Parental Guidance recommended under 6 (violence and some disturbing scenes)
This topic contains:
Children under 6 | Parental guidance recommended due to violence and disturbing scenes. |
Children over 6 | OK for most children in 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: | Horton Hears a Who |
Classification: | G |
Length: | 86 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Horton (voice of Jim Carrey) a friendly, compassionate elephant who acts as a ‘school teacher’ to an assortment of young animals in the Jungle of Nool, hears a cry for help on a tiny speck of dust and decides to do what he can to assist. Using his extra large ears he is able to hear what others can’t and soon discovers that the speck is home to a microscopic community of Whos, a society that live in a town called Whoville and are blissfully unaware that their world could, at any second, be entirely destroyed. Horton makes a promise to the Mayor of Whoville (Steve Carell) that he will do all that he can to see that the speck is deposited in the safest place possible so that the Whos can live as happily and safely as they have since the beginning of Who history.
The self proclaimed Mayor of the Jungle of Nool, a nasty Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) doesn’t like Horton or his imaginative ways. When she discovers him talking to a speck of dust clinging to a clover she uses this to incite the rest of the jungle community to ostracize him, even going so far as to hire a “hit vulture” named Vlad (Will Arnett) to attack Horton and ‘finish off’ the clover. She almost succeeds in destroying the clover and humiliating Horton, but the Whos have a special person in their town, one who doesn’t conform, doesn’t fit in and who doesn’t even speak. Once he finds his voice it is he who is heard above the rest and it is his creativity and uniqueness that save his world from imminent annihilation.
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.
Being isolated from one’s community; the destruction of a world.
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.
Younger children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the scenes mentioned above.
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.
Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film
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.
Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film
The film is, in itself, a promotion of Dr Seuss products.
None of concern
None of concern
None of concern
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
Horton Hears a Who is an animated adventure based on a Dr. Seuss story. It features a rhyming story line, a twisting, yet predictable, plot and a happy ending. While not perfectly suited to very young viewers it is a family friendly film.
The main messages from this movie are that “a person’s a person, no matter how small” and that just because you can’t see, touch or hear something doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
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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