Story
Noah (Chris O’Neil) and Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn ) Wilder are two young children who are looking forward to the Easter break in their family beach house. While playing on the beach, they find a mysterious box. It opens of its own accord and contains strange objects, some of which look like small blue rocks. The children take the box and its contents home, where they hide it from their parents. Emma discovers that when she spins the objects they have a life form of their own. In the box, she also finds a rabbit called Mimzy, which talks only to her.
Emma and Noah begin to display levels of unusually high intelligence. Noah, who has previously struggled at school, designs a highly sophisticated spider’s web, much to the amazement of his teachers and parents. When Noah unwittingly unleashes a huge power surge, blacking out half of the state, the FBI becomes involved. The whole family is taken into custody. Emma needs to find a way to get Mimzy from the authorities and send her back to her own time zone before it’s too late.
Themes
Aliens; time travel; psychic phenomena
Violence
- While Noah is holding the blob, an object in the mysterious box, it transforms, shaking him and throwing him back with its force.
- The FBI break into the Wilders’ home without warning. The FBI officers are armed with submachine guns and arrest the entire family as suspected terrorists.
Content that may disturb children
Under 5
- A scientist from the future looks very craggy and wrinkled.
- Alien creatures with with large eyes appear.
- One of the objects in the box is an unshapen blob of jelly substance, which wriggles by itself.
- The parents come into the room and find Emma floating upside down on the ceiling. They are clearly distressed by this.
- Emma is very upset when her mother throws Mimzy and the objects into the bin.
- Emma puts her face into a force field, where she sees aliens and the scientist.
- Emma starts to shake and goes into convulsions.
- Children in the future fly home from school.
From 5-8
In addition to the violent scenes and scary visual images, some children in this age group could also be scared by the following scenes:
- Emma spins the objects, which float up into the air and create an electronic force field.
- Emma puts her hand into the force field and it atomises into millions of pieces.
- The force field makes a can of Sprite disappear and reappear elsewhere.
- The blob wobbles and changes into a crab-like shape, which emits a very powerful force, causing the whole state to black out.
- Emma and Noah can communicate without speaking.
- As Mimzy is taken up in the force field and lifted into space, Emma's hand gets stuck. Her parents try to reach her but the force field knocks them back.
From 8-13
Children in this age group, particularly those aged 8-10, could find some scenes disturbing. This includes the scene where Noah drives a truck while trying to escape from custody with Emma.
Over 13
Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film.
Sexual references
None of concern
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
None of concern
Nudity and sexual activity
None of concern
Product placement
The soft drink Sprite is used prominently in this movie.
Coarse language
This movie includes some very mild coarse language.
Ideas to discuss with your children
The Last Mimzy is a science fiction movie made for older children. Adults might also enjoy this movie. It has excellent visual graphics and an engaging story line. The movie presents the view that we can pursue knowledge and technology without losing our humanity. You might like to discuss this with your children as well as other values of compassion, empathy and humanity. You could also have some fun talking about life on other planets and time travel.