RUNT

image for RUNT

Short takes

Not suitable under 8; parental guidance to 10 (language)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for RUNT
  • a review of RUNT completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 10 September 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not suitable due to language.
Children aged 8–10 Parental guidance recommended due to language.
Children aged 11 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: RUNT
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild coarse language
Length: 93 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

The outback Australian town of Upson Downs has fallen on hard times. It hasn’t rained in over a year and the miserly Earl Robert-Barren (Jack Thompson) has put a dam on his property, consequently drying up the river, creating drought and forcing his neighbours to sell their farms. The inventive Shearer family is doing all they can to keep their home but they seem to be fighting a losing battle. The widowed Grandma Dolly lives in a tiny, ramshackle trailer to one side of the property. Her daughter-in-law Susie (Celeste Barber) and son Brian Shearer (Jai Courtney) have had to take out an overdraft to pay the overdraft on their home. Their son Max (Jack LaTorre) is determined to capture his daredevil stunts on film in the hopes that he will become famous and he is causing his parents no end of stress. Their daughter Annie (Lily LaTorre) loves to fix things but, try as she might, this problem may just be beyond her abilities. She and Runt (a rescue dog named Squid), the stray she adopted, enter a dog show at the local fair and take first place, much to the horror of defending-champion and nefarious show-off, Fergus Fink (Matt Day). Annie and Runt go on to win the National Competition and are subsequently invited to participate in the illustrious Krumpets Dog Show in London. Annie pins all her hopes on winning the prize money in order to save her family’s farm but despite their best efforts things don’t quite go according to plan and Annie learns some valuable lessons about disappointment, pursing dreams, and the power of community.

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.

Financial hardship; Injustice; Sacrifice; Reckless behaviours; Sabotage.

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:

  • When Runt steals some sausages from a butcher shop, a woman chases him down the street with a meat cleaver. Others soon follow suit and a man with a net repeatedly tries to corner and capture Runt.
  • Max lights his bike wheels on fire as he tries to film a daring stunt. He winds up setting his pants on fire as his mother attacks him and his bike with a blanket, trying to put out the flames.
  • When Annie asks Max to do something dangerous, he responds enthusiastically with: “I suppose I could fall and die. You’ll have to film me!” He does not plummet to his death but he nearly slips and is hanging on upside-down.
  • Max jumps from a tall height and realises, as he lands, that his arm is broken and his bone is at a very strange angle.
  • When Annie goes to meet with someone, her father checks in with her, saying he just wanted to check that she wasn’t boiling in a cauldron.
  • Robert-Barren is washed away in a rainstorm when his dam breaks.

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.

  • Nothing further noted.

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.

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

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Though YouTube is not specifically mentioned, it looks as though that is the site to which Max is uploading his videos.
  • Susie frequently uses a Singer sewing machine.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • A presenter talks about a contestant’s “Cocker”, called Peanut, and giggles repeatedly about the breed and choice of name.
  • Two commentators talk about “stiff competition” while alluding to other meanings.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

  • When Max’s pants catch on fire, he quickly gets them off and is standing in the yard in his underwear.
  • Fergus Fink does weird gyrating dance moves, including hip circles and pelvic thrusts, as he takes off his jacket. On a later occasion he does similar moves and the camera zooms in on his mid-section.
  • Susie and Brian kiss.
  • Grandma Dolly and a female character appear to fall in love.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • A character says that Susie’s pies taste like “Shi-” Annie quickly tries to talk over top of him so that the word goes unnoticed by her mum.
  • Bugger off!
  • “Big, glittering, shi-” – the last consonant of the last word is lost but the word and intention is perfectly clear.
  • Bloody hell
  • Bastard
  • What the f-
  • “Stuff your rams up your Jonesy.”
  • You biscuit
  • There is also some toilet humour when a dog pees on Fergus and another character says that he “nearly soiled himself.”

In a nutshell

RUNT is a heart-warming Australian drama based on the beloved children’s book by Craig Silvey. The family film contains powerful messages about sacrifice and determination, and beautiful examples of an impoverished community coming together to cheer on a child and a stray dog that no one wanted. Due to the language, RUNT is best suited to audiences over the age of 8.

The main messages from this movie are that it doesn’t matter where you come from, it only matters who you are and that you must believe in yourself, in the goodness of others and in the power of community. The film also shows the importance of not giving up and teaches the value of never, ever underestimating the abilities of an underdog.

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

  • Courage
  • Ingenuity
  • Love
  • Compassion
  • Respect
  • Teamwork
  • Helpfulness.

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

  • In the film, Annie is taught that kind lies are ok. Parents may wish to discuss honesty and the implications of deceiving others despite the best of intentions.
  • Unethically depriving others of water and the effects that this can have on both environments and communities.
  • Sabotaging someone else so that you can get ahead.