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Leo | 2023 | PG | – 2.3.3
Why is “Leo” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “rude/suggestive material and some language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes characters (mostly adults or adult animals) flirting with several sexually suggestive remarks, several scenes of animals in peril, a lizard having its tail cut off, and some scatological humor and mild language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.
Animated musical about an aging class pet (voiced by Adam Sandler), who decides he wants to experience new things and tries to escape to the Everglades. In the process, he inadvertently grows closer to the class of 5th graders caring for him and helps them navigate the struggles of growing up. Also with the voices of Bill Burr and Cecily Strong. Directed by Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel & David Wachtenheim. [Running Time: 1:42]
Leo SEX/NUDITY 2
– A woman has a shrine to a gym coach in her house, including a sock, a groin cup, and photos of him. A teacher flirtatiously cleans a mess off another teacher’s cheek and shirt.
► A lizard does a mating ritual for a female lizard accompanied by smooth jazz; she rejects him by turning invisible. A drone brings a turtle a heart-shaped box with lettuce in it, labeled “Lettuce from the heart.” A woman shows a group of children her newborn baby; a boy points out that there is only one and says, “She must not have buried her other eggs deep enough in the sand.”
► A woman argues with a man, and then flirtatiously says, “It’s our first fight.” A lizard complains that he never got to show his “slick moves” to a girl lizard. A lizard licks a turtle’s ear when they are arguing; at first the turtle appears annoyed, and then seems to like it. A turtle texts a drone, “I was just thinking about you,” and it replies with a heart emoji; the turtle replies, “Not like that.” A boy tells a girl that he is “jacked about the eye contact” she made with him. A boy mentions in a song that his mother is in menopause. A boy sings about a time when he knew “some dirty words” and thinking “babies came out of a mom’s [anatomical term deleted].” A boy is embarrassed because he doesn’t know “how babies are made,” and a turtle explains, “The daddy climbs on the mommy’s back while she’s swimming; daddy reaches under the mommy and finds her cloaca; this goes on for 24 hours and then she lays eggs in sand”; the boy says in horror, “My mommy made eggs in the sand?” A turtle says he “[mild anatomical term deleted]-dialed” a turtle; the turtle says, “You don’t even have a [mild anatomical term deleted].” Class pets speculate if the class teacher is pregnant; a lizard says, “Her belly is popping a little.”
► A boy “breaks up” with the protective drone that his parents have follow him and a lizard instructs the boy that he should write down the reasons why he is “dumping” the drone, so has time “not to snap,” and the boy writes the drone a letter saying, “It’s not you, it’s me”; the drone acts upset after being broken up with (e.g. throwing itself in the trash, eating ice cream out of the container). A turtle rubs his rear end on a rock and a lizard says, “Can you not do that on my pillow?”
► During the credits, a turtle lifts his shell and we see buttocks. A man is shown with a hairy back, and a group of kids shaves words into the hair. A turtle takes his shell off and we see a lower back tattoo and he is wearing a jock strap; a drone shields a boy’s eyes from the view and a lizard tells the turtle to put it back on before he is arrested. In a flashback, a lizard is seen in his ’80s attire that includes a Speedo or briefs. In several scenes, boys lift or remove their shirts to show their bare abdomens. A boy is shown in a bubble bath (we don’t see nudity). A boy presses his bare stomach against a reptile tank to taunt the animals inside. A boy removes his shirt in public (his bare chest and abdomen and back are shown), celebrating a soccer goal. A teacher bends over in a few scenes and children in the class laugh at her large hips and buttocks (fully clothed). A boy lifts his shirt (his back is visible) and tells a lizard that he is worried about a newly grown hair; the lizard tells the boy not to worry and that he is just growing up. In several scenes, we see a man without a shirt, showing a very hairy back and abdomen.
Leo VIOLENCE/GORE 3
– A woman tries to jump through open bus doors; kids catch her hand, and a man behind her grabs her legs, they tug on her back and forth, a drone tugs on her pants to pull her onto the bus, and then squirts hand sanitizer in the man’s eyes causing him to shout and fall backwards, releasing the woman, and saying “Whoever did this will pay.” A boy pours out round candy and a man chasing him trips on them; a car hits the man and he rolls over the hood as the driver yells. A woman grabs the steering wheel while a man is driving a bus; she falls and her head hangs out the bus doors, smacking into traffic cones; there are no visible injuries; we see her dirtied and with her glasses askew.
► A teacher throws metal throwing stars over children’s heads, and they embed in a wall behind them; she calls them demerits. A boy is followed by a protective drone in several scenes and we see it push another child away, put a mask on her and take a bag of Cheetos away from a boy and set it on fire. An alligator approaches a group of kids, growling; a woman hits it with throwing stars (none penetrate) and she throws cough drops in its mouth; its mouth frosts over, reacting in pain. A woman threatens a man with a can of “entitled repellant,” which resembles bug spray. A boy at a beach lights several firecrackers and runs with them; they explode and launch a beach chair in the air.
► A boy driving a bus is unable to stop the bus; other kids get scared and panic as he drives through the Everglades, hitting trees and plants. A girl attaches jumper cables to a boy’s braces (with his permission); there are sounds of electricity being turned on but don’t see anything else. A boy gets startled, throws his phone, and breaks the phone screen. A woman threatens a turtle with a handheld vacuum; we see it get scared and urinate (there is a visible urine stream). During the credits, teachers spray a group of kindergarteners with “kid” repellant; a woman, a lizard and a turtle scream on a rollercoaster, the lizard swallows a bug while screaming, an alligator chomps at other animals and a child bites an alligator’s tail and it yells (not audibly).
► A ten-year-old drives a bus full of other ten-year-olds and he yells at another driver. A teacher blasts an air horn in a few scenes and people cover their ears. A woman abandons a pet lizard in the Everglades; we see an alligator and many glowing pairs of eyes accompanied by scary sounds. A turtle is flipped on its back and struggles to turn over in several scenes. An animal enclosure at a party breaks and we see animals free and people screaming and running; freed animals include ostriches, monkeys, a tiger, a Shetland pony, a zebra and a camel; an animal jumps through a house window and it breaks and a car slams on its brakes as animals run into the street. Children play sports in a few scenes and get hit by balls (dodgeballs and a soccer ball); they are not injured and at most fall down.
► A lizard loses its tail in several scenes with the understanding that it will grow back. A young girl cuts off a lizard’s tail (we see the aftermath of the severed tail and stump). A lizard’s tail is caught in a robotic vacuum cleaner that pulls it off; we see the aftermath of the severed tail and stump, and we later see the stump with a bandage on it. A lizard rubs a medication on its tail stump (the wound is visible) and then puts on a Lego tail that breaks immediately. In several scenes, a lizard and turtle eat live beetles; the beetles can be seen moving and sometimes seeming sentient before they are eaten (e.g. nodding, holding up judge’s scorecards, etc.), and a turtle has a bundle of beetles hanging from a string and dips them in water like a tea bag. A lizard eats a caterpillar whole then burps up a butterfly to entertain a boy. A pony tells fireflies to give a lizard “some of you,” and several fly into its mouth. Sentient animals are victims of cartoonish violence in many scenes including being thrown around a room, thrown into breakable objects, tossed around within their tanks, and getting sucked up by vacuums or air purifiers. A lizard smashes through an arrangement of Lego buildings, and then yells in pain when it steps on a Lego piece.
► In several scenes, a lizard is startled and freezes, playing dead. A group of children and their teacher have a funeral for the class hamster; we see a mound of dirt and a paper headstone. We see a turtle taped to a soccer ball with duct tape, with a rude name written on the tape, and dangling out a window by a jump rope; a lizard pulls the rope back inside and we hear the turtle scream and the sound of tape being ripped off. A 5th grade class discusses the book “Charlotte’s Web” and a teacher reads the ending to students, where Charlotte is dying, causing several students to cry; a turtle also cries leading to mucus running from its snout and a lizard says it wishes it could eat the spider babies. A drone picks up a sleeping alligator by the tail, and then kicks it; the alligator is thrown through the air until out of view. A girl comes to her room to discover a reptile tank is empty; she panics and says she doesn’t want to be the “kid who killed the lizard.” Animals are frightened when they reach a lake full of sleeping alligators; the alligators wake up and animals flee, leaving a lizard alone and the alligators approach it, growling. We see the body of a lizard that appears dead; a group of children gets upset and we realize that it is the molted skin of a lizard; a boy picks up the lizard skin and exclaims, “They ate his insides!” and a lizard replies, “When I get nervous, I tend to molt.” A teacher pulls brass knuckles out of her purse and sets them on her desk while her class watches.
► In many scenes, small children (the “kindergartners”) run into walls or doors, purposefully hit their heads on instruments repeatedly, and fall down (there are no injuries). In many scenes, kids jump on their teacher or drag her around; the teacher is uninjured and looks exhausted. A child smashes several of his toys together (no damage is done). A boy sits at home wearing a hazmat suit; his dog is also wearing a hazmat suit. A girl gives her teacher full-body hugs (arms and legs wrapped around the teacher) in a few scenes, and the teacher pries her off with a meter stick once, while later the teacher sprays her with “kid repellant,” resembling bug spray. A lizard pulls a fire alarm in a classroom followed by scenes of mild panic; a boy falls down in a panic when he gets outside, saying, “Stop, drop and roll” and a younger child spits juice on him. In a scene resembling the “Titanic” movie, a woman on TV falls asleep and falls down; we hear a splash to imply she fell in water. We hear a turtle character scream as it is implied that it is getting a tattoo. A lizard runs into the glass of its tank, saying it forgot it was there, and knocks itself unconscious. A Shetland pony says, “The only fun I ever had was biting that guy’s fingers off”; a man raises his hand, and we see two fingers missing.
► A turtle tells a group of kids that their beloved lizard friend is dying. Finding out his lizard friend is in the Everglades, a turtle says, “Those [name-calling deleted] animals will rip him apart.” A child asks if a lizard’s head grows back or only its tail, and then says, “I’ll find out”; the lizard panics, saying, “Call my next of kin, divide up my estate,” and a turtle adds, “It’s harder to hurt me; I have a shell.” A turtle tells a boy that he can’t tell an adult about animals talking or, “We’ll all die.” A turtle asks a lizard if something was its “dying wish.” A girl talks to an angry, charging alligator, boring it to sleep. A man argues on the phone loudly (it is implied that he is talking to his ex-wife) while his children are in earshot. A girl begins to cry talking about her grandpa who died, saying, “He used to talk to me”; a lizard tells her to stop crying and that it is annoying and the lizard uses several other hurtful names. A girl tucks her younger sister into bed; the younger sister asks why, and the girl replies “mom will be gone someday.” A boy sings about his fear of dying alone. A girl sings about missing a time when her grandpa and her gerbils were still alive. A boy sings, “When I was five, I didn’t care that people die.” A teacher discusses a dangerous rollercoaster with her students, describing it as “Banned in Europe but not in Florida.” Worrying about being taken home for the weekend, a class pet tells another that “They [the kids] forget to feed you or abuse you.” Pets discuss the dangers of the “real world,” including other animals; a turtle tells a lizard that it won’t last in the outside world and that it is a “dead man.” A lizard jumps on a girl’s head and covers her mouth to keep her from talking; the girl fears they will send her to a place for kids with “issues” because she can hear the lizard speaking. A lizard tells another lizard, “We live until 110 unless eaten by an alligator.” An alligator asks another if a bus could kill them; the other says yes, and they flee from the bus. A sign at a school fair reads, “Turtles are dum” [sic]. A group of children discusses how they are going to “destroy” their substitute teacher, including shooting rubber bands at her, throwing gummies at her, and gluing her to a chair. A woman and a turtle discuss whether reading “The Canterbury Tales” is “torture.” A lizard tells a woman to “pull that stick out of your [mild anatomical term deleted].” A boy quotes Winston Churchill, saying, “We shall fight them on the beaches, in the streets and fields, we shall never surrender.” A girl performs at a school fair as Joan of Arc, saying, “They burned me at the stake, but I am not afraid.” A lizard yells, “They’ll try to kill me like ET!” We see animals in captivity at a party looking unhappy and neglected and several animals fight over a piece of food thrown in the enclosure a couple of times. A Shetland pony glares at a lizard and threateningly says, “What are you looking at, boss?” A lizard discusses the end of its life, wanting to do things before it “drops dead.” A boy asks if the class pets (a lizard and a turtle) “eat, sleep and [scatological term deleted]” in the same place; the turtle says, “I [scatological term deleted] where he sleeps.” A lizard puffs out its throat, and it deflates with a flatulent sound. A turtle tells a group of kids, “She gave me the stink eye and I slipped in someone else’s [mild scatological term deleted].” Referring to muddy water, a lizard tells another lizard that is drinking the water that “the microorganisms will kill you.” A lizard says about someone, “you still eat your boogers.”
► A teacher retches and vomits in a couple of scenes (we see goo both times) and she wipes vomit from the corner of her mouth in one scene. A boy does a trick where he turns his eyelids inside out; other students react in horror and amusement, and their teacher retches in disgust. A woman pulls a reptile tank out of her purse and we see an animal skeleton in it, which she removes and throws in a trash can. In two scenes (one during the credits), we see a goldfish in a bowl with a visible line of waste coming from its body. We see a boy in a public bathroom stall (his ankles, pants and underwear are visible) and a drone hovers above him, putting on a glove and holding toilet paper as the boy sings, “I like to wipe my own [mild anatomical term deleted] from time to time.” A lizard is hit in the groin with a golf ball and groans in pain; a man off-screen says, “You hit it right in the jellybeans.” A lizard wipes visible mucus from a girl’s nose and then wipes it on her pillow (we see dampness). A lizard squirts a girl in the face with water from a squirt bottle. A boy dyes a house cat green (we see only the aftermath as he chases a green cat around a room). A man makes bubble animals; one pops in a girl’s hand and he yells at her that she held it wrong. A teacher bends over, and a boy draws on a Smart Board (out of the teacher’s view) an arrow pointing to her buttocks and writes the words “Get ready for a big one,” implying flatulence. A girl has a plastic anatomical model of a frog on her desk; we see the organs. A woman says her stomach is upset and runs away from a crowd; we hear an air horn and a man says, “She’s not gonna make it.”
Leo LANGUAGE 3
– About 11 mild scatological terms, 6 mild anatomical terms, 10 mild obscenities (suck, e.g., “Patriots suck,” suck it up, suck on that freaking, boo-freaking-hoo), name-calling (schmuck, dorks, weirdos, motor mouths, snotty, lazy, crazy, nuts, cranky, horror show, Miss Velcro, human cling wrap, dumb, annoying, weaklings, ugly, “looks bad on you,” brats, bratty, shrieking brat, self-hating pile of cottage cheese, Mr. Chicken-to-Leave, closet drunk, Demerit-Face, stupid, weird, pathetic, Ms. Misery, boomer, untamed animals, miserable person, twisted animal, “rabid bitter bag of mothballs foaming at the mouth”), exclamations (Jeez, Mother of Godzilla, shut-up), 5 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, a drone genuflects in fear). | profanity glossary |
Leo SUBSTANCE USE
– A girl complains that “We’re only gonna get into schools with drug problems.” A girl sings that her mom looks like Britney Spears, and a lizard sings back, “If you had 6 or 7 beers.”
Leo DISCUSSION TOPICS
– Growing up, puberty, divorce, death, grief, old age, sickness, nut allergies, not believing in Santa anymore.
Leo MESSAGE
– Everyone is scared, so don’t keep it to yourself.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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Become a member of our premium site for just $2/month & access advance reviews, without any ads, not a single one, ever. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts.
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We welcome suggestions & criticisms -- and we will accept compliments too. While we read all emails & try to reply we do not always manage to do so; be assured that we will not share your e-mail address.
