Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 7 (scary scenes)
This topic contains:
Children under 5 | Not suitable due to some scary scenes. |
Children aged 5–7 | Parental guidance recommended due to some 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: | Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory |
Classification: | G |
Consumer advice lines: | Not Specified |
Length: | 98 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Charlie (Peter Ostrum) is a modest, caring, and hard-working boy, who spends his free time outside of school, working as a paperboy to support his impoverished family. Every day Charlie walks past Willy Wonka's (Gene Wilder) famous Chocolate Factory that produces the world's best candy. In order to protect his recipes, Wonka has not allowed anyone inside the factory for years. Unsurprisingly, Charlie and children all around the whole world get excited when Wonka announces that he has hidden five golden tickets in his chocolate bars, and those five children who find a ticket are invited on a tour inside the factory plus a life-long supply of chocolate. Amazingly, Charlie finds one of the golden tickets, and chooses his grandfather Joe (Jack Albertson) to come along. Inside the factory, eccentric Willy Wonka not only shows his guests how his famous candy is made, but also teaches them some lessons about the importance of being modest, honest, and caring.
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.
Honesty; Modesty; What goes around comes around; Creativity; and Imagination.
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.
Nearly 50 years after its first release, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a musical fantasy film, is undoubtedly a classic that still has the ingredients to entertain and amuse a family audience. Even though the sets and drops are somewhat dated according to today's standard, they are so creative and packed with attention to detail that they still impress, and the movie's messages are as current and important as ever. Parental guidance for a young audience is warranted due to a couple of scenes that are bit creepy and scary and not suitable for children under 5.
The main messages from this movie are that being kind, modest, and honest will go a long way, and that the consequences of nasty, greedy, and cheeky behaviour will eventually catch up with you.
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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