Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again

image for Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again

Short takes

Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 8 (scary scenes, cultural stereotyping)

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 Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again
  • a review of Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 29 April 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not suitable due to scary scenes and cultural stereotyping.
Children aged 5–8 Parental guidance recommended due to scary scenes and cultural stereotyping.
Children aged 9 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: Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Some action scenes. Some flashing lights sequences or patterns may affect photosensitive viewers. (OC)
Length: 80 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

In this animated addition to the Night at the Museum franchise, beloved night guard Larry (Zachary Levi) is transferring to from New York to the Tokyo museum, and is looking for a replacement. The exhibits at the museum come alive each night, and are convinced that Nick (Joshua Bassett), Larry’s son, would be a perfect fit. However, Nick is reluctant to take the job, as his insecurities make him believe that he would not do well.

After begrudgingly accepting, Nick is tasked with locking the door to the spooky loading dock on his first night. The exhibits in the basement scare him, and he fails to lock the door. This causes Kahmunrah (Joseph Kamal), an evil Egyptian ruler, to rise from the basement and steal the magical tablet that keeps the exhibits alive, so that he may return to Ancient Egypt and raise an army to rule the world. Nick, Teddy Roosevelt (Thomas Lennon), Joan of Arc (Alice Isaaz), Sacajawea (Kieran Sequoia) and the rest of their ragtag team are tasked with traveling to Ancient Egypt and stopping Kahmunrah at any cost. Will they be able to defeat this evil and return to the museum before sunrise?

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.

Self-doubt; Cultural stereotyping; Good vs evil; Family relationships; Magic; Ancient History.

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 monkey hits a character over the head with a book.
  • Nick is very self-deprecating, making several negative comments about himself throughout the film.
  • Cavepeople threaten a character with clubs and a spear.
  • A T-Rex skeleton eats a character.
  • In several scenes, Joan threatens people with her sword, often holding them at swordpoint.
  • Kahmunrah picks up Nick and throws him across the room.
  • Attila and the Huns are caricaturised as aggressive and often behave violently; growling and intimidating others, yet being unable to speak other than grunts.
  • Attila tries to stab Kahmunrah.
  • Kahmunrah holds a knife to a character’s throat.
  • A character is beaten with a broom by an elderly woman.
  • A character is set on fire.
  • Kahmunrah says that he, “wants to kill you so many times”, to Nick.
  • Characters are bludgeoned with a torch.
  • Extended fight scene between jackal-like monsters and main characters.
  • Nick is stabbed by Kahmunrah.
  • Kahmunrah slips on a banana peel during a sword-fight, falling over backwards and injuring himself.

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:

  • A character is chased through the museum by a lion and a mammoth, accompanied by loud animal noises.
  • While using his turntable, Nick makes a loud, high-pitched noise that is quite jarring.
  • A character has several panic attacks, with loud heartbeat sounds and laboured breathing.
  • Green smoke billows through a creepy door, while ominous music plays.
  • A painting depicting a demon-like creature comes to life, grinning and laughing ominously.
  • Several scary-looking statues come to life, scaring Nick and chasing him out of the dark basement.
  • Kahmunrah explodes from a crate in a billow of green smoke, accompanied by a sudden loud swell of ominous music.
  • A giant scorpion statue comes to life, attacking several characters with its claws and stinger.
  • Characters are grabbed out of a boat by a crocodile and dragged underwater.
  • A character emerges from a sarcophagus, shooting beams of electricity around the room; loud music, flashing lights and a jarring, booming voice accompany this.
  • A character tries to zap Nick and his friends with beams of electricity from his eyes.
  • Scary-looking jackal-like zombies spill, snarling, from a portal, attacking Nick and his friends with their teeth and claws.

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:

  • A scorpion is slashed down the stomach and explodes.
  • A snake attacks and almost eats two characters, before being lassoed and stabbed.
  • The ground shakes and splits open, revealing bottomless chasms in the floor.
  • Nick disappears into a chasm, presumed to have fallen to his death.
  • After getting stabbed, Nick falls and is presumed dead before revealing that his life was saved by Teddy’s good-luck charm.

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

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Nick gets visibly flustered and blushes when around a female character.
  • A female character giggles and flirts with Nick.
  • After finding a booby-trap, a character giggles and says, “booby”.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

  • A male character is having a bubble bath, with his naked torso shown.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • There is some lower level language, including ‘doofus’ and ’whacko’
  • A character says that they are ‘such an idiot’
  • A character calls another a ‘half-naked brute’
  • Dang it
  • Stupid
  • Jerk.

In a nutshell

While the animated Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again might lack the charm and has a different cast to the first three live-action films in the Night at the Museum franchise, it remains a fun family film full of slapstick comedy and witty one-liners. However, due to scary scenes and cultural stereotyping, this movie is best suited to families with children aged 9 and older, with parental guidance for 5 to 8 year olds.

The main messages from this movie are that there is no ‘I’ in team, rather, it takes the strengths of individuals working together to create real teamwork; and that it’s important to try new things in order to grow your own confidence.

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

  • Self-confidence and believing in yourself
  • Teamwork
  • Finding your individual strengths.

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

  • What is a cultural stereotype, and how can it be harmful to these communities?
  • In the movie, there are caricatures of historical figures. How might these be similar or different to the real-life people they are portraying?
  • Nick is often quite self-deprecating. What would you do if you felt this way? Are there ways that Nick could have responded to this better?
  • Parents may want to note that there are several off-hand ‘daddy issues’ jokes throughout the film, and they may want to discuss with children the relationship between Kahmunrah and his father.