A Minecraft Movie

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for A Minecraft Movie
• a review of A Minecraft Movie completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 7 April 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

Steve (Jack Black) always dreamed of something more. As a child, he desperately wanted to enter a forbidden mine and, as an adult, finally finds the courage to do so. He comes across a couple of artefacts – the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal – which, when placed together, open a portal to a realm called the Overworld. Here, Steve lives happily, mining and crafting, until he discovers the Nether, a hellish world, where he is taken prisoner by Malgosha (voice of Allan Henry) leader of an evil swine army. Knowing that Malgosha is after the crystal and the orb, Steve has his dog take them to the real world and instructs him to hide them away. Eventually, the artefacts come to be hidden in an old storage container that is bought at auction by Garrett (Jason Momoa) a former gaming champion who has fallen on hard times. Following the death of their mother, Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers) move to Chuglass Idaho in an effort to restart their lives. Here, Henry meets Garrett and puts the orb and crystal together, once again opening a portal to the Overworld. Henry, Garrett, Natalie and local real-estate agent Dawn (Danielle Brooks) are all sucked into the portal where they find themselves in an unfamiliar landscape that they must immediately learn to survive. When the orb is destroyed in a zombie attack, Steve agrees to lead them to the Woodland Mansion where they can find another orb so that they will be able to get back home. However, reaching the mansion is easier said than done. They must survive the frequent attacks from zombies, skeletons and creepers, a disturbing creature that easily explodes, as well as evade Malgosha and her relentless swine army who will stop at nothing to get the orb and destroy the Overworld.

Greed; Revenge; Failure; Bullying; Disenchantment with life.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

• Two bullies sabotage Henry’s jet pack, causing it to crash into a potato factory where it knocks down a beloved icon.
• When night falls, creepy skeletons shoot flaming arrows at Garrett and the others.
• A bunch of spiders and skeletons crash when they are hit by a flaming arrow.
• A zombie falls off a roof while dozens more attack Garrett.
• A creeper is shot in the head with a flaming arrow and explodes, blasting a hole in Henry’s fortress that allows a stream of zombie’s through.
• Steve kicks and stabs zombies, flinging them off the roof, jumping onto them and ripping their arms off. He watches in triumph as they catch fire and burn in the sun’s rays.
• Garrett tells Steve that he, “will crack his cabeza [head] with his butt cheeks”. He then clenches his buttocks.
• A character is hit by a car.
• A chicken is burned by hot lava.
• Malgosha’s army attacks a village, looting, trashing or burning everything they encounter.
• Garrett knocks Steve out.
• Pigs are shot with arrows.
• A character is shot in the face with an arrow.
• A pig is slammed in the stomach with a blade.
• Characters are punched, kicked, hit and flipped over walls.
• Hot air balloons shoot fireballs.
• The swine army shoots at Henry, Steve and Garrett, and Henry is grabbed and attacked by a pig while he flies until he can fight him off.
• A hot air balloon crashes in a fiery explosion and many pigs fall off.
• A pig is swallowed by the fiery mouth of a hot air balloon.
• Henry knocks into Steve and Garrett and they all plummet to the ground, landing on a water cube near a bunch of pandas.
• When a general fails her, Malgosha has him killed and turned into bacon.
• Natalie and Dawn stab and bash zombies. One keeps coming back and they repeatedly attack it in defence.
• A character is stabbed in the buttocks and hit with numerous objects.
• A huge pig attacks Henry, Steve and Garrett. It chases them through a mine and nearly kills them.
• Characters slap creepers.
• There is a massive explosion in which it is assumed that a giant pig is killed.
• Steve explains that each floor of the Woodland Mansion is guarded by a different kind of evil. The first floor is full of axe-murderers, while the third is guarded by a creature that will fry your brains out if you look at it.
• Creepy men chase Steve and Garret upstairs, trying to chop them with axes.
• Garrett is told to fight a chicken to the death. He must also fight a baby Frankenstein. The chicken pecks him in the face and the baby Frankenstein repeatedly bashes his head into a wall.
• Malgosha orders her swine to kill Steve and the others. Garrett kicks the pigs in order to give Steve and Henry a chance to escape. He is on the bridge when it explodes and is presumed dead.
• Henry and Steve hit a tree and are knocked unconscious.
• A bunch of skeletons are blown up.
• There is a massive battle scene in which countless characters are punched, hit or knocked out. Natalie attacks with a sword and Henry with a gun.
• Natalie is nearly crushed.
• Dawn beheads a straw pig with a sword.
• Henry creates an army of iron soldiers who help fight off Malgosha and her swine army.
• Malgosha crushes Steve’s diamond armour and nearly kills him.
• A pack of wolves attack the swine army and Henry is knocked off a tower. He is falling to his death but is saved at the last moment by Garrett.
• When the orb is destroyed, pigs ‘zombify’ and the ones who are already zombies burn.
• One of Malgosha’s soldiers is knocked on the head and knocked unconscious.
• Malgosha tries to kill Steve three times with knives and daggers.

Material that may scare or disturb children

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

• Zombies attack as soon as night sets in (approximately every 20 minutes). They are grotesque, violent and relentless. They attack throughout the film but are more terrifying in the beginning, before Natalie and Henry have learned how to fight or defeat them.
• A strange creature, with vacant, black holes for eyes, attacks sheep, pulling the wool straight off their bodies.
• Malgosha, a black hooded, cold hearted, evil pig, leads a swine army full of creepy pigs with yellow glowing eyes. These are the same pigs that turn into zombies when they enter the Overworld and are the ones that Malgosha has ordered to kill Steve, Garrett and the others.
• Pigs transform into zombies.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

• Malgosha stabs a piglet through the chest with a knife when he shows her his drawing.
• Malgosha threatens Steve’s dog, telling Steve to bring her the orb in exchange for his dog’s life.
• Garrett falls into a pit, while Henry, Natalie and Dawn are chased by creepy spiders and skeletons as they try to find a safe place to hide. They are screaming in terror as they are quickly surrounded. When zombies join the attack and infiltrate the structure Henry has built, it looks like they will all be killed.
• Henry must fight a creepy, sinister character with glowing purple eyes who makes Henry believe that the people he loves are saying terrible things about him. The scene is rather disturbing in that Natalie and Garrett look possessed while they make horrible comments to Henry. Henry, in order to get it to stop and to save himself, attacks the creepy character with an axe, repeatedly chopping at it until it disappears.

• Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

• Multiple references to ‘Minecraft’
• Oreos
• Atari
• Sizzler
• Ford Firebird
• Jeep Grand Cherokee
• Indirect reference to ‘America’s Got Talent’.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• A character tells Garrett, while looking him up and down: “You can bag me up and take me to the curb anytime. But you’ve got to bunch it up because I’ve got a lot of racoons in there.”
• Two pandas show love (they are quickly surrounded by a bunch of love hearts) and a baby panda suddenly appears.
• While on a date, one character tells another that she, “wants to have the guts to invite him over to her house for dessert.”

Nudity and sexual activity

• None noted.

Use of substances

• None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• Loser
• Nerd
• Idiot
• Swine
• Stupid
• Bullcrap
• Tool bag
• Hell
• Friggin
• Wimp
• Shut up
• Big Turkey
• Screw it
• Crap
• Son of a biscuit
• Sucks
• Dummies
• Hell hole
• Fool
• Suck butt
• Kickass
• Frickin loser
• A character is called ‘Captain Butt Crack’.

In a nutshell

A Minecraft Movie is a fantasy adventure, based on the 2011 game Minecraft by Mojang Studios, that features live action combined with computer animated graphics. The film will generally appeal to fans of the game, and is best suited to audiences aged 12 and over.

The main messages from this movie are that creativity is the key to survival; and that if you are brave enough to believe, you can change the world for the better.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• Teamwork
• Creativity
• Persistence
• Loyalty
• Compassion.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

• Failing to pursue your dreams.
• Listening to the negativity of others and allowing yourself to be influenced by their opinions.
• Getting carried away by greed.
• Lying to your friends or loved ones.