Not suitable under 8; parental guidance to 12 (scary scenes, mild peril, sad themes)
This topic contains:
Children under 8 | Not suitable due to some scary scenes and sad themes. |
Children aged 8–12 | Parental guidance recommended due to mild scary scenes and some sad themes. |
Children over the age of 12 | 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: | Dreambuilders |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Mild Themes |
Length: | 81 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Minna (voice of Robyn Dempsey) lives with her father (voice of Tom Hale) in a quaint house in the countryside. Minna is a bit of an introvert and enjoys being by herself with her pet hamster and playing chess with her dad. Minna’s life is shattered when her dad’s girlfriend (voice of Karen Ardiff) moves in with her daughter Jenny (voice of Emma Jenkins), a girl about the same age as Minna. Jenny is image obsessed and totally addicted to posting about her own life on Instagram and social media. The girls couldn’t be more different. Jenny is horrified to be moving to the countryside and having to share a room with the very fashion UN-conscious Minna and the hamster, who Jenny thinks is a disgusting rat. One night whilst she is asleep and dreaming, Minna accidently comes across a crack in a wall, when she peers through it a whole alternate world is revealed. This is an imaginary world where people’s dreams are ‘constructed’, like plays on large stages. Each person’s ‘dream-stage’ is run by a production team of small blue men and friendly little robots. Minna meets her very own ‘Dreambuilder’; his name is Gaff (voice of Luke Griffin) and he has been designing and producing Minna’s dreams since she was just a baby. Gaff is very fond of Minna, but when he realises that she has broken through the dream stage into the backstage world, he is horrified and worried about losing his job and being demoted. Minna is fascinated by this backstage dream world and realises that she can actually influence how people think in the real world by manipulating what happens in their dreams. Whilst this starts off as a bit of fun, when Minna decides to try and change her bothersome stepsister Jenny and take revenge upon her by manipulating Jenny’s dreams, things start to go horribly wrong and Minna must make amends.
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.
Family breakdown and parents separating; Dreams and the subconscious; Overcoming trauma; Psychological manipulation; Growing up; Technology and social media addiction.
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.
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:
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 further of concern.
The following products are displayed or used in this movie:
There is some mild romantic activity in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
Dreambuilders is an easy to watch animation that tackles the difficult theme of parents separating and blended families in a way that is accessible to children. Parents should be aware that there are some sad moments and a few scary bits that younger children will find disturbing. Best suited for children over 8 with parental guidance to 12.
The main message from this movie is that painful and traumatic events in life can be overcome with good communication and lots of support.
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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