Not recommended under 5, PG 5-8 (Violence; Scary scenes)
This topic contains:
Children under 5 | Not recommended due to violence and scary scenes |
Children aged 5 to 8 | Parental guidance recommended due to violence and scary scenes |
Children 8 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: | Smurfs 2 |
Classification: | G |
Consumer advice lines: | Some scenes may scare young children |
Length: | 105 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
In this sequel to the Smurfs it’s revealed that Smurfette (voice of Kate Perry) was originally created by the wicked Gargamel (Hank Azaria) to infiltrate the Smurf village and to help him destroy all of the Smurfs. Papa Smurf (Jonathan Winters), however, cast a spell on her to make her into a real Smurf with a kind heart and thus Smurfette became part of the family.
Gargamel now plans to get Smurfette back with the aid of a brother and a sister he’s created for her and who are called Naughties (because they are). Gargamel plans to extract the secret of how Smurfette became a Smurf from her, then change the Naughties into Smurfs and from them make many Smurfs. These ‘bad’ Smurfs will then be able to take over the Smurf Village and create ‘Smurf-aggedon’.
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.
Magic
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 comic violence done for laughs in this movie such as:
There are also many scenes showing more realistic violence such as:
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.
Children in this age group could be upset by the above-mentioned scenes as well as:
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.
Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film
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
None of concern in the movie, but associated merchandise being marketed to children
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
None of concern
None of concern
Some name calling, such as “moron”.
Smurfs 2 is an animated movie that is likely to greatly appeal to children. It has more of a storyline than the first Smurf movie and we see more of the villainous Gargamel. As a result, it is probably more suited to older children, but all but the very young are likely to enjoy it with some guidance from a parent. It contains both comic and more realistic violence and some scary scenes which may be too disturbing for under 5s. At 105 minutes, the film is also over long for this age group.
The main messages from this movie are that ‘it doesn’t matter where you came from - it’s who you choose to be’ and that ‘we rise to the amount of love we’re shown and sink when it drops’.
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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