Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel

Story

Richard (voice of Jay Myers) is a cocky sparrow who was adopted by a family of storks. He has great dreams of being chosen to lead the flock in their yearly migration. After a daring manoeuvre backfires, Richard’s brother Max (voice of Jeffrey Hylton) is chosen to lead the flock instead.

Angry and bitterly disappointed, Richard decides that he doesn’t need a flock and sets off on his own without letting his family know. His adventure begins when he meets Samia (voice of Kyra Jackson), the leader of another group of sparrows who are being exploited by an evil peacock called Zamano (voice of Time Heller) and his marabou henchmen.

Richard’s friends, Olga (voice of Simona Berman) and Kiki (voice of Blake Farha), follow him to a far-off city and encourage him to return to his family before it’s too late. Richard agrees to leave, but then he learns of the jewel Zamano is seeking and he gets to know the sparrows. He decides he can’t leave them to their fate.

Can the sparrows work together to decipher the clue that will lead them to the jewel? Will they ever be truly free, and will Richard make it back before his family flies away?

Themes

Adoption; exploitation; greed; vanity; family disunity and sibling rivalry

Violence

Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel has some violence. For example:

Birds nearly crash into each other while flying wildly from opposite directions.
Richard crashes into Kiki while he’s giving a musical performance.
Richard slaps Max’s beak.
Richard is knocked against some rocks.
Two birds electrocute each other with wires.
A bird bashes Richard and hits him through the air.
Pigeons electrocute each other and repeatedly fart.
Zamano manipulates Olga and traps her invisible best friend in a mirror. There’s a story about humans cutting off Zamano’s wings with a knife, which made him mean. He wants the jewel for himself because he thinks it can free him from the pain that he feels.
Samia explains that the sparrows can’t leave. They tried to resist Zamano before, but they were brutally attacked. One sparrow is missing a leg, one is missing an eye, and Samia herself has deep gashes and scars under her wing.
Pigeons hit each other.
Zamano is mean to the marabous. He insults, demeans and belittles them.
Richard explains that his parents died before he hatched.
Samia explains how her parents were hit by a bus.
Samia and Richard fight about an item that could be the jewel. The item falls, and a little sparrow who tries to catch it is hit by a bus. The only thing that remains of him is a feather on the dusty street. Richard is horrified, and Samia is inconsolable. (The baby bird is later found alive.)
Zamano and the marabous capture Max.
The marabous set fire to the thorn bush that the sparrows live in. It’s completely ablaze.
Samia and others hit Zamano and pluck out his tail feathers.
Max is strangled, jewels are dropped everywhere, and Zamano orders his ‘ugly’ marabous to kill everyone, including the stork.
Max karate chops Zamano. He’s kicked in the chest and is sent flying through the air.
Zamano is electrocuted repeatedly.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

There’s no use of substances in Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel.

Nudity and sexual activity

Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel has some nudity and sexual activity. For example, the marabous are stripped of all their bling and are shown ‘naked’. They fly off happy, finally feeling free.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel.

Coarse language

Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel has some insults and name-calling, including ‘You’re a weak, lazy, self-centred, hot head, ‘pathetic’, ‘gullible bird brains’, ‘looney’, ‘hideous’, ‘ugly’ and ‘stupid’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel is an animated adventure with bright graphics, some musical interludes, and a largely predictable plot. It’s a family film for all but the youngest of viewers with an important message about the earth’s true treasures.

These are the main messages from Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel:

The most precious things in life are the people who love you and the people you choose to love.
The most precious things in the world aren’t jewels or other material riches but rather the treasures of the earth itself.

Values in Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel that you could reinforce with your children include friendship, teamwork, compassion, courage and empathy.

Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel could also give you the chance to talk with your children about the real-life consequences of things like:

going off by yourself without telling anyone where you are
treating others unkindly or rudely and constantly putting them down
using others for your own gain
putting too much value on how you look, rather than who you are.