Magic Faraway Tree, The

image for Magic Faraway Tree, The

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Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 7 (scary scenes, violence)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Magic Faraway Tree, The
  • a review of Magic Faraway Tree, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 31 March 2026.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 6 Not suitable due to some scary scenes and violence.
Children aged 6–7 Parental guidance recommended due to some scary scenes and violence.
Children aged 8 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: Magic Faraway Tree, The
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Very mild slapstick violence and some scenes may scare very young children
Length: 104 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

The Thompson family is a typical modern family with Mum, Polly (Claire Foy) – chief breadwinner; stay at home Dad, Tim (Andrew Garfield); and three children, Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) – a surly teenager forever glued to social media, Fran (Billie Gadsdon) – who doesn’t speak, and the youngest, Joe (Phoenix Laroche) – equally addicted to his gaming device. Polly delivers a bombshell one day, when she announces she has quit her job, along with the perks of house and car. Polly and Tim decide to live out one of their former student dreams and move to the country, off-grid, and close to where Tim grew up.

The three children are all naturally very upset, particularly Beth who doesn’t want to leave her friends, and Joe who can’t cope without Wi-Fi. Fran is identified as a ‘friendly to fairies’ human and is invited to visit them in the Enchanted Wood. Fran sets out in trepidation, but once inside the Magic Faraway Tree, she is introduced to all of the magical characters and all of the fantastic lands she can visit. On her next visit, Fran takes the sceptical Beth and Joe along, who all get to explore the fabulous places too. The children eventually learn that there is much more to life than being stuck to their electronic devices.

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.

Fantasy.

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:

  • Silky, a fairy, pushes a small elf into Fran’s bedroom window. He shouts loudly and falls heavily on his back.
  • Beth throws a shoe at a rooster to shut it up.
  • Moon-Face points a stick at Fran and a soldier throws a plant at him.
  • A fruit-punch machine punches Moon-Face in the face.
  • A car engine explodes, covering Tim in black soot.
  • The family all argue about the situation they are in.
  • In the Land of the Ice Age, there is a loud explosion which causes all of the saucepans to fall off Saucepan Man.
  • Mr Oom-Boom-Boom traps Silky inside a box and bangs the lid down.
  • Moon-Face chases Oom-Boom-Boom, and Saucepan Man places a large saucepan over his head.
  • Fran is grabbed by the limbs of a marshmallow tree for being too greedy.
  • Saucepan Man hits a policeman in the groin. The policeman yells in pain.
  • Dame Snap squashes an insect and eats it. She bangs on a desk and shouts at the children.
  • The children are put in a cage in detention but manage to blow open the gate.
  • Dame Snap screams so loudly that things start to shatter and the plane that the children are in gets blown off a cliff.

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:

  • Some of the characters could be scary such as: Moon-Face, who is a large moustached man with a moon on his head; Dame Washalot is a loud, large woman who can be quite intimidating; Dame Snap is an intimidating woman dressed in black with her black hair piled up on high; Mr Oom-Boom-Boom has a very loud voice and shouts at the children; the Know-Alls are five old men’s faces covered in long grey hair and beards.
  • Loud noises and eerie music.

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:

  • The house/barn the Thompson family move into is derelict, with no electricity, running water or heating. The barn is filled with junk and covered in cobwebs. A rat is seen scurrying along the ground. Beth screams when she learns there is no electricity.
  • The owner of the barn tells the family not to go into the wood at night as it is haunted.
  • Beth says she’s, ‘going to bed and hopes she never wakes up’.
  • An elf screams at Fran as she flies up past his window.
  • Fran has to climb a winding staircase up into the clouds.
  • Tim’s face is slightly burnt from the engine exploding.
  • In the Land of Goodies, there is a threat of an attack of flying saucers about to happen. Everyone rushes about and Fran is arrested by a policeman.
  • Fran has to go down a long slippery slope to exit the tree. She screams and is frightened at first.
  • Fran wishes for a new voice and gets a deep, man’s voice. Joe turns into a Minecraft character.
  • Beth has to climb the staircase in a thunderstorm, into dark clouds.
  • The children fly in a plane to a land covered in volcanic lava with fires burning everywhere. The plane shudders through the sky and an alarm sounds. The plane falls to the land of Dame Snap.

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.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Polly tells the children that Tim’s Dad died when he was very young and he and his Mum had to give up their business and move away from the country.

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 further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Polly and Tim kiss a few times.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

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

  • Drinking wine at dinner.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Oh my God
  • What the heck.
  • Some name calling, such as:
    • Loser
    • Dumb dumb
    • Spoilt brats.

In a nutshell

The Magic Faraway Tree is a fantasy movie based on the classic Faraway Tree book series by Enid Blyton. The scary scenes and violence, mostly of a slapstick nature, make it unsuitable for children under 6, and parental guidance is recommended for 6 to 7-year-olds.

The main messages from this movie are to appreciate nature and to get away from the addiction of modern technologies. Also to encourage creativity and imagination.

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

  • Kindness
  • Curiosity
  • Collaboration and teamwork
  • The importance of family
  • Exploring new ideas
  • Remembering the child within and retaining a sense of magic.

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

  • Some of the folk of the Faraway Tree are afraid of humans and therefore react badly to them. Parents could talk about ways to overcome fears of the unknown which build into prejudices and resentment.