Jojo Rabbit | 2019 | PG-13 | – 2.5.5

Why is “Jojo Rabbit” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “mature thematic content, some disturbing images, violence, and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes references to gender roles, discussions of romance and passion and a swimming pool sequence with men wearing trunks; several scenes of violent death including human and a rabbit, a boy injured by an explosive, references to war and the aftermath of a bombing, discussions of the Nazi treatment of Jewish people, unsettling scenes of young people being trained for war and schooled with propaganda, many crude and insulting references to Jewish people, arguments, and a boy’s imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler; and at least 1 F-word and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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World War II satire and coming-of-age comedy about a 10-year old Nazi Youth enthusiast (Roman Griffin Davis), who struggles with his belief system when he discovers that his own mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their attic. His imaginary friend, who happens to be Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi), is not helping him in confronting rabid nationalism. Also with Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Alfie Allen, Stephen Merchant and Archie Yates. Directed by Taika Waititi. [Running Time: 1:48]

Jojo Rabbit SEX/NUDITY 2

 – A man describes what girls will be doing at a Nazi Youth camp, including making beds and learning how to get pregnant. A woman says that she has been pregnant many times. A boy talks about someone doing “the tongue kiss.” A boy reads letters to a young woman that he says are from her fiancé. A woman tells her young son that a place used to be filled with lovers and romance. A woman describes what love feels like to her young son and he imagines butterflies in his stomach. A woman tells a young woman what it’s like to be a woman and that you can “take on lovers,” “trust without fear,” and “look a tiger in the eye.” A man yells at another man, then stands very close to him, and apologizes in a tender tone. A young boy talks about never getting to kiss a girl and a young woman asks, “Do you want to kiss me?” (they do not kiss). A boy says that he needs to go home to his mother because he “needs a cuddle.”
► A young woman sits in a bathtub (we see her bare arm) as a boy sits outside in the hall with the door slightly ajar. Several men wear swim trunks while swimming and sitting next to a therapy pool.

Jojo Rabbit VIOLENCE/GORE 5

 – A boy raises a knife toward a young woman and they struggle briefly until he stabs her in the shoulder (we see a little blood on her shirt). A boy grabs a grenade out of a man’s hand and runs into a forest where he throws the grenade, it bounces off a tree and explodes right next to the boy throwing him into the air; we see the boy (from his perspective) with blurred vision and muffled hearing and people react to his appearance and when we see him later he has scars on his face and he limps.
► Five people are shown hanging from a wooden frame in a town square and a boy cries and hugs the shoes and lower legs of one of the bodies. Five people are shown hanging from a wooden frame in a square and we see a printed label attached to the pant leg of one person (in German and not translated). Tanks move into a town, fire on people and soldiers and people run for safety (we see bodies on the ground and thrown into the air with some blood visible). A woman straps a grenade to a boy’s back and sends him out to find enemy soldiers (like a suicide bomber). A boy is grabbed by a soldier and taken away; he finds another man that helps the boy get away and we hear shots off-screen implying that the man was killed as the boy screams and cries.
► A boy hears noises in his house and investigates, finding a hidden door that he opens and when he sees a girl inside he yells and runs back out, and runs to the hallway where he falls down a flight of stairs (he is unharmed); the girl wraps her fingers around the door jam and moves slowly down stairs toward him (behaving like a movie monster), and she holds the boy by the neck and presses a knife against him threatening to cut his head off if he tells anyone that he knows about her. A woman punches a man in the crotch and he bends over moaning; she then slaps him across the face with her gloves and he falls to the floor. A young woman slaps a boy across the face. A girl holds a boy around the mouth and throws him onto a bed where he coughs and sputters. A boy kicks a man (an imaginary friend) through a window and off-screen.
► Gestapo officers arrive at a boy’s house and search through papers and boxes inside while his mother is not home; a young woman comes into the room and they ask for her papers and quiz her about who she is, while the boy trembles (the officers leave). Boys run through a forest during a Nazi Youth camp, they practice throwing knives and one boy is stabbed in the leg when his knife bounces of a tree (no blood is shown). Two boys carry a bazooka and when one drops his end the weapon discharges and blows up a nearby building. A man shoots a gun and takes target practice hitting several items on a camp table as young boys watch. Boys practice fighting and a man tells a boy to “finish him” as the boy raises a stone over his head and brings it down toward someone that we do not see. A woman hands a boy a handgun and his mother pushes it away. A man throws a grenade into a forest and we see dirt blow into the air in the distance.
► Boys and girls wear gas masks as they practice war games. Several boys wearing backpacks and fully clothed jump into a swimming pool and struggle to tread water. A young boy wears a uniform and a rifle strapped to his back. People holding grenade launchers in a town are instructed on how to operate them. Soldiers pass out rifles as enemy troops enter a town. A man describes what boys will be doing in a Nazi Youth camp, including playing war games and blowing stuff up; they are each given a sharp knife to carry with them.
► A boy says, “I love killing” when goaded by two young men; one young man tells the boy to kill a rabbit and hands him an animal describing how he should wring its neck and they’ll use their boots to finish it as other children chant, “Kill, kill”; the boy puts the rabbit on the ground and tries to make it run away but a young man picks it up and kills it (we hear a crack and the man throws the animal into the forest), and the man shoves the boy to the ground and puts his foot over the boy’s face threatening to stomp on him (the boy runs away as people call him “Jojo Rabbit”).
► Young people talk about Jews in several scenes and about the way they look and how they would know if they met one: A boy says, “Jews are scary,” a boy says, “I’d feel its head for horns,” a boy says, “They smell like Brussel sprouts” and “They’d fly down the chimney with their batwings,” a girl tells the boy, “We’re like you but human,” a boy says, “You’re demons who love money,” a young woman says, “We used to live in caves” and a boy replies, “You take the ends off penises and Rabbis wear them as earplugs,” a comment is made that “Jews love ugly things,” and a boy asks, “Where does the queen Jew lay the eggs.” A boy talks about Russians “eating babies and having sex with dogs.
► A boy yells at his mother after she says that she wants the war to end and she smears ash on her face to resemble a beard and pretends to be the boy’s father yelling at him and slamming his hand onto the table. A man yells at another man and he becomes sad. A boy reads a letter to a young woman that he says is from her fiancé and that he doesn’t want her to kill herself after he breaks up with her. A boy and a young woman argue. A man talks about having made a mistake and that he “lost a perfectly good eye” (we see that one of his eyes is discolored). A man and a boy yell “Heil Hitler” repeatedly and the boy runs through the streets continuing to salute and yell. A man tells a boy in a few scenes, “Heil me.” A boy describes having a “snake mind.” We see newsreel-type footage of large crowds of people screaming and performing the Nazi salute. A man tells boys in a Nazi Youth camp that he will make them into hardened warriors. A character says, “He’s gonna get us all killed.” A woman tells a boy to “walk the clones,” pointing to several other boys that look similar, and then to “post the propaganda” or “distribute the conscriptions.” We understand that a boy’s sister died (we do not know how she died) and that his father is away or dead also. A man tells a boy to “Burn down the house and blame Winston Churchill.” A reference is made to a pit filled with piranhas and bacon. A man says that a boy has “blind fanaticism” and a man talks about “anti-party sentiment.” A young woman says that her parents were put on a train “To a place that you don’t come back from.” A boy says that Adolf Hitler “Gave up and blew his brains out.” A young woman says that her fiancé died from TB. A reference is made to “Using their graves as toilets.”
► A woman ties a boy’s shoelaces together and he trips and falls on the ground; she laughs and runs away as he calls out for her. We see drawings in a boy’s sketchbook (his interpretation what Jews look like) of people with horns, people with batwings and a demonic looking creature. We hear explosions in the distance and we see buildings in rubble the next day. A plane engulfed in smoke falls from the sky and we hear it crash in the distance. Boys and girls burn books in a large pile and stand around the blaze cheering.
► A man (he’s an imaginary friend) is shown with a bloody bullet wound on his head. We see a boy’s scarred leg after a grenade explosion accident. We see several men in a swimming pool and a few are missing parts of their legs and arms. A boy yells as a woman stretches his injured leg for therapy. A transport truck drives along a road and we see soldiers with bloody bandages on their heads and arms. A man talks about his imaginary friend wetting his bed while he was sleeping when he was a boy. A man spits on a boy. A man spits in soup (we see spittle). A boy picks through garbage for food.

Jojo Rabbit LANGUAGE 5

 – At least 1 F-word, 7 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 6 mild obscenities, name-calling (scrawny, unpopular, loyal Nazi, scary, fat little boy’s body, coward, scared, lunatic, psycho, stick insects, female Jewish Jesse Owens, Jack the Ripper, Jew girl in the wall, thing, that Jew, pretty rude, dirty animals, ghost, fanatic, heir hand grenade, fat, drunk gambler, Jew thing, snail cheeses baguette-land, dummkopf, devils, scum, dumb heads, weird, silly, cripples, little Frankenstein, dirty Jew, thing in the attic, disgusting Jewy cow), exclamations (I swear, screw up, kaput, you’ve lost your mind, oh gosh, shut-up, I’m fed up), 4 religious profanities (GD), 10 religious exclamations (e.g. So Help Me God, stupid, little cub, Oh [M] God,” Jesus, Jesus Christ, Oh God, God). | profanity glossary |

Jojo Rabbit SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man drinks from a flask in several scenes, a woman drinks wine in several scenes, a man drinks a glass of whisky, and a woman drinks from a bottle of wine in a few scenes. A man smokes a cigarette in several scenes, a man smokes a cigarette next to a therapy pool, and a man (he’s an imaginary friend) offers a boy a cigarette repeatedly in several scenes and the boy declines.

Jojo Rabbit DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – The Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler, anti-Semitism, nationalism, patriotism, war, hate, fitting in, reverse psychology, hope, challenge, going against your nature, resistance.

Jojo Rabbit MESSAGE

 – Life is a gift.