Mia and Me – The Hero of Centopia

image for Mia and Me – The Hero of Centopia

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Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 8 (violence, themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Mia and Me – The Hero of Centopia
  • a review of Mia and Me – The Hero of Centopia completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 3 November 2022.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 6 Not suitable due to violence and themes.
Children aged 6–8 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and themes.
Children over the age of 8 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: Mia and Me – The Hero of Centopia
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild fantasy themes and animated violence
Length: 85 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Mia (Margot Nuccetelli) travels with her grandfather (David Willetts) to their family summer home which is filled with memories of Mia’s childhood: old her room, her old toys, a magical storybook and memories of her parents who died in a diving accident. While there, her storybook shows Mia a prophecy. Then, the magical stone on the bracelet her mother left her transports Mia to the far away islands of Centopia. Here, Mia must make new friends, including Nino (voice of Julian Maroun), unite powerful stones and face her fears in order to save Centopia from the evil Toxor (Paul Davies), who is trying to take over the land and turn all of the fairies into groundlings, mindless creatures that exist only to obey Toxor’s every command.

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.

Greed; Power; The battle between Good and Evil: Death and Separation from parents; The fear of being forgotten.

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:

  • Toxor turns fairy guards into groundlings and has them attack other fairies.
  • Niko’s father is crushed by rocks when Toxor escapes the lake where he is being held captive.
  • Groundlings nearly capture the fairy queen but Niko gets her away just in time.
  • Mia crashes into Niko’s plane and slides down its sail.
  • Niko’s plane crashes into a dance party.
  • Toxor belches his purple smoke breath and destroys or transforms all the flowers and trees he passes.
  • The groundlings shoot weapons that emit the same purple smoke Toxor uses to transform fairies into his personal henchmen.
  • Toxor turns a beautiful unicorn into a black and mindless creature; a butterfly into a slug; and a couple getting engaged into groundlings.
  • Toxor threatens to throw some of his groundlings into the Lake of Fear.
  • A group of groundlings attack the flying ship Mia and her friends are using. There is slapping, throwing, shoving, pushing, hitting and two unicorns head butt each other.
  • A groundling grabs Mia and steals her gemstone.
  • Mia and Niko crash land on an island, their ship deflating moments after impact.
  • Toxor steps on the crotch of one of his henchmen.
  • A unicorn blasts a groundling army away.
  • Toxor smacks one of his henchmen and knocks a guy to the ground.
  • Toxor says that he just needs to squash the Lotus Queen and the last remaining fairies.
  • Toxor tries to take a fairy city, his groundlings climb the outer walls while the fairies try to knock them back.
  • A groundling is shoved off a cliff.
  • The groundlings shoot fairies with purple smoke and itching powder.
  • The fairies and groundlings engage in all-out battle with hitting and kicking. The groundlings shooting their gas guns and the fairies retaliate with puff pillows that encase and incapacitate their adversaries.

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:

  • Toxor belches purple toxic gas which transforms fairies into groundlings, mindless creatures with no free will.
  • A group of fairies goes into a darkened, creepy forest and one is shot out of the sky with purple gas, while another group can he heard yelling in the distance.

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.

  • Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

  • A fairy boy dances shirtless during a rave.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Idiot
  • Butt
  • Silly
  • Useless Hench goon
  • Cry-baby unicorn
  • Crude humour: A unicorn farts when a character says to ‘be the wind’.

In a nutshell

Mia and Me – The Hero of Centopia is a part live action, part animation, fantasy adventure. The predictable plot with positive messages about destiny and finding the strength within will appeal to young children but due to the themes and violence, the film is suitable for all but the youngest viewers.

The main messages from this movie are to believe in yourself; to try your best; and to always remember that courage, friendship and kindness are far more powerful than hatred and fear.

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

  • Helpfulness
  • Courage
  • Ingenuity
  • Kindness
  • Persistence
  • Friendship
  • Forgiveness.

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

  • Disappearing without telling your loved ones where you are going.
  • Believing that revenge will resolve feelings of inadequacy or loneliness.
  • Controlling others for your personal gain.
  • Using violence to get what you want.