Story
June (voice of Sofia Mali) and her mother (Jennifer Garner) are very close and love to create imaginary and magical worlds together. One of their most special creations is Wonderland, a fantasy theme park that includes several of June’s toys: Peanut, a monkey (Norbert Leo Butz); Boomer, a bear (Ken Hudson Campbell); Greta, a warthog (Mila Kunis); and Steve, a porcupine (John Oliver).
One day June’s mother gets bad news – she is sick and must go away for some time. June’s world collapses and she loses interest in her friends and in Wonderland. As time goes by, June (now voiced by Brianna Denski) starts worrying about her father. He decides to send June to camp ‘Awe Sum’ to lift her out of her sadness, but June panics and tries to return home.
On the way home, June gets side-tracked and discovers an abandoned, broken-down fun park, which seems a lot like her old fantasy, Wonderland. Here she finds life-size characters of her old friends, Boomer, Greta and Steve. They tell her the sad story of how a darkness had descended on Wonder Park and it had been overrun by ‘chimpanzombies’. June realises that she must find her old friend Peanut and together restore light to the lost park.
Themes
Separation from a parent; family illness; dealing with emotions; fantasy; animals and children in peril.
Violence
Wonder Park has some violence. For example:
- June builds a playground in her backyard out of broken bits of wood. She tries out the roller-coaster but crashes through the fence and onto the road. She misses cars and is nearly hit by a truck but narrowly manages to avoid it. She ends up crashing into her backyard, having destroyed much of the neighbourhood.
- June’s aunt and uncle visit, and June gets really angry with them because they’ve brought her a toy roller-coaster. She throws the blueprint of Wonderland into the fire.
- Chimpanzombies chase June. Boomer the bear grabs her to get her to safety.
- A huge robotic machine, operated by the chimpanzombies, stomps through the park. Greta is thrown into the air and Steve gets hit too. It chases after June.
- Boomer accidentally sticks his hand on Steve and gets porcupine needles stuck in it. He then accidentally kicks Steve.
- The chimpanzombies set off rockets, which cause explosions.
- The chimpanzombies smother and capture Peanut. He’s tied up inside the dark cloud.
- Two beavers, Wipper and Fitzy, are the sidekicks in the movie and often play fight with each other.
Sexual references
Wonder Park has some very mild sexual references. For example:
- June and her friend Banky flirt mildly.
- Steve and Greta flirt mildly. He says, ‘I burn for you baby’. Greta kisses Steve.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
None of concern
Nudity and sexual activity
None noted
Product placement
None noted
Coarse language
There is some very mild coarse language in Wonder Park, including ‘oh my gosh’, ‘crikey’, ‘holy schmoly’ and ‘jeez’.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Wonder Park is a colourful and exciting animated adventure fantasy.
This movie has elements of sadness, although it does have a happy ending. It also has some intense moments, threats and mild violence. For these reasons, it isn’t recommended for children under six years. We also recommend parental guidance for children aged 6-8 years.
The main messages from this movie are that light is stronger than darkness and that darkness is always there to remind us of the light that surrounds us.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with their children include
- hope
- friendship and family
- perseverance
- loyalty and trust
- creativity and imagination.
This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like how to deal with sadness. The movie suggests that hiding from problems won’t make them go away and it’s better to talk about them.