Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 8 (concerning role modelling, some peril, threat, and mild cartoon violence, substance use, mild coarse language)
This topic contains:
Children under 5 | Not suitable due to concerning role modelling (eating/drinking dangerous / poisonous substances; lying to parents; dangerous behaviour, e.g. children riding bikes while on a smart phone), some peril, threat, and mild cartoon violence, substance use, and mild coarse language. |
Children aged 5–8 | Parental guidance recommended due to concerning role modelling (e.g. eating/drinking dangerous/poisonous substances; lying to parents; dangerous behaviour, e.g. children riding bikes while on a smart phone), some peril, threat, and mild cartoon violence, substance use, and mild coarse language. |
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: | Welcome to Smelliville (The Ogglies) |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Mild crude humour and coarse language |
Length: | 85 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
The idyllic little town of Smelliville has a problem: a big rubbish dump on the edge of town that stinks so bad that no tourist wants to visit, and even its residents avoid stepping outside because of the stench. The Mayor’s wife (Tracey Grey), however, thinks that she knows a way out of the mess: she approves construction tycoon Mr Hammer’s (Tom Zahner) plan to build a Wellness Temple in place of the dump. Little does she know that there are two problems: Mr Hammer is a ruthless crook only interested in his own profit, and the dump has new residents – the Ogglies, friendly little green creatures that feast on rubbish. And it’s the Mayor’s son Max (Ben Young) and his best friend Lotta (Lily Held) who are determined to save the Ogglies from having to move again, and to educate the town about the benefits of recycling waste.
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.
Animated movie; Based on children’s book series; Comedy and Adventure; Recycling.
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 mild cartoon 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.
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
(The Ogglies) Welcome to Smelliville is an animated, family movie based on German author Erhard Dietl’s book series. Young children will likely respond but might also be challenged by the massive amount of toilet/gross-out humour, involving stench, dirt, burping, and farting. There are positive messages regarding empathy for and inclusion of outsiders, calling out ruthless capitalism, and recycling waste in an effort to help the environment. There are, however, several behaviours on display that are concerning, like primary school aged children lying to and tricking their parents, including sneaking out, breaking into places, stealing things, or reckless bike riding while fiddling with a smart phone; characters consuming toxic substances (to be fair, that’s a main point of the story that the Ogglies’ diet consists of rubbish, and there is an awkward attempt of warning in form of a pigeon saying, “Kids, don’t try this at home – only Ogglies can eat that stuff!”, after an Oggly sculls a bottle of chain oil), and, most concerning, Max’s mum’s dependency on some designer drug. There is also a random mix of accents ranging from posh British to broad American, and bizarrely characters from within one family have different accents which is a tad strange. Some of the above-mentioned aspects make the film unsuitable for a very young audience and warrant parental guidance for a preschool and young primary school-aged audience.
The main messages from this movie are that everyone deserves a chance and that it’s important to try and see the world through other people’s eyes.
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 the importance of:
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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