Jungle Bunch

image for Jungle Bunch

Short takes

Not recommended under 7, parental guidance recommended 7-9, due to violence and scary scenes

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Jungle Bunch
  • a review of Jungle Bunch completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 29 January 2018.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 7 Not recommended due to violence and scary scenes
Children aged 7 to 9 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and scary scenes
Children aged 9 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: Jungle Bunch
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Very mild themes, animated violence and coarse language
Length: 97 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

The Jungle Bunch is a group of animals dedicated to keeping the jungle safe. Maurice the Penguin who looks like a tiger, is helped by his friends Gilbert the Tarsier, Miguel the Gorilla, and Maurice’s ‘son’, Junior, who is a tiger fish. Maurice wants to be a hero like his mother Natacha the Tiger who used to lead the Justice Group with Tony the Sloth and Goliath the Rhino. The Justice Group has retired to live a life in peace and Natacha disapproves of Miguel trying to be a hero.

The jungle is under threat from a very mean and nasty koala named Igor. During the time that Natacha and her group were protecting the jungle island, Igor burnt it to the ground using explosive mushrooms, which he had invented. Natacha’s friend Ricky, a monkey, managed to save Miguel’s egg before he himself lost his life in the fire. Now that the jungle has regenerated, Igor has returned from exile with more dastardly plans.

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.

Animals in peril; good versus evil

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 a lot of violence in this movie, some examples include:

  • Igor sets the jungle on fire by throwing mushroom bombs. These explode all over the island causing the animals to flee in panic to the shore. Ricky, Natacha’s friend, is trapped in the fire with many baby animals which he manages to save but he himself is
  • shown clinging to a tree in flames, which collapses and he is presumed dead.
  • During this inferno, which is a very intense scene rocks are seen crashing to the ground and one nearly crushes a tortoise. Tony falls from a tree but is saved by Natacha.
  • As the island regenerates, the apes take over and use the other animals as slaves. They throw things at them to make them do their bidding.
  • Miguel gets into a fight with the other monkeys and he gets hit repeatedly.
  • Igor traps the Jungle Bunch in green foam and sets explosives in it. Igor’s sidekick, a crab, lights the fuse to blow them up. They are saved just in time by their friends.
  • An ‘illegal’ fight is shown between Goliath and an elephant. The scene is very much like a fighting den with the crowd cheering and carrying on. The fight between the two large animals is quite intense with them head butting each other and getting thrown into the air.
  • Tony fights the baboons with his claws and some martial arts.
  • Igor and the crab throw a bomb directly at Natacha, Maurice, Junior and Tony. They all fall to the ground and look as if they might have been killed but fortunately they survive.
  • The Jungle Bunch and the Champs fight the baboons. Natacha knocks out three of them. Miguel thumps them repeatedly.
  • Igor sets off the explosives and the island starts to shake, rocks fall and animals run everywhere.

Some of the violence is comedic and done for laughs such as:

  • Gilbert invents a flying contraption to put out fires but it wasn’t quite ready to fly and crashes into the jungle. No one is hurt.
  • Animals fall over and crash into things.

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:

  • Igor the Koala is a particularly nasty creature. Sometimes his eyes glow red and angry.
  • After the fire, the jungle looks very bleak, with burnt out trees and everything is grey.
  • Natacha, who is a nice tiger, can sometimes appear fierce and growls quite loudly.

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:

  • There are some very intense scenes such as the island being on fire, seeing a creature die in the fire, and Igor determined to destroy it yet again, that would be quite scary for children in this age group.
  • The ‘illegal fight’ is particularly scary. The crowd appears scary and Goliath’s eyes look as if they are bleeding.
  • Igor kidnaps Junior and takes him as a hostage.
  • In one scene, all of the animals have been set to work digging down to the core of the island, which Igor plans to blow up and obliterate completely. It looks like an underground mine shaft with slave labourers and there is glowing fire everywhere

 

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.

  • Igor is seen wearing an explosive vest like a terrorist.

Thirteen and overinfo

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.

Nothing of concern

Product placement

Nothing of concern

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • One of the young animals is told by her parent that she can’t go out wearing a bikini. She joins her other friends who are all wearing bikinis while she has nothing on.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

  • A bird shows her bare bottom where her feathers have been burnt off.
  • Gilbert and Batricia (a bat) kiss a few times, one of these is for an extended time

Use of substances

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

  • A hippo at the entrance to the fight tells Natacha and Tony that the drinks are on him.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • ‘ugly red butts’; ‘kick butt’

In a nutshell

The Jungle Bunch is an animated movie which might appeal to older children. It features familiar characters from the long-running French television series of the same name. However, parents who have seen the TV series or a previous film of the Jungle Bunch might be disappointed with this one. Despite the cute-looking characters, there are some intense dark and violent scenes which are likely to upset younger children.  It is therefore not recommended for under sevens and parental guidance is recommended for the seven to nine year old group.

The main messages from this movie are that you can be a hero even if you don’t look like one, and that good triumphs over evil.

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

  • working as a team
  • friendship
  • courage