Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 8 (violence, crude humour, themes)
This topic contains:
Children under 5 | Not suitable due to violence, crude humour and themes. |
Children aged 5–8 | Parental guidance recommended due to violence, crude humour and themes. |
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. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.
Name of movie: | Clifford the Big Red Dog |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Mild crude humour and slapstick violence |
Length: | 96 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Bullied by her classmates at her new school, Emily Elizabeth (Darby Camp) believes she could not possibly feel more insignificant and alone than she currently does. Things go from bad to worse when her mother (Maggie Guillory) leaves town for a work commitment and arranges for her estranged and homeless brother, Casey (Jack Whitehall), to babysit Emily. Not wanting to disappoint his niece, on her way to school one morning, Casey allows Emily to visit a mysterious tent filled with rare and wonderful animals. It is here that Emily first meets Clifford, a tiny, red, impossibly cute, puppy. Despite the instant affection on both sides, Casey makes Emily hand the puppy back to the magical proprietor, Mr. Bridwell (John Cleese). After another completely atrocious day at school, Emily returns home to find Clifford in her backpack and, as she cries herself to sleep that night, she makes a wish that they, ‘become big and strong so that the world can’t hurt them’. Emily awakens the next morning to find that Clifford is the size of an elephant. Unsure of what has happened to him she and Casey try to inconspicuously take him to a vet but Clifford is anything but unnoticeable. They soon wind up going viral online where the Lifegro company, which has been trying and failing to genetically enlarge animals in an attempt to end world hunger, sees Clifford and determines to claim him for their own purposes. Pursued by Lifegro, and at a loss as to help Clifford, Emily agrees to send the puppy overseas with her friend Owen’s (Izaac Wang) father but when Clifford is forcibly stolen it is up to Emily, Casey and a motley group of neighbours that band together, to bring him home and bring Lifegro down.
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.
Bullying; Corporate greed; Animal testing and cruelty.
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:
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.
The following products are displayed or used in this movie:
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
Clifford the Big Red Dog is a real life / computer animated adventure. Based on the children’s book series by Norman Bridwell, this feel-good, family, drama features an excellent cast, wonderful computer animated graphics and lots of entertaining banter between characters. Suitable for all but the youngest of viewers this is a film that families can enjoy together.
The main messages from this movie are that magic is all around us if we just know where to look; and that the people who are unique are the ones that change the world.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:
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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