Sketch

Story

Taylor Wyatt (Tony Hale) is preparing to sell his house with the help of his real estate agent sister Liz (D’Arcy Carden). Following the death of his wife, Taylor takes down all the photos and packs away all the reminders of his wife, hoping to make the grieving process easier on himself and his children. His son, Jack (Kue Lawrence), does his best to suppress his pain and tries to fix everything around him, including his younger sister Amber (Bianca Belle), who appears to be angry at the world.

Harassed by a classmate called Bowman (Kalon Cox), Amber draws several graphic images depicting Bowman being murdered in various ways by monsters. A psychiatrist gives her a sketch book and encourages her to continue to draw her feelings of rage, which she does.

Meanwhile, Jack discovers a mysterious pond in the woods behind their house. When he plunges his injured hand into the water to retrieve his broken phone, he discovers that his phone is fixed and his hand is healed. He begins to experiment with the properties of the pond, while Amber secretly watches. When her sketchbook accidently falls into the water, Jack fishes it out and they discover that the monsters are missing from the pages. The water seems to have brought them to life, and the monsters start attacking the people and things depicted in Amber’s drawings. A giant blue monster called Dave attacks kids on their way to school, and other monsters attack the town.

When Amber realises what’s happening, she and her brother race to save Bowman, themselves and their families from the creatures that want to destroy them all.

Themes

Death of a parent; grief; emotional suppression; fear; anxiety; isolation; harassment; the consequences of unchecked creativity and self-loathing

Violence

Sketch has some violence. For example:

Amber draws a picture of a classmate who bullies her. He is depicted being strangled and skewered through the stomach as he drips with blood, which forms a pool on the ground.
Jack takes a rough tumble down a hill, cutting his hand badly. He has to pick debris out of his gaping wound.
Amber describes pulling out eyeballs and feeding them to millions of bugs. She later draws spiders taking her father’s things, including his coffee, phone and eyeballs.
Amber explains the monsters in the pictures. ‘Blood eaters’ eat people’s blood and then puke it back over them. ‘Tattlers’ tell the ‘Blind ones’ (huge, towering monsters with gaping mouths) where you are so the Blind Ones come and kill you. ‘Snapadons’ are huge, winged, dinosaur-like creatures that swoop down and stab you in the face. One monster doesn’t look very scary, so Amber adds poisonous snakes for toes in case people don’t die when the monster crushes them. The scene shows images of the monsters as Amber describes them.
A creepy creature breaks into a service station and terrifies the adults who work there.
A giant blue monster called Dave attacks Jack, grabbing hold of him by the snakes at the end of his feet. Jack escapes when Dave is put to sleep.
Dave wakes up screaming and spewing glitter from his mouth as his eyes dangle precariously from his face. He sets off in pursuit of the children.
Tiny spiders repeatedly attack Taylor.
A monster nearly kills and eats Bowman.
Amber is covered in spiders as she falls through a door. They attack her, and she tumbles into a bathtub. They try to take her eyes, but she manages to get the water running and wash them away.
Bowman throws a chair through the window and blasts spiders with a power hose, shaking them off as they go for his eyes.
Amber throws Jack’s notebook out of the bus window.
Spider creatures are crushed with plates, fists and feet.
A character is described as being stabbed hard through the stomach.
A butterfly attacks Bowman.
Taylor attacks a monster with a shovel, and Liz attacks another with a Weed Wacker.
A monster tries to strangle Jack with its tongue.
Amber has drawings on her arms, which she uses to fight monsters.
Jack uses a flame thrower to burn monsters. He melts a monster’s face.
Jack slices the hand off a creature who’s about to kill his father.
Amber kills monsters with the tentacles on her arms.
Good drawings come to life and attack and defeat the bad ones.

Sexual references

Sketch has some sexual references. For example:

Bowman asks Amber if she’ll be his girlfriend.
One child asks, ‘What are vitals?’ Another one answers, ‘Something only boys have’.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

There’s no use of substances in Sketch.

Nudity and sexual activity

There’s no nudity and sexual activity in Sketch.

Product placement

Minecraft and Zelda are both mentioned in Sketch. Amber draws the diamond sword from Minecraft, and Jack uses it to attack monsters.

Coarse language

Sketch has some coarse language, including ‘bastards’, ‘Shut up!’, ‘butt’, ‘dumb ass’, ‘nerds’, ‘stupid’, ‘hell’ and ‘b-hole’. Amber is repeatedly called ‘orphan’ as an insult.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Sketch is a fantasy-adventure, comedy-horror movie. It has many special effects, which it uses to explore how art can be used to process pain. As a result, it has powerful messages about grief, healing and reconnection. Sketch is best suited to viewers aged over 12 years.

These are the main messages from Sketch:

It’s OK to feel everything.
Creativity can help with healing.
Drawing evil pictures doesn’t make you an evil person.
Life is about balancing good and bad, but also making sure that you have enough good to outweigh the bad.

Values in Sketch that you could reinforce children include compassion, kindness, teamwork

friendship, love and forgiveness.

Sketch could also give you the chance to talk with your children about communicating openly and processing feelings in a way that won’t hurt others.