Kangaroo

image for Kangaroo

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Not suitable under 9; parental guidance to 10 (violence, themes, language, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Kangaroo
  • a review of Kangaroo completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 15 September 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 9 Not suitable due to language, violence, themes and scary scenes.
Children aged 9–10 Parental guidance recommended due to language, violence and themes.
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: Kangaroo
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes, violence and coarse language
Length: 107 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Chris Masterman (Ryan Corr) has always dreamed of hosting his own TV show. Stuck as a weatherman and seen as a joke, he tries to show his bosses that he is better than they believe him to be. When his attempt to rescue a dolphin goes wrong, Chris finds himself in the centre of a media backlash and suddenly unemployed. Seeking new opportunities on the other side of Australia, Chris sets off on a cross country road trip and, though hoping for ambiguity, finds that he is recognised and reviled even in the most remote regions of the outback. It is here that Chris hits a kangaroo with his car, devastated that he has inadvertently taken yet another life, he soon discovers that the kangaroo’s little joey is still alive. Plucking the small creature from its mother’s pouch, Chris walks back into town trying to find someone to care for it as well as to fix his car. Turned away by everyone who is either uninterested, or who sees the kangaroos as pests or pieces of meat, Chris encounters a young Indigenous girl named Charlie (Lily Whiteley) who has a special connection with the kangaroos and who teaches him to look after the joey, in addition to the others she hopes to save. Soon, Chris has quite a little group of baby kangaroos but it is through his actions when he saves a captured kangaroo, later called Roger, from the men who are cruelly trying to kill it, that he is offered redemption by the masses on social media. When his boss comes to make him an offer he can’t refuse, Chris must choose between his newfound family and sense of purpose and the dream job he has always wanted. Once again, it is Charlie who teaches him that dreams have a way of changing, they come to guide, to shape your purpose and ultimately lead you to the person that you were always destined to become.

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.

Personal failure; Public humiliation; Social media backlash; Loss of a parent; Grief; Cultural disconnection; Community division and Distrust.

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:

  • Chris helps a baby dolphin out of a rock pool where it is resting. Despite his best intentions, his actions directly lead to the dolphin’s death. The lifeless dolphin is shown washed upon a beach the following day.
  • Chris hits a kangaroo with his car and nearly drives into some scrub. The impact is not shown but Chris kneels before the lifeless body on the side of the road.
  • There is a sign for ‘Roo meat’ and a man chopping an animal with a cleaver as Chris, with a little joey in his arms, walks into a store.
  • A man captures and attacks a kangaroo, twisting it into a wire fence.
  • A kangaroo attacks Chris, repeatedly kicking him into a fence.
  • Men attack Chris and pin him to the ground. They are about to set some dogs on a baby joey and are intending to kill another kangaroo in Chris’ care. A woman threatens them with a gun before they are able to harm any of the animals.

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.

  • Nothing further noted for this age group.

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:

  • Some children may be disturbed by the lifeless body of the mother kangaroo on the side of the road and the fact that Chris took her baby from her pouch.
  • The scene in which Roger is laying on the ground in pain, his feet caught in wire that is cutting into his flesh, while men prepare to kill him, could be distressing for some viewers. Chris goes out to intervene and has to physically shove the men back into their truck in order to save the kangaroo. They threaten revenge as they drive off.
  • The men come back for Roger one night, intent on finishing what they started. They find Chris in the bush looking for a baby kangaroo that has gotten out, the men locate it in their high beams and try to run it down, saying that they will release the dogs, who appear vicious and angry. Chris is pinned to the ground and powerless to save the kangaroos he has been looking after. There is a strong sense of peril until a townswoman appears with a rifle and threatens to shoot.
  • Charlie runs away and has the whole town in a frenzy. Chris joins in the search, but his car breaks down and he sets out on foot to find her, collapsing from heat exhaustion before he does. It is Charlie who then finds him and saves his life.

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:

  • Twitter/X
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • YouTube.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • A character is told that he can: “keep his shirt on … for now”.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

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

  • Customers drink in a bar.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Sucks
  • Stupid
  • Scumbag
  • Monster
  • Bloody
  • Lead foot
  • Bullshit
  • Crap
  • Boof heads
  • Loser
  • Duds.

In a nutshell

Kangaroo is a heart-warming family drama, set in the Australian outback. The film contains powerful messages about redemption, dreams and moving on. It is best suited to audiences over the age of eight.

The main messages from this movie are that failure doesn’t define us; that children themselves can be powerful teachers; and that true purpose can be found in the most unlikely of places.

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

  • Compassion
  • Respect
  • Wisdom
  • Sacrifice
  • Connection.

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

  • Running away, even if you have the best of intentions.
  • Acting before thinking things through, especially when those in authority advise against doing something.
  • Using social media to vilify or condemn someone.
  • Seeking revenge on animals, who are simply trying to survive.