Not recommended under 8: parental guidance recommended 8-10, due to violence and scary scenes
This topic contains:
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 |
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: | Secret life of pets |
Classification: | G |
Consumer advice lines: | Very mild sense of threat and some crude humour |
Length: | 91 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
The Secret Life of Pets tells the story of what pets do after their owners leave for work for the day. It seems they spend the day meeting with their friends, holding heavy rock parties, raiding the fridge and watching television. The main character is Max (voice of Louis C.K.), a loveable friendly dog whose happy life with his owner Katie (Ellie Kemper) is turned upside down when she brings home a ‘brother’ for him, another stray dog called Duke (Eric Stonestreet). Duke is a huge dog who threatens Max’s comfortable life. Max therefore decides to trash the apartment putting the blame on Duke and ultimately getting rid of him.
In the meantime however, the two take themselves for a walk and end up in a lot of trouble. They get ambushed by a gang of scrawny cats, ‘arrested’ by the dog catchers, set free by Snowball, an angry rabbit, and end up in the underworld of lost and unwanted pets. It soon becomes obvious that Max and Duke don’t belong in this group of angry animals whose aim is the destruction of humans and they have to escape. The chase is on for Max and Duke to find their way home and on the way learn some valuable lessons.
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.
Sibling rivalry; blended families; animals in danger
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 slapstick violence in this movie including:
More serious violence includes:
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:
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:
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 could also be disturbed by some of the above-mentioned scenes.
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
The following products are displayed or used in this movie:
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
Nothing of concern
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is a lot of name-calling that children may imitate, such as:
The secret life of pets is a comic adventure story about the life of pets when their owners aren’t around. The film is quite fast-paced and original, and does have some good underlying messages, but it is full of violence. It is also quite scary for younger children and therefore is more suited to older viewers with parental guidance recommended for eight to ten year olds.
The main messages from this movie are that:
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
Children and Media Australia (CMA) is a registered business name of the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM).
CMA provides reviews, research and advocacy to help children thrive in a digital world.
ACCM is national, not-for-profit and reliant on community support. You can help.
ABN: 16 005 214 531