Movie -- 2024 -- Netflix
Spellbound
Princess Ellian of Lumbria has been hiding a secret: her parents were turned into giant monsters after a journey through a dark forest. She sets out to reverse the curse before she comes of age. A colourful musical whose load is monster-parents, a scary forest, and a marriage that cannot stay as it was.
Not suitable under 7; parental guidance to 10 (parents turned into giant monsters, a dark forest, a family split); ok from 11.
- Not suitable
- Parental guidance
- Ok
GentleGuide scale for sensitive kids. Not an ACCM or Classification Board rating.
About this title
- Classification
- PG
- Length
- 110 minutes
- Consumer advice
- Mild animated violence, fantasy themes, and scary scenes
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Before you press play
A bright fantasy musical with a heavy family secret. Mum and Dad are giant monsters who smash, forget their daughter, and fight each other. The Dark Forest is named twice for a reason. Songs are warm; the pictures of ogre-parents and swirling darkness are the load.
- Parents turned into monsters
- A kingdom kept in the dark
- A scary forest
- Parents who cannot stop fighting
- A family shape that changes
- Love that stays after a split
What may feel big
Giant monster-parents with no memory of their child; cages and a wrecked palace; a forest of eternal darkness; a vortex that feeds on bad feelings; quicksand and cliffs; parents saying they cannot be together; Ellian swallowed by darkness. The ending is kind and still a divorce.
4-6. Not a fit. Monster-parents and a dark forest are too close to 'Mum and Dad became something else'.
7-9. Seven is the floor and still a lot. They need a grown-up for the ogres, the forest, and the split. Preview the Lake of Light talk if your house is tender about parents fighting.
10-12. Ten is still guidance; eleven is the easier year. They can hold a metaphor for parents who lost each other. The darkness-swallow and the 'we cannot stay married' beat may still want a pause.
Triggers in this guide
Counts are how often that theme shows up in the notes -- not when it happens.
- Sadness 2
- Separation 1
- Scary Imagery 3
- Peril 4