Flora & Ulysses

image for Flora & Ulysses

Short takes

Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 8 (scary scenes, themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Flora & Ulysses
  • a review of Flora & Ulysses completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 18 March 2021.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not suitable due to scary scenes and themes of family separation.
Children aged 5–8 Parental guidance due to scary scenes and themes of family separation.
Children aged 8–13 Recommended for this age group.
Children over the age of 13 Ok for this age group.

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: Flora & Ulysses
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: n/a
Length: 95 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Flora (Matilda Lawler) is a superhero and comic book obsessed 10-year-old girl dealing with the separation of her parents, Phyllis, her romantic novelist mother (Alyson Hannigan) and George, her failed comic book writer father (Ben Schwartz). As Flora starts to lose all hope of having her family together again, she meets Ulysses, a squirrel with superpowers. As Ulysses and Flora explore his powers, she must get the help of her mother, father and her new neighbour, William (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), who is mysteriously suffering from “hysterical blindness”, to save Ulysses from a squirrel-hating, animal control officer (Danny Pudi), hell bent on euthanising him. Flora’s journey to save Ulysses might just save her parents’ marriage too.

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.

Family separation; Death of a parent.

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:

  • A man throws a bar stool at Ulysses but misses.
  • An animal control officer shoots tranquilisers at Ulysses, Flora and her father.
  • Flora’s mother punches the animal control officer in the face.

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:

  • Flora is hit in the head with a soccer ball and falls off her bike – she is unhurt.
  • Ulysses is hit in the face by a Newton’s Cradle ball and falls off a table – this is more comedic than frightening.
  • A psychotic cat attacks the animal control officer – this will likely frighten young children.
  • Flora’s father’s hand becomes limp after being tranquilised – this may disturb young children.

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:

  • A squirrel is run over by a vacuum and requires CPR.
  • William falls through a broken floor but is caught by Ulysses at the last minute.
  • The animal control officer shoots Flora’s father in the hand with a tranquiliser.
  • Flora and her father nearly drive into oncoming traffic when his hand goes numb.
  • Ulysses is shot with a tranquiliser and taken away to be euthanised.

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.

  • Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Mac desktop computer.
  • Nissan car.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Flora’s mother is a romance novelist and reference is made to smutty book covers.
  • Flora’s mother and father kiss.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Wine is consumed by adults.

Coarse language

  • None noted.

In a nutshell

Flora & Ulysses is a comedy-adventure about family separation through the eyes of a comic book loving, superhero obsessed, 10-year-old girl. With wonderful performances and impressive animation, this delightful film is likely to entertain parents and children alike, particularly 8-13 year olds. Due to scary scenes and themes of family separation, this film is not suitable for children under 5 and parental guidance is recommended to 8.

The main messages from this movie are the importance of hope in times of struggle or sadness; and the importance of family and friendship.

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

  • Accepting social support when feeling alone.

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

  • Dangers and illegality of driving with a revoked licence.
  • Dangers of travelling in the boot of a car.