Story

Budding scientist Rose (voice of Sophie Okonedo) is working on a research project to help save bees. Deserted by her boyfriend, Larry (voice of Dylan Llewellyn), and pressured by her mentor, Professor Craven (voice of Bill Nighy), to complete the impossible, Rose has no time for anything else, certainly not the abandoned kitten that she later names Beckett (voice of Mo Gilligan).

Despite Rose’s reservations and the initial challenges, Rose and Beckett soon develop a powerful love for each other. When Larry returns and begins to worm his way back into Rose’s good graces, Beckett isn’t impressed. He goes to great lengths to sabotage Larry’s efforts and drive him away.

Unfortunately, one of Beckett’s attempts to thwart Larry winds up costing Beckett his life. Arriving in animal heaven, Beckett learns that he has used up all his 9 lives. Begging for one more chance to return to help Rose, Beckett is offered another series of lives, only these lives come with a twist. This is that Beckett is repeatedly reincarnated into various animals.

Beckett navigates his physical limitations and learns that his purpose in going back isn’t just about being reunited with Rose. It’s about helping Rose accomplish something worthwhile, protecting her from people who want sabotage her work, and helping her find happiness, even if he isn’t there to share it.

Themes

Reincarnation; revenge; sabotage; annihilation of a species; jealousy; death of a pet or animal

Violence

10 Lives has some violence. For example:

• Beckett takes the form of a horse. He smashes through a door and destroys a science lab while biting a man on the bottom and throwing him out of a window.
• A car nearly runs over an abandoned kitten. The kitten knocks its head into the front bumper a few times and tries to look seriously injured.
• Rose explains to Beckett that bees sting only as a last resort. She mimes slicing her throat, indicating that the bees die.
• Beckett attacks Larry, attaching himself to Larry’s face and clawing at his nose. Larry sneezes on Beckett, covering his face in gooey snot.
• Beckett walks on Larry’s crotch, causing him pain.
• In an act of vengeance, Beckett sits in Larry’s pizza and steps through the cheese. He gets off the pizza with a piece of pepperoni stuck to his bottom.
• Beckett punches a rat in the face, which sends the rat flying.
• Professor Craven tries to crush a bee with a huge book.
• Beckett’s plan for revenge goes terribly wrong. He’s crushed and killed by Larry’s car.
• Rose wakes to find a badger in her bed. She hits it repeatedly and chases it from her house.
• Beckett takes the form of a badger. He’s thrown into an electric fence while trying to attack Larry. He’s repeatedly electrocuted, and a tuft of his fur is set on fire.
• Beckett is unkind to a rat and makes him cry.
• Beckett takes the form of a rat. He’s carried off by a bird.
• A cat door slaps Beckett in the face.
• Rose steps on Beckett while he’s in the form of a cockroach.
• As a cockroach, Beckett gets into Larry’s pants. He makes Larry dance around slapping himself as Beckett scurries up and down his body, out of his ear, into his mouth and onto his tongue.
• Rose hits Larry in the nose with a phone.
• As a cockroach, Beckett is put in a shredder and sliced into tiny pieces.
• Beckett takes the form of a parrot. He’s crushed by a cat-scratching pole that falls on him.
• Beckett takes the form of a dog. He slaps another dog.
• Two men say that they’ll smash Rose’s lab to smithereens.
• Rose slaps Larry.
• As a dog, Beckett bites a man on the shoulder. The man knock his head into another man’s head, and the car they’re driving slams into rocks near a cliff. Beckett is thrown from the car, off the cliff and into the ocean, where he dies again.
• Beckett takes the form of a fish. He falls into Professor Craven’s mouth and almost chokes him. Professor Craven is controlling robotic bees at the time. The hand he’s using to control the bees catches on fire. The bees turn red and fall to the floor.
• As a horse, Beckett throws Professor Craven onto a table, knocks him to the floor and slams his head with a wooden beam as he tries to crawl away. Beckett also destroys Rose’s lab in the process.
• Rose shoves Beckett roughly away when she sees the damage he has caused to her laboratory.
• Professor Craven shoves his henchmen into a wall, knocks their heads together, and kicks them in the legs.
• Beckett takes the form of a bee. He stings a man who’s grabbing Larry.
• Larry punches one man while another grabs him and then sprays poison into a box of bees.
• As a cat, Beckett claws a man in the face and grabs another person by the neck.
• Larry knocks a man’s tooth out with a metal canister.
• A swarm of robotic bees attacks Rose. They have red glowing eyes and swarm towards her.
• A clown is shoved to the ground, and his balloons are all popped.
• Numerous bees sting Professor Craven on the bottom.
• Rose is pursued by the bees until she falls over the side of a jetty. The bees follow her into the water, still trying to attack. They go out with little zaps of electricity.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in 10 Lives.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

10 Lives shows some use of substances. For example, some characters describe their dream of opening a club called Pets and Pints. A picture of the characters is displayed. It shows them in a bar serving beer and surrounded by animals.

Nudity and sexual activity

10 Lives has some nudity and sexual activity. For example:

• Rose and Larry kiss.
• Professor Craven describes how his bare bottom was used as a bullseye by bees when he was a child.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in 10 Lives.

Coarse language

10 Lives has name-calling, insults and mild coarse language, including ‘nitwit’, ‘idiot’, ‘chubbers’, ‘hell’, ‘dickie numb bum’, ‘frickin’, ‘heck’, ‘stupid’, ‘nincompoop’, ‘nasty piece of poop’, ‘homewrecker’, ‘useless great lumps of meat’, ‘crap’ and ‘toots’.

10 Lives also includes the following examples of crude humour:

• A dog says he likes dirty underpants and drinking water from the potty.
• When Beckett is in the form of a dog, another dog follows him closely. The other dog slams his nose up into Beckett’s bottom when Beckett suddenly stops. The other extricates his nose from Beckett’s bottom with a pop.
• A dog talks about smelling ‘butts’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

10 Lives is an animated adventure featuring an original, fast-paced plot and bright, colourful characters.

At first glance, 10 Lives seems suitable for most age groups. But it has themes to do with death and shows repeated animal deaths. This means it’s best suited to viewers aged over 8 years.

These are the main messages from 10 Lives:

• It doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside. What’s inside matters most.
• If you live and love with all your heart, one life is all you need.

Values in 10 Lives that parents you could reinforce with your children include love, loyalty, devotion, persistence and compassion.

10 Lives could also give you the chance to talk with your children about the real-life consequences of things like:

• letting your judgement be clouded by jealousy
• treating others unkindly
• trying to sabotage other people’s work or relationships
• being reckless and behaving dangerously.