Twits, The

image for Twits, The

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Not suitable under 8; parental guidance to 9 (violence, themes, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Twits, The
  • a review of Twits, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 21 October 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not suitable due to violence, themes and scary scenes.
Children aged 8–9 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes and scary scenes.
Children aged 10 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: Twits, The
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild animated violence, themes, coarse language, crude humour, fantasy themes and scary scenes
Length: 103 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Mr and Mrs Twit (voices of Johnny Vegas and Margo Martindale) are a nasty pair who enjoy playing cruel tricks on others. When their town of Triperot falls from its position as the best place to have fun, the Twits decide to capitalise on this and create a theme park called Twitlandia. However, before it opens, it is immediately condemned, causing the Twits to take revenge on the town – and they fill the water tower with hot dog meat, flooding the town in a pink substance.

Meanwhile, in an orphanage run by a very kind and gentle Mr Napkin (Phil Johnston), the children are determined to discover who has caused the mayhem. Beesha (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), the oldest child, is very smart and caring, while dealing with her own issues of abandonment. Beesha takes particular care of a young boy called Bubsy (Ryan Anderson Lopez) and together they manage to outsmart the Twits by playing their own tricks.

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.

Orphans; Good versus evil; Fantasy; Abandonment; Children and animals in peril.

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 a lot of slapstick violence in this movie, with characters knocking into each other, hitting one another, falling down, etc. Other examples include:

  • Explosions are heard when the Twits blow up the water tower with hot dog meat. A man is seen running ahead of the flood of the pink substance when he is rescued just in time.
  • The Twits are arrested by the police who manhandle them and throw them to the ground.
  • Mrs Twit regularly threatens to put the children into a pie and eat them for supper. Mr Twit traps birds on a glue base to turn them into bird pie.
  • Mrs Twit grabs Bubsy, and Beesha grabs him by the other end – a tug of war continues until a Muggle-Wump (a monkey-like creature) arrives. The Muggle-Wump hits Mrs Twit with his tail many times.
  • The Twits fall out of the top storey of a building and land in a dumpster.
  • Mr Napkin is scooped up in an excavator.
  • The local mayor eats some cake made by Mrs Twit and his bottom explodes.
  • The children awake to loud explosions and find their orphanage is under attack by the Twits. The children are sealed inside the building and it is eventually towed away by the Twits.
  • The Twits blow up Twitlandia with fireworks, which they also fire at the people.

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.

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:

  • Many scary-looking creatures – Mr Twit is large and hairy and Mrs Twit is tall and thin with a pointy nose.
  • Twitlandia is in disarray and looks like a dark and scary place.

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.

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:

  • Beesha and Bubsy get lost inside Twitlandia and can’t find their way out.
  • Beesha and Bubsy find a cage full of blue monkey-like creatures called Muggle-Wumps. The Twits make the Muggle-Wumps stand on their heads for a time every day in order to produce magic tears which provide power for Twitlandia.
  • The Twits’ home is creepy and smelly. Beesha and Bubsy go inside and see taxidermied creatures everywhere – foxes with big eyes and teeth, amidst others. A toad sits on the bench amongst the dead creatures and suddenly jumps out at Beesha and Bubsy.
  • Mrs Twit feeds Mr Twit a bowl of spaghetti, which is, in fact, a bowl of wiggly worms. Mr Twit spits it out into Mrs Twit’s mouth.
  • Eyeballs are also put into food.
  • Beesha and Bubsy are sitting on the Twits’ bed when it starts to descend down several floors. They manage to creep out and hide underneath the bed where they hear the Twits snoring and thrashing about in bed.
  • The Twits are glued to the floor by their heads and are left balancing upside down. The children imagine that they will get the dreaded shrinks where their bodies shrink into their heads and they turn into a puddle of goo.

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.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Bubsy is about to be adopted but the prospective parents turn him down coldly as they fear he is contaminated by the pink substance. Bubsy cries.
  • Mrs Twit tries to adopt Beesha, who refuses. Mrs Twit says she should be glad someone wants her after being dumped in an orphanage.
  • Beesha hopes that her parents might hear that she’s a good person and want her back again. Mrs Muggle-Wump explains that they might have loved her but were unable to look after her.
  • The Twits trick Beesha into thinking her parents have arrived to collect her and she goes anxiously to meet them, abandoning her post as guard. This is just another cruel trick to get Beesha out of the way.

Thirteen and overinfo

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 further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • The Twits flirt a lot but nothing more.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

  • The Twits strip Mr Napkin down to his underpants.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Jeez
  • Butt
  • Bum
  • Shut up
  • Talk of the mayor’s butt exploding
  • Fart
  • Good Lord
  • Holy Smoke
  • Name calling, such as:
    • Stupid dunces
    • Brats
    • Crapkin
    • Old wombat
    • Idiot
    • Butt Cheek Twit.

In a nutshell

The Twits is an animated movie, based on the book by renowned author, Roald Dahl. It is full of potty humour, slapstick violence and mean characters, which are contrasted with the caring empathy and smarts of the children. Due to the level of violence and scary scenes, and quite heavy themes, particularly about child abandonment, the movie isn’t suitable for children under 8 and is best suited to ages 10 and over.

The main messages from this movie are that it is better to live in a world full of love and caring than hate and anger; and that family isn’t who you’re related to but who you care about and who cares for you.

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

  • Empathy
  • Caring for others
  • Courage
  • Using your brain to overcome problems
  • Friendship
  • Teamwork
  • Don’t be afraid to ask others for help when needed
  • Standing up for what’s right
  • Forgiveness.

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

  • The Twits are cruel and wicked people who never seem to change. It is said that you have to want to change and make an effort to do so but what happens to those who don’t want to change? Do you think the Twits got what they deserved in the end?
  • The Twits treated the Muggle-Wumps cruelly, which is a terrible way to treat animals. Parents could talk to their children about animal rights and how far we’ve come in understanding that animals are sentient creatures who should be treated with care and respect.
  • Mrs Muggle-Wump tells Beesha that when you desperately want something to be true, it is easy to convince yourself that it is. Parents could talk to children about the difference between what is real and what is just imagined.