What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that there's lots of cartoon action in this film but no one gets seriously hurt. Characters fall from great heights and immediately come back to fall again just moments later. The hero and others are captured, then escape and immediately come back to get captured again. With a mix of animation and live-action, there are swashbuckling pirates, threatening sharks, scary hounds, unhinged authority figures, and a fire-breathing dragon with ghostly accomplices. Ominous music and spooky colors and sound effects heighten the suspense, but except for the youngest or most sensitive kids there's no real sense of jeopardy.
- Families can talk about the difference between real fear and imagined fear. What are you afraid of? Which fears do you have that you think might be exaggerated or not based on reality?
- Richard meets an array of fictional characters in the library. What are some of your favorite fictional characters? Do you ever imagine that you're a part of their stories or even that you are that character?
- What are some of the best things about having a good imagination? Can you identify the line that separates "pretending" and "lying"?