Grand Prix of Europe

image for Grand Prix of Europe

Short takes

Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 6 (violence, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Grand Prix of Europe
  • a review of Grand Prix of Europe completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 13 January 2026.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not suitable due to violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 5–6 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 7 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: Grand Prix of Europe
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Very mild themes and coarse language
Length: 98 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Edda (voice of Gemma Arterton, English Version), a young mouse, lives with her dad, Erwin (Lenny Henry) a former Grand Prix champion. Together they run an amusement park, on the outskirts of Paris, which is in financial straits particularly after the death of Edda’s mother. Edda has big dreams of becoming a Grand Prix racer like her dad and is besotted with Ed (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), a male mouse and the current Grand Prix champion. When Ed injures his arm, Edda devises a plan to race in his place, much to Ed’s reluctant agreement. During the tournament, Edda uncovers a sabotage plot to destroy Ed’s chances of winning. Edda has difficulty convincing others, including Ed, of the plot and has to take matters into her own hands.

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.

Grand Prix animation; Loss of a parent; Orphans.

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 animated action violence in this movie, including many scenes of cars crashing, cars being pushed aside, hurtling over road edges, flying into the sky, etc but no-one is injured. Other violence includes:

  • A popcorn machine explodes.
  • A colour making machine explodes, sending Edda flying.
  • A large cat and his cronies threaten Erwin with destroying the park if he doesn’t repay a loan in time.
  • Ed injures his arm after crashing into a diner. Rosa the fortune teller pulls his arm roughly to put it back in its socket.
  • Huge robotic snowballs fall on the racetrack, causing cars to crash. The snowballs chase after Edda’s car, causing it to flip upside-down, but she manages to jump out.
  • The saboteur spills chemicals in his lab which sets fire to a spaceship.
  • A large, double-decker bus chases Ed. The engine opens up and looks like a large mouth with big gnashing teeth.
  • Drones are used to chase and destroy cars. Edda fires at the drones to destroy them.
  • A train is derailed, goes up into the sky and lands back on the road, out of control. It almost smashes into Edda and the grandstand but Ed prevents it with his own car.

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:

  • Nachtkraab is a large crow racer who is quite scary and intimidating. He threatens Ed and Edda on several occasions. He has yellow eyes and an evil laugh.
  • A character in a ghost mask pops out and frightens Erwin.

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:

  • Edda looks at photos of her and her Mum which makes her sad. Erwin says that the park is all they have left of her Mum.
  • Water from a river rises up and a huge octopus appears. Its tentacles spread out to block the race track.
  • As a child, Ed was in an orphanage. He was the last child to be adopted which made him very sad. He learnt not to depend on anyone else but himself.

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

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Edda is besotted with Ed. They hug at the end of the movie.
  • A female elephant is dressed and acts very seductively.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Butt
  • Don’t give me bull.
  • Name calling such as:
    • Poo-poo head
    • Butt headed.

In a nutshell

Created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the German theme park Europa-Park, and starring the park's mascots Ed Euromaus and Edda Euromausi, Grand Prix of Europe is a fast action, animated movie full of thrills and spills with some scary scenes and a lot of car crashes, making it unsuitable for under 5’s. Parental guidance is recommended for 5 to 6-year-olds and, overall, the movie is best suited for ages 7 to 12. The movie balances the need between following your dreams while meeting your responsibilities.

The main messages from this movie are to follow your dreams; and that looks can be deceptive.

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

  • Heroism
  • Self-sacrifice
  • Courage
  • Team spirit
  • Generosity
  • Moral courage.

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

  • Ed’s character is seen as arrogant and narcissistic but looking at his childhood explains his behaviour. Sometimes people struggle with the traumas of their upbringing and it’s good to try and find out why people behave the way they do.
  • Cheating to win is just not worth it and cheats are often found out.