Unlike the MPAA we do not assign one inscrutable rating based on age, but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY, VIOLENCE/GORE and PROFANITY on a scale of 0 to 10, from lowest to highest, depending on quantity and context.
A stop-motion animation version of the classic Roald Dahl story in
which a young boy named James and several magically enlarged bugs
escape life with James' two evil aunts and fly on a giant peach
to New York City. With Paul Terry, Pete Postlethwaite, Joanna
Lumley, Miriam Margolyes, Mike Starr, Steven Culp and Susan
Turner-Cray; also with the voices of Simon Callow, Richard
Dreyfuss, Jane Leeves, Susan Sarandon and David Thewlis. [1:19]
SEX/NUDITY 0 - A chaste peck on the cheek.
VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - Sometimes the violence is played
for laughs, but sometimes it is fairly intense and could be quite
frightening to children. A shark machine sucks fish into its body,
then spits out fish heads on platters; it also harpoons the peach
(the harpoon nearly hits a few insects), nearly eats one of the
insects that falls overboard, and eventually sucks its harpoon
back into its mouth and explodes. During an underwater sequence,
we see skeletons in sunken pirate ships, skeletons threatening
some insects with knives, an insect being stretched in a
stretching machine and nearly cut in half with a knife and some
kicking and shoving. A hungry insect about to eat a seagull is hit
in the back of the head with another insect's purse (the bird
also bites the insect's nose afterwards). Two women are lassoed,
lifted into the air by a crane and completely bound up in string.
Women chase after a boy with axes and hit the car that he climbs
onto, a woman smashes a butterfly with a swatter and tries to
smash a spider that's crawling on a woman's face (she misses
the spider but smacks the woman's face), a boy dreams he is a
bug and is being chased by two women spraying pesticides at him, a
woman grabs a boy by the back of his shirt, a boy and woman tumble
down a staircase together but aren't injured and a boy trips and
falls. We learn a rhinoceros killed a boy's parents and see an
image of a rhino with glowing eyes running toward a boy a couple
of times. Two insects scuffle, an insect kicks another in the
face, an insect slaps another in the face and an insect uses her
purse to hit two snapping fish flying toward her. A worm is used
as bait to lure seagulls toward the peach. The giant peach rolls
down a hill, knocking its occupants around, crushing a car (its
occupants survive), knocking down a fence and hitting a bird (we
see its feathers fly in the air). Two women yell at, taunt,
verbally abuse and threaten a young boy in several scenes; we see
and feel his sadness. Two women have seaweed on their clothing and
very smeared makeup, which makes them look somewhat frightening;
also, throughout the movie we see several huge insects (spider,
caterpillar, worm, etc.) that could be frightening. A boy appears
to have three small scratches on his cheek throughout the movie. A
woman burps. A boy's dinner is some fish heads on a platter.
the review continues below...
PROFANITY 2 - An anatomical reference and lots of
name calling. [profanity glossary]
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Emotional abuse of children, fantasy,
adventure, death of parents, magic potions, dreams.
MESSAGES - Dreams can come true; everyone is special.
A CAVEAT: We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and some of our early standards were not as stringent as they are now. We therefore need to revisit many older reviews, especially those written prior to 1998 or so; please keep this in mind if you're consulting a review from that period. While we plan to revisit and correct older reviews our resources are limited and it is a slow, time-consuming process.
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