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Zip & Zap and the Marble Gang

Zip & Zap and the Marble Gang (Zipi y Zape y el club de la canica)

Movie · 2013 · 9 people

Óskar Santos directed Zip & Zap and the Marble Gang (original title: Zipi y Zape y el club de la canica) and wrote the screenplay with Francisco Roncal, turning José Escobar Saliente's comic series Zipi y Zape into a 2013 Spanish family adventure film. Kowalski Films and Atresmedia Cine produced it, and the cast includes Javier Gutiérrez as Falconetti, Claudia Vega as Matilde, Fran García and Marcos Ruiz.

The story follows twin brothers Zip and Zap, sent to the strictly run Hope summer school where all fun is forbidden. After Zap finds a bag of marbles in a detention room, the boys and their fellow pupils form the “Marble Gang”, leaving a single marble behind after every prank; a map revealed when the school founder’s statue is damaged sends them hunting for diamonds said to lie beneath the building. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 8 September 2013, opened in Spain on 4 October 2013 and screened in the Sundance Kids section of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. A sequel, Zip & Zap and the Captain’s Island, followed in 2016.

DirectorÓskar Santos
Production companyKowalski Films

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Cast

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Verónika Moral Verónika Moral Actor · 48 years old Javier Gutiérrez Álvarez Claudia Vega Javier Cifrián Álex Angulo Alberto López López Joseba Apaolaza Iñake Irastorza Santi Ugalde

Through different eyes

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

An adventure made to watch with children. Twin brothers start a gang with their friends at a summer school where fun is forbidden, play pranks and then go after a treasure map. It may feel a bit long for preschoolers, but primary-school kids will most likely love it. The pranks make rule-breaking look like fun, so it is worth a little chat with the kids afterwards.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Bringing a long-established comic to the screen, Óskar Santos leans on a proven formula: a strict institution that bans fun, a gang of children who rebel against it and a treasure hidden beneath the building. The framework is not new, and the script chooses to run it safely rather than stretch it. A small signature motif, the single marble left behind after every prank, is one of the rare ideas that gives the film an identity of its own. Its festival route from Toronto to Sundance's section for children suggests careful craft, but for an adult eye looking for surprises the narrative stays far too predictable.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Bringing two of Spain's long-standing comic characters to the screen, the film hides a familiar question behind its children's fun: the clash between discipline and childhood. The Hope summer school, where all fun is forbidden, works like an exaggerated caricature of authoritarian schooling that aims to tame children with strict rules. The Marble Gang the kids build through solidarity presents play and friendship as a form of resistance to pressure. The message is too simple at times, but it gently opens a door for children to think about rules and freedom.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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