Smallfoot

Story

Migo (Channing Tatum) is an enthusiastic yeti who loves his tribe and always tries to obey their laws, no matter how ridiculous they might be. He’s banished from the tribe for telling the truth about witnessing a plane crash and encountering a smallfoot (human). Migo meets a secret society of yetis, led by the stonekeeper’s daughter Meeshee (Zendaya), who also believe that smallfoots exist. Meeshee and Migo hatch a plan to prove the existence of smallfoots to the entire yeti community.

Migo sets off into ‘the great nothingness’ and makes his way down the mountain, below the clouds. Here he finds a human village with an animal activist and TV show host called Percy (James Cordon), who is trying to get his producer to dress up like a yeti to improve his show’s terrible ratings. Migo and Percy have communication problems because yeti speech sounds like angry growling to humans, and human speech sounds like high-pitched chipmunk chatter to yeti. After they overcome these problems, Percy accompanies Migo back to the yeti village. Reactions to yeti-smallfoot encounters range from amazement on the yeti side to terror on the human side. But everyone soon learns they have far more to fear from ignorance than they do from each other.

Themes

Banishment; separation from a parent and community; some scenes showing animated animal distress

Violence

Smallfoot has some violence. For example:

There are frequent falls and jumps from great heights, during which there’s a lot of screaming but no-one is hurt.
A plane crashes. The pilot is fine – but terrified at meeting a yeti.
Migo is shot with a dart gun.
Humans repeatedly fire darts and aim other weapons at the yetis.
There is a destructive chase scene through a village. A lot of property is damaged.
A flashback scene shows the yetis being attacked, stabbed with spears and shot.
An eagle attacks a goat and is then hit with a snowball.
Migo is caught in a bear trap and his big toe is hurt.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in Smallfoot.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Smallfoot shows some use of substances. For example, a stressed pilot drinks in a bar.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity in Smallfoot.

Product placement

In Smallfoot, icons similar to YouTube and Facebook icons appear during a song that Percy sings.

Coarse language

Smallfoot contains occasional use of insulting words like ‘dumb’, ‘crap’, ‘crazy’, ‘weird’, ‘pathetic’, ‘stupid’, ‘jerk’ and ‘sucks’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Smallfoot is a feel-good, animated musical. Aimed at children, this movie is one for the whole family to enjoy together.

The main messages from this movie are to:

question things that don’t make sense
listen to and learn from those who are different
realise that even when the truth is scary, it’s better to know and understand it than to be ignorant.

Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include honesty, integrity, friendship, curiosity and courage to stand up for what you believe in.

Smallfoot could also give you the chance to talk with your children about the importance of:

investigating the truth for themselves and not blindly following old traditions or outdated knowledge
making their own judgements based on fact, experience and reason
communicating with others instead of hiding away or shutting yourself off from those who are different.