Minnie's Masquerade

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Minnie's Masquerade's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Minnie's Masquerade completed by The Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 7 March 2011.

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 Minnie's Masquerade 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

Viewers are invited to Minnie Mouse's masquerade ball together with all Minnie’s friends. Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy arrive, only to discover that Goofy has lost a shoe. Pete appears in numerous outfits trying to have the best costume, despite the fact that everyone wins a prize. Minnie is dressing as a princess and Mickey as a prince, so they go about making their royal crowns. After they find Goofy’s shoe and finish the decorations the ball begins and everybody dances. During the movie the audience are asked to count, sort, and identify shapes with the characters.

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.

Nothing 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

None of concern

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

Minnie’s Masquerade is the first story from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Minnie’s Masquerade DVD. It is a story about having fun with friends, and helping your friends when they have a problem. Everybody at the ball gets a prize for coming dressed in costume (they are all different yet are rewarded the same). There is audience involvement with opportunities for counting, identifying shapes and sorting.

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

• helping people who have a problem
• not always wanting to be better than everyone else but having a go and having fun with friends.