Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow

image for Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow

Short takes

Not suitable under 8; parental guidance to 10 (violence, scary scenes, language, themes, innuendo)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow
  • a review of Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 15 February 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not suitable due to violence, themes, scary scenes, language, and innuendo.
Children aged 8–10 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes, language, and innuendo.
Children aged 11 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: Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes, some scenes may scare young children
Length: 88 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Legendary, huntsman spider, Inspector Sun (voice of Ronny Chieng) has just captured the evil Red Locust (voice of Rich Orlow) but the lucky arrest led to the injury of countless officers and Inspector Sun finds himself out of a job. He misses his flight to the United States and an old friend invites him to fly on a plane bound for San Francisco. When Bugsy (voice of Scott Greer), a former employee of the Red Locust, is brutally murdered and his new wife, a black widow spider named Arabella (voice of Jennifer Childs Greer), is framed, Inspector Sun must get to the bottom of what happened. With a plane full of potential suspects, thousands of missing ants and rumours of a monster that can suck the life out of anyone, Inspector Sun needs all the help he can get. A clever, jumping spider named Janey (voice of Emily Klemo), desperate to be his assistant, is more useful than she is given credit for. Will they be able to work together to stop the Red Locust from creating a swarm of mutant monsters or will they perish in the process?

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.

Crime; Genetic mutations; Greed; Power; Revenge.

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:

  • Inspector Sun lands on a bird and uses his web to make it fly where he wants. When Inspector Sun lands on a policeman’s hat the bird poops on Inspector Sun and the policeman.
  • Red Locust swears that death will come to anyone who stands in his way.
  • Red Locust asks Inspector Sun about his missing leg and calls him a walking buffet (implying that he was the one who ate Inspector Sun’s leg).
  • Inspector Sun inadvertently blows up a fireworks factory while arresting Red Locust. Numerous insect officers are injured in the massive explosion. They are later shown with broken arms and legs.
  • One character slaps another in the face and a pen hits someone in the eye.
  • Arabella punches her husband in the head.
  • Janey tells how Red Locusts’ swarm destroyed her entire family and that she was the only one left alive.
  • Bugsy is shown dead, trapped in a web that is not his own. He is missing a leg and has been hollowed out, sucked dry on the inside.
  • Inspector Sun pours hot tea on another character and then drops his cup and saucer on the character’s head.
  • A robust, oval-shaped creature with terrible pincers punches, bites and tries to strangle Inspector Sun. Janey intervenes and the creature, later shown to be a glob termite, explodes, leaving gooey remnants all over the cabin.
  • A character is knocked out and a lady knocked over.
  • Arabella bites Inspector Sun and scares Janey with her fangs.
  • It is mentioned that Inspector Sun’s wife was killed in a burglary gone wrong.
  • An assassin bug is sucked out of a room and his brittle shell of a body tossed aside.
  • There are rumours of a terrifying monster that sucks the life out of people.
  • Janey and Arabella are hung out of a window by their necks as a character tries to push them out of the plane. They are soon falling but manage to cling onto the outside of the plane with webs.
  • A character spins herself into a cocoon and explodes.
  • A monster bug is about to eat an ant but a web engulfs it. Thousands of ants are shown lying unconscious.
  • Red Locust tells his monster creation to eat a barking dog.
  • Arabella bites the monster but it is immune to her poison.
  • Red Locust and his swarm free the criminals being held on Alcatraz. Many of the criminals look particularly sinister and dangerous, with glass eyes and scars.
  • The captain of the plane is hit with a magazine.
  • Red Locust kicks Inspector Sun in the face and he and Janey fall through the air.
  • Red Locust and Inspector Sun fight each other, hitting, wrestling, and knocking each other down. Inspector Sun uses an antenna to cut an S shape into the Red Locust’s bare backside.
  • Red Locust gets eaten by a fish and then manages to escape. He is later swallowed whole.
  • A seagull tries to eat Inspector Sun and Janey.

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:

  • Red Locust creates an army of scientifically modified monsters. He uses his wasp-like monster to lick characters, entrapping them in cocoons. Upon hatching, they have been transformed into similar monsters that follow the bidding of Red Locust. They look evil and dangerous, fly en masse, and try to kill Inspector Sun and Janey.
  • Bugsy’s deceased body is carried away by ants. As they move him towards their nest, the head separates from the torso and legs and parts of his face begin to break away. The pieces are brought to the Ant Queen who eats the part of Bugsy’s face with the puncture wounds on it and tells Inspector Sun that she will come for him and eat him alive.
  • An assassin bug comes for Arabella. There is a terrible roaring sound, lights flicker and acid drips onto tables and the floor. He slaps Arabella and she faints. He then carries her away, much to the horror of everyone who is watching.

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 dog that is travelling in the baggage compartment keeps barking at Red Locust and his monster. Red Locust tells his monster to eat the dog. A dark, sinister shadow is seen approaching the dog.

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:

  • While sitting in jail, Arabella seductively strokes her leg and puts lipstick on.
  • Inspector Sun looks longingly at Arabella. She has had numerous husbands and is very much portrayed as a seductive player.
  • Various male characters repeatedly refer to Arabella as, “Toots”.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

  • A character and his wife kiss passionately. There are lots of moaning and smooching sounds in their public display of affection.
  • Inspector Sun cuts the pants off Red Locust and engraves his initial across his backside.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Jerk
  • Moron
  • Toots
  • Bozo
  • One use of “merde” (French for “shit”).

In a nutshell

Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow is a who-done-it, CGI film, with a diverse cast and a film-noir-style feel. The story has potential but there are gaps and discrepancies that are never explained, as well as some suggestive content. While at first glance, this appears to be a children’s film, it is better suited to older kids and mature audiences.

The main messages from this movie are to believe in yourself and live up to your individual potential.

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

  • Teamwork
  • Creativity
  • Helpfulness
  • Justice
  • Persistence.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of looking deeply at issues or situations and not just jumping to conclusions based on first impressions.