Personally, I really liked Sketch. Clever, funny and yes, a little frightening, it is just the sort of film that an 8-year-old me would’ve wanted to see. To be sure, it has content issues. But aesthetically, Sketch works. And with a 97% “freshness” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I’m not the only reviewer who thinks so.
But the movie is scary. Too scary, some parents say. I heard from one Plugged In user who took a bevy of 9-year-olds to the film—and the majority left the theater because it was just too much. Angel, the media group behind the movie, has taken some fire from parents who felt this kids’ “horror” film was inconsistent with the group’s brand.
I had a chance to talk with Jeffrey Harmon, Angel’s chief content officer, about the film, how Angel selects its movies and how it hopes to tackle viewers’ concerns (especially those of parents) in the future.
Take a look and have a listen. I think it’s a pretty interesting conversation.
6 Responses
I haven’t seen the movie but I tend to be a bit sensitive about anything “scary” in children’s films since it’s easy for me to imagine what they must be feeling, and for me to remember how sensitive I was at that age. And for what it’s worth, I’ve been hearing a few secular sources also make similar complaints about the level of scariness. I might check it out from a library at some point. Apparently my local branches finally got a copy of Rule Breakers, and several people are on the waitlist for it.
Erik, It’s very hard to predict what will be too scary for a kid. They mention The Magic Schoolbus in the interview. I loved that show as a 5 or 6 year old but I got nightmares from the music episode, which is strange because there is another episode where Arnold almost dies and that one didn’t scare me… but the music episode did!
My mom taught me to retell the episode’s story to myself, so I could view it objectively.
That’s totally a fair and understandable point. I don’t remember enough of the show to make a statement about that.
Have no interest in this particular film not only because of the issue of the scary factor but also because several reviews I’ve seen (including Plugged In) note some issues with the language (including a use of the s-word; which I thought would have gotten the rating bumped up from PG to PG-13).
I can see where you’re going with this, but “Radio” had several uses of that word and was rated PG.
I’d say it’s the same level as the old Goosebumps series from the 90s, or certain 80s kids films that had a bit of a bite to them. (dark crystal, Goonies, etc.)