Story
In Paddle Pop DinoTerra, Paddle Pop the lion is the new king of the jungle. He is brave and always looking for an adventure. His partner Leena is the leader of the Lion Liberation Movement. She’s also very brave. Armed with Paddle Pop’s magic staff, which is powered by special crystals, Paddle Pop and Leena have saved their friends from many dangerous situations.
But now the evil Shadow Master is determined to take over the world. He joins forces with Queen Felina, the white tigress. The white tigers have been forced by the lions into a frozen landscape and have no food. Felina agrees to help the Shadow Master go back in time to the age of the dinosaurs. He plans to find the powerful crystals that will give him the control he needs. Felina ultimately regrets her decision to help the Shadow Master.
Themes
Violence
There is a lot of violence in Paddle Pop DinoTerra. For example:
- Characters battle each other using supernatural forces and magic.
- Paddle Pop has to fight soldiers, dinosaurs and tiger guards with maces and poles.
- Paddle Pop fights a flying dinosaur, and Kara the elephant captain comes to his rescue. The creature claws at Kara, leaving a nasty gash.
- Shadow Master uses his powers to attack Paddle Pop. Paddle Pop falls off the side of a volcano.
- Felina attacks Paddle Pop with her whip. He fights back and throws her over the edge of a cliff.
- Warrior lions with arrows attack a huge ice monster, which makes the monster fall apart.
- In a final battle, Paddle Pop and his friends have to fight the evil dinosaurs.
- Felina attacks the Shadow Master with her whip, turning him to stone.
Content that may disturb children
Under 5
In addition to the violent scenes mentioned above, Paddle Pop DinoTerra has some scenes that could scare or disturb children under five years. For example:
- The Shadow Master and his creatures are quite scary looking and all have red eyes. Shadow Master is covered in black. He has a hood and long fingers. His laugh sounds evil.
- The flying dinosaurs are like large scary birds that make a terrible screeching noise.
- The dinosaurs are large, with red eyes. They roar fiercely.
- One of the dinosaurs swallows Spike the porcupine but spits him out again, covered in goo.
- A rock fall causes vibrations that split the earth. Leena, Spike and Twitch (a chameleon) fall into the volcano. Paddle Pop manages to save them before they reach the bottom, but the lava rises up to chase them out of the volcano.
- Felina uses her whip to crack open the icy ground. It comes together to make a huge ice monster with red eyes.
- Kara comes under the spell of the Shadow Master and occasionally is shown with red eyes. Eventually he goes over to the dark side until he’s released by his friends. On one occasion he almost strangles Higga the owl.
From 5-8
In addition to the violent scenes and scary visual images mentioned above, Paddle Pop DinoTerra has some scenes that could scare or disturb children in this age group. For example:
- Paddle Pop goes into a frozen lake to find one of the crystals and is almost eaten by a shark-like dinosaur. He also looks as if he has frozen to death before his friends pull him out.
- It seems as though the Shadow Master has won, so Paddle Pop and his friends decide to go back into the frozen lake. They want to go further back in time to change the situation. They ask their friend Nicco to release them from the ice when this is done. The world is then shown as dark and evil because the Shadow Master has taken it over and made all the lions slaves.
From 8-13
Younger children in this age group might also be scared by some of the scenes mentioned above.
Over 13
Nothing of concern
Sexual references
None of concern
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
None of concern
Nudity and sexual activity
None of concern
Product placement
Paddle Pop DinoTerra is a promotion for Paddle Pop icecreams, coinciding with the release of new Paddle Pop flavours.
Coarse language
None of concern
Ideas to discuss with your children
Paddle Pop DinoTerra is an animated adventure movie that might appeal to older children.
Some of the characters and monsters and the use of supernatural forces in Paddle Pop DinoTerra are likely to be scary for younger children. Also Paddle Pop and his friends are constantly in danger and forced to fight their way out of it. The computer-generated images in the movie might take some of the scariness out of the story.
You might also be concerned by the type of food marketing to children that this movie represents.
The main messages from this movie are that courage and strength are important qualities in a leader and that good usually triumphs over evil.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include bravery, teamwork, friendship and endurance.
You could also talk about the use of violence to fight violence and whether there are better ways to defeat evil.