Not recommended under 5, parental guidance recommended for children aged 5 to 7 (Violence; Scary scenes)
This topic contains:
Children under 5 | Not recommended due to violence and scary scenes. |
Children aged 5-8 | Parental guidance recommended due to violence and scary scenes. |
Children over the age of 8 | OK for this age group |
This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.
Name of movie: | Cats and Dogs |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Low level coarse language, low level violence |
Length: | 87 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
In a battle that dates back to the beginning of time, dogs have been fighting to keep humankind from falling into the hands of cats. Unbeknownst to humans, that battle continues today. Specialist spy dogs have been strategically placed in houses to ensure the safety of human assets.
Lou (voice of Tobey Maguire) is a typical puppy with an adventurous spirit, and is unknowingly thrust into the middle of the battle when he is chosen to become a part of the Brody family. With the support of Butch (voice of Alec Baldwin) and other spy dogs, Lou needs to protect Professor Brody (voice of Jeff Goldblum) who is researching a dog allergy vaccine for humans. Villainous cats want to reverse the vaccine to make all humans allergic to dogs. Their ultimate aim is to turn humans against dogs, thus installing cats at the top of the hierarchy!
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.
Animal distress and cruelty; kidnapping; children as victims; war
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.
Cats and Dogs contains a number of violent scenes, including:
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:
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:
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.
Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film
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.
Nothing of concern
None of concern.
There are very mild sexual references in this movie, including:
None of concern.
There is some substance use:
The following language is present in the movie:
Cat and Dogs is an animated comedy portraying the battle for power between dogs and cats. It explores the sacrifices made by those who choose to “fetch and protect”. Lou is thrust into huge responsibility – to befriend his family, balance his duties, protect the Professor and save all humans from serving cats. There are many toilet jokes, scenes of fantasy violence and scary situations which may scare the very young.
The main messages from this movie are:
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children:
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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