Pinocchio (1940)


Rated: G
Length:  88 min.
Age: 5 and up      Commonsense Media sez:    6 +

Scary Factor: Stromboli character waving an axe and threatening; young Lampwick’s terror as he turns into a donkey; Coachman herding the donkey-boys with a whip; enormous whale Monstro chasing them at the end

Also: scenes with alcohol and smoking are too numerous to mention; some leering and mild sexual innuendo from lady’s man Jiminy; character playing with fire; wanton destruction

Intense: some children may have trouble with Pinocchio’s ‘death’ near the end, but keep them watching because he isn’t dead for long!

Language: “Give a bad boy enough rope and he’ll soon make a jackass of himself!”

Interests: fairy tales, fairies, magic, puppets, insects, ocean, whales

Next: Dumbo (also astonishingly not-politically-correct)

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Peter Pan (2003)

Rated: PG – frightening scenes, violence
Length: 113 min.
Age: 8 and up.                       commonsense media sez:  9+

Scary Factor: violence and killing among the pirates, though no show of blood and gore; the mermaids are truly creepy, and Hook is genuinely threatening

Intense scenes: Wendy is shot down and believed briefly to be dead, Tinker Bell drinks poison and nearly dies, Peter is bashed around by Hook during final fight

Sexuality: only some sexual tension between Peter and Wendy, limited to a couple kisses; there is a glimpse of bare Lost Boy behinds at one point

Also: a brief sight of Hook’s amputated arm may bother the squeamish (though the wound is old: no blood); as always, the pirates smoke and drink, and liquor and cigars are offered to Wendy (she turns them down)

Interests: fairies, pirates, magic, mermaids

Next: read the original novel Peter Pan, see the grittier pirate movies (Pirates of the Caribbean are for the 12+ crowd)

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