Story
Furry Vengeance is a children’s comedy that follows the story of Dan Sanders (Brendan Fraser). Dan moves his family from Chicago to the remote Oregon town of Rocky Springs for a year, while he manages a property development project for Leyman Enterprises. Although Dan considers this a chance to improve the family’s financial security, his wife Tammy (Brooke Shields) and son Tyler (Matt Prokop) feel isolated and unhappy in their new surroundings. It also becomes clear that Neil Leyman (Ken Jeong) is a tyrannical and unethical boss. He has no worries about destroying native environments for profit, despite the supposedly ‘green’ nature of his company.
As Dan focuses on meeting Mr Leyman’s escalating demands, Tammy and Tyler become increasingly dissatisfied with their lives in Rocky Springs. Another emerging problem is that the local forest animals have begun acting together to fight the land development that will destroy their homes. They devise countless ways to sabotage the project and make Dan’s life miserable. As Dan becomes increasingly disturbed by the animals’ cunning and often malicious actions, his family and work crew begin wondering if he has developed psychological problems. The situation gets worse until Dan looks at his current priorities and ultimate life goals.
Themes
This movie focuses on themes of loneliness, isolation and relationship breakdown. In addition, there are several comic references to war and recurring negative references to mental illness and dementia.
Violence
This movie contains a great deal of physical and verbal violence. For example:
Sexual references
This movie contains some mild sexual references. For example:
- Dan says he has to remove a leech from his ‘no-no zone’.
- Tyler’s girlfriend wonders aloud about kissing him.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
This movie contains some use of substances. For example, an unidentified man smokes a cigar.
Nudity and sexual activity
This movie doesn’t show nudity or sexual activity directly. But it does include the following scenes:
- Dan kisses his wife Tammy briefly.
- Dan is shown naked from the waist up, taking a bath.
- Dan is shown apparently wearing a bra.
Product placement
Products such as Apple computers are used in this movie. In addition, there is a brief musical reference to the Mission Impossible theme. There is also a mention of Bruce Lee and Hannah Montana, and fleeting visual references to movies such as The Blue Lagoon, Grease, Braveheart and Risky Business.
Coarse language
There is some mildly coarse, threatening and discriminatory language in this movie.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Furry Vengeance is a comedy containing some clever animation but with little humour for older audiences. Most of the intended laughs revolve around people and animals intentionally hurting each other or weeing and pooing on each other. Although children will find some of this funny, adults might be frustrated by the movie’s lack of substance. Also, the continual depiction of animals as calculating and almost sadistic is a little unsettling.
The movie’s intended message is that you can’t be successful by being selfish. But this message is a bit confused by the movie’s focus on revenge through aggression.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include consideration for others, forgiveness and kindness.
This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues such as the:
- potentially serious consequences of being aggressive, compared to the benefits of sharing and working together
- vulnerability of many animals, and their inability to defend themselves in the sophisticated way shown in the movie
- consequences of discriminating against people with dementia or a mental illness.