Kids
Igor-Kids Movie Review
The movie is about an ambitious lab assistant, Igor, who wants to become a mad scientist, and wants to win the first place in the annual science fair.
Rating: Three out of five popcorn buckets.
Release Date: January 20, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG
Best Age Group: 6+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent Content: Moderate
Crude or Profane Language: Moderate
Drugs and Alcohol Content: Mild
Talking Points:
Igor intended to invent a monster, but instead he invented Eva, who’s a sweet, gentle woman. At one point Eva gives Igor, and his two friends, Scamper and Brain, a gift. Then Igor feels bad that he didn’t have anything for her, so he ends up finding a necklace, and gives to her. It’s a very touching part in the movie.
Eva’s character is a light and refreshing part of the movie.
There are some funny parts, jokes that adults will get about Hollywood.
There’s a good message, Igor says “Everyone has an evil bone in their body, we choose whether to use it or not.” Eva says, “ It’s better to be a good nobody than an evil somebody.” Eva makes a decision to refuse the evil power that she’s tempted by.
They idealized evil, which is not good for kids to see: The did it in a cartoonish way. In this country of Malaria, evil is good. The King’s motto is, “The way to succeed is to do evil.”
Sexual Content: Mild
- The evil doctor’s assistant throws herself on top of Igor, and passionalty kisses him.
- Heidi wears some low cut dresses.
Violent Content: Moderate
- Some kids may find it to be scary because when an experiment failed, there was smoke, lightening, loud noises. The Evil Science Fair there were violent, mechanical monsters fighting.
- The evil scientist, Dr. Schandenfreud, was unpleasant to his girlfriend, he called her big mouth, and pushed her around. He typically won the science fair because he stole the other scientists inventions.
Crude or Profane Language: Moderate
- “Idiot” and “fool” were used.
- The d-word is used several time throughout the film.
- “What the…” is said.
Drugs and Alcohol Content: Mild
- It’s implied that a couple of characters are drinking alcohol.
Some parents my not like the movie because of the emphasis on evil. On the other hand, some parents may hope that their kids will understand the message, that being a good person is better than being a bad person. The movie may encourage some good family discussions about good and evil.
Gnomeo and Juliet Review
This is the story about two feuding families, the Montagues (the blue family), and their next door neighbors, the Capulets (the red family). This story is based on Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy, but in this movie the characters are garden gnomes. The two families bicker and battle throughout the whole movie, while Gnomeo, (member of the blue family), and Juliet, (member of the red family), secretly fall in love.
Rating: Three out of five buckets
Release Date: May 24, 2011
MPAA Rating: G
Best Age Group: Any age
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent Content: Mild
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
Drugs and Alcohol Content: Mild
See a clip of my review, plus the review of Just Go With It!
Talking Points
This is a cute, entertaining movie, with some nice messages. The two families are seeking revenge against each other throughout the movie, however, the film stresses how miserable they are in trying to seek revenge. It takes Gnomeo and Juliet’s love affair to help the families forgive and forget.
Adults will love the music; classics from Elton John, who is the executive producer of the film.
The movie is similar to Toy Story in that the gnomes only come to life when people aren’t watching them.
The movie is a nice way to introduce youngsters to Shakespeare. My son and I talked about the story of Romeo and Juliet on our way home from the movie.
Violent Content: Mild
- The gnomes battle and fight continuously. One gnome seeks revenge by getting a powerful lawn tractor that rips down their fence, and destroys the families lawn and gardens. However, it’s not too scary for little kids.
Profane/Crude Language: Mild
- Slight potty humor. One gnome says, “Let’s go kick some grass!”
I interviewed kids ages 4 to 12 after the movie; they all loved it, and thought it was funny. Parents loved the innocence about the film. However, my eleven year-old son thought it was stupid and predicable.
This G-rated movie is targeted for young kids, and they do a good job of keeping it sweet and innocent. Adults may get a little bored, but with Elton John’s music playing parents will be thoroughly entertained.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days Review
Summertime is finally here, and Greg Heffley is ready. His summer plan is to play video games and eat junk food all day and everyday; however his parents have a different plan. They want him to play outside, join the Wilderness Scouts, and the young reader’s book club. Since Greg’s original plan didn’t work, he comes up with another idea to avoid his parent’s quest. Greg decides to accompany his best friend, Rowley, and hang out at Rowley’s country club pool everyday; however in order to do that, Greg lies to his parents and tells them he’s working at the pool. Now the adventure begins as Greg and Rowley start their summer escapades; some good, some bad. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days is the third adaptation of the best-selling Diary of a Wimpy Kid graphic novels.
Rating: 5 out of 5 buckets
Release Date: December 18, 2012
MPAA Rating: PG
Best Age Group: 7+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent Content: Mild
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
Drugs and Alcohol Content: None
Will Kids Like It? Yes
See a clip of my review here, along with Total Recall!
Talking Points:
While Greg often thinks his parents are too old fashioned, Greg’s parents (Susan and Frank) are truly caring loving parents, only wanting the best for their children.
There are some great father-son moments. Greg’s father (Frank) tries to connect more with his son. They bond over a comic strip, they both dislike. When Frank finds out about Greg’s lie, they have a heartfelt talk. Frank quotes his grandpa; “The man who never made a mistake has never made anything. The trick is to learn from your mistakes.” This could spark a good parent-child discussion.
When Rowley breaks a promise to his parents, he’s sad when his parents are disappointed in him.
Greg lies several times to his parents, he and Rodrick sneak into the country club several times, and order smoothies, not knowing that they were charged to Rowley’s dad. Another good parent-child discussion of what NOT to do.
There is a lot of potty humor; boogers, peeing in the pool and dirty diapers are some examples.
Rodrick fakes a drowning while trying to get a cute lifeguard’s attention. Not a good thing for kids to see.
Sexual Content: Mild
- Teenage girls are shown in their bikinis.
- Greg finds a pair of girl’s shorts with the word “Princess” embroidered on the back. He wears the shorts because he lost his bathing suit in the pool while attempting to dive off the high dive.
Violent Content: Mild
- While playing tennis, Rowley gets forcefully hit in the crotch and Greg gets hit all over. Greg also falls over the net and crashes to the ground.
- One character runs over Rodrick’s toe with a car tire.
- Greg causes a camp leader to trip, fall and set his tent on fire.
- Rodrick accidentally ruins a girls 16th birthday party; he smashes into an ice sculpture, and destroys her chocolate fountain.
- While camping, a boy tells a scary story; this may scare young kids.
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
- Name calling; words such as, “loser,” “jerk” and “wimp,” are used.
Drugs and Alcohol Content: None
Will Kids Like It? Yes
Diary of a Wimpy Kid fans will enjoy this movie. Even though the young character’s in the film don’t always make the best choices, they eventually learn their lesson! Parents need to be aware of the potty humor, pranks and the misbehaving kids in the film. I recommend this for kids ages 7 and up.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules Review
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is the second movie of the series, based on the best-selling illustrated novels by Jeff Kinney. Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) is now in seventh grade, he’s no longer the wimpy sixth grader. However, his confidence is brought down very quickly by his older brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick), who jumps at the chance to harass his little brother. Meanwhile, their parents (especially the mother) desperately want the two boys to be friends, and get along; they even go out-of-town for the weekend, leaving Greg and Rodrick alone so they can have a “bonding” weekend with each other. There are many comedic and entertaining parts to this movie, one for the whole family to enjoy.
Rating: Five out of five buckets
Release Date: March 25, 2011
MPAA Rating: PG
Best Age Group: 9+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent Content: Mild
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
Drugs and Alcohol Content: Mild
Talking Points
I am a huge fan of this series, they are not only fun movies, but the books are entertaining too, and may encourage young kids to read!
It is Rowley (Robert Capron), Greg’s overweight best friend, who serves as the obedient, moral boy in the movie. There’s a great contrast between the two boys. Rowley always tries to do the right thing, despite what people think of him, and things usually work out well for him. Greg makes his decisions based on what’s going to be popular, which almost never works out for him.
The two boys visit their grandpa in a retirement home. Even though they are bored, it’s cute to see the grandfather/grandson interaction, and shows the importance of family.
Some parents may feel uncomfortable with this movie. The two boys do some inappropriate things; they lie and manipulate their parents, they have a party when they were instructed not to, and Rodrick pulls some mean pranks on his younger brother. However, this could spark some great parent/child conversations; of what NOT to do.
Here are Rodrick’s Rules: They may be funny to your children, however, they’re rules that you won’t want your children to follow!
• Rule #1: “Don’t be good at something you don’t want to do.”
• Rule #2: “Always lower mom and dad’s expectations.”
• Rule #3: “Never do something when someone else can do it for you.”
Sexual Content: Mild
• Nothing for parents to be concerned about.
Violent Content: Moderate
• Rawley sits on a small ball filled with toothpicks. Though this hurt him, it was a funny scene.
• There are a few mild arguments amongst the two brothers, but nothing for parents to be too concerned about.
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
• Words such as “jerk” “butt-brain” and “doofus” are used.
I interviewed parents and children after the movie, some comments were:
“I liked the fake vomit,” said a 9-year old boy.
“I liked the part with the chocolate on Greg’s pants,” said a 10-year old boy.
“It was a fun and entertaining movie,” said a mom.
As I previously mentioned I loved this movie. The film portrays the reality of every family; whether it’s trying fit in at the middle school or being a rebellious teenager trying to figure out life. We all have our issues, but as parents, we want nothing more than our children to be happy, have good morals, and treat each other with respect! That’s ultimately what Greg and Rodrick’s parents wanted from their children.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Review
“Diary of a Wimpy Kid” is based on the best selling illustrated novel by Jeff Kinney. This is a story about a pre-teen boy named Greg, who is trying to figure out how to survive in middle school. In Greg’s eyes middle school is awful, and filled with bullies and morons. To survive, he comes up with a series of schemes, with hopes of climbing to the top of the social ladder. Though his plans backfire on him, in the end he realizes what’s really important.
Rating: Five out of five buckets
Release Date: August 3, 2010
MPAA Rating: PG
Best Age Group: 7+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent Content: Moderate
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
Drugs and Alcohol Content: Mild
Greg’s older brother, Roderick, plays many pranks and jokes on Greg.
Talking Points:
Through all the bullying and teasing there are nice messages throughout the movie.
- Be a good and loyal friend.
- Greg’s mom say’s “You have to trust your gut and do the right thing . . . because it’s our choices that shape us.”
- There’s also the message to be yourself and people will like you.
At the end of the movie one girl says to a mean, controlling girl, “There’s middle school, then high school, then life, all the things that matter to you now won’t matter then.”
One of my favorite things about he movie is that even though Greg was teased and bullied, he never lets it get him down. He remained upbeat, and even more persistent.
There’s a lot of potty humor, from Greg urinating all over his brother, and kids playing with boogers.
There are no doors on the bathroom stalls, we see some students sitting on the toilet. Greg say’s that he’s not pooping until high school.
Sexual Content: Mild
- Greg found a magazine under his brother’s bed, with a women in a skimpy bikini on a motorcycle.
Violent/Disturbing Content: Moderate
- Teenagers chase and threaten to beat up Greg, and his best friend Rawly, throughout the movie. Younger kids may find them scary.
- Teenagers force Rawley to scrape a rancid piece of cheese off the ground and take a bite of it.
- On Halloween they go to Devil Worshipper Woods. Before they go trick or treating, Greg’s older brother tells the boys a scary story about those woods.
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
- Words such as “idiot” and “jerk”
Overall it’s a fun movie, with humor that kids will enjoy, great characters, and nice messages. I think the target grade is third grade and up. Though there were younger kids in the theater, some parents may feel uncomfortable bringing younger kids, because of the potty humor, and the bullying. Everyone that I interviewed in the theater loved it, they thought it was funny. One mom loved the nice messages that were brought out in the movie. I give it 5 out of 5 popcorn buckets.