Little Monsters

image for Little Monsters

Short takes

Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 7 (violence, sense of peril)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Little Monsters
  • a review of Little Monsters completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 19 September 2022.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not suitable due to violence and a sense of peril.
Children aged 5–7 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and a sense of peril.
Children over the age of 7 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: Little Monsters
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild sense of peril
Length: 87 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Every household has a ‘Finn’, a fluffy, furry, invisible creature responsible for making sure that everything runs well, that people get where they need to be and that the house is truly a home. Most Finns take pride in looking after their humans but Finnick (voice of Billy Bob Thompson) is not like most Finns. Finnick has decided that he is tired of the noise and bother of the human world and he does everything he can to make sure that no one stays in his house. To the locals, his house is known to be haunted but logical, thirteen-year-old, Christine (voice of Nathalie Ferare), who has just moved in with her parents, believes there must be a reasonable explanation and sets out to discover what it is. Christine soon encounters a world she never expected to find and, thanks to her ingenuity, is able to see not only Finnick but other Finns as well. When a series of terrible events begin to take place, Christine and Finnick must work together to solve the mystery and save their city.

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.

Sabotage; Revenge; Bullying; Criminal activities.

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:

  • A character trips on wires, knocks props down and sets a stage on fire.
  • A chair leg is sawn off, a house is destroyed, all the strings in a harp are broken and birds are set free causing mass chaos.
  • Chairs, guitars and clocks are smashed.
  • A lawn mower is smashed into a wall; it flies through the air and smashes into a dump truck.
  • Corn kernels are purposely poured into a factory furnace instead of coal. Popcorn bursts out and races through the town like a tidal wave, flooding cars and filling the city streets.
  • Finnick pushes people on a train. Finnick gets knocked against a seat and then breaks it.
  • A Finn goes into the control centre of a train station and realigns the tracks to ensure that two trains will have a head-on collision.
  • People flee the train moments before the collision happens. Feathers fly everywhere as twisted metal and train carriages derail.
  • A man is bound with duct tape at a wind farm so that he cannot call or go for help.
  • A huge tornado sweeps Christina and Finnick up into the storm. Things are spinning out of control as their car is nearly hit by flying debris. Eventually they crash into the office of the wind farm where they find men bound and gagged.
  • An apartment is destroyed as a guy chases a Finn, trying to hit him.
  • A group of Finns are locked up in a room, they are shorn of all fur and act like animals.
  • Finnick and Christina are captured and their lives are threatened.
  • A character is trying to destroy homes and ultimately destroy Finns.
  • Finnick kicks a man out of a door.
  • A character sets a truck on fire, hoping it will explode.
  • A character kidnaps Finns and holds them hostage.
  • Two characters fight over a Ferris wheel, punching and slapping each other.
  • The Ferris wheel explodes from the base and begins to roll and fall apart with people still on it.

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:

  • None noted.

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:

  • When Christine discovers the truth about who is behind the attacks, the character suddenly becomes very sinister and menacing and won’t let her leave. She also discovers the shorn Finns and how they act so differently. It is very disconcerting and may be upsetting to some young viewers.
  • A Finn screams and tries to get free as all of his fur is forcibly shorn. He is then violently tossed in the back of a truck.

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 of concern.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Dumb
  • Hell
  • Nit wit
  • Demon
  • Blabbermouth.

In a nutshell

Little Monsters is an animated adventure featuring cute characters and an interesting plot. It is a family film for all but the youngest of viewers, with parental guidance recommended for ages 5-7.

The main messages from this movie are that seeing is believing and that there is often more than meets the eye to any given situation; that huge problems can be solved by working together; and that friends and allies can be found in the most unlikely of places.

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

  • Cooperation
  • Helpfulness
  • Courage
  • Determination
  • Friendship.

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

  • Picking on people and belittling their dreams.
  • Accepting certain things without question.
  • Failing to manage disappointment.
  • Using destructive ways to get power or gain control and taking revenge on innocent people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.