Story

Jordan (Regina Hall) is a mean boss who spends her days terrorising her staff, particularly her assistant, April (Issa Rae). One day Jordan is magically transformed into her 13-year-old self (Marsai Martin) and must go back to high school to work out how to return to her adult body.

As Jordan struggles to find a solution to her ‘big’ problem, ‘little’ Jordan begins to discover that those around her respect and appreciate her far more when she treats them well.

Themes

Morality; bullying; alcohol use; magic

Violence

Little has some violence. For example:

• A teenage school bully pushes a wrecking ball into another child, who is injured. The child is later shown in a wheelchair, with a neck brace and arm cast.
• A woman smacks a child, who then kicks her in the bottom. This is presented as funny.
• There are many examples of slapstick violence by both children and adults. For example, characters shove and kick each other in the crotch and so on.

Sexual references

Little has some sexual references. For example:

• A 13-year-old girl, who is the ‘child’ version of the adult protagonist, flirts with an adult male teacher.
• Adults kiss intimately on several occasions.
• It’s implied that adult characters have had sex.
• Characters refer to and make jokes about their and other people’s genitals.
• The child version of the adult protagonist feels her chest and wonders what has happened to her ‘breast implants’.
• A male character mentions that he has had many sexually transmitted infections.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Little shows some use of substances. For example:

• Characters frequently drink a lot of alcohol.
• A character is referred to as a ‘crack baby’.
• A person smokes marijuana in a car and seems to be stoned.
• A 13-year-old tries to drink alcohol several times.

Nudity and sexual activity

Little has some nudity and sexual activity. For example, a male character does a striptease for a female character.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in Little:

• Apple products, particularly iPhones
• dating apps like Tinder and Christian Mingle
• Target
• Easy-Bake Oven.

Coarse language

Little has some coarse language.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Little is an age-swap farce, which is amusing and heartfelt at times. But it’s also predictable and cringe-worthy. Although there are some good performances from both the young and adult cast, this movie lacks the quality and thoughtfulness of its age-swap predecessors, like Big and Suddenly Thirty.

Older children over 13 years are likely to enjoy Little, but this movie is inappropriate for children under 11 years. This is because of its mild violence, frequent sexual references and language.

Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include:

• trusting in your dreams and believing in yourself, even if others don’t
• treating others well.

Little could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like inappropriate teenage drinking and bullying.