Little Wonder Bear

image for Little Wonder Bear

Short takes

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

Age
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
classification logo

This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Little Wonder Bear
  • a review of Little Wonder Bear completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 10 February 2026.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not suitable due to themes, violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 8–10 Parental guidance recommended due to themes and violence.
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: Little Wonder Bear
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes and some scenes may scare young children
Length: 80 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Little bear Milagros (voice of Melany Segura) and her brother Yana Yana (voice of Nicole Valera) live a simple life with their mother in the middle of the Peruvian forest. They have all they need and are deeply loved. When a plane crashes into the jungle and the cubs’ mother is killed saving their lives, Milagros finds herself alone. Following her brother’s trail, Milagros soon discovers a type of track she has never seen before. She follows the track towards the outskirts of the forest and eventually comes across a creepy circus tent where, while exploring the place, Milagros is captured and locked in a cage. It is here that she discovers her brother has been taken by poachers and is to be sold near a town called Chaparri. Befriended by Fox (voice of Ann Giraldo), Milagros escapes and sets off to find him. Their journey through the forest is filled with danger and there are many twists and turns. Milagros must rely on her instincts, her new friend, and the lessons her mother taught her in order to survive so that she can find her brother, save the forest and ultimately fulfil her destiny.

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.

Animal cruelty; Abusive relationships; Death of a parent; Loneliness; Greed; Deforestation and the Destruction of habitats.

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:

  • An orangutan scares Milagros and she falls off a tree, crashing to the ground.
  • Milagros and Yana Yana get revenge by scaring the orangutan so that he then falls out of the tree as well. They laugh as he falls down, teasing: “The monkey could not fly.”
  • A puma hunts the little bear family while they hide in the undergrowth and try to evade him.
  • Yana Yana is captured by poachers and taken away in a cage to be sold.
  • Fox tells Milagros that she is going to lose so much weight that she will be able to go in and out through the bars of her cage whenever she wants.
  • Fox describes how anyone who tries to escape from the circus is punished and never seen again. When asked if she has ever tried to escape, Fox responds: “He would kill me if he caught me.”
  • A clown hits and whips Fox and then throws her in her cage where she is barely able to move and blames herself for his actions.
  • Yana Yana translates what she heard a clown say and tells Fox: “He plans to marinate you and have a BBQ. You will be his dinner tomorrow night.”
  • Two poachers crash their car over the edge of a cliff and Yana Yana falls out of his cage when it bursts open on impact. He has injured his leg but manages to escape.
  • Milagros and Fox find newspaper clippings about a “Bad Clown” who eats his animals after horrific grilling sessions.
  • A clown grabs Milagros by her legs and roughly throws her down. In doing so, he knocks over a candle and sets fire to his circus tent.
  • Fox attacks a clown while Milagros is unconscious. The clown then throws Fox and kicks her into the side of some furniture where she lays motionless as fire begins to rage.
  • A clown nearly kills Milagros.
  • Fox is nearly crushed by a falling boulder.
  • A puma tells Milagros and Fox that he is going to: “lick the meat off their bones,” “swallow them whole,” and that: “you will be my dinner”. He chases them through the forest, up trees, across ravines and through a river, where he nearly captures them before falling over a waterfall.
  • Workers try to crush and kill forest animals. One worker says: “I am going to squash you like the bug that you are.” When the boss sees the animals coming together to stand before the machines he tells his workers: “Kill the beasts and get on with 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:

  • There are a number of chase scenes where animals are fleeing for their lives, while a predator of some sort (often a determined Puma) hunts them. The sense of peril and intense music may be distressing for some young children.
  • The clown looks especially evil with his lingering make-up. He is unspeakably cruel to Milagros and Fox (see below) but his physical appearance is also disturbing.

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 a plane crashes through the forest, Milagros and Yana Yana run for their lives. As the debris rains down around them and pieces of the aircraft break apart, Yana Yana is struck unconscious. Milagros tries to rouse him but cannot. As the plane bears down on them, their mother picks up Yana Yana in her mouth and continues to flee. Milagros, with tears in her eyes, calls out to her mum and her mother flings her brother’s body to the side, knocking them both out of the way. She is struck, fatally injured and eventually found by Milagros in the burning forest. With her final breaths, she tells Milagros that she is meant for miracles and makes her promise to look after her brother and do everything in her power to protect the forest. Milagros curls up beside her mother while she dies.
  • Milagros briefly encounters her brother who calls out to her from his cage, begging her to help him, while the poachers drive him away and Milagros, locked in her own cage, is powerless to do anything to help.
  • An evil, abusive clown, with a sinister laugh, captures Milagros and imprisons her in a cage. Milagros learns about the other animals he has beaten, starved, killed or eaten during the time she spends captive. After catching Milagros trying to escape, the clown grabs a large butcher knife and nearly cuts and stabs the bear cub. She is saved when a burning beam knocks the clown on the head.
  • Men with bulldozers and other machinery rumble through the forest, destroying everything in their path. Their boss calls out to them to kill and destroy any animal that stands in their way. Yana Yana is struck in the head by a back hoe and flung onto rocks, unconscious. The sense of peril and overwhelming injustice as the men lay waste to the forest and its inhabitants is likely to upset some viewers.

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:

  • No products were noted in the film.
  • There was a QR code during the credits by ‘Green Initiative’, encouraging kids to be part of a project that aims to plant trees for Milagros.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

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

  • A clown tries to get into a bar.
  • A clown takes a swig from an empty wine bottle.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Dumb dumb/ dumber/ dummy
  • Knucklehead
  • Slowpoke
  • He’s like a tree slug
  • Silly
  • Shut up!
  • Heck
  • Stupid thing
  • Useless animal
  • Vermin
  • Damn brute
  • Crazy beast
  • Good for nothing
  • Coward
  • Pest.

In a nutshell

Little Wonder Bear is based on the award-winning book by Hernan Garrido-Lecca and is inspired by true events during which a spectacled bear cub survived when a plane crashed into the Peruvian Amazon, killing her mother. It is an animated film with powerful and heavy themes, and is best suited to families with children over the age of eight.

The main messages from this movie are to love and respect nature; and to remember that you always have a voice when it comes to standing up for what is right – and to make sure that you use it, especially if others cannot do so.

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

  • Resilience
  • Environmental protection
  • Deforestation
  • Courage
  • Friendship
  • Survival.

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

  • Destroying the environment for financial gain.
  • Poaching and caging wild animals.
  • The dangers of staying with someone who treats you terribly.