEA have a really tough job that they don't want to get their own agents killed on, they'll hire an agent from Mexico to come do the job for $25,000. I thought, 'That's Machete. He would come and do a really dangerous job for a lot of money to him but for everyone else over here it's peanuts.' But I never got around to making it.'^[4]

Character[edit]

Isador Cortez is a former Mexicanfederale. His weapon of choice is the machete, although he can handle firearms perfectly fine. Cortez is fluent in both Spanish and English. On his chest is a tattoo depicting a woman.^[5] Trejo has described Machete as a 'badass', and said that his mother had started calling him 'Machete'.^[2]

In Spy Kids, he has his own shop that sells spy gadgets, and is the uncle of Juni Cortez and Carmen Cortez, their father's brother.

Character biography[edit]

Spy Kids[edit]

In Spy Kids, Machete is first seen in a flashback, at his brother Gregorio's wedding. When Gregorio and Gregorio's wife Ingrid get captured by Fegan Floop, Carmen and Juni, Gregorio's children, visit their 'Uncle Machete', hoping he will help them to save their parents. Machete refuses to go after Gregorio, as they are estranged, but allows his niece and nephew to stay with him, and shows them a one-passenger jet that could get them to Floop's castle. Carmen and Juni take the jet, some of his gadgets, and the map to the castle at night. Machete appears again near the end of the film, when he decides to help the Cortezes against an army of robotic children. When asked why he came back, Machete claimed it's the same reason he left. Gregorio no longer remembers the reason and neither does Machete. Machete then cries in his brother's arms. At the end of the film, he is seen with the Cortez family.

Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams[edit]

In Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, Machete has built Carmen and Juni a high-tech treehouse after they have become secret agents. Machete then shows some of his latest gadgets: Spy Watches and the Machete Elastic Wonder. At the end of the film, Carmen claims she can't sing so Machete shows Carmen a Microphone that auto-tunes her voice and Juni a guitar that plays itself. When they are done, Machete informs Carmen and Juni that he did not put any batteries in them and that Carmen was actually singing and Juni was actually playing guitar.

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over[edit]

Machete appears near the end of Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, when he helps battle the Toymaker's video game robots. After the battle, Machete becomes closer with the Cortezes.

Machete[edit]

In Machete, Isador 'Machete' Cortez witnesses his wife and daughter being murdered by ruthless drug baron Rogelio Torrez (Steven Seagal). Three years later, he is seen working at a construction site in Texas. There, he is paid $150,000 by businessman Michael Booth (Jeff Fahey) to assassinate the anti-illegal immigration politician John McLaughlin (Robert De Niro). After getting shot in the neck before he can shoot McLaughlin, Machete realises that he has been set up in a false flag operation. Booth is revealed to be working with Torrez, a staunch supporter of McLaughlin. Seeking vengeance, Machete kidnaps Booth's daughter and wife with the help of a few allies, and also takes down his henchmen. This eventually leads to a confrontation between Machete and his allies (mostly Mexican immigrants) and Torrez and his gang. Machete triumphs, leaving the criminals for dead.

Spy Kids: All the Time in the World[edit]

Machete makes a cameo appearance in Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, where he is seen tripping in a laboratory when time is frozen by Danger D'Amo, a.k.a. Armageddon. In a deleted scene, while Cecil and Rebecca are running from two OSS agents, they end up in his laboratory, managing to ruin several experiments. As they are found by Machete, he hides them from the OSS agents.

Machete Kills[edit]

Machete returns in Machete Kills, where he is employed by Rathcock (Charlie Sheen), the President of the United States, to foil a plan of world domination. The perpetrator is initially thought to be Mendez (Demian Bichir), a crazed revolutionary planning to missile-bomb the Congressional Palace. However, Machete finds out that the true mastermind is Luther Voz (Mel Gibson), who is keen on initiating rampage throughout the U.S. Machete finds Voz and foils his plans, but a now-disfigured Voz, having been burnt by Machete, escapes into outer space with his henchmen. Without hesitating, Machete agrees to track him down in space. The end of the film advertises a third Machete-led spin-off film entitled Machete Kills Again in Space.

Snickers: The Brady Bunch[edit]

In February 2015, Snickers' Super Bowl XLIX commercial featured a parody of a scene from an episode of The Brady Bunch entitled 'The Subject Was Noses.' In the commercial, Carol and Mike try to calm down a very angry Machete. When the parents give Machete a Snickers bar, he reverts into Marcia before an irate Jan (played by Steve Buscemi) rants upstairs and walks away. In a second commercial set earlier, Marcia (as Machete) angrily brushes her hair while yelling through her door.^[6][7][8]

Spy Kids: Mission Critical[edit]

Machete makes a brief cameo appearance in an episode of Spy Kids: Mission Critical, where he is once again seen in a laboratory tinkering with gadgets.

Reception[edit]

Sharon Knolle of Moviefone called Machete the Mexican equivalent of fictional British spy James Bond.^[2]

Appearances[edit]

• Spy Kids (2001)
• Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2002)
• Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)
• Grindhouse (2007) (fake trailer)
• Machete (2010)
• Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011)
• Machete Kills (2013)
• Snickers: The Brady Bunch (2015)
• Spy Kids: Mission Critical (2018 – Present) (silent)

Canonicity[edit]

Trejo and Rodriguez made two different statements regarding the Machete movies' canonicity to the Spy Kids movies. Trejo stated that’s its 'what Uncle Machete does when he’s not taking care of the kids'^[9], while Rodriguez stated on a Reddit AmA that the Spy Kids and Machete films are alternate universes.^[10]

Notes[edit]

1. ^In Machete, his legal name according to the federal database has been changed to 'Machete Cortez'.

References[edit]

1. ^Frank Scheck. 'Machete -- Film Review'. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 5, 2010.
2. ^ ^abcKnolle, Sharon (October 7, 2013). 'Danny Trejo Don't Tweet and Other Revelations From the 'Machete Kills' Star'. Moviefone. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
3. ^Moro, Eric (March 11, 2007). 'SXSW 07: Machete Movie Coming'. IGN Film Force.
4. ^Edwards, Gavin (April 2007). 'Horror Film Directors Dish About Grindhouse Trailers'. Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 12 June 2008.
5. ^Robert Rodriguez (Director) (2010). Machete (Film). Event occurs at 37:42.
6. ^Chitwood, Adam (February 2, 2015). 'Watch This Year's Best Super Bowl Commercials'. Collider.com. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
7. ^https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXizLog2hms
8. ^Machete Kills the Brady Bunch for Snickers
9. ^Westel, Bob (April 1, 2011). 'A roundtable chat with actor Danny Trejo, aka 'Machete''. Premium Hollywood.
10. ^Rodriguez, Robert (February 2014). 'I am director Robert Rodriguez, here again with El Rey. Let's play'. Reddit. Retrieved April 18, 2018.

External links[edit]

• Machete on IMDb

• Print
• Font:
• +
• -

The following sentence might come as a huge shock to teens and Millennials, so stop tweeting for a second, kids, and get prepared for a totally outlandish statement. Here it is: Once upon a time, pop singers were actual singers.

1. 1. Autistic ballerina dances her way into hearts

      In a popular YouTube video, the beaming little ballerina dances an entire four-minute routine seemingly perfectly, matchin...

Yes, I know. That’s hard to comprehend since the pop charts are now dominated by artists who use Auto-Tune, the software plug-in that corrects the pitch of those who can’t really cut it in the vocal department and turns their vocals into robo-voices. While everyone under 30 recovers from that revelation, here’s what I mean by “actual singers.”

Back in the day, pop artists like Frank Sinatra and the Beatles used to be able to record albums in just a few days. Country musicians like Patsy Cline and George Jones trudged through grueling tours in out-of-the-way rural locales yet still missed nary a note. R&B musicians like the Supremes and the Four Tops navigated their way through complex choreography but still belted out songs out like their lives depended on it.

And while today, we still have singers with massively impressive pipes, a whole lotta them could never have rocked it for real like the Motown gang. These days, artists are able to get by on looks, publicity and aid from Auto-Tune.

You can hear the robotic, processed sound of the plug-in on recent hit records like “Blame It” by Jamie Foxx and T-Pain, “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga and “Right Now (Na Na Na)” by Akon. It’s also heard on tracks by Kanye West, Britney Spears and Lil Wayne. When West attempted to sing “Love Lockdown” without the plug-in on “Saturday Night Live,” the results were none too impressive and got ridiculed online. You can hear 10 examples of “Auto-Tune Abuse in Pop Music” on Hometracked, a blog geared toward home recording enthusiasts.

Paula Abdul also uses Auto-Tune on her new song, “Here for the Music,” which she performed (i.e. lip-synched) on “American Idol” May 6. It was evident just how artificial Abdul’s vocals were when she was followed by Gwen Stefani, who gave a warts-and-all live vocal on No Doubt’s “Just a Girl.”

Country and rock singers are said to use Auto-Tune to protect themselves from hitting bum notes in concert. Pop singers use it when they have a hard time singing while executing complicated dance moves (raising the question as to why they’re letting their dancing take precedence over their music). Auto-Tune has become so ubiquitous that indie rockers Death Cab for Cutie wore blue ribbons at this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony to protest its overuse.

Building the ‘perfect’ beast
The prevalence of Auto-Tune comes from two longstanding pop music traditions — the desire to alter the human voice and the quest for perfection at the expense of real talent and emotion.

The first of these can lead to inspiring moments, as the New Yorker’s Sasha Frere-Jones noted in an essay last year. Pioneering voice tweakers include producer Quincy Jones, who punched up Lesley Gore’s vocals with double tracking on “It’s My Party,” and George Martin, who gave us a childlike sped-up John Lennon on “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Later on, Peter Frampton wowed audiences with his talk box guitar effect and a decade later, vocals were being put through harmonizers to get jarring outer space effects.

Of course, to pull off any of those effects, you had still had to be able to sing. With Auto-Tune you don’t.

Then there’s the quest for perfection. By the 1970s, producers were able to edit or splice together vocal takes from various tracks and eventually they started to use hardware that corrected vocal pitch to create “perfect” performances. When the sound editing program Pro Tools became the industry norm in the 1990s, kludged-together vocal tracks became the norm.

But too much meticulousness in pop music strips away passion. And the very reason we listen to music, noted the late rock critic Lester Bangs, is to hear “passion expressed.” Auto-Tune makes people sound like robots. And if there’s no feeling, why listen at all?

Spy Kid Mission Critical Auto Tuner

Some people apparently aren’t listening anymore. Sales of major label CDs are down. But more authentic sounding music still has fans. Paste magazine recently reported that indie music is selling more, and the one area of commercial music that’s remained popular is “American Idol,” where you can’t fake it (unless you’re Paula Abdul).

The producers speak
A lot of producers like to use Auto-Tune because it saves time, says producer Craig Street, who has worked with Norah Jones, k. d. lang and Cassandra Wilson. “If you have a smaller budget what you’re doing is trying to cram a lot of work into a small period of time,” Street says. “So you may not have as much time to do a vocal.”

Craig Anderton, a producer and music writer, observes that Auto-Tune “gets no respect because when it’s done correctly, you can’t hear that it’s working.

“If someone uses it tastefully just to correct a few notes here and there, you don’t even know that it’s been used so it doesn’t get any props for doing a good job,” Anderton notes. “But if someone misuses it, it’s very obvious — the sound quality of the voice changes and people say ‘Oh, it’s that Auto-Tune — it’s a terrible thing that’s contributing to the decline and fall of Western music as we know it.”

One producer who dislikes Auto-Tune is Jon Tiven, who cut his musical teeth in the punk rock era with his band the Yankees, and went on to produce soul singers Wilson Pickett and Don Covey as well as Pixies founder Frank Black. Tiven thinks Auto-Tune has led to the destruction of great singing.

“I don’t know how many levels you want to drop the bar for what it takes to become a successful musical person,” Tiven says. “You could sacrifice on some levels, but it would seem to me one of the first things you would really be hard pressed to sacrifice is if the person could sing in tune or not.”

Spy Kids Mission Critical Auto Tune Free

Street says the like or dislike of Auto-Tune largely comes down to aesthetics, and likens people’s feelings about listening to unnatural sounds with the way some people feel about unnatural body modifications, such as breast implants.

And that makes sense. After all, today we have models and actors whose faces and bodies were never intended by nature, reality TV that’s not real, and sports “heroes” whose strength comes from pills not practice. It’s totally understandable that the commercial pop world would embrace an unnatural aesthetic. Whether audiences will someday want pop singers who are first and foremost singers remains to be seen.

Spy Kid Mission Critical Auto Tuners

© 2013 msnbc.com. Reprints