Not suitable under 11; parental guidance to 12 (themes, sexual references, subtitles)
This topic contains:
Children under 11 | Not suitable due to themes, sexual references and subtitles. |
Children aged 11–12 | Parental guidance recommended due to themes and sexual references. |
Children aged 13 and over | 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: | Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Mild themes and occasional coarse language |
Length: | 75 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Mai (voice of Asami Seto) has just graduated from high school and is about to go off to a college that Sakuta (voice of Kaito Ishikawa) will have to study extremely hard in order to get into. His sister Kaede (voice of Yurika Kubo) has come to terms with her split personality and is doing well. She is even repairing the relationship she had with her mother, who suffered her own nervous breakdown and was hospitalised, blaming herself for failing to be the mother her children needed. As their mother begins to improve and Kaede begins to reconnect with their parents, Sakuta feels isolated and unneeded. He wakes up one morning only to discover that he has become invisible. No one can see or hear him, and his family does not seem to realise that he even exists. Sakuta travels to a parallel universe to find the answers he is seeking but what he encounters instead is a perfect world where he resolved his sister’s bullying issue before it got bad, where his family is still intact and where he is still adored by Mai. Knowing it is all too good to be true, Sakuta opts to return to his original universe to try to make things better, even though it would be much easier to stay. As he reflects on his life and all he has seen and experienced, he concludes that he has control over the direction his future will take. He recognises that he has kept himself from him mother, finding her struggles too painful to deal with or accept, and has attempted to go on without her. He realises that he needs to be the one to take the first step to remedy the situation. He needs to forgive her for her imperfections and make a point to connect with her, no matter how long it takes, because only once they have reconnected will he become visible to the world again.
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.
Mental health; Family Breakdown: Repercussions of bullying; Feelings of uselessness or being invisible and abandoned.
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.
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.
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.
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid is a Japanese anime with English subtitles that picks up exactly where Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out left off. The film is best suited to teen and older audiences.
The main messages from this movie are that no one is perfect, that people have breaking points, and that everyone deserves grace as they try to mend their mistakes and heal from the challenges that life throws their way. The film also contains the powerful message that we all have the ability to directly influence the outcome of our lives by the actions we take and by the way we perceive the world around us.
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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