Story

Spoiled gamer Waldek (Maciej Karas) wants nothing more than to be the best esports gamer in the world. He dreams of winning the coveted Robot Masters Gaming tournament with his best friend, Staszek (Patryk Siemek).

Waldek’s doting mother, Tereska (Karolina Gruszka), does everything she can to give Waldek an easy life. She picks out his clothes, feeds him whatever he wants and even walks him across the street. When she gets sick and has to go into hospital for extensive treatment, she asks her aunt, Mariola (Dorota Kolak), to come and stay with Waldek while she’s away.

Mariola’s views about raising children are different from Tereska’s. Mariola straight away starts making healthy foods, forcing Waldek to exercise and do chores, and insists that he walk to school on his own. Waldek is very unhappy about this turn of events and just wants his mother to come home.

When their gaming team falls apart, Waldek and Staszek advertise for a new member but are reluctant to let a girl join them. Through a series of encounters with others, the boys learn that when it comes to friendship, girls and older people, not everything is as it seems.

Themes

Illness; bullying; obesity; cancer treatment; lying; excessive gaming; dealing with difficult relatives

Violence

Too Old for Fairy Tales has some violence. For example:

• A character purposely hits Staszek, causing him to lose the game he’s playing.
• Sometimes Waldek and Staszek disagree, then shove and hit each other.
• A man smashes his keyboard in a fit of rage.
• Waldek imagines himself punching some men in the face and kicking another man in the stomach, sending him flying backwards.
• Waldek stabs his aunt’s inflatable mattress with a fork, causing it to deflate.
• Waldek sabotages his aunt’s harness by cutting a knot with scissors, causing her to fall to the floor.

Sexual references

Too Old for Fairy Tales has some sexual references. For example:

• Waldek explains how Staszek’s hormones have gone crazy and how he now wants a girlfriend.
• Waldek’s aunt tells his mother how she looks like a ‘sexy corpse’.
• Staszek says to Waldek, ‘Check out that chick!’
• Staszek ogles girls at the local pool.
• Staszek tells Waldek that he didn’t think a girl would be interested in someone like him.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Too Old for Fairy Tales shows some use of substances. For example, Waldek’s grandfather tries to smoke cigarettes before being told off by everyone.

Nudity and sexual activity

Too Old for Fairy Tales has some nudity and sexual activity. For example:

• Staszek watches as a bikini-clad girl slowly climbs into the hot tub with him. He moves closer to her as she looks the other way and then must move aside as her boyfriend comes to sit between them. Staszek watches as the girl and boy share a passionate kiss.
• Waldek’s grandfather tells him how he and his grandmother used to ‘tumble a lot in freshly cut grass’. He then tells Waldek’s mother that the boy is red in the face because they were talking about women.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in Too Old for Fairy Tales.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language, name-calling and insults in Too Old for Fairy Tales, including ‘damn’, ‘dumb’, ‘lunatic’, ‘pip squeak’, ‘loser’, ‘moron’, ‘nut job’, ‘sucks’, ‘loser nube’, ‘slacker’, ‘jerk’, ‘nit wit’ and ‘poo poo’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Too Old for Fairy Tales is a Polish movie dubbed in English and based on the book by Agnieszka Dabrowska. Although the dubbing sometimes seems mistimed, the movie features a charming cast and casts light on big issues like entitlement and parent death.

Due to violence, themes and language, Too Old for Fairy Tales isn’t suitable for children under 8 years, and we recommend parental guidance for children aged up to 10 years.

These are the main messages from Too Old for Fairy Tales:

• Children are often more capable than we think.
• The best way to handle fear is to share it with others because this will lighten your load.
• You must always do something rather than do nothing.

Values in Too Old for Fairy Tales that you could reinforce with your children include determination, teamwork, persistence, tough love and friendship.

Too Old for Fairy Tales could also give you the chance to talk with your children about the real-life consequences of things like:

• bullying others
• believing that girls aren’t as good as boys and excluding them
• lying to the people you love, even if you think you’re protecting them
• betraying your friends because you want something they have.