6 and older
Finding Dory (PG)
Swimming alongside the rich humor, quirky characters and oceanic treats in “Finding Dory” is a more melancholy undertow than in the G-rated “Finding Nemo” (2003). This film is fine for kids 6 and older, but it may trigger their emotions more than parents expect. Its PG rating reflects a vein of sadness that was not mined as deeply in the first film. Without sermonizing, it also embodies the idea of accepting all differently abled creatures as integral to life. Never fear — the film is still a treat and has a hugely happy ending — but getting there involves some emotional leaps. It’s a year after the events in the first film. Dory the blue tang (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) lives with Marlin the clownfish (Albert Brooks) and his son, Nemo, as her surrogate family. Dory still has short-term memory loss, but a sudden flash of recollection tells her the parents she became separated from long ago (shown in a poignant flashback) are in California. Marlin and Nemo go with her to find them. Near the (real) Marine Life Institute, Dory gets captured and plopped in a tank. While Marlin and Nemo try to get in, Dory makes friends with Hank (Ed O’Neill), a crabby octopus; Destiny (Kaitlin Olson), a nearsighted whale shark; and Bailey (Ty Burrell), a beluga whale. (97 minutes)
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THE BOTTOM LINE:The youngest kids might worry during a few scenes near the end, when the fish heroes find themselves in a crazy highway escapade far from seawater, or feel sad at the various times Dory gets lost and feels alone.
8 and older
The Secret Life of Pets (PG)
Any doting pet owner or animal lover, whether child or adult, will chuckle and occasionally howl at this cleverly conceived animated feature. But note: The second half gets violent enough in imagery and storytelling — and the animation is crisp and real-looking enough — to make the movie an iffy choice for kids younger than 8. Some 6- or 7-year-olds may be okay with it, but parents need to gauge what they can handle. Max (voice of Louis C.K.), a terrier, lives in a New York apartment with his human, Katie. While waiting for her to return each day, he engages with neighboring pets — Gidget the fluffy Pomeranian, Chloe the fat cat, Mel the pug, Buddy the dachshund, Sweetpea the budgie, and Norman the guinea pig. But Katie brings home a second rescue dog, the shaggy giant, Duke (Eric Stonestreet), who tries to take over. Max and Duke’s feud turns disastrous with the dog-walker, as they get separated from the group and caught in an alley with a nasty gang of abandoned pets — feral cats, a tattooed potbelly pig — all led by Snowball (Kevin Hart), a fearsome bunny. After Animal Control grabs Duke and Max, Snowball breaks them out, but they must promise to join his crew, the human-hating Flushed Pets, in a sewer hideout. Gidget rallies the neighborhood pets and enlists a hawk and an old basset hound to rescue Max and Duke. (90 minutes)
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THE BOTTOM LINE:Much of the second half hinges on threats and violence in alleys and sewers populated by feral-looking cats, snakes, lizards, crocodiles and others. A huge python nearly bites Max. There are non-lethal falls from buildings and big road crashes. The toilet habits of pets provide many laughs.
The BFG (PG)
The big heart and quirky language in Roald Dahl’s classic 1982 kids’ novel translate quite nicely into Steven Spielberg’s 3-D adaptation. At times overstuffed and awkwardly paced, it is nevertheless a fine diversion, with an eccentric look, a romantic soundtrack and a crackerjack cast. Kids 8 and older, whether they know the book or not, should find the movie enjoyably odd and deliciously scary. Ten-year-old Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), a brainy, bespectacled insomniac, lives in an orphanage in London. One late night she looks out on the street and spies a huge cloaked figure (Mark Rylance, digitally altered), as tall as the buildings, blowing silently on a trumpety thing into bedrooms. He sees Sophie, snatches her up and galumphs away to Giant Country. Sophie learns he’s the Big Friendly Giant, which she shortens to the BFG. He’s a sweet soul who speaks deliciously fractured English, eats gross-looking snozzcumbers and devotes his life to blowing good dreams into kids’ bedrooms. His more enormous neighbors are people-eating giants, bullies with such names as Fleshlumpeater. Sophie insists they go to the queen (Penelope Wilton) in Buckingham Palace for help. (117 minutes)
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THE BOTTOM LINE:There are many shivery moments, from when the BFG first grabs Sophie to confrontations with the people-eating giants — cannibals who “is guzzling human beans,” as the BFG says. But the movie does not show them doing that. They are fearsome, and they sniff out humans, but they only talk about eating them. We do hear a newspaper account about children disappearing, their bones left behind. The giants bully the BFG horribly.
PG-13
It has been years since Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) left the jungles of Africa for a life in London with his beloved wife, Jane Porter (Margot Robbie). He's invited back to the Congo to serve as a trade emissary of Parliament, unaware that he is a pawn in a deadly scheme. ( /Warner Bros. Pictures)
The Legend of Tarzan
Not for middle-schoolers because of its level of violence, albeit more stylized than bloody, this is a movie with multiple personalities. Part old-fashioned adventure, part history lesson, part popcorn romance with unintended giggles. “The Legend of Tarzan” never quite fulfills any of its identities, but it looks great. It’s a zoologist’s dream of digitally created animals, and its history lesson, although partly fictionalized, may inspire high-schoolers to learn more about the horrors of Belgian colonial rule in 19th century Congo. Set in the 1880s, it sends Lord Greystoke, a.k.a. John Clayton III, a.k.a. Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgard) — the title character from the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs — back to the jungle where he grew up as an orphan raised by great apes, and where he met his beloved Jane (Margot Robbie). Invited to revisit Congo by the English and Belgian governments, he declines, until an American, George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson), proposes they go together to witness the atrocities and slavery going on in Belgian King Leopold II’s colony. Leopold’s emissary (Christoph Waltz) aims to capture and kill Tarzan. (110 minutes)
THE BOTTOM LINE:We see enslaved Congolese men, shackled in a rail car, and villagers shot by mercenaries. The battle scenes are artfully edited, so injuries and deaths are never graphic. The passion between Tarzan and Jane gets gauzy, romantic treatment — steamy, but never graphic — with one brief, non-explicit sexual situation. The dialogue includes rare profanity and sexual innuendo.
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