Not recommended under 5, parental guidance 5 to 8 due to scary scenes and characters
This topic contains:
Children under 5 | Not recommended due to scary scenes and characters. Also, the humour may not be understood by children unfamiliar with mobile phones and the use of emojis. |
Children aged 5 to 8 | Parental guidance recommended due to scary scenes and characters. Younger children in this group may not understand some of the humour |
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: | Emoji Movie, The |
Classification: | G |
Consumer advice lines: | Some scenes may scare very young children |
Length: | 91 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
This animated movie tells the story of the emojis that live inside the phone belonging to Alex (voice of Jake T Austin). They are waiting to be selected each time he sends a text message, usually to Addie (Tati Gabrielle), a girl he likes.
Gene (T J Miller) is supposed to be a ‘meh’ but he has malfunctioned. On his first selection he appears as a multi – emotional emoji, which is seen as a failure in the emoji world. Smiler (Maya Rudolph) is determined to eliminate him, but his friend Hi-5 (James Corden), who has recently been sidelined, wants to help Gene get reprogrammed. They enlist the help of Jailbreak (Anna Faris) to find a way to do this but Smiler has sent bots to destroy Gene and they must escape from them. Their journey leads them through many applications, including the trash bin and Dropbox from where they hope to reach the Cloud. They must first get through the Firewall however, which is no easy task.
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.
Mobile phones; emojis as characters
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.
Nothing of concern
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
In addition to mobile phones, the following products are displayed or used in this movie:
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some mild sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language and toilet humour in this movie, including:
The Emoji Movie is an animated movie set inside a mobile phone, with some comic moments and some pathos as well. Its bright colours and theme are likely to appeal to young children but there are some dark aspects to the movie that could frighten some children. The humour dealing with the mobile phone and emoji environment will be best understood by older children who are familiar with mobile phones and associated apps. The film is therefore not recommended for children under five and parental guidance is recommended for five to eight year olds.
The main messages from this movie are that having real friends is more important than being popular, and that good friends will help out even if it’s to their disadvantage.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:
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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