IF | 2024 | PG | – 1.2.2

Why is “IF” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “thematic elements and mild language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a large banana with legs being reprimanded for not having any pants on, a woman in a hospital becoming ill and dying, a man in a hospital that we are told will undergo a procedure, a young girl walking through city streets alone in several scenes, discussions of the death of a parent, discussions of imaginary friends, scenes of a variety of beings that represent imaginary friends and references to them being left behind when children grow up, and some mild language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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When a 12-year-old girl (Cailey Fleming) must come to terms with the death of her mother, she finds herself able to see other people’s imaginary friends; and when she learns that many of them have been left behind when their humans grew up and don’t need them anymore, she is determined to try and reunite them. Also with Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Fiona Shaw, Alan Kim, Liza Colón-Zayas, Bobby Moynihan, Catharine Daddario, the voices of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Steve Carell, Louis Gossett Jr., Awkwafina, Emily Blunt, George Clooney, Bradley Cooper, Matt Damon, Bill Hader, Richard Jenkins, Keegan-Michael Key, Blake Lively, Sebastian Maniscalco, Christopher Meloni, Matthew Rhys, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, Amy Schumer, Jon Stewart and Brad Pitt. Directed by Krasinski. [Running Time: 1:44]

IF SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A young girl describes a job she is doing as a “matchmaking agency”; she is matching imaginary friends with children.
► An album cover shows Tina Turner wearing a leotard with sheer stockings that reveal her legs to the hips. An apple with long legs stands on a platform in an art class (like a model) and the instructor tells it to “Cover up,” as we see it wrap a towel around itself. A man reprimands a banana being and tells it to “Put some pants on,” and that it is “Freaking everyone out.”

IF VIOLENCE/GORE 2

 – A woman tells a young girl that something is wrong with her father in the hospital and the child panics about having to say goodbye to him. A young girl tells her father (he’s sleeping in a hospital bed) that she blocked the world out after her mother died so that she wouldn’t feel anything.
► A young girl follows a man and a fairy being when she sees the man climb the wall of a building and climb in through a window; we see the man tip-toeing through many toys scattered on the floor as a child sleeps nearby, and he finds a giant fuzzy being hiding in the closet, they argue and the being sneezes loudly, waking the child. A toasted marshmallow being is seen with flames on its head and one of its eyes melts and falls off causing a man nearby to gag (he does not vomit). A large fuzzy being sneezes loudly causing a man to fall on the floor and spill a cup of coffee on himself.
► A young girl chases a large furry being through the hallways of a hospital; she finds it hiding in a soiled linens cart when it sneezes, she pulls it out by the leg and it slams onto the floor unharmed. A fairy being says hello to a young girl and the child faints; she wakes up in an apartment unharmed. A man tells a fuzzy being that a young girl is afraid that it is going to eat her. A young girl runs out of an apartment building and along a dark street where she is followed by someone darting in the shadows; she follows the being (it looks like a fairy with big eyes) back into the apartment building and to a door where she hears voices and when she peeks through the keyhole, a man’s face appears inside and he tells her to go away. A young girl rides a subway with a man and they get off at an empty and locked amusement park; they enter a building and climb down a spiral staircase to a “retirement community” for imaginary friends and we see several in rooms watching TV and doing mindfulness exercises. A large fuzzy being squeaks loudly when it tries not to say a word after a young girl tells it not to, and a man tells the child to let the being say the word or its head might explode. An imaginary friend jumps around and wraps itself around a man’s shoulders speaking frantically in a few scenes and it jumps in through a window and out again in one scene, yelling “cloak and dagger.” A young girl imagines the way she wants a building to be and everything shifts and changes; the floors change, the walls change, walls collapse, vines grow through walls and wrap around a man as he tries to run away, and a large flame blows through a wall revealing two knights fighting with swords and a fire-breathing dragon. A large fuzzy being glows and touches a man on the shoulder telling him, “You’re OK.” An imaginary friend jumps on a man in a convenience store and knocks him into a display, spilling items on the floor.
► A woman speaks to a young girl in a few scenes and seems upset that she is on her floor of an apartment building telling her to go back downstairs; the child seems frightened of her. A man throws papers and seems very upset about things on his desk having been moved by someone. A man trips over something unseen on the floor a few times and yells a name implying that an imaginary friend is invisible and he is tripping over it. A man falls from a balcony and into a swimming pool and he surfaces in the ocean. A man pulls himself out of a painting and we see him covered with paint.
► A woman is shown in a hospital, we later see her wearing a scarf on her head suggesting a possible cancer treatment and we later understand that she died. A man is shown in a hospital preparing for an unspecified procedure and we see him with an IV. A young boy is seen in a hospital bed with his leg and arm in casts and he describes falling a lot; he also says that he broke his coccyx. A young boy says that his mother tells him, “Screens turn my brain to mush.” A woman says that she always dreamed of becoming a dancer, but that she grew up to be “too tall and too awkward.” When imaginary friends are remembered by their people, they glow.
► A young girl hears noises in a closet and finds toys that she remembers from her earlier childhood. A young girl protests being treated “like a kid.” A man plays practical jokes on his young daughter in a few scenes to make her laugh; he hides in a closet, he pretends that he climbed out a window in a hospital, and he dances with his IV stand, etc. A young girl goes into a men’s bathroom and hides in a stall. An imaginary friend is a large floating bubble and it pops when it becomes upset, another is a green slime blob, another is a toasted marshmallow with flames on its head, and another is an ice cube in a glass with legs.
► A large gummy bear being flatulates and a man complains, “I can taste that in my eyes.” A large fuzzy being says, “I think I’m going to be sick” (it does not get sick). A large fuzzy being says, “I think I need to throw up,” but doesn’t. A woman holds a cooking pan with two burned pancakes in it. A woman offers a young girl “junk food” from a vending machine.

IF LANGUAGE 2

 – 2 anatomical terms, 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (cranky, sad, terrifying, creepy witch, crazy, spark plug, normal, kids are just the worst, you look a mess, gross, short stack), exclamations (looky-looky, oh gosh, my gosh, oh dear, ooo, whatever man, my goodness, oh), 21 religious exclamations (e.g. oh God, oh my God, good God, my God, oh for God’s sake, I swear to God, God). | profanity glossary |

IF SUBSTANCE USE

 – None.

IF DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Imaginary friends, death of a parent, imagination, stories, memories, magic, the dark, fear of the dark, trust.

IF MESSAGE

 – Sometimes life is not fun but you’re never really alone. Nothing you love can ever be forgotten.