Not suitable under 10; parental guidance to 13 (disturbing themes, sexual references)
This topic contains:
Children under 10 | Not suitable due to disturbing themes and sexual references. |
Children aged 10–13 | Parental guidance recommended due to disturbing themes and sexual references. |
Children over the age of 13 | Ok for this age group. |
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: | My Life as a Zucchini |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Mild themes and sexual references |
Length: | 67 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Zucchini (voice of Erick Abbate) is a nine year old boy who suddenly finds himself as an orphan. He is taken to an orphanage by a friendly policeman called Raymond (Nick Offerman) where he is taken into care by Madame Papineau (Susanne Blakeslee). Rosy (Ellen Page), one of the workers at the orphanage, introduces Zucchini to his new companions: Simon (Romy Beckman), Ahmed (Barry Mitchel), Jujube (Elliot Sanchez), Alice (Clara Young) and Beatrice (Olivia Bucknor). At first the children laugh at Zucchini, particularly for his name which is what his mother called him, but they soon become good friends.
Simon is the oldest and can be a bit of a bully but it turns out that he is actually kind hearted. All the children are at the orphanage for different tragic reasons and Simon's is because his parents were both drug addicts. A new girl called Camille (Ness Krell) arrives and Zucchini immediately takes a liking to her. Camille had seen her father shoot her mother dead and then commit suicide. At one time, all of the children visit a ski field where they have a lot of fun skiing and throwing snowballs at each other. Raymond continues to visit Zucchini and often takes him and Camille out on various outings. Raymond becomes increasingly fond of the two children and decides to adopt them. It is a hard decision for Zucchini to make; whether to go with Raymond or stay with his friends.
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.
Orphans; dysfunctional families; children separated from their parents.
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
My Life as a Zucchini is a French claymation movie (with subtitles) that deals with very traumatic childhood situations in a gentle and uplifting manner. The orphaned children are lucky enough to find themselves in a caring facility where they are well looked after and find strong bonds with each other. There are positive outcomes and messages in the movie but some of the content is not suitable for children under 10 and parental guidance is recommended to 13.
The main messages from this movie are the need for love and friendship and that family doesn't need to be a biological one.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:
Tip: Leave out the first A, An or The
Selecting an age will provide a list of movies with content suitable for this age group. Children may also enjoy movies selected via a lower age.
Content is age appropriate for children this age
Some content may not be appropriate for children this age. Parental guidance recommended
Content is not age appropriate for children this age
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ABN: 16 005 214 531