Family Switch | 2023 | PG | – 2.3.3

Why is “Family Switch” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “suggestive material, language, teen partying and some thematic elements.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of kissing scenes with one involving kissing between teen siblings that inhabit their adult parents’ bodies, many scenes of peril and accidents that leave no injuries, teen drinking at parties, many arguments, yelling and some strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A quarreling family (Ed Helms, Jennifer Garner, Emma Myers & Brady Noon) visits an observatory during a major planetary alignment, and when a huge white light flashes, the two teens take over the bodies of their parents, and vice versa. Complications ensue as the family members try to accept their new roles. Also with Rita Moreno, Matthias Schweighofer, Lincoln Sykes and Theodore Sykes. Directed by McG. A few words are spoken in German without translation. [Running Time: 1:43]

Family Switch SEX/NUDITY 2

 – A man and a woman that embody teen siblings grimace and choke later as five women at a party insist that they kiss; they kiss, shudder and groan, then run into the kitchen with the woman calling out, “I can’t wait to make out with him.” A boy stares at a girl he likes in a couple of scenes and they kiss briefly. A teen girl tries to kiss a teen boy (actually a man in a teen’s body) under mistletoe, but he puts a cracker box up to his lips to block her and she looks confused.
► Two teens in adult bodies must live their respective parent’s lives and are disgusted at seeming to be married now. A man and his wife, clothed in bed, wake with a start and are shocked as they realize that their bodies now hold the personalities of their teen boy and teen girl. A teen boy dances on a chair during a college application interview, doing pelvic and hip thrusts. A man and a woman on a sidewalk sing and shimmy-shake for about five seconds.
► A female announcer at a teen girls’ soccer match smirks and says one girl has a ball between her legs (this may or may not be anatomically or sexually suggestive).
► Cheerleaders wear skirts of mid-thigh length, and girls’ soccer players wear mid-thigh-length shorts.

Family Switch VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 – A teen boy punches a smaller teen boy in the shoulder, insults him, and tosses him across a high school hallway; the victim is not injured. A teen boy insults and jabs at a smaller boy, who now has his father’s identity inside him, and the smaller boy embarrasses the bully verbally, the bully swings a punch and misses, and the smaller boy punches him in the nose, escaping unharmed as teens around them laugh. A woman wearing high heels stumbles and falls on some steps (she is unharmed) then accidentally kicks a man in the shin and he falls to the floor, yelping in pain. A woman slaps a man in the face to “wake up from a possible nightmare” and he yelps in pain. A man runs, stumbles, and falls in pain, shouting about leg cramps. A teen girl soccer goalie collapses, groaning and holding one knee, while another girl, on the opposing team, falls, gets up, and runs to help her.
► Two adults and two teens in a planetarium room see a large flash of white light, a long telescope tips over, falls to the floor, breaks apart and a lens falls out to the floor and shatters (no one is hurt); a man briefly hangs onto the telescope while it falls, while the other people fall to the floor and get back up unharmed.
► A man and a woman find that their teen children have taken over their bodies and they are now in their teen’s bodies causing all four people to look into a mirror and scream; they also see that a toddler boy and their small dog have switched bodies, the dog runs away and the rest of the family chases it down the street to find it with a man that is a dog trainer and he offers to babysit their dog and toddler; during babysitting, he wonders why the dog acts like a human and the boy acts like a dog.
► A family of five and their dog, who have all switched bodies drive erratically in a convertible muscle car, with a teen boy in a man’s body at the wheel, swerving in and out of traffic, speeding and braking through a wooden barricade that splinters and dents the car; a woman in the car climbs onto the hood to retrieve a glass lens, the passenger-side door breaks off and a semi-truck passes and knocks the driver-side door off, the car stops, and the front bumper and quarter panels fall off as the car smokes. A woman gives a family a ride in a van, dropping them off at a planetarium and they run inside to replace a broken telescope lens, but drop the lens breaking it into many pieces; their dog finds another lens and the telescope is fixed. We see five planets align as a bright light flashes, but nothing else unusual happens. A family sits on a couch at home under blankets as the wind howls outside and Christmas lights flicker.
► A woman and a teen girl argue several times, sometimes coming to tears, and a man and a teen boy argue a few times. A man belittles a female colleague several times, and is fired when she is promoted. Twin sisters on a soccer team are called “The Switchblade Sisters.” A man and a woman complain of body aches, including leg cramps and an injured shoulder. A man says that his teen son’s karate sensei reported that the boy cries during karate belt tests.
► A woman has a large welt on her forehead in three scenes and says it is from a poisonous snakebite. Police sirens sound off-screen during a large teen party and a girl yells, “Cops!”; the house clears out to end the scene. A woman blames drinking a lot the night before when she walks awkwardly while wearing high heels.
► A dog runs on two legs and flatulates loudly in a few scenes, and in one scene, whimpers to a man after dropping a diaper in front of him; the man then puts it on the dog. A dog sits like a human on a toddler’s portable toilet and we hear urination and defecation dripping, but do not see any of it. A toddler drinks water from a dog’s dish. A dog lifts its leg and urinates on a Christmas tree in a couple of scenes, and in the first scene, the tree’s lights flicker and a man falls on the tree, collapsing it; no one is hurt. A toddler boy runs on all fours and plays with dog toys several times, flatulating a few times. A woman burps long and loudly three times in one scene, and flatulates for several seconds after her stomach rumbles for several seconds; she and other people leave the room, grimacing. A woman wears a CPAP mask at night in two scenes, snoring in the second scene. A woman spills coffee on important work papers as people around her gasp, and in another scene, two people make a mess in their kitchen as appliances go crazy and spew water, batter, and juice, and they drop trays of drinks on their floor and run out of the house. A man looks at a laptop screen where we see slides of a colonoscopy briefly, and the man grunts in disgust and slaps the computer shut. A woman takes a mouthful of wine from a cup and spits it on the back of the head of a man at a teen soccer match and the man gasps.

Family Switch LANGUAGE 3

 – 3 scatological terms, 7 anatomical terms, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (creep, weird, stupid, geek, hag, losers, helicopter mom, science dork, magpie, control freak, sexy mother, psycho-dad), exclamations (oh my goodness, gross, whoo, wow, whoa), 13+ religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, God, oh God, my God, for the love of God, many Merry Christmases, many “Santa Claus,” several Christmas trees, several Christmas carols). | profanity glossary |

Family Switch SUBSTANCE USE

 – Teen boys and girls at a large party hold red cups that may be alcohol, a teen boy sips from a beer can, a teen boy sips from a red cup before turning his back to the camera and spitting out its contents (we see some spray), a woman says she drank one glass of vino (we do not see this), a woman tells a coworker that she “hit the hard stuff last night” (we do not see her drink anything), five women at a home gathering say someone should pass around some wine (we do not see any wine), and a woman brings a bottle of wine to a teen soccer match and another woman takes a mouthful of wine from a cup and spits it on the back of the head of a man who gasps.

Family Switch DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Christmas, mysterious people speak of Christmas miracles, bickering families, problem solving, relationships, love, understanding, sacrifice, aging, miracles, magic, belief, love, apologizing, reconciliation, awkwardness, functioning in the workplace, CPAP machines, colonoscopies.

Family Switch MESSAGE

 – During Christmas, people often begin to realize that they need to understand and respect one another’s lives.