The Blue Elephant [Import]

My wife bought this movie after seeing an ad on tv and thinking my 2 yr old son would like the cute little blue elephant. And he does. The animation is good and there are plenty of different characters although the story follows just one of them for 95% of the movie. I sat down and watched this all the way through only once with my son, as he's at the age where he can only handle 20 minutes of story line at a time (not helped by the fact all his tv shows are about 10 to 20 minutes an episode).

But once we got into the third act, things I thought got a little disturbing. There are a lot of war scenes towards the end, and throughout the whole story there are a lot of fights, teasing, slightly creepy images of red eyed monstrous elephants (the animation makes them look more like demons than elephants), and I basically felt uncomfortable with my two year old staring at it. I also didn't like the message about war being a necessary thing in society (actually I was quite shocked when they said that in a kid's movie supposedly about a cute blue elephant).

The bottom line is there's nothing about the cover of the DVD and the ads that depict what the movie is actually like. I'm not saying it isn't an enjoyable movie, but it might not be what you're expecting, especially after the first 5 minutes are all cute and cuddly and then it turns into a slightly scary film about war and death. I would watch it first as a parent before letting your child view it to gauge if it's something you feel comfortable letting your child watch.

My child thoroughly enjoyed this wonderfully animated film. She's watched it several times this weekend, and wants a copy of her own. (we rented this one) Although I agree, that for smaller children, it might be scary. The cover art DOES NOT give you a good idea of what the film is all about, however, I do think that in the situation presented in the movie (Siam being invaded by Burma), that the war is justified, even though it obviously wasn't what the animals or the people wanted. They wanted peace, but knew they could never have it without fighting for it. Appropriate film for 4 and up, in my opinion.

this film is trash do not buy this for your children i had to turn it off in 5 min to much name calling
very viloet talk, was so surprise that this was in children dvd it is very bad for young kids alot of bullying in it
i will not let my child see this trash ,i thought that by title and film cover this would be for kids its not