Lost Tiger, The

Story

Young Teo (Thomas Weatherall) is abandoned as a baby with only a mysterious crystal necklace as a clue to his heritage. He’s adopted into a family of energetic, wrestling kangaroos, whom he loves – but he always feels that he doesn’t belong. In fact, he doesn’t even know what animal he is!

Teo’s life changes completely after he experiences mysterious visions that call him home. With the help of a timid platypus named Plato (Rhys Darby), Teo embarks on a journey to the lost island, his true home. Here he finds out about his thylacine heritage and his culture.

Can Teo save his country and discover who he is before it’s too late?

Themes

Family; complex family relationships; self-discovery; colonisation; death of a parent; cultural separation

Violence

The Lost Tiger has some violence. For example:

Several scenes show characters fighting or wrestling.
A young character is thrown off stage and injures their ankle.
A character is dismissed and overlooked because they’re a cleaner.
Teo overhears his parents arguing in raised voices about him.
An older character throws her shoe at misbehaving young characters. This knocks them out of a tree.
Teo and his mother argue with raised voices in several scenes.
Teo’s mother holds him by the arm and tries to drag him away, back to their old life. Teo yells at her to stop and says that he has found his true home.
Several characters physically fight each other to protect their land.
Characters restrain Teo and muzzle him, tying him up and throwing him to the ground.
Two characters physically fight over an object. One character loses her footing and is accidentally shoved backwards off the edge of a cliff, falling to her death into the ocean below.
A large crack opens in the earth and a character falls, hanging on precariously to the edge. Teo attempts to help her up, but she refuses his hand and falls to her death.
A car with characters inside falls into a crack in the earth. It looks like the characters might have died.
A character verbally berates other characters in several scenes. In one scene, she says that if another character doesn’t do as she wants, he can go back to being ‘stinky and friendless’.
A character drives very dangerously, trying to shake off Teo. The character yells, ‘Fat chance, you little dumb-dumb lost tiger!’
A character shows bigotry towards the thylacine characters, speaking in an exaggerated and slow voice. When she realises the thylacines can understand her, she’s surprised that they can ‘speak well’.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in The Lost Tiger.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

There’s no use of substances sown in The Lost Tiger.

Nudity and sexual activity

There’s no nudity and sexual activity in The Lost Tiger.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in The Lost Tiger.

Coarse language

There is some mild coarse language in The Lost Tiger, including ‘Shut him up!’, ‘bull caca’, ‘Oh my God!’ and ‘poo’. Also, a character criticises himself by saying this is the ‘stupidest thing I’ve ever done’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

The Lost Tiger is a funny, heartwarming story of self-discovery. As the first Australian animated feature film to be directed by a First Nations Australian woman, The Lost Tiger is full of culture, heart and distinctly Australian comedy.

The Lost Tiger is good family viewing, but it does have some violence, scary scenes and themes. This means it’s best suited to children aged 10 years and over. We recommend parental guidance for children aged 6-9 years and for children who are sensitive to the movie’s themes.

These are the main messages from The Lost Tiger:

Just being yourself is good enough.
It’s important to take care of each other and the land around us because we’re all connected.

Values in The Lost Tiger that you could reinforce with your children include belonging, community, respect for community and land, and conservation.

The Lost Tiger could also give you the chance to talk with your children about questions and issues like the following:

In the movie, Plato lies to Teo about his identity so he can use Teo for his own benefit. Why is it not OK to deceive people in this way? What could Plato have done instead?
Teo’s adoptive mother is reluctant to let Teo to make connections with his biological family and culture. You could talk about the different relationships Teo has with his adoptive and biological family, and the value of each.
The end of the movie emphasises that we’re all connected, regardless of where we come from. What’s an example of this connection? How can we demonstrate respect for each other in real life?
This movie is an allegory of colonisation and the experience of First Nations Australians in the past and present. You could discuss Australia’s history of colonisation with your children.
Aboriginal culture is emphasised as Teo reconnects with his roots. You could talk with your children about the importance of culture and country to First Nations Australians.