The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Review

Messages: Powerful message of friendship among the Hobbits and the other allies (including different species). The seemingly meek Hobbits earn Middle-Earth-wide respect through battle and heroism. Theme throughout of sacrifice made in an immense struggle, including fighting against presumably impossible odds and overwhelming numbers, and trying to be brave against inevitable death.

Role models: Heroes are valiant types who combat evil even when everything looks hopeless. A sword-wielding princess is a strong female warrior, even though males (like her kingly father) try to discourage her from fighting. On the other hand, there's a subplot acknowledgment that not all royalty behaves royally; an aristocratic regent mistreats his younger son to the point of nearly causing the character's death. And just as in the Tolkien novels, a foreign army who are the only nonwhite, non-Celtic-type races are on the side of the bad guys.

Violence: Violence is savage and intense for a PG-13. Thousands of creatures and humans are speared, slashed, hit fatally with arrows, crushed, decapitated, impaled on large spikes, and in the opening scene, painfully strangled to death. There's a catapult-shower of severed human heads, venom-stings from a monster spider, and characters burning to death. A key character's finger is bitten off.

Sex: Mild romance.

Language: Not an issue

Consumerism: Hard to ignore the original Tolkien books, not to mention a plethora of video games, movie tie-in action figures, role-playing games, plus the movie sequels and other existing adaptations.

Drinking, drugs and smoking: Joyous drinking to the point of inebriation in a celebration. Pipe smoking.