Is Nemo too scary for a 3-year-old?

hello, I'm wanting to take my almost 3 year old to ''Finding Nemo'' , but have been told by the other parent that she heard it was ''scary for little kids'' . does anyone agreee or disagree or have any other input? please help. ;-} thanks john

That said, he doesn't get scared at much. Watches all sorts of videos (''Lion King,'' ''Peter Pan,'' ''The Iron Giant'') with only an occasional ''I'm scared, hold me'' and never agrees to turn it off. And never a single nightmare, even after ''Spirited Away'' (which was an error in judgment).

There are also scenes that were scary for the adults (a mined harbor) that had no effect on the kids (what young kid knows what a mine is?).

I hope this helps. It was his first theater movie and is a precious memory for both of us (we went to Jack London Theater in Oakland). Jennie

I suspect you will get as many kinds of answers as there are kinds of kids.

FWIW I think it's a great movie, it was the first we brought my daughter to see in the ''big theater.'' Donna

No more cartoons for now

At her age, kids seem to have some need to live vicariously through these emancipated alter egos. It's kind of their worst fear realized (what would I do if my mom died?) and their secret fantasy. Best of luck!

and the air-conditioned theatre ain't bad either!

Take them & enjoy! Tiffany

Of course, there's also the early scene where the mommy and eggs (except Nemo's) get eaten. You don't actually see it happen, but the outcome is clear. Finally, the dentist's office is portrayed as a scary and painful place to be- not the impression I'd want to give my young kids. And the dentist's daughter (the only female human in the show) is clearly sadistic. So overall, while the messages may be sweet and positive, the path was too scary for most kids under 6. R.K.

Sadly, about 5-10 minutes into the movie there was a scene where a shark went ballistic and started ramming the side of the boat trying to catch the little fish so he could eat them.

My six year old son (who has been exposed to both movies and TV cartoons with pretty intense scenes) spent the rest of the movie on my lap. Wouldn't admit he was scared just said he felt like sitting on my lap. It's rare that my little kindergartner actually WANTS to sit on my lap that I thought it was pretty cool.

So basically, I would highly recommend the film for adults and older kids (6 and up unless they are very sensitive) but it's too scary for a 3-year-old. --Sharon

What we found was that the volume alone was extremely frightening. Paired with an opening scene where Nemo's mother dies; some very scary scenes with sharks and other animals threatening to eat nemo's father; and a very frightening dentist...

If I had to do it over again, I would not allow any child of mine under 7 y.o. to see the movie. I certainly would not recommend it for a 3 y.o. Ruthie

Aside from violence, there is the issue of commercialism. I tend to avoid Disney stuff like the plague, but then again, I love Pixar for its creativity and irreverence. Kinda neat to see Nemo at Emery Bay, less than a mile from where it was actually created.

Invariably, you will get comparisons to past movies from other childhoods. For me, the ''flying monkeys'' of Wizard of OZ, or the kidnapping scene in ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' stand out in my mind to this day as very powerful and scary. And of course, you can't beat age-old fairy tales for violence (most modern versions are considerably tame, actually, from what I understand). Should my parents not have exposed me to that stuff? Aside from giving me the shivers, did it have any lasting or negative effect? Who knows. I tend to think ''not really,'' but you still won't see me in the theaters with my 3-year old.

Having said all, that, guess which movie my wife and I went to see on a date when we got a rare afternoon off this summer... Loved it.

A Little Fishy

http://www.parentcenter.com/community/ppt/picks/funActivities/entertainment/animation/findingnemo2-8/

www.screenit.com is also a great resource. Leah

All kids are different, of course, but of the 5 or so 3 year-olds I know who've seen it, none have had any problems. The bigger issue might be sitting still for 1 1/2 hours! Christine

duped by pixar

There's a scene in which Nemo's dad and his friend Dory get chased by a shark. During this chase, the shark briefly imitates Jack Nicholson from ''The Shining.'' It's a scary scene, but it ends in less than two minutes. And, it's no scarier in my opinion than any other children's fare (in fact my son still refuses to see ''The Little Mermaid'' because the mean octopus character scares him a whole lot more).

Since we first saw Nemo we have spent countless hours going over the movie in conversation. What happened first, what happened next, how did Marlin and Dory get away from the shark? It's clear that he's tried to ''work out'' the scary parts in his head by talking about it endlessly. But he still wanted to go back.

Bottom line -- if your kid has an average level of tolerance for scary movies, he/she should be fine.

And, the movie has a very nice message for a little kid, which we sum up in our house as ''If you get lost, your Daddy will ALWAYS find you.'' Melinda

It gives very detailed reviews of movies so that parents can evaluate them without having to watch it first. It lists all manner of troublesome content:

Alcohol/Drugs 
Blood/Gore 
Disrespectful/
Bad Attitude 
Frightening/Tense Scenes
Guns/Weapons
Imitative Behavior 
JumpScenes 
Music(Scary/Tense) 
Music(Inappropriate) 
Profanity
Sex/
Nudity Smoking Tense Family
Scenes Topics To
Talk About Violence

  # Younger kids might find the following unsettling, tense,
suspenseful or even scary (all depending on their age, level of
maturity and tolerance for such material), but older ones
probably will have little if any problem with it.
  # Marlin and Coral realize that all of the other creatures in
their ''neighborhood'' are gone and hiding. They then spot a large
and menacing fish and Coral races to protect their nearby eggs.
It then races at them and bites at them, with Marlin hitting it
and it then hitting him with its tail. When Marlin comes to, he
discovers that Coral is gone as are all but one of their 400 eggs
(we never know what happened to them or her).
  # A human diver suddenly shows up near Nemo and captures him.
Marlin tries to race after the diver and his boat as it takes
off, but can't keep up with it.
# The sight of a huge shark (Bruce) with a mouthful of sharp and
nasty-looking teeth might be scary to some kids. We then learn
that he's going through a step program to help him not each fish,
but when he spots some blood, he sets out after Dory and Marlin
(through an old sub and open water) and repeatedly bites at them
and slams into various things while trying to get them. They end
up in an old sub's torpedo chute with Bruce repeatedly banging
into the opening, forcing a torpedo (and thus them) closer to his
mouthful of teeth.

By the way, our son's first theatrical movie was ''Piglet's Big Movie,'' which we took him to earlier in the summer. And that was such a stupid, boring, pointless movie that, even with ''Nemo's'' scary parts, we appreciated the Pixar movie so much more. Gwynne