Question: What's up with Stanley seeing Sam and Mary Lou's apparition come into view and disappear while he was on the bus approaching the camp? Was that some kind of almost prophetic hint to Stanley as to the true nature of his trip to Camp Green Lake being to find the treasure and thus avenge Sam by doing so?
Question: Before Stanley was found innocent and left Camp Green Lake with Zero, how long were those two in the camp?
Answer: 2 weeks.
Question: When Mr. Sir was handing the guard a coke from his fridge and Stanley thought it was for him, what does Mr. Sir say to him? After, he says "Thirsty Stanley?" I've watched this movie many many times and I still can't understand what he is saying. It is about 9 minutes into the movie. (00:09:00)
Answer: "Well you're a bag of tricks."
Question: I'm the scene where X-ray takes the shorter shovel from Stanley, another boy walks up and says "smaller shovel, smaller hole." What is he eating? It looks like a tortilla shell but it's shiny like something is on it?
Answer: It's probably honey.
It is indeed honey, they mention it in the DVD commentary with the younger cast members.
Question: How is Camp Green Lake legal? Aren't there laws against forced child labor? Also, what would happen if Stanley refused to dig holes?
Answer: It is illegal. That's why everyone in charge gets arrested at the end. It only lasted as long as it did because they were in the middle of nowhere with little to no oversight and no on knew what was really going on until Stanley's release.
Wait then why did the judge know about it? Did he get arrested too?
There are a lot of kids at Green Lake, sentenced by various judges. The court system either was unaware of the conditions at the camp, or didn't care.
Answer: Stanley and his fellow prisoners are convicted criminals, and as such, the authorities are allowed to work them. The conditions in the movie are rather extreme, but what recourse do the boys have? The warden and her flunkies are brutal people, and it's likely Stanley would have been in a world of hurt had he refused to dig. All they'd have to say is Stanley attacked them and whatever force they used would have been justified. That's the penal system for you.
Question: What was on top of the tortillas that the boys ate in the morning?
Answer: Honey and peanut butter.
Question: How did the Yelnats get a lawyer, and how was Stanley found innocent?
Answer: This is explained a bit more in the book. When Stanley and Zero made it to the top of God's Thumb, Stanley sang his families song to Zero. Zero was a descendant of Madame Zeroni, who had cursed the Yelnats family to bad luck when Elya, the Russian ancestor of Stanley, decided not to carry her up the mountain and sing the song to her, which would have rejuvenated her. By singing the song to Zero, Stanley had (by extension) sung to Zeroni, and removed the curse. Then, in the scene directly after, we see Stanley's father find a method of repairing shoes immediately, eliminating the requirements of harvesting a massive amount of resources when you could repair the shoe instantly. Stanley's dad marketed this technique and made a large amount of money quickly, enabling him to get a lawyer. The lawyer interviewed his classmates, who backed up Stanley's alibi, making him innocent.
Answer: From the looks of it there is at least half a year.