I am a big fan of supporting our local Australian film industry and I love it even more when the whole family can watch.
We recently went along to the preview screening of Red Dog True Blue. The premise of this movie revolves around an eleven year old boy Mick (LEVI MILLER) who is shipped off to his grandfather’s (BRYAN BROWN) cattle station in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia. Mick prepares himself for a life of dull hardship, but instead finds myth, adventure, and a friendship with a scrappy, one-of-a-kind dog that will change his life forever.
I went along to see this movie with my 6 and 8 year old daughters and we got to see the real life Red Dog from the film. They both enjoyed it and were engaged throughout the entire film. I would say that the movie is suited more towards middle to upper primary and early teens.
There were relationship themes, some kissing, a reference to orgies (the kid had no idea what the word meant), a funeral when the father dies, reference to the mother having mental health issues and a few scary dreamtime themes. Having said all of that I never really felt uncomfortable with any of the content for my daughters and I am usually quite sensitive to that. Neither of them seemed affected by any of the themes in the movie.
What I really liked about this movie was the incredible scenery of outback Australia. It truly was an amazing sight. What was more interesting for me as a parent is one of my daughters asked what country it was haha. It was a great opportunity for me to talk to the girls about our amazing Australian landscape and that even though we had never seen places like this before, this was still our country. I could tell they found that very fascinating and it got me thinking that I would like to start looking into doing a trip with our family to one of these amazing places in the near future.
It is out boxing day and it really is a nice story of a boy and his dog and all of the adventures that come with that.
You can see the trailer below …
