Bumblebee

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for Bumblebee
• a review of Bumblebee completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 17 December 2018.

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

This is the sixth instalment in a series of films based on the Transformers franchise from the 1980’s and Bumblebee is a prequel to the 2007 Transformers film. Young transformer robot B-127 (Bumblebee) escapes a fierce war on the planet of Cybertron to seek refuge on Earth.  His mission is to safeguard Earth until the other Transformers can regroup and join him. When he arrives on Earth it is 1987 and a secret military group assume that he is hostile and try to chase and destroy him. Whilst trying to escape them, B-127 is also pursued by enemy robot, Decepticon Blitzwing, who has followed B-127 to Earth to try and find out the location of leader Optimus Prime. When B-127 refuses to disclose the information, Blitzwing rips out B-127’s vocal processor and damages his memory core.  B-127 takes refuge by camouflaging himself in the form of a cute, yellow 1967 Volkswagen beetle. Meanwhile on Earth, teenager Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfield) is still grieving over the death of her late father. She is a bit of an outcast and buries herself in trying to repair the car she was working on with her father before he died. One day in a scrapyard hunting for parts, Charlie comes across the little yellow VW beetle (Bumblebee) and accidentally activates the communication signal. This is picked up all the way across the galaxy on the planet of Cybertron and notifies the enemy Decepticons of Bumblebee’s whereabouts. Charlie convinces the scrapyard owner to let her take the beetle home. In her garage, the car transforms into Bumblebee’s robot form and Charlie and Bumblebee become fast and loyal friends. Little do they know that two Decepticon robots Shatter and Dropkick have arrived on Earth and have fooled the military into believing that they are on a peace keeping mission. The military are allowing them to access the Earth’s satellite system to try and locate Bumblebee. No matter how dangerous it is, Charlie and Bumblebee must avoid capture and try to put a stop to the evil plans of the Decepticons to take over and destroy Earth.

Robots; aliens; war; 1980's nostalgia; death of a parent; grief; family; friendship.

There is very frequent violence in this movie including scenes of war, scenes that resemble torture and aggressive macho behaviour.

• There are frequent CGI-animated battle action sequences in this film either between large transformer robots or between transformers and humans. The battle scenes include use of weapons, substantial gunfire as well as hand to hand combat where the transformer robots use their limbs as slashing or cutting devices.
• When the violence is between robotic creatures, they get injured but there is no blood.
• Although we would expect that there would be casualties from all the fighting and gunfire, there are no dead or gory injured bodies shown in the film. This means that the violence seems to have no real-life consequences.
• Twice, the robots point their guns directly at a human at close range and shoot them. The humans are ‘liquefied’ and explode into a pool of slime. 
• There are frequent violent verbal threats being made. For example, pointing a gun at someone and saying “Destroy!” or “We have 100 guns pointed at you”.
• Bumblebee the robot is strung up and hung by his arms, in a scene resembling a torture scene, and beaten by two other robots.
• A large military officer picks up Charlie (an 18-year-old girl) and throws her violently onto the ground.
• A tall building on Cybertron is bombed, and we see it collapse in flames.

 

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:

• The transformer robots are very realistically animated with CGI, and are huge, dominating forms covered in weaponry. Some children may find these creatures very scary.
• There is a moment where Bumblebee transforms from a Volkswagen beetle into a robot for the first time in front of Charlie. First his eyes light up unexpectedly and Charlie is shocked and quite frightened. Bumblebee is very cute and not at all threatening, but some children may find this first transformation a little scary.
• Children under five may find the fast-paced battle scenes scary or overwhelming.
• On earth, the transformers arrive as large, comet-like balls of fire that explode onto the surface.
• The main military character, Lieutenant Jack Burn, is a very macho, tough character that smaller children may find threatening.
• During a fight, some of the transformers release large robotic dogs that attack the other side.
• There are several fast-paced car chases, with lots of dangerous driving and near miss accidents.
• Bumblebee is thrown off the edge of a cliff and falls right to the bottom. He is injured but manages to get up and stagger away.
• The military men grab and restrain Charlie and her friend Memo, despite them struggling and crying to get free.
• At times in the film, Bumblebee transforms from a very ‘cute’ and quite harmless looking robot into his ‘battle’ form, where his face changes and his eyes glow a different colour as he prepares to fight.

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:

• Charlie is dealing with the fairly recent death of her father. She often gazes at a photo of him and is distressed that her mother has remarried and ‘moved on’ when she is not ready to. Some children may find this emotional.

• Some children in this age group may find some of the above scenes a little scary or disturbing.

• Children of this age are unlikely to be disturbed by the content of this film.

Product placement

• Volkswagen
• Pop tarts
• Weightwatchers

Sexual references

There are some very mild romantic or sexual references in this movie, including:

• A teen boy removes his shirt and the girls around him watch and look at him suggestively.
• Memo has a romantic crush on Charlie and keeps trying to work up the courage to ask her out on a date, or to hold her hand or to try and kiss her.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

• When a milkshake is spilled on his shirt, a teen boy removes his shirt. The girls around him look him up and down suggestively.
• When Memo is driving in the car with Charlie, Charlie asks him to remove his shirt so that she can use it as a blindfold. Memo removes his shirt but feels awkward and self-conscious for a moment.

Use of substances

• None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• Damn; Shit; Frikkin’; What the hell

 

In a nutshell

Bumblebee is a fast-paced action film, but the central relationship between teen outcast Charlie and the very endearing Bumblebee give it a lot of heart. Charlie is a strong and interesting female lead character who shows a lot more compassion and intelligence than many of the adults around her. Many parents will also enjoy the 1980’s nostalgia with great cars and a fabulous soundtrack. This film is likely to be advertised towards and appeal to younger children and tweens; however the frequent cartoon-like violence that seems to have no real-life consequences could have a desensitising effect for children, so is not recommended for those under 13. 

Parents should be aware that this film was originally classified as M, but was modified and lowered to PG. It is of the opinion of the ACCM that it should have retained the M classification due to the volume and frequency of violence. Parents should also note that there are now two versions of the film released, one is rated M and the other rated PG. In addition, when the film is released on DVD it could be the ‘M’ rated version.

The main messages from this movie are that good will overcome evil, and that we can conquer our inner fears.

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

• Courage
• Teamwork
• The importance of family and friendships.

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

• What does it mean when there is a lot of fighting and violence, but nobody seems to get hurt? Is that realistic?
• The best way to handle and process grief.