Story

Mic Mic (voice of Pauley Shore) is a grumpy, grizzly bear who’s quite content to live alone at the edge of the forest. When an inept stork accidentally delivers a baby panda to his gate, Mic Mic sets off in search of the panda’s rightful parents.

Much to Mic Mic’s displeasure, an unfortunate rabbit named Oscar (voice of Drake Bell), who seems to be a magnet for all sorts of trouble, decides to tag along. The unlikely pair are soon joined by Duke (voice of Stephen Thomas Ochsner), a flamboyant pelican who can’t stop talking; Amur (voice of Joseph Sell), a poetic tiger; and Janus (voice of Danila Medvedev), a lone wolf who journeys through life constantly paralysed by fear.

As the group travels in search of the baby panda’s parents, they must keep the baby safe from various perils, including an evil and dangerous snake bent on revenge. Soon the unlikely companions realise that there’s strength in numbers, that even the most fearful creatures can find courage, and that friendships can form through adversity and adventure.

Themes

Separation of a baby from its parents; revenge; overcoming fear

Violence

The Big Trip has some violence. For example:

• A scary snake is about to eat a wild pig, which appears to be hypnotised.
• The snake chases monkeys through the forest, trying to attack and hurt them. Just when it looks like he’s about to strike them, he bites his own tail instead. The monkeys fly through the air and crash to the ground.
• A large panda grabs the snake by the neck and roughly throws him into the trees. The snake threatens revenge as he slithers away.
• Oscar’s house, which is also a rocket, explodes with Oscar inside. Debris falls from the sky, punching holes in Mic Mic’s boat and upsetting his bee hives. Oscar crashes to the ground unhurt.
• A stork reminisces about a botched delivery. The suggestion is that a father horse got upset after accidentally receiving a baby zebra and trampled the baby zebra to death.
• A stork is hit by flying shrapnel, gets a bucket on his head, and crashes into a tree.
• Oscar falls through the roof of Mic Mic’s raft.
• When the baby panda cries, Mic Mic repeatedly slams his head into a wooden pole.
• The snake throws Oscar against a huge rock, and Oscar lies there unconscious. The snake wraps himself around Mic Mic, who smashes through rocks and blasts bits of stone to the side as he goes. Janus joins the fight. They tie the snake to a tree and fling him into the air. He lands in the distance with a huge crash.

Sexual references

None noted.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

None noted.

Product placement

The Big Trip has a verbal reference to Dolce and Gabbana.

Coarse language

The Big Trip has some infrequent name-calling, including ‘blabbermouth’, ‘knucklehead’, ‘pathetic loser’, ‘fluff head’, ‘stupid’, ‘clown’ and ‘idiot’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

The Big Trip is a Russian animated adventure with good graphics and quirky characters.

Although this movie is aimed at a family audience, the violence and scary scenes make it unsuitable for children under five years, and we recommend parental guidance for children aged up to eight years. Also, the fairly predictable plot might lack interest for older children. Therefore The Big Trip is most likely to be enjoyed by children around nine years.

The main messages from The Big Trip are to believe in yourself, to complete what you start and to be open to making new friendships, even when you don’t expect to.

Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include teamwork, determination, helpfulness, friendship and courage.

This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like:

• managing anger
• taking responsibility for your own mistakes before blaming other people for theirs
• believing that you don’t need friends and that you’re better off on your own.