Dino King Journey to Fire Mountain

image for Dino King Journey to Fire Mountain

Short takes

Not recommended under 5, parental guidance to 8 (scary visual images and violent themes).

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Dino King Journey to Fire Mountain
  • a review of Dino King Journey to Fire Mountain completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 26 May 2019.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not recommended under 5 due to violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 5–8 Some children between the ages of 5-8 could see this film with parental guidance.
Children aged 8–13 Most children over the age of eight could see this film with or without parental guidance.

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: Dino King Journey to Fire Mountain
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild sense of threat and coarse language.
Length: 94 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Junior, a young Tarbosaurus, is soft hearted and frightened of the other dinosaurs including those who are meant to be his prey. His father; Speckles, is both disappointed and embarrassed by his son’s fear and inability to act as a king of dinosaurs should. When Junior is abducted by a gang of vicious velociraptors Speckles sets off to find him. He is helped along the way by Cy, who wants revenge on the same group who abducted and presumably ate a friend of his and Fang (voiced by Erin Connor) who, like Speckles, is searching for her daughter. Meanwhile Junior finds himself being held captive with countless other young dinosaurs. They are forced to assemble each day and a number of them are randomly picked from the masses to be fed to a mutant dragon-like dinosaur and it’s young who live inside a fiery volcano. Junior builds an unlikely friendship with: Dusty - an allergic triceratops, Fang’s daughter Blue and a former bully named Blade. Together they form a plan to escape from Fire Mountain and find their way back home. Together they face dangers and monsters unlike anything they could have imagined and, while facing his greatest fears, Junior demonstrates courage and bravery which not only saves their lives but also earns him the respect of his father.

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 of parents from children, and animal cruelty.

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;

  • There is frequent animated violence in the film where dinosaurs flight each other: ripping, slashing, biting, gouging and attacking in a bid to survive the longest.
  • One dinosaur’s claws are ripped from his body as he hangs on a rock wall. He and three others plunge to their deaths.

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:

  • As Speckles and Cy make their way through a dark ravine they are chased and attacked by huge prehistoric scorpions who keep trying to stab them with their poisonous tails. Speckles slashes them with his teeth, flings them through the air and rips them apart. He is stabbed and poisoned and collapses in pain a little while later.
  • Junior is looking for a place to hide and all he can see are glowing eyes in caves. He is scared and no one will let him in. The creepy eyes may frighten some young viewers.
  • A terrifying mutant dragon, unlike anything the dinosaurs have seen before rises from the volcano, dripping with fire, eyes glowing, teeth and arms trying to attack and kill Junior and his friends. The image is very scary, the music suspenseful and loud and the scene dramatic enough to frighten many young viewers.

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:

  • There is intense, suspenseful music as a group of velociraptors chase Junior and pin him to the ground. When his father hears his cries, Junior is kidnapped and carried away while screaming for his Papa.
  • Dusty is singled out by the velociraptors and taken away to be eaten by the mutant dinosaurs in the volcano. There is nothing that Junior or Blue can do and they watch, helpless and guilt ridden, as he is lead to his death.
  • Junior is attacked by the monster as he tries to get everyone out of the cave. It looks like he has been killed. His father and friends are devastated and sobbing but then Junior suddenly wakes up.

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.

In addition to the above mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Aside from the above mentioned scenes there is nothing in this film that would frighten children between the ages of eight to thirteen.

Thirteen and overinfo

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.

There is nothing in this film that would frighten children over the age of thirteen.

Product placement

There is no product placement in this film.

Sexual references

The film contains no sexual references.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity.

 

Use of substances

There are no substances used in the film.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • There is occasional name calling including use of the words: “Crap,” “Losers,” “Heck,” “Jerk,” “Half-tail,” “Dummy,” and “Idiot.”

In a nutshell

Dino King Journey to Fire Mountain is an animated adventure that will appeal to dinosaur fans and younger children. Older audiences may find the simple animation, predictable plot and dry dialogue difficult to endure.

The main messages from this movie are to have courage, to trust in yourself and to understand that there are scary things in life but that a life spent hiding in the shadows is no life at all.

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

  • Friendship
  • Courage
  • Helpfulness
  • Loyalty

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

  • Bullying and the terrible impact that this can have on others.
  • The importance of having parental acceptance and the damage that negative comments can have on children.
  • What to do if a child was ever taken against their will.