Big Trip 2: Special Delivery

image for Big Trip 2: Special Delivery

Short takes

Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 7 (violence, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Big Trip 2: Special Delivery
  • a review of Big Trip 2: Special Delivery completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 25 January 2023.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 6 Not suitable due to violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 6–7 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 8 and over Ok for this age group.

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.

Name of movie: Big Trip 2: Special Delivery
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes and animated violence
Length: 90 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Oscar, the talkative hare (voice of Jesse McCartney), is up to his harebrained antics, much to the disapproval of Mic-Mic, the grumpy bear (voice of Pauly Shore). Then, no sooner had the two been reminiscing about their friend Panda, who had mistakenly been delivered to Mic-Mic’s doorstep as a baby, that Panda turns up to see his old pals. Shortly after, the three discover with shock that another baby has arrived, this time a baby grizzly. When the stork, Carl, delivers the post and sees the grizzly bear cub, he is determined to return the bear to its rightful parents in the hope of redeeming his previous failure of delivering Panda to the wrong home. The grizzly bear cub is intended to be the child of Presidential Candidate, John Grizzly, who is keen for his baby to arrive as he is not eligible to run for Presidency unless he is a parent. However, Don Vulture, who is disliked by the other forest animals, will stop at nothing to prevent the arrival of the baby grizzly, sabotage the election and ensure he remains in his role as undefeated President of the United Woods of America. So, the race is on with Mic-Mic, Oscar and Panda teaming up with Carl and their new-found friend, Michaela, against Don Vulture’s sinister pack of vultures and hyenas.

Themesinfo

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.

Separation from a parent; Kidnapping of a baby; Adoption; Election sabotage.

Use of violenceinfo

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:

  • A lot of slapstick violence, including hits and falls.
  • On the top of a rollercoaster, Mic-Mic says to Oscar, “I’m gonna murder you!” and later, “As soon as I get off this thing, you’re dead”, whilst moving his finger across his throat. The rollercoaster crashes at the end.
  • Mic-Mic and Oscar argue often.
  • Vultures and hyenas try to steal the baby grizzly. This involves numerous chase scenes with animals wrestling, crashing and smashing into things and each other. No one is seriously hurt.
  • Character says, “Dirty mongrels, who wants to meet my fist?”
  • The hyenas, vultures and storks chase each other.
  • Panda beats a pack of hyenas with a long stick/staff.
  • Vulture and Arnold stork fight over a sack, supposedly containing the baby grizzly. Arnold smashes into a tree.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

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:

  • The vultures and hyenas are scary-looking. One hyena has glowing, red eyes.
  • The airship goes through a storm with thunder and lightning.

Aged five to eightinfo

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.

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:

  • Mic-Mic dreams he is in a cage being flown through the air by storks. He falls out but then wakes up.
  • Mic-Mic faints.
  • Mic-Mic shouts a lot!
  • Panda and stork, Carl, carry the baby grizzly. They all fall into a large hole.
  • Michaela tells about when she was young, there was a flood in the forest and her parents saved her but they perished, leaving her all alone. The others in the group cry.
  • A vulture pecks a hole in the airship, which then starts losing air, descends and crashes.
  • Whilst on their journey, Mic-Mic is wanting to hibernate, however, Oscar ties his arms to logs to prevent Mic-Mic from licking his paws and going to sleep.
  • Panda shouts and causes an avalanche.
  • A stork crashes into a tree and loses the baby he was delivering.
  • After a chase, a vulture crashes into a rock which starts a fire.
  • The forest catches on fire and the baby grizzly gets scared as the fire gets bigger.
  • A baby lion chases some penguins.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

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.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Female storks say to male stork, Arnold, “You’re so handsome”.
  • Female stork asks for Arnold’s autograph. He says, “Just for you baby – as long as you go out with me tonight”.
  • Mic-Mic says to Michaela, “Hello beautiful stranger”. The two make eyes at each other and romantic music plays.
  • Michaela says to Mic-Mic, “I never thought talking about honey could be so romantic”.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • In Carl’s dream a female stork says, “Carl, I wanna have your egg.”
  • One of the reasons Panda’s parents sent him away is because he “met a girl”.
  • Oscar shaves the fur off Mic-Mic’s backside into the shape of a heart.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Loser
  • Losers
  • Hate
  • “What the chicken are you doing here?”
  • Loud Mouth
  • Big Oaf
  • Stupid
  • Dumner
  • Dirty Mongrels.

In a nutshell

Big Trip 2: Special Delivery is an animated sequel to The Big Trip (2020), though, while references are made to the story of the first film, it is not essential to watch the first prior to Big Trip 2. The movie is action-packed and likely to appeal to many children, however, parents and older children may find the voices annoying, and due to the violence and scary scenes this film is best suited for children aged 8 and over.

The main messages from this movie are to treat people how you would like to be treated; and that it’s often easier to push through the difficult times if you are part of a team that works together and supports each other.

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

  • Friendship
  • Persistence
  • Perseverance
  • Courage
  • Taking responsibility for one’s actions
  • Redemption
  • Forgiveness
  • Teamwork.

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

  • Even though Mic-Mic and Oscar find out that it was Carl who misdelivered baby Panda to them, they support him in his efforts to redeem himself. Would you forgive someone if they were trying to make amends? Put yourself in their shoes.
  • Billy, the vulture, is treated badly by his father but he remains loyal and does his father’s bidding as a means of seeking his approval. Of course, this approval doesn’t come and, instead, Billy sees what he’s been missing through the kind interactions and respect between his new-found friends.
  • Don Vulture wants to rule for his own quest for power and not for the common good. Do you know of anyone who is like this? How would that make you feel? How would you treat people if you were President or Prime Minister?