A Minecraft Movie

What’s it about?

Four misfits are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they'll have to master this world while embarking on a quest with an unexpected, expert crafter.

The facts

• Directed by Jared Hess
• English language
• Runtime: 101 minutes
• Inspired by the game Minecraft by Mojang
• Starring Jason Momoa, Jack Black, and Jennifer Coolidge
• Filmed in New Zealand

Why did A Minecraft Movie get this rating in NZ?

This film was rated by the Film and Video Labelling Body. You can find out more about rating here.

When real world characters find themselves in the Minecraft world it becomes a computer animated environment. Like the game, characters and resources are brick shaped. If children have played the game before they will be familiar with many of the animated elements on screen. We break down what parents need to know about A Minecraft Movie and the most impactful content:

Scary scenes

The Minecraft world “Overworld” is based on the survival game mode where day can quickly turn to night and scary characters start to appear. Zombies, skeletons, spiders and creepers chase or sneak up on characters. A character gets caught in the blast from an exploding creeper and is thrown some distance. No damage or harm is shown.

Characters travel through a portal to The Nether, a dark underworld with lots of fire and scary looking “piglins” (like piglets). The ruling piglin is an evil witch-like character and may be scary for younger viewers.

Violence

A "Villager", a placid character from the Overworld, is hit by a car in the real world while crossing the road. There appears to be no harm or damage caused, and the car driver checks to make sure they’re ok.

Steve fights off multiple zombies in a comedic way; we see him pull off a zombie’s arm and beat him with it. He does a dramatic wrestling jump on top of a zombie. When the sun comes up we see the night creatures burst into flames and evaporate.

There are several chase-followed-by-fight sequences, where the real world characters must battle various Minecraft creatures with crafted tools. We never see blood or lasting damage done.

During a large bridge explosion Garrett ‘Garbage Man’ is caught up in the fireball. We don’t see until later that he survived the scene.

Characters are caught and made to battle in a boxing ring; they are pitted against a child-sized zombie and a chicken. The scene is comedic but does involve a fully grown man beating and throwing the zombie and chicken while also getting his butt kicked by them.

If you're wondering whether A Minecraft Movie is suitable for kids, we watched the movie with a five year old and a ten year old. Their comments about the scariest parts of the movie:

“The scariest part was when the witch-like character stabbed a piglin and it turned to a pork chop on the blade” — Ten year old.

“The big piglin was the scariest character” — Five year old.

Further information

• Why are ratings and content warnings important for me and my whānau?
• Gaming resource hub