Pets on a Train

Story

Falcon the racoon (voiced by Wyatt Bowen) is a warm-hearted bandit, stealing food from garbage cans and humans to feed himself and his friends. When he gets the chance to work alongside Hans (voiced by Chimwemwe Miller) to steal food from a busy train, Falcon is elated at the prospect of having a full belly for Christmas.

Unfortunately for Falcon, Hans has other ideas. After Falcon hacks into the train’s controls, Hans’s ulterior motive becomes clear. After the humans are tricked into getting off, Hans traps Falcon and several other animals alone on the speeding train, with the aim of taking revenge on Rex (voiced by Tristan D. Lalla), a police dog who sent him to the pound 5 years earlier.

In a race against time, Falcon, Rex and their new friends must work out how to save their own lives and stop both Hans and the speeding train before it’s too late.

Themes

Animals in distress; train accidents; criminal activity

Violence

Pets on a Train has some violence. For example:

On several occasions, characters berate each other, using insults like ‘stupid’, ‘washed-up’ and ‘scumbags’.
The movie has frequent slapstick-style violence. Characters run into, bounce off or are hit by various objects but aren’t injured.
Three rat characters fight in a choreographed, martial arts-style way.
Falcon is chased by a dog after stealing food. The dog is yanked out of view by a hotdog stand.
A person dressed as Santa gets stuck on the train tracks in a vehicle. The person manages to escape the car just as the speeding train crashes into the car, sending it flying into the air.
When Hans realises Rex doesn’t recognise him, he lashes out physically. He smashes things before punching a punching bag with Rex’s face painted on it.
Rex verbally berates Falcon several times, calling him a ‘common thief’ and a ‘low-life thug’.
Several characters on several occasions slip through holes on the train and almost fall to their death before being saved at the last moment.
Rex and Falcon get into an argument and shout at each other because Rex is a K9 police dog and Falcon is a criminal.
The animals are often thrown around the speeding train cars, narrowly avoiding injury or getting crushed by luggage and other items.
Several times the train is set alight, and the animals must navigate through it, narrowly avoiding catching fire themselves.
Falcon is knocked out of the train by Hans and appears to fall to his death. The other characters are visibly distressed by this. They cry and yell. Falcon is later revealed to have survived the fall.
Falcon berates himself several times, calling himself ‘stupid’ or ‘dumb’.
A child character is brought to the scene of the crash, so that a news reporter can film her crying when she sees the death of her cat. When there’s no crash, the adult news reporter starts yelling at the child and berates her, calling her a ‘little brat’.
During a physical fight between Rex and Hans, Rex is injured.
Hans throws a cat character out the window of the train, trying to kill her.
There is a physical fight between Hans and several of the animals, resulting in Hans being knocked out and captured by a snake character.
Married characters argue, raising their voices at each other.

Sexual references

Pets on a Train has some sexual references. For example:

A male and a female bird character flirt with each other. The male bird gets visibly flustered.
Hans is hit in the groin area off screen. He yowls in pain and a tuft of fur flies across the screen.
A female rabbit character is heavily pregnant and talks about giving birth at any minute.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

There’s no use of substances in Pets on a Train.

Nudity and sexual activity

There’s no nudity and sexual activity in Pets on a Train.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in Pets on a Train:

A turtle character is named Leo and has a blue smear of paint across his eyes, which is a reference to Leonardo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.
A fish character is a clownfish, a reference to Finding Nemo.
A duck character frequently refers to American football. This seems to be a reference to the Oregon Ducks football team.
Christmas-related iconography is shown throughout the movie, including Christmas trees, Santa and presents.

Coarse language

Pets on a Train has some coarse language, name-calling and insults, including ‘stupid’, ‘scumbag’, ‘weirdo’, ‘kiss my tail’, ‘I screwed up’, ‘dumb’ and ‘butts’. A character describes another character’s belief system as ‘stupid philosophical trash’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Pets on a Train (also known as Falcon Express) is an action-packed animated movie, filled with slapstick humour and animal friends. It’s best suited to families with older children.

Because of its animated violence, scary scenes and action themes, Pets on a Train isn’t suitable for children aged under 8 years. We also recommend parental guidance for children aged 8-11 years. It’s also worth noting that this movie is originally in French and the English version is dubbed. This means that the characters’ mouth movements often don’t match the dialogue.

These are the main messages from Pets on a Train:

No matter where you come from, you can do the right thing.
When you work together as a team, anything is possible.

Values in Pets on a Train that you could reinforce with your children include self-belief, courage, teamwork and forgiveness. The movie also emphasises the importance of not judging a person based on their past and remaining hopeful in the face of conflict.

Pets on a Train could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like the following:

Falcon is a thief, but he steals food to feed his friends and family. You could talk with your children about the ethics of stealing and how the movie presents this as a moral grey area.
Falcon lies to his new friends about his past and his purpose on the train. Is this OK? What do you think he could have done instead?
Hans commits a crime to get back at Rex. Why is this wrong? What about the way innocent bystanders are caught up in Rex’s personal vendetta? How else could he have dealt with his feelings?
The movie shows social media coverage of the events on the train. For example, influencers use it to get fame, and people make funny videos about it. You could emphasise the importance of thinking before posting things to social media and responsible use of social media more generally.
Two animal characters are exploited by their owners for social media fame. Is it OK to have a pet just for the purpose of posting about them on social media?