Stuart Little 2

Parents please note: Stuart Little 2 may be preceded by a short animated film called The Chubbchubbs. The Chubbchubbs contains material that may disturb very young children. See separate YMA review.

This topic contains:

• details about Stuart Little 2’s classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Stuart Little 2 completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 15 September 2002.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Stuart Little 2 contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare young children
• nudity, sexual references, substance use, coarse language
• the movie’s message
• overall comments.

A synopsis of the story

Stuart Little (voice of Michael J. Fox) is a talking mouse who lives as if he is a human member of the Little family, father Frederick (Hugh Laurie), mother Eleanor (Geena Davis), brother George and baby sister Martha. Stuart is keen to prove himself and feels frustrated by his mother’s protectiveness. One day on the way home from school in his miniature red sports car an injured bird Margalo (voice of Melanie Griffith) falls into the car. A large falcon, Falcon has been chasing her and continues to chase them until they get safely home.

Margalo is welcomed into the Little home and Stuart and she become close friends. It is revealed, however, that Margalo and Falcon work together as con artists, and Margalo is forced by Falcon’s threats to betray her new family and steal Eleanor’s precious ring. Not realising this, Stuart thinks Margalo is in danger and sets off with Snowbell, the family cat, to rescue her. The two friends are often in great danger, but eventually find Margalo who helps them attack and defeat Falcon and returns the ring to Mrs Little.

Margalo apologises to the Little family and is forgiven, then fulfils her dream of migrating south with the other birds.

Use of violence

There is some violence in the movie, including:

• graphic description of how Falcons kill their prey, that is by dropping them from a great height
• Stuart Little is later dropped from a very tall building, but lands on a garbage truck
• Snowbell is jammed into a paint can which rolls out onto a ledge and appears about to topple
• Stuart Little’s is flying a propeller driven airplane in the final scene which collides head on with Falcon.

Scenes which may scare young children

There are a few scenes which may scare very young children:

• Falcon swoops very suddenly out of the sky after Margalo has fallen into Stuart’s car
• Falcon is very threatening throughout
• Snowbell, Stuart and Margalo are all placed in very dangerous situations at the end of the movie

Because of the unreality of the characters and situation, older children are not likely to have a problem with the movie.

Nudity, sexual references, substance use, coarse language

There are no sexual references, no nudity or sexual activity, no substance use and no coarse language.

The movie’s message

The take home message of the movie is that friendship and loyalty can triumph over evil. Another message is that you can achieve what you want to, no matter what the obstacles. “You are as big as you feel.”

The issues of lying and stealing are addressed, although simplistically resolved without real consequences.

There are quite a bit of ‘bathroom humour’ (references to litter trays and so on) which many children will find amusing.

Overall comments

This is a funny, entertaining and warm movie that adults and children will enjoy. The acting is very good and the animation realistically done. The film moves at a good pace and Snowbell has some very funny lines.