Pets on a Train

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for Pets on a Train
• a review of Pets on a Train completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 16 December 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

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.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

Falcon the racoon (voiced by Wyatt Bowen) is a warm-hearted bandit, stealing food from trashcans and humans in order to feed himself and his friends. When he gets the chance to work alongside Hans (voiced by Chimwemwe Miller) to steal food from a busy train, Falcon is elated at the idea that he and his friends might have full bellies for Christmas.

Unbeknownst to Falcon, Hans has other ideas. After Falcon hacked into the train’s controls, Hans reveals that he has an ulterior motive! Once the humans are tricked into getting off, Hans traps Falcon and several other animals alone on the speeding train, in a plot to take revenge on Rex (voiced by Tristan D. Lalla); a police dog that had sent him to the pound 5 years earlier.

In a race against time, Falcon, Rex and their new friends must figure out a way to save their own lives – stopping both Hans and the speeding train before it’s too late.

Animals in distress; Train accidents; Criminal activity.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

• On several occasions, characters verbally berate each other, referring to each other as “stupid”, “washed- up” or “scumbags”.
• Throughout the movie, there is frequent slapstick-style violence where characters run into, bounce off or are hit by various objects with no injury.
• Three rat characters fight in a choreographed way, implied to be martial arts masters.
• Falcon is chased by a dog after stealing food, before the dog is yanked out of view by a hotdog stand.
• A person, dressed as Santa, gets stuck on the train tracks in their vehicle. He manages to escape the car just as the speeding train crashes into the car, sending it flying into the air.
• When Hans realises Rex didn’t recognise him, he lashes out physically; smashing things in his vicinity, before going and punching a punching bag with Rex’s face painted onto it.
• Rex verbally berates Falcon on several occasions, calling him a “common thief” and a “lowlife thug”.
• Several characters, on several occasions, slip through holes on the train and almost fall to their death, before being saved at the last moment.
• Rex and Falcon get into an argument and shout at each other because Rex is a K9 police dog and Falcon is a criminal.
• The animals are often thrown around the speeding train cars, narrowly avoiding injury or getting crushed by luggage and other items.
• On several occasions, the train is set on fire and the animals must navigate through it, narrowly avoiding being caught ablaze.
• Falcon is knocked out of the train by Hans, and appears to fall to his death. The other characters are visibly distressed by this, shown crying and yelling. Falcon is later revealed to have survived the fall.
• Falcon verbally berates himself on several occasions, calling himself “stupid” or “dumb”.
• A child character is brought to the scene of the crash, so that a news reporter can film her crying when she sees the death of her cat. When there is no crash, the adult news reporter starts yelling at the child and verbally berates her, calling her a “little brat”.
• During a physical fight between Rex and Hans, Rex becomes injured.
• Hans throws a cat character out the window of the train, attempting to kill her.
• There is a physical fight between Hans and several of the animals, resulting in Hans being knocked out and captured by a snake character.
• Married characters argue, raising their voices at each other.

Material that may scare or disturb children

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 opening scene is very loud and jarring, as a train speeds into view with a loud crash of music and sound.
• A small dog character behaves in a very hyperactive way, bouncing around and talking very loudly and quickly. He tries to squeeze through the bars of his cage, making his eye bulge in a scary way.
• A human character operating a crane spills coffee all over themselves, causing them to knock over the scaffolding from a building. This then falls onto the train tracks and sticks to the front of the train, causing the train to get a spiky, scary-looking ‘face’.
• A snake character slithers out of a box and looks scary; it turns out she is very kind and helpful.
• On several occasions, there are loud, scary explosions. At times, these explosions blow holes into the train and put either the animals or humans in peril.

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:

• After realising her pet cat is trapped on the train, a child character chases after it, crying out her cat’s name and looking visibly distressed.
• Falcon talks about how he was shot in the ear; this later turns out to be untrue.
• On several occasions, characters talk about how if they don’t stop the train in time they are “all going to die”.
• When Falcon climbs under the high-speed train to try and get to another carriage, he almost falls to his death and Hans tells him he’ll “become roadkill”.
• A dog and a bird character almost fall out of the train and into fire, to their deaths, before the bird character saves them at the last moment.
• Several sharp knives fall all around a character, narrowly avoiding hitting him.

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:

• The above-mentioned scenes and images are likely to scare or disturb some children in this age group, particularly sensitive children.

• Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

• A turtle character is named ‘Leo’ and has a blue smear of paint across his eyes, referencing Leonardo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.
• A fish character is a clownfish, and references Finding Nemo.
• A duck character is obsessed with football, frequently making references to American football. This seems to be a reference to the Oregon Ducks football team.
• Christmas-related iconography is shown throughout the film, including Christmas trees, Santa and presents.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• A male and a female bird characters flirt with each other, with the male bird getting visibly flustered.
• Hans is hit in the groin area off screen, where he yowls in pain and a tuft of fur flies across the screen.
• A female rabbit character is shown as heavily pregnant, and references giving birth at any minute.

Nudity and sexual activity

• None noted.

Use of substances

• None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• Stupid
• Scumbag
• Weirdo
• A character tells another to, “Kiss my tail”.
• Falcon says, “I screwed up”.
• Dumb
• Butts
• A character calls another’s belief system, “stupid philosophical trash”.

In a nutshell

Pets on a Train (also known as Falcon Express) is an action-packed animated film, filled with slapstick humour and animal friends, and best suited for families with older children. Due to animated violence, scary scenes and action themes, this film is not suitable under 8, with parental guidance recommended to 11. Parents may want to note that this film is originally in French and the English version is dubbed, consequently, the mouth movements often do not match up with the dialogue.

The main messages from this movie are that no matter where you come from, you can do the right thing; and that when you work together as a team, anything is possible.

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

• Believing in yourself
• Courage
• Working together
• Forgiveness
• Not judging a person based on their past
• Remaining hopeful in the face of conflict.

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

• Falcon is shown as a thief who steals food to feed his friends and family. Parents may wish to discuss with their children the ethics of stealing, and the moral grey area this film emphasises around it.
• Falcon lies to his new friends about both his past and his purpose on the train. Do you think this was okay to do? What do you think he could have done instead?
• Hans commits a crime to get back at Rex in an act of vengeance. Why was this the wrong thing to do, and what other ways could he have dealt with his feelings? Parents may also want to discuss the implications of carelessly involving innocent bystanders in a personal vendetta, and the ways in which to manage feelings of anger and resentment in less harmful ways.
• Social media coverage of the event is portrayed in the film, often showing influencers using it as an excuse to get fame or people making funny videos to make light of the event. Parents may want to emphasise the importance of thinking before posting things to social media, as well as discuss the overuse of social media and ethical considerations in the context of serious events.
• Two of the characters are shown to be pets that are exploited by their owners for social media fame. Is it okay to have a pet just for the purpose of posting them on social media?