Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel

image for Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel

Short takes

Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 8 (violence, themes, language)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel
  • a review of Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 13 May 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 6 Not suitable due to violence, themes and language.
Children aged 6–8 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes and language.
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: Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes, animated violence and infrequent coarse language
Length: 85 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Richard (voice of Jay Myers), a cocky sparrow who was adopted by a family of storks, has great dreams of being chosen to lead the flock in their yearly migration. When a daring manoeuvre backfires, it is Richard’s brother Max (voice of Jeffrey Hylton) who is chosen to lead the flock instead. Angry and bitterly disappointed, Richard decides that he doesn’t need a flock and, unbeknownst to his family, sets off on his own. His adventure really begins when he meets Samia (voice of Kyra Jackson), the leader of another group of sparrows who are being exploited by an evil peacock called Zamano (voice of Time Heller) and his two marabou henchmen. Richard’s friends, Olga (voice of Simona Berman) and Kiki (voice of Blake Farha), follow him to the far-off city he found and encourage him to return to his family before it is too late. Richard agrees to leave the following day but once he learns of the jewel Zamano is after and he gets to know the sparrows, he cannot leave them to their fate. Can they work together to decipher the clue that will lead them to the jewel? Will the sparrows ever be truly free, and will Richard make it back before his family flies away?

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.

Adoption; Exploitation; Greed; Vanity; Family Disunity and Sibling Rivalry.

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:

  • Birds nearly crash into each other while flying wildly from opposite directions.
  • Richard crashes into Kiki while he is giving a musical performance.
  • Richard slaps Max’s beak.
  • Richard is knocked against some rocks.
  • Two birds electrocute each other with wires.
  • A bird bashes Richard and hits him through the air.
  • Pigeons electrocute each other and fart, repeatedly.
  • Zamano manipulates Olga and traps her invisible best friend in a mirror. A story is told how humans cut off Zamano’s wings with a knife and from this moment he became mean. He wants to have the jewel for himself because he thinks it can free him from the pain that he feels.
  • Samia explains that the sparrows cannot leave. They tried to resist Zamano before but they were brutally attacked. One sparrow is missing a leg, one is missing an eye and Samia herself has deep gashes and scars under her wing.
  • Pigeons hit each other.
  • Zamano is mean to the marabous, insulting, demeaning, and belittling them.
  • Richard shares that his parents died before he hatched.
  • Samia tells how her parents were hit by a bus.
  • After Samia and Richard fight about something that could be the jewel, the item falls and the little sparrow who tries to catch it is hit by a bus. The only thing that remains of him is a feather on the dusty street. Richard is horrified and Samia is inconsolable. (The baby bird is later found alive).
  • Max is taken captive by Zamano and the marabous.
  • The marabous set fire to the thorn bush that the sparrows live in and set it completely ablaze.
  • Samia and others hit Zamano and pluck out his tail feathers.
  • Max is strangled, jewels are dropped all over the place and Zamano orders his “ugly” marabous to kill everyone there, including the stork.
  • Max karate chops Zamano. He is kicked in the chest and is sent flying through the air.
  • Zamano is electrocuted repeatedly.

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:

  • Olga’s eyes glow when she enters dark places, and she looks a little creepy as she hops around in the dark with glowing, green light shooting from her face.
  • Some small children may also be upset by the evil-looking marabous.

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.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

  • The marabous are stripped of all their bling and are shown ‘naked’. They fly off happy, finally feeling free.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some name-calling in this movie, including:

  • “You’re a weak, lazy, self-centred, hot head.”
  • Pathetic
  • Gullible bird brains.
  • Looney
  • Hideous
  • Ugly
  • Stupid.

In a nutshell

Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel is an animated adventure with bright graphics, some musical interludes, and a largely predictable plot. It is a family film for all but the youngest of viewers with an important message about the Earth’s true treasures.

The main messages from this movie are that the most precious things in life are those who love you as well as those whom you choose to love; and that the most precious things in the world are not the jewels or items we amass but rather the treasures of the Earth itself.

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

  • Friendship
  • Teamwork
  • Compassion
  • Courage
  • Empathy.

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

  • Going off by yourself without telling anyone where you are.
  • Treating others unkindly or rudely and constantly putting them down.
  • Using others for your own gain.
  • Putting undue value on how you look, rather than who you are.