Animation

Animated movie reviews

The Emoji Movie-Kids Movie Review

A text can show a lot of emotions, especially with the right emoji. Happy, sad, frustrated, confused; emoji’s express the way a person feels. The Emoji Movie is a story about a world inside our smartphones. Each emoji is supposed to have one job or a certain expression. When the Meh symbol is pressed, Gene Meh, a young emoji, messes up and shows more than one expression. Now mayhem ensues in the world of emoji’s, and the adorable symbols try to handle the chaos while hoping they don’t get deleted.

Rating: 4 and 1/2 buckets out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: October 24, 2017
MPAA Rating: PG
Best Age Group: 6+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent/Disturbing Content: Moderate
Crude or Profane Language: Moderate
Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild
Will Kids Like It? Yes

Talking Points:

Sexual Content: Mild

There’s flirting between the emoji characters and human characters.
A character’s phone plays the song “Bubblebutt.”

Violent/Disturbing Content: Moderate

Robots chase emoji’s and blasts them with lasers.
One of the robots is very scary and intimidating. At one point it seems as though all the emoji’s will be deleted.

Crude or Profane Language: Mild

A character starts to say, “Oh “sh–, ” but doesn’t finish the word. We hear name calling, to name a few; “loser,” “freak,” “weirdo,” “stupid,” and “butt.”

Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild

There’s a beer emoji.
A character mentions, “Hack Daniels.”

Will Kids Like It? Yes

Overall The Emoji Movie is a fun, colorful and very kid-friendly movie. Adult’s may like it too.

Cars 3-Kids’ Movie Review

Most talented professional athletes have their moments in the spotlight with their fast moves and skillful plays, and then a new generation comes along to take it away. Whether it’s Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant there comes a time when they should end their careers. In Cars 3 the legendary Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) is surprised when new racers like the arrogant Jackson Storm zooms right past him in a race. Depressed and devastated, #95 is not quite ready to quit. With the help of an eager young race technician and inspiration from the late Fabulous Hudson Hornet, Lightning McQueen tries to get back in the game. This is the third film in Pixar’s popular Cars franchise.

Rating: 4 and 1/2 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: November 7, 2017
MPAA Rating: G
Best Age Group: 5+
Sexual Content: None
Violent/Disturbing Content: Moderate
Crude or Profane Language: None
Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild
Will Kids Like It? Yes

Talking Points:

There are some life lessons regarding age and growing older. The film stresses the importance of trying new things no matter how old you are. A character says, “don’t fear failure. Try new things.”

Sexual Content: None

Violent/Disturbing Content: Moderate

We see a couple of intense car crashes where the main characters are demolished to scraps of metal. However, later we see the vehicles in one piece.

Crude or Profane Language: None

Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild

Some of the racers meet in a bar and drink oil.

Will Kids Like It? Yes

Cars 3 is wonderful action packed film for kids of all ages. Parents will like it too.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie-Kids’ Movie Review

George Beard (voice of Kevin Hart) and Harold Hutchins (voice of Thomas Middleditch) are two fourth grade boys who are best friends and neighbors. They love to have a good time, especially when pulling school pranks. On their spare time, when they should be doing homework, the duo work on the comic books they co-created about a superhero named Captain Underpants; a character who has superpowers. Things get difficult for the boys when Principal Krupp wants to separate them due to their school prank- loving antics. Fear of separation, the boys decide to hypnotize their principal into believing that he’s Captain Underpants. Now chaos ensues as Principal Krupp becomes the superhero Captain Underpants. Based on the popular book series Captain Underpants.

Rating: 3 and 1/2 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: September 12, 2017
MPAA Rating: PG
Best Age Group: 6+
Sexual Content: None
Violent/Disturbing Content: Excessive
Crude or Profane Language: Moderate
Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild
Will Kids Like It? Yes

Talking Points:

Sexual Content: None

Violent/Disturbing Content: Excessive

There’s a lot of slapstick silly violence. The villain (Professor Poopypants) attacks the school with a huge robotic monster. He also creates a huge animated toilet that’s filled with toxic waste. Captain Underpants is thrown into the toilet and swallows some of the muck.
The professor gets hit by passing vehicles. He creates scientific mechanisms that cause a lot of damage.
The professor shoots rays at kids in the school, clearing their thoughts.
Buildings are destroyed.
We see a vision of the future which involves robots zapping people with lasers.
Principal Krupp/Captain Underpants creates a lot of chaos as well. Dressed as Captain Underpants, he jumps off high building thinking he can fly, but he can’t. He gets hit by moving cars, bounces around town on a giant ape balloon, and throws an old lady into a tree after her cat.
Principal Krupp yells a lot and is constantly angry at the students

Crude or Profane Language: Moderate

Potty words such as; “fart,” “poopy,” “diarrhea,” and “butt.”
There’s also name calling; “weirdo,” “stupid,” and “dumb.”

Drug and Alcohol Content: None

Will Kids Like It? Yes

Elementary school aged kids love the humor of the film.

Overall Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is a fun entertaining film for kids. Parents need to be aware of excessive potty humor throughout the film.

Wonder Woman-Kids’ Movie Review

Diana (Gal Gadot) is not your average young girl. Her mother, the Amazon Queen, created Diana from a hunk of clay. They live on an island populated entirely by women and, since there are no kids on the island, Diana has no playmates. She studies hard, speaks over 150 languages, and on her spare time Diana sneaks off with her aunt who gives her some hard core warrior training. Diana grows into a smart, strong and beautiful woman. Her life dramatically changes the day she rescues Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), an American pilot who crashes his plane in the water. Diana is shocked as she’s never seen a man before. Steve tells her about the horrors of World War I that’s going on outside of her sheltered paradise. Diana is convinced that she can stop the war, and she ultimately discovers her true powers as Wonder Woman! Wonder Woman is based on DC Comics character of the same name.

Rating: 3 and 1/2 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: September 19, 2017
MPAA Rating: PG13
Best Age Group: 10+
Sexual Content: Moderate
Violent/Disturbing Content: Excessive
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild
Will Kids Like It? Yes

Talking Points:

Sexual Content: Moderate

There is a sexual attraction between Steve and Diana (Wonder Woman). We see them briefly kiss, and it’s implied that they’ve slept together.
In one scene we see Chris Pine naked, though he covers his privates with his hands.

Violent/Disturbing Content: Excessive

There’s a lot of violence throughout the film. There are bad guys and numerous battles. There are sword fights (someone is impaled by a sword), characters punch and kick each other.
The movie takes place during WWI, so there’s a lot of combat fighting. We see injured soldiers with missing limbs. Numerous characters die from the war, explosions and bullets.

Crude or Profane Language: Mild

We hear “h—” a few times in the film.

Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild

We see characters drinking beer and other alcoholic beverages.

Will Kids Like It? Yes

Overall this is an entertaining, action pact film. Parents need to be aware of the excessive violence.

The Lego Batman Movie-Kids’ Movie Review

They’re all back; Batman (Will Arnett) and his sidekick Robin (Michael Cera), his loyal butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes), and of course his arch nemesis the Joker (Zach Galifianakis)… all as Lego’s. In this film Batman wants to stop the Joker from his hostile takeover of Gotham City, the only problem is Batman thinks he can do it alone. Eventually Batman comes to realize he might just need a little help from his friends and cohorts to save his beloved city.

Rating: 4 and 1/2 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: June 13, 2017
MPAA Rating: PG
Best Age Group: 7+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent/Disturbing Content: Moderate
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild
Will Kids Like It? Yes

Talking Points:

The film highlights the importance of teamwork and family. Batman is humbled and realizes he can’t do everything by himself.
There’s some potty-humor in the film. There are references to “farts” and being “silent but deadly.”
There are a lot of butt jokes as well. Batman refers to Alfred as his “Buttler.”

Sexual Content: Mild

Bruce Wayne labels himself as a “playboy.”
Batman loves his body and well built physique.
There’s a lot of humor relating to Robin’s given name, Dick.

Violent/Disturbing Content: Moderate

There’s a lot of slapstick, silly violence.
We see superheroes and villains get beat up, bashed and blown up.
There are a lot of bad guys and battles throughout the film.

Crude or Profane Language: Mild

We hear, “butt,” “loser,” and “sucks.”

Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild

Batman and his butler Alfred discuss different kinds of wines.

Will Kids Like It? Yes

I interviewed kids ages 5 to 8 who loved the film. Having said that, one 5 year old girl was scared, and didn’t like all the fighting.

Overall this is a fun, entertaining film for the whole family. Parents need to be aware of the mild potty humor and moderate violence throughout the film. I recommend this for kids ages 7 and up.