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AIBU?

To take 9 year olds to see The Hobbit ?

74 replies

RufflingFeathers · 07/01/2013 20:40

Posted in AIBU so I could get a quick response. For a treat for DS's birthday.
Not seen it and haven't let him watch a 12A before....

Any thoughts ?

(I'd love to see it, but that's a side point, nothing much else on that he's not seen)

OP posts:

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LuluMai · 07/01/2013 21:38

Ds aged six loved it.

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GeorgianMumto5 · 07/01/2013 21:40

I wouldn't take other peoole's children though, nor would I let mine go with others to see a 12A.

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ThreeBeeOneGee · 07/01/2013 21:42

Depends on your nine year old. DS1 (12y10m) and DS2 (10y10m) loved it, but I felt it was a bit too long for DS3 and DD (8y6m). I don't think it was any scarier than Doctor Who or Merlin.

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ThalianotFailure · 07/01/2013 21:43

but does loving it render it suitable? I'm actually really astonished that everyone else thinks it fine (for a 6 year old!). I admit DD is only 3 so it hasn't come up, but aren't people concerned about the effects of seeing this stuff? Is this just the times we live in? And I'm going to pull my judgey pants right up and say that in no way, shape or form is Skyfall suitable for a 9 year old, I don't care what the BBFC or anyone else says.

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ebersneezer · 07/01/2013 21:44

My 7 year old loved it

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ThreeBeeOneGee · 07/01/2013 21:44

Could you have a subtle sounding out of the other parents to see how they feel, before you send out the invitations?

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DumSpiroSperHoHoHo · 07/01/2013 21:45

I think it depends on your 9yo, and I would definitely run it by the other parents involved first. I might make that decision for my own child but I'd be bloody furious if someone took that decision without consulting me first.

There are a few grim bits in it - Azog is pretty scary - and it's very long-winded (even with hot dwarves to ogle!).

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ebersneezer · 07/01/2013 21:46

Yes, I wouldn't take other people's children unless I was sure they'd cope and not get bored.

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DumSpiroSperHoHoHo · 07/01/2013 21:47

Thalian do not get me started on Skyfall!

DH & I finally got round to seeing it at 9pm last Saturday. Sat next to us, were a family comprising parents, grandparents and a DD of about 7.

I am not one for judgey-pants on the whole but was not impressed.

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crunchbag · 07/01/2013 21:54

We took our 7yo DD without even thinking about it beforehand. I think it was more than suitable and dd loved it. Yes there were a few scary bits in it but it would be boring otherwise.

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jamdonut · 07/01/2013 21:57

I think it depends on your child. If easily scared by mild peril, monsters fighting and heads being cut off (but there is no gore at all) then no, I wouldn't .
But I and my 12 year old son loved,loved,loved it!
And the dwarves are REALLY good!
And I actually felt sorry for Gollum...brilliant scenes.

There is a lot of explanation to follow,though, so if you don't think a child would sit through that without getting restless, I wouldn't reccommend it either.

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stealthsquiggle · 07/01/2013 21:59

I took 10yo DS, and would have taken him as a 9yo, but would never take someone else's 9yo, and would be a bit if someone proposed to take my 9yo to a 12A film without consulting me before invitations were issued.

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pixwix · 07/01/2013 22:02

Ex-dh took ds1 (15) and ds2 (9 and a half) with a family friend and his daughter. Ds2 is reading 'the hobbit' at the moment, and he really enjoyed it! Ex- Dh is careful, like me, and runs stuff like this past me, as I do him - even if we think it's suitable, it's a courtesy thing- and I would do the same for the parents of any other 9 year olds that might come along - but ds2 got a lot out of it...

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yummumto3girls · 07/01/2013 22:12

Saw it last week, wouldn't take my DD age 12 but then she is scared of going up stairs on her own. It is based on a children's book but is not a children's film, lots of chasing by scary things!! Depends on the child but I certainly would not take other children without the parents knowing the level of the film.

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Happypiglet · 07/01/2013 22:26

Took DSs (8 and 7) yesterday. I am a die hard Tolkein fan and we have read the Hobbit together and they know the story inside out. Even so i had to explain all the 'extra bits' like Radaghast to them in hushed tones! They were not in the least scared. But then they know the story and expected large dragons, gross looking orcs and warty goblins. There is absolutely no steamy stuff and the fighting is just awesome. In fact they agreed that Gollum was the scariest bit!
And My DS1 still can't sit through the evil 'mother' in Tangled without leaving the room...
I wouldn't take them to Skyfall tho! Because it's the 'real' world' and I hate guns and they would be grossed out by any flirting/sexy bits etc!
But I wouldn't take other people's DC without checking first. It's also very long so they need to be able to sit through it.

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mixedpeel · 07/01/2013 22:52

Fully agree with those who have said the film has much more fighting in it than the book has - Peter Jackson has definitely interwoven it with the LOTR stuff much more than the book ever did. And the orcs, goblins etc are pretty gruesome to look at (and those huge slavering wolves).

I would definitely run it by the other parents first - as someone else said, it will totally depend on the child. If I had seen this at age 9 I would've had nightmares for EVER! And another thought just springs to mind: if I had gone with someone else's parents, I might have felt utterly trapped in the cinema, even if I did want to escape. Or not wanting to lose face in front of friends.

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Hobbitation · 07/01/2013 22:57

Took 7.5 year old DD1 who loved it, having watched it already myself first to check it was OK. The only bit she shuffled about in was the talky bit with Galadriel in Rivendell.

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mixedpeel · 07/01/2013 23:02

I don't know about anyone else, but when we saw it, there were not one, but two ads for Nice'n'Easy with the annoying man who can't work out that his missus is on the a bottle blonde.

So during that boring bit with Galadriel, when Gandalf makes some comment about how she hasn't changed a bit, I wanted to shout out "Nice'n'Easy, mate!"

Didn't though.

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EugenesAxe · 07/01/2013 23:03

It's hard to know what will freak anyone out, but here are the bits that I can think of that might the most:

Middle distance view of Orc holding up head of dead important dwarf in battle scene
Hurried Orc beheadings (why is spellcheck capitalising all my orcs?) during dwarfish flight
Woodland creatures dying of malaise spread from Dol Guldur, including death scene of hedgehog... he's revived but I got a bit upset at first
Suggestions/distant view of large spiders
Spookiness at Dol Guldur including ghost attacking Radagast
Dragon related terror but nothing graphic if I remember rightly
Wargs and orcs being generally nasty

I thought it was a brilliant film FWIW. I met a 9 and 7 yo the other week who'd seen it and they didn't seem distraught at all.

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funnypeculiar · 07/01/2013 23:09

I'm sure you're planning to - but I'd defn do a gentle sounding out of parents before you send out invites, as many have said, it would depend on the 9 yo - my nearly 9yo wouldn't even watch the trailer as he thought it looked too scary. But then he makes us turn off David Attenborough on a regular basis too

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BoattoBolivia · 07/01/2013 23:10

Took dd (10) who loved it, but won't watch Dr Who or anything remotely scary on TV. I was more freaked out by the advert beforehand for the new film about the Tsunami- far too realistic shots of being swallowed by the waves, screaming etc. The Hobbit has violence, but very comic book- she was fine. We have read the book beforehand, so she did know the story, but we were both annoyed by the extra LOTR links. She has not seen those films yet as they are much darker. Would definitely check with other parents first.

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mixedpeel · 07/01/2013 23:12

And another thing to bear in mind is that the trailers will all be 12a too. So whereas The Hobbit's violence is fantasy-type stuff as has been said, some of the films trailed might have a different slant.

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mixedpeel · 07/01/2013 23:15

weird, crossposted with you, boatto! Though we didn't have the Tsunami film trailed when we saw it. Tarantino's latest was there, among others

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BackforGood · 07/01/2013 23:26

Agree with everyone else that it's not appropriate to take other people's children, unless you've had the conversation, out of range of the childrens' ears, with the parents first.
Making it the 'birthday party' then puts pressure on parents to let their dc go, when they might well prefer them not to.

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Hobbitation · 07/01/2013 23:41

The trailers were all very mild when we went, I was worried about that aspect. But yes, I wouldn't have taken DD's friends, though I knew DD would be OK having seen it myself first.