Parental guidance recommended to age 7 (Scary scenes)
This topic contains:
Children aged 5 to 7 | Parental guidance recommended due to scary scenes |
Children aged 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: The Lost Village |
Classification: | G |
Consumer advice lines: | Very mild themes. Some scenes may scare young children |
Length: | 90 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Smurfs: The Lost Village is an action-packed animated adventure film that is based on the original Smurfs comic book series. The Smurfs live in a peaceful village in the forest. Smurfette (voice of Demi Lovato) is the only girl in the village, and is not sure what her purpose in life is supposed to be. One day, when she is out Smurf-boarding in the forest with her four friends, Clumsy Smurf (voice of Jack McBrayer), Hefty Smurf (voice of Joe Manganiello) and Brainy Smurf (voice of Danny Pudi), Smurfette is captured by the evil wizard Gargamel (voice of Rainn Wilson).
Gargamel has a plan to catch as many Smurfs as he can to harness their magical powers for his own evil deeds. Smurfette and her friends manage to escape back to the village. Although they are home safe, they feel it is their duty to go on a mission to the Lost Village to tell the other distant Smurf community that they may be in danger. They’ve never travelled so far. It is a perilous adventure and a big surprise awaits them when they finally find the Lost Village.
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.
This movie has a strong theme of female empowerment and there are some good female characters, however it is very gender stereotypical (Smurfette takes on the whole adventure in her high heels, for example). Other themes include not fitting in to your community and being different
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 animated, slapstick violence in this movie including:
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.
Younger children in this age group may also find some of the above scenes scary or disturbing and parental guidance is recommended.
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 of concern
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
Nothing of concern in the movie, but plenty of associated merchandise.
There are some mild sexual references and innuendo in this movie as well as some mild crude humour, including:
None of concern
Nothing of concern
Nothing of concern
Smurfs: The Lost Village is an enjoyable action adventure with a strong female empowerment message. The animation is colourful and visually exciting. There are some scary scenes and characters, so it is not recommended for very young children and parental guidance is recommended for children aged 5 to 7.
The main messages from this movie are that it’s OK to be different, the importance of team work and looking out for your friends and community.
Parents may wish to discuss the gender stereotypes portrayed in the film.
Tip: Leave out the first A, An or The
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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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