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Reviews
Jungle Beat: The Movie (2020)
Read up before you watch or else you'll be terribly confused
My daughter saw this title come up in our netflix recommendations. The poster looked cute and so I thought, why not give it a try. I know nothing about this movie. Other than it was apparently based on a kids show of the same name. We started out watching it, and it seemed cute, with talking and singing animals. I thought oh this will be like madagascar but the animals are obsessed with music and sing and dance. I mean with a name like Jungle Beat, it's reasonable to think that, right? But, then, all of the sudden aliens got involved and there was a plot line about a lost alien and alien invasion. It threw us off and confused us. So, my advice to anyone wanting to watch this movie, look up the plot first or otherwise you will be terribly confused like we were. Otherwise, it seems like a cute movie.
Back to the Outback (2021)
Cute, but sends a mixed message
My 2.5 year old picked this film and I watched it with her. It's cute, but it had a lot of inappropriate jokes for kids. One character is in mating season and is always talking about how aroused he is. In one part of the film, a character gets hit in the crotch and yells "my bloomin' onions." At one point of the film another character tells "throw me the damn rope." At his son. Why do we need swearing in a kids film. Also, the moral of the story is supposed to be "be true to yourself and love yourself for who it you are, we're all special and beautiful". But the main character lies to his son throughout the film about who he is and about his life because he's ashamed of his life and past. So he tells his son all of these fantastical made up stories about his adventures. Which never happened and his son wholeheartedly believes. And he never comes clean until his son calls him out on it. Not a good lesson for kids. Basically saying lying is ok. Also, I couldn't help but cringe when I saw the dad in this film was supposed to be a Steve Irwin like character. The dad even admits in the film that he watches Steve Irwin as a kid and that he sounded "so cool". And that in order to be respected, he started talking like him and took on his persona. It feels like the writers were trying to be respectful and pay a cute tribute, but it just comes across as cringeworthy and disrespectful to Steve Irwin. Plus they are constantly talking about likes and followers like it's the measure of your worth.