Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 7 (violence and scary scenes)
This topic contains:
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. |
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: | Dragon Rider |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Mild fantasy themes and animated violence |
Length: | 92 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Dragon Rider is an animated movie based on the book by Cornelia Funke. Firedrake (voice of Thomas Brodie-Sangster) is a young, silver dragon who lives in a forest with his family. The forest is fast being destroyed by humans, whom the dragons see as their enemy. Firedrake is sad about his future and sets out, with his forest brownie friend, Sorrell (Felicity Jones), to find the Rim of Heaven, a legendary paradise for dragons.
On their journey they meet Ben (Freddie Highmore), a young orphaned boy who once appeared in movies riding a dragon. Firedrake is certain Ben must by the famed dragon rider and insists he comes with them on their adventure, much to Sorrell's displeasure. Along the way they meet many perils including a fearsome Djinn with a thousand eyes who will answer their questions if they manage to meet his criteria – or woe betide them. Their main enemy, however, is Nettlebrand (Patrick Stewart), a monstrous lion-type creature who loves to devour dragons. Nettlebrand and his sidekick, Twinkles, chase Firedrake and his friends across the world to the Himalayas where there is a final confrontation.
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.
Fantasy; Mythical creatures.
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.
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
Dragon Rider is an animated adventure movie which lightly touches on themes of conserving the forests for the animals. The movie is fast paced and quite intense in places, which, together with the quite scary creatures, makes it unsuitable for children under 6. Parental guidance is also recommended for 6 – 7 year olds.
The main messages from this movie are to believe in yourself; that not all humans are bad humans; and that good triumphs over evil.
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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ABN: 16 005 214 531