Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 8 (themes, animated violence, scary scenes)
This topic contains:
Children under 5 | Not suitable due to themes, violence and scary scenes. |
Children aged 5–8 | Parental guidance recommended due to themes, violence and scary scenes. |
Children over the age of 8 | 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: | Thumbelina |
Classification: | G |
Consumer advice lines: | The content is very mild in impact |
Length: | 86 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Given a seed and told to plant it, an old woman (voice of Barbara Cook) who longs for a child soon finds herself with a beautiful flower. When the flower finally opens it reveals a small girl inside, a girl only as tall as the old woman’s thumb. Deciding to call her daughter Thumbelina (voice of Jodi Benson), they live happily together until Thumbelina begins to question her size, feeling she must be the only tiny person in the world. Learning about fairy tales, Thumbelina longs to meet a fairy prince and, as luck would have it, just such a prince happens past her window one twilit night. They meet, they talk, they fall in love and Prince Cornelius (voice of Gary Imhoff) promises to return for her in the morning. Unfortunately, shortly before he arrives, Thumbelina is kidnapped by a mother toad who heard Thumbelina sing and wants her to join the family road show. Thumbelina is dragged away into the dawn leaving her mother devastated. Prince Cornelius pledges to find Thumbelina and bring her home but he must outwit Grundel (voice of Joe Lynch), a nasty toad who wants Thumbelina for himself and is determined to marry her at any cost; a beetle (voice of Gilbert Gottfried) who also briefly desires Thumbelina; and later on a mole (voice of John Hurt) who attempts to marry Thumbelina too. Lost in a world largely unknown to her, Thumbelina, with the help of a friendly bird Jacquimo (voice of Gino Conforti), tries to find her way home through the forest before winter truly sets in and before she is married off to someone she does not love.
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.
Arranged marriages; kidnapping; separation from a parent; gender stereotypes; the objectification of women and girls.
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:
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.
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
Thumbelina is a 1994 animated musical based on the story by Hans Christian Anderson. The animation is fairly basic and the plot is predictable but there is something appealing in the story about following your heart and finding true love. However, the themes and ideas contained in the film send some dangerous messages and perpetuate some unfortunate stereotypes, specifically around the objectification of women. While the film is aimed at younger audiences this is one that parents should watch with their children if only to put a more positive spin on some of the content.
The main messages from this movie are to never wish to be anything other than what you are; and that if you follow your heart nothing is impossible for your heart will lead you home.
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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ABN: 16 005 214 531