Paddle Pop Dinoterra

image for Paddle Pop Dinoterra

Short takes

Not recommended under 8, PG to 10 (Violence; Scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Paddle Pop Dinoterra
  • a review of Paddle Pop Dinoterra completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 5 November 2013.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not recommended due to violence and scary scenes
Children 8 to 10 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and scary scenes
Children 10 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: Paddle Pop Dinoterra
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild animated violence and some scary scenes
Length: 80 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Paddle Pop the lion is the new king of the jungle – he is brave and always looking for an adventure. His partner Leena is the leader of the Lion Liberation Movement and she is also very brave and encouraging to Paddle Pop. Armed with his magic staff, which is powered by special crystals, Paddle Pop and Leena have saved their friends from many dangerous situations.

The evil Shadow Master is determined to take over the world and he joins forces with Queen Felina, the white tigress. The white tigers have been forced by the lions into a frozen landscape and have no food. Felina therefore agrees to help the Shadow Master go back in time to the age of the dinosaurs to find the powerful crystals that will give him the control he needs. This is a decision she comes to regret.

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 violence; the supernatural; good versus evil

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 a lot of violence in this movie including:

  • Several battles using supernatural forces and magic
  • Paddle Pop has to fight soldiers, dinosaurs and tiger guards with maces and poles.
  • Paddle Pop fights a flying dinosaur and Kara the elephant captain comes to his rescue. The creature claws at Kara, leaving a nasty gash.
  • Shadow Master uses his powers to attack Paddle Pop which makes him fall off the side of a volcano.
  • Felina attacks Paddle Pop with her whip. He fights back and throws her over the edge of a cliff.
  • Warrior lions attack the huge ice monster with arrows which makes the monster fall apart
  • A final battle where Paddle Pop and his friends have to fight the evil dinosaurs
  • Felina attacks the Shadow Master with her whip, turning him to stone.

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:

  • The Shadow Master and his creatures are quite scary looking and all have red eyes. Shadow Master is covered in black with a hood and long fingers. His laugh sounds evil.
  • The flying dinosaurs are like large scary looking birds that make a terrible screeching noise.
  • The dinosaurs are large, with red eyes and roar fiercely.
  • One of the dinosaurs swallows Spike the porcupine but spits him out, covered in goo.
  • A rock fall causes vibrations which split the earth and Leena, Spike and Twitch (a chameleon) fall into the volcano. Paddle Pop manages to save them before they reach the bottom but the lava rises up to chase them out of the volcano.
  • Felina uses her whip to crack open the icy ground and it comes together to make a huge, ice monster who also has red eyes.
  • Kara comes under the spell of the Shadow Master and occasionally is shown with red eyes. Eventually he goes over to the dark side until he’s released by his friends. On one of the occasions he almost strangles Higga the owl.

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:

  • Paddle Pop goes into a frozen lake to find one of the crystals and is almost eaten by a shark like dinosaur. He also looks like he’s frozen to death before his friends pull him out.
  • It seems as though the Shadow Master has won so Paddle Pop and his friends decide to go back into the frozen lake and see if they can go further back in time to change this situation. They ask their friend Nicco to release them from the ice when this is done. The world is then shown as dark and evil having been taken over by the Shadow Master and the lions are all slaves.

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.

Younger children in this age group may also be scared by some of the above-mentioned scenes

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 of concern

Product placement

The film is a promotion for Paddle Pop icecreams – coinciding with the release of new flavours

In a nutshell

Paddle Pop Dinoterra is an animated adventure movie that might appeal to older children. The computer generated images might decrease the fear a little but Paddle Pop and his friends are constantly in danger and having to fight their way out of it. Some of the characters and monsters and the use of supernatural forces are likely to be quite scary for younger children. Some parents may also be concerned by type of food marketing to children that this film represents.

The main messages from this movie are that courage and strength are important qualities in a leader and that good usually triumphs over evil.

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

  • bravery
  • teamwork
  • friendship
  • endurance

Parents may also wish to discuss the use of violence to fight violence and whether there are better ways to defeat evil.