Not recommend under 8, PG to 13 (Viol. Lang. Themes)
This topic contains:
Children under 8 | Due to the level of scariness, this movie is not recommended for young children under 8. |
Children aged 8-13 | Children aged 8-12 would need some parental guidance to view this movie. |
Children over the age of 13 | Children over 13 should be okay to see this film with or without parental guidance. |
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.
Name of movie: | Big Fish |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Medium level violence, Mature themes, Low level coarse language, Nudity |
Length: | 125 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
William Bloom has listened all his life to his father Edward’s tall, fishy tales about his life. William, now married and expecting his first child, would like to know the true account of Edward’s life as he feels that he and his father are “strangers who know each other very well”.
Edward, however, refuses to budge from his version which begins with his dramatic entrance into the world when he literally pops out of his mother’s womb and goes flying down the hospital corridor. As a child, Edward is the dare devil who knocks on the door of the witch’s housing asking to see her glass eye. He grows up to be the local hero of Ashton, the baseball star, the winner of the science fair and rescuer of dogs from burning houses. One day a giant of a man named Carl comes to live in a cave near Ashton much to the distress of the local residents. Of course Edward goes to visit Carl to discuss the possibility of his moving on. They become friends and decide to leave for the bigger world together. Edward goes on to have many adventures in his life and meets many unusual characters. He visits Spectre, a seemingly perfect place, where he meets a poet from Ashton. Spectre however is not as it appears and has underlying problems which Edward revisits later on. He and Carl go on to join a circus working for a Mr. Calloway who is really a werewolf and where Edward works for three years in exchange for information about the woman he wishes to marry.
After he’s married Edward is called up to war and is parachuted into enemy territory where he meets conjoined twins who are singing stars. Edward brings them back to America to join Mr. Calloway’s circus. Of course William is highly sceptical about all these stories but the end of Edward’s life holds even more surprises for William.
Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.
None of concern
Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.
Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.
There is some violence in this movie including the following scenes:
Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.
There is quite a lot of material that would scare children in this age group. As well as the violent scenes mentioned above, the following could scare very young children:
Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.
Children in this age group may also be disturbed by the above mentioned scenes.
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.
Most children in this age group would probably understand that this is fantasy. However, some scenes might still frighten children in this age group including the following:
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.
Children in this age group would probably not be scared by this movie except for maybe the werewolf scene.
None of concern
There are no sexual references in this movie.
There is some nudity but only from a back view. None was provocative and the woman is shown in a respectful way:
There is some drinking at a wedding.
There is a little coarse language including the occasional use of ‘bitch’ and ‘shit’.
The take home message is one of tolerance and acceptance of others, regardless of their outward appearance. It’s also about finding one’s way in life and defining the difference between truth and emotion.
Values parents may wish to encourage include:
Tip: Leave out the first A, An or The
Selecting an age will provide a list of movies with content suitable for this age group. Children may also enjoy movies selected via a lower age.
Content is age appropriate for children this age
Some content may not be appropriate for children this age. Parental guidance recommended
Content is not age appropriate for children this age
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