Leo

Watch on Netflix

Runtime: 1 Hour 46 Minutes

Rated PG

An Adam Sandler CGI coming of age musical about a class pet that helps the students in fifth grade survive their permanent substitute, family issues, homework, drama, and helps them discover that they are more than just their problems. Slowly over the course of the school year the students learn from Leo and they grow physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Themes: 

School, pets, fifth grade, adolescence, puberty, growing up, testing, substitute teachers, pregnancy, living a fulfilled life, death, loss, belonging, accepting oneself, helicopter parenting, absent parents, allergies, bragging, divorce, crying, self hatred, body hair, talking to someone about your problems, listening, friendship, acceptance, love, being there for one another, standing up for people, doing what it right, taking the credit from someone else, animal feces, and turtle reproduction.

Language: 

The religious exclamation, “oh my god” is used multiple times, always by the students. The word “sucks” is used three times and “freaking” is said a few times. There are many times in conversation and song that insults are used. Stupid, dorks, ugly, schmuck, weirdos and more creative insults like mother of Godzilla are used. The first song and in other spots during the movie students talk about other students in mean ways saying why they don’t like them.

Leo (the lizard) and Squirtle (the turtle) analyze the kids in the class the first day (and after). They mention things like “class clown who secretly despises himself” and how one kids needs hugs because her parents recently were divorced. They are very blunt, but many of these things are correct and Leo helps the kids through them.

Stuff to be aware of: 

There are three facets of things to be aware of in the movie. Bullying, gross scenes, and reproduction talk. I’ll break each part up below.

Bullying - The movie starts out with a song about starting fifth grade in which some of the students make fun of others. There are many of scenes where one character makes fun of another. Leo analyzes kids, as mentioned in the language section, and talks pretty bluntly about their insecurities and issues. There is a song Leo sings about crying and he is overly negative in the song trying reverse psychology on a kid. In the song he mentions things such as crying makes you look dumb, look ugly, and is really annoying. In one song a character is referred to as a “closet drunk.” Students talk about being mean to a sub and talk about her badly behind her back.

Gross Scenes - A pregnant woman throws up several times, a lizard eats cute looking bugs, a character says he will bite someone’s fingers off, and a turtle removes his shell rrevealing underneath he wears a cloth covering his front privates, but his butt cheeks are exposed in the back. One butt cheek has a tatoo on it. A lizard gets his tail cut off in a few different scenes (it grows back), but there isn’t anything bloody or graphic. One scene sees it getting sucked off by a robot vacuum. This is always for humor. There are also animal pee jokes including a character stepping in a puddle of pee and a turtle on his back squirting pee everywhere. A kid with allergies and a helicopter parents mentions wanting to wipe his own butt. Lastly, there is a Dad that takes his shirt off a couple of times revealing his very hairy chest and back. His son has one, single hair growing on his back. When Leo sees the hairs he tells the kid usually you get those in the front first.

Reproduction Talk - One student mentions that he doesn’t know where babies come from. A turtle explains to him how turtles mate. One part of this explanation is that one turtle gets on another turtles back. Also, it is explained that babies come out of a mother’s butt like chickens lay eggs. Later, there is a joke made about this when the kid tells another kid that babies are buried in the sand and all of them don’t make it. The scene about reproduction is quick and there is more emphasis given to the idea of turtles laying eggs and the parents leaving them. One song mentions menopause, but doesn’t explain what it is. There is also a brief scene where a lizard tries to get inside a turtle’s shell with him. He sticks his head in the turtle’s shell near the turtle’s butt. The turtle jokes, “at least buy me dinner first.”

Beer is mentioned, but I never saw anyone drinking anything alcoholic.

Overall: 

I really didn’t know much about this movie going in. I knew Adam Sandler had a hand in it, so I suspected the humor would push the boundaries a bit and it does for a kid’s movie, in my opinion. However, I really enjoyed this one. I laughed out loud several times. Some of the humor (like things mentioned above) will go over kids heads, but it may have them asking questions you aren’t ready to answer yet.

One thing I really like about this movie is that the students in Leo’s class are struggling with real problems that kids deal with. It touches on important topics like listening, being a good friend, helping each other, and even death and loss. There are a few scenes that may bring a tear to your eyes. The kids in the movie are really struggling with different things and Leo truly helps them, but sometimes the emotional weight of a scene will be stolen by a misplaced joke. Not every time, but sometimes. The humor in the movie is very much Adam Sandler, but toned down.

My family (my wife and eleven and nine year old girls) all really enjoyed it, but I understand that some of the topics and reproductive humor might keep some away, or cause some to regret watching it with their children. I would highly suggest watching this one on your own before showing it to your child.