Dorothy the Dinosaur meets Santa Claus

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for Dorothy the Dinosaur meets Santa Claus
• a review of Dorothy the Dinosaur meets Santa Claus completed by The Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 15 November 2010.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.

ACCM review

This review of the movie Dorothy the Dinosaur meets Santa Claus 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

This is an animated adventure in which Dorothy and Captain Feather Sword go to the North Pole to visit Santa.

Washington, Santa’s chief elf, is worried they won’t be able to get their work finished in time for Christmas and that Santa is working too hard and deserves a rest. To save Santa some work Washington proposes they use a computer to make the present distribution process easier but the system goes wrong, resulting in early and wrong deliveries.

Although they have lost time, Santa gets the whole team together with Captain Feather Sword and Dorothy to get the presents sorted out and delivered on time.

Non-animated characters include the Wiggles, John Paul Young, Poppa Bill and Kasey Chambers

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.

None of concern

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.

None of concern

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.

Nothing of concern

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.

Nothing of concern

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.

Nothing of concern

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

• The Wiggles themselves and associated merchandise

Sexual references

None of concern

Nudity and sexual activity

None of concern

Use of substances

None of concern

Coarse language

None of concern

The movie's message

Dorothy the Dinosaur meets Santa Claus is an animated Christmas movie with some non-animated characters which is likely to be enjoyed by a very young audience. It is likely to lack interest for children over ten.

The main message from this movie is that teamwork and perseverance pay off.

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

• Selflessness
• It is good to help, and do nice things for, others