We Can Be Heroes | 2020 | PG | – 1.4.2

Why is “We Can Be Heroes” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “mild action/violence.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes some tight-fitting and revealing outfits, many scenes of superheroes (adults and children) using their powers to fight with monsters and aliens with tentacles with few injuries shown, discussions of the destruction of Earth by aliens, and some mild language and name-calling. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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When space aliens invade Earth and kidnap a group of superheroes (Christian Slater, Haley Reinhart, Pedro Pascal, Boyd Holbrook, Sung Kang and Taylor Dooley), the pre-teen children of the heroes decide to rescue their parents and save the world; they are led by a young woman (YaYa Goselin), who’s without any obvious powers. Also with Andy Walken, Lynn Daniels, Hala Finey, Lotus Blossom, Dylan Lau and Andrew Diaz. Directed by Robert Rodriguez. [Running Time: 1:40]

We Can Be Heroes SEX/NUDITY 1

 – Men and women wear body hugging superhero costumes that emphasize curves and muscles. A woman wears a tight knee-length leather skirt, wiggles her hips in an exaggerated manner as she walks in several scenes, and her V-neckline reveals cleavage.
► A boy says, “Superheroes have underwear on the outside.”

We Can Be Heroes VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – Adult and young superheroes use superpowers, including superintelligence, super speed, extreme stretch ability of the neck and arms, uncontrolled multi-powers (teleportation, fireballs, electric fingers, levitation, shape-shifting into a bowling ball), time alteration, drawings becoming real, face changing and shape-shifting, shark strength, slow motion powers, moving objects with singing, and one boy uses a wheelchair because his muscles are too strong for his leg bones to support.
► Two superhero men in the air find a large spaceship with tentacles and hundreds of smaller tentacled drones that grab and toss several superheroes around and capture them all, uninjured; one man falls to the ground, uninjured, and is then captured. Several children are locked into a vault, watch a battle on TV between aliens and superheroes, and hear that aliens will conquer the Earth in three hours; one girl’s drawings tell the future and show tentacled aliens breaking into the vault and tentacles reach through a vent fan in the wall and grab a boy, but another boy rewinds time so the tentacles miss. Children walk through a tunnel, bickering, and find an aircraft that they start and fly to an alien mothership after they stop many tentacles from grabbing a boy, using time reversal; they see a large spaceship that they think will take over the Earth.
► A boy tricks three guards into entering a vault where a 5-year-old girl growls and attacks them, but a guard pushes a button to lock down the building with metal gates and a buzzing alarm; another boy sends everyone back in time, so the guard can’t push the button. A woman is squeezed by tentacles as the scene ends and we see her later enter a vault, growling and covered by a large cloth; she surprises several adults as she uncovers herself and throws each of them (there are no injuries). A brief scuffle includes children pushing guards and using martial arts throws (there are no injuries) and the children escape. Adults surround a group of children and a girl levitates the adults by singing and the kids climb up a mound of adults to a ceiling escape hatch; a woman is knocked down, but is unharmed and one man falls from the hatch to the ground, but is not hurt.
► A girl walks across a crosswalk over water and a boy stretches his arms far out to hold the walkway steady, finally letting go and causing a few monsters to fall into the water before grabbing the girl to safety. A young girl makes ninja stars from water and hits monsters with them, the beasts fall, and she forms a large shark out of liquid metal and it swallows two more monsters (we don’t see the monsters again). A boy hacks into the motherboard of a ship and a force field surrounds it; the motherboard falls into water and a boy goes into the water in slow motion to retrieve it and another boy jumps in and teleports them both to the surface.
► Tentacles grow from the backs of several people; a woman mocks a group of children and orders guards to take them to a holding cell where they complain of fatigue and pain, but two boys leave the group of about 10 children and one of the boys is caught and taken for questioning where the boy shape-shifts into a bowling ball and levels his captors without hurting them. Small tentacles sprout from a girl’s back. A girl in a cell encourages other children to cry and a small girl makes a replica of the cell key out of the tears; the children escape from a cell and are surrounded by adults with tentacles in their backs as chains drop from the ceiling and grab the children by the wrists; they escape using time reversal, and punch, kick and throw the adults to escape (no one is hurt).
► We see an unconscious man on a gurney as he is wheeled into an ambulance, but he is fine in the next scene and not in the hospital. A superhero smacks into the window of a tower and it cracks, but he is not injured. In a long shot, a man flies through a cracking, splintering plate glass window on a tall building. A boy breaks the glass out of a tram without injuring his fist. A man and a woman kick in a door together. A woman flies out of a spewing volcano and in another scene her hair glows when she is angry. A young boy accidentally sets a book on fire with his mind. A boy smashes an exercise ball with his fist and the escaping air slams another boy into a wall, unharmed. A girl levitates several small chairs and drops them. A five-year-old girl roars and chases adults and children in several scenes. Several children shout and throw papers around a school-detention classroom. A girl sings and adults fall to the floor, clutching their ears. A man pounds his head on a wall, but not hard enough to hurt himself. An empty wheelchair charges forward and runs down three men that are not hurt.
► A girl draws monsters with two front legs, a thick pointy tail, big sharp teeth, one big eye, and other monsters with one big eye on a stalk and a few tentacles; the monsters become real, snarl, and harass children that use superpowers to hurl the beasts into a wall, and no child or monster is hurt.
► A woman trains several children on an obstacle course in her backyard, the children fight hologram figures with throws, punches, flips, and a cudgel, along with tight rope gymnastics flips; a girl accidentally hits an older boy with her fist and several children lose their balance in training and fall, unharmed. A five-year-old girl accidentally kicks her father.
► Children ride in a tram that levitates and flies as a girl inside sings and a boy says, “5-to-1 we die a fiery death,” the children scream, a boy stretches his arms and grab a pole to swing the tram in circles, ending in the tram skidding to the ground at a woman’s house and she screams about damaged plants. A woman screams loudly for several seconds, twice in one scene. Adults in a group together bicker constantly, and a group of children together in another place also bickers.

We Can Be Heroes LANGUAGE 2

 – 1 mild scatological term, 1 mild anatomical term, name-calling (clowns, useless, idiot, dumbest, crazy, nuts, weird, termites, big fat liar, new girl, Captain, Johnny Random, Little Miss No Powers, Alienville), exclamations (heck, shhhh, oh my, what the…, whoa, hey, whoo, wow), 3 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, God Save Us All, Holy Doo-Doo). | profanity glossary |

We Can Be Heroes SUBSTANCE USE

 – None.

We Can Be Heroes DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Kids who have parental roles and leadership positions, family, friendship, responsibility, extraterrestrials, kidnapping, superpowers, teamwork, belief, determination, danger, fear, threats, deception, disaster, imminent destruction of Earth, new technologies.

We Can Be Heroes MESSAGE

 – Children are the leaders of tomorrow and the best superhero is often one without any superpowers.