Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie

image for Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie

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Not suitable under 4; parental guidance to 5 (mild scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie
  • a review of Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 1 October 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 4 Not suitable due to mild scary scenes.
Children aged 4–5 Parental guidance recommended due to mild scary scenes.
Children aged 6 and over 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: Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Very mild themes
Length: 98 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Gabby (Laila Lockhart Kraner), along with her best friend Pandy Paws (voice of Logan Bailey) and the Gabby Cats, set off on a road trip with her Grandma Gigi (Gloria Estefan), to visit her home and build a special project. Upon arriving at Gigi’s house, the dollhouse that the Gabby Cats live in is accidentally unlatched and rolls away. Subsequently, it is found and bought by Vera (Kristen Wiig), a cat lady who sees the dollhouse as a valuable collectable rather than as a toy to play with.

Inside Vera’s home, the Gabby Cats meet Chumsley (voice of Jason Mantzoukas), an abandoned toy cat Vera no longer plays with since she grew up. Meanwhile, Gabby sets off to find and rescue the Gabby Cats. When they meet, Chumsley is convinced that Gabby will soon grow up and abandon the dollhouse, just like Vera did to him. Will Gabby be able to rescue the Gabby Cats, and can Vera learn how to play again?

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.

Abandonment; Separation; Fear.

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:

  • Gabby is threatened with a spork.
  • A creature chasing Gabby falls off a dragonfly it is riding when it is hit by a leaf. It is saved from injury by one of the Gabby Cats.
  • Gabby and the Gabby Cats fall after their plane flies too high.
  • Chumsley steals Gabby’s magic ears before running away.
  • A Gabby Cat jump-kicks another cat, though we only see a freeze-frame of the cat mid jump.

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:

  • Gigi drives in a dangerous manner, leading Gabby to grab the steering wheel.
  • Gabby and Vera are launched into the air by gummy worms.
  • Gabby and Vera almost fall into a whirlpool but are saved by a friendly creature who throws them to safety.

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:

  • The dollhouse narrowly avoids being hit by cars as it rolls down the hill. Additionally, it falls down a staircase but avoids breaking by rolling down the railing as if executing a board-slide.
  • Gabby runs away to hide, breaking down in tears after Chumsley accuses her of growing up and being on the verge of abandoning the toys.
  • Gabby and Vera cross a treacherous bridge to reconnect with Chumsley. They almost fall as the bridge collapses.

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 noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Gabby’s Dollhouse has many licensed toys and merchandise.
  • A Shrek statue is featured during a road trip.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Chumsley kisses a pancake.
  • Chumsley tries to kiss Gabby.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Chumsley undoes his bowtie and swings it around, as he and some other cats sing, “naked kitty” and “naked kitty in the house”.
  • A cat exposes and shakes its toasted behind, saying, “Cakey got bakey”.

Use of substances

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

  • There is a character that exhibits stereotypical stoner behaviour, however, no marijuana is shown.
  • Catnip is inhaled.
  • Gigi makes herself a cocktail.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Holy craft.
  • Oh my gosh.

In a nutshell

Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie is a live action/animated hybrid film with musical sing-along elements. The movie is based on the popular children’s DreamWorks/Netflix series Gabby’s Dollhouse. While the series is aimed for pre-school children, due to some mildly scary scenes, the movie is unsuitable for children under four, and parental guidance is recommended for four to five year olds.

The main message from this movie surprisingly seems to be aimed at the adults and parents. The movie asserts that growing up doesn’t require letting go of your glitter and sparkles – you can continue to imagine and play, even in adulthood.

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

  • Bravery
  • Teamwork
  • Imagination
  • Empathy.

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

  • Feelings of jealousy and abandonment.