The Last Mimzy

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about The Last Mimzy's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of The Last Mimzy completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 4 June 2007.

Overall comments and recommendations

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 The Last Mimzy contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Noah (Chris O’Neil) and Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn ) Wilder are two young children who are looking forward to the Easter break in their family beach house. While playing on the beach they find a mysterious octagonal shaped box which opens of its own accord and contains strange objects, some of which look like small blue rocks. The children take the box and its contents home where they hide it from their parents. They find that the objects have a life form of their own which Emma manages to generate by spinning them. Emma also finds a rabbit in the box that talks only to her and tells her its name is Mimzy.

Emma and Noah increasingly display levels of high intelligence. Noah, who has previously struggled at school, now designs a highly technological spider’s web, much to the amazement of his teachers and parents. Their possessions become the focus of a huge FBI alert however, when unwittingly, Noah unleashes a huge power surge which blacks out half of the state. The whole family is taken into custody and Emma needs to find a way to wrest Mimzy from the authorities and send her back to her own time zone before it’s too late.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Aliens, time travel, psychic phenomena.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

• Noah is holding the blob when it changes and he is shaken and thrown back by its force.
• The FBI suddenly break into the Wilder’s home with sub machine guns and arrest all of the family as suspected terrorists.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of eight, including the following:

• A scientist from the future looks very craggy and wrinkled.
• Alien creatures with large eyes look scary.
• One of the objects is an unshapen blob of jelly substance, which wriggles by itself.
• The parents come into the room and find Emma floating upside down on the ceiling. They are clearly distressed by this.
• Emma’s Mum throws Mimzy and the objects into the bin, which greatly upsets her.
• Emma puts her face into the force field where she sees aliens and the scientist.
• Emma starts to shake and goes into convulsions.
• Children in the future fly home from school.Emma spins the objects, which float up into the air and create an electronic force field.
• Emma puts her hand into the force field and it atomises into millions of pieces
• The force field makes a can of Sprite disappear and reappear elsewhere.
• The ‘blob’ wobbles and changes into a crab like shape, which emits a very powerful force that blacks out the state.
• Emma and Noah can communicate without spoken words.
• Emma is holding onto Mimzy as she is taken up in the force field and gets her hand stuck. As she is lifted into space her parents both try to reach her but get knocked back by the force field.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

• Noah drives a truck with Emma in it to escape from custody.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

• Sprite

Sexual references

None of concern

Nudity and sexual activity

None of concern

Use of substances

None

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• Oh my God
• Screw
• School sucks

The movie's message

The Last Mimzy is a science fiction movie made for older children and one that adults can also enjoy. It has excellent visual graphics and a good story line. The main message from this movie is not to lose our humanity in the pursuit of knowledge and technology.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• Compassion
• Empathy
• Humanity 

This movie could give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of having care and concern for others. It could also give them the opportunity to discuss their beliefs about life on other planets and the possibility of time travel.