Ballet Shoes (PG)

Sisters learn value of love, work, and sacrifice.

(Flash is loading. If this text does not disappear you need to install the latest flash version)

About Our Ratings

Common Sense rates it

Seen the movie?

Watch video review
Save It!
Email it
Compare Prices

Movie details

Studio: BBC
Directed By: Sandra Goldbacher
Cast: Emma Watson, Yasmin Paige, Lucy Boynton
Running Time: 84 minutes
Release Date: 12/26/2007
Video/DVD Release Date: 09/02/2008
Genre: Family and Kids
MPAA Rating: PG
MPAA Explanation: smoking

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that for children interested in the performing arts, this family-friendly movie and its emphasis on a rigid training regimen as a road to sure success will be appealing. A loving family comprising three girls adopted from around the world and their guardian and nanny is depicted, working together to overcome tough economic times in Britain in the 1930s. One child runs away but returns without harm. Expect plenty of era-appropriate smoking as well.

Families can talk about the sacrifices that each family member makes when they begin to run short on money. Which character sacrifices the most? Which of the three sisters do you like the best, and why? What do you think happened to Pauline, Petrova, and Pansy after the movie story ends?

Message
Violence
Sex
Language

Message

Social Behavior:

Three orphans who become adopted sisters work hard to help their guardian through times of financial crisis, but for two of the characters the work becomes self-serving and an avenue for arrogance. The bonds of love are strong for this haphazardly formed family of women, who believe that "the world isn't kind to girls who can't support themselves." One sister pokes fun of other students and teachers, challenges a famous ballet master, and is more worried for her ballet training than her teacher when the woman becomes ill.

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Director didn't skimp on era-appropriate adult smoking, though one new smoker chokes and throws a butt away after one puff.

Violence

Sex

Dance teacher talks with nostalgia of meeting men at the stage door; brief scene of scantily clad dancers; adult characters pine for each other from afar for most of movie.

Language

This is a British production so some of the slang terms may be unfamiliar to children, like "skint," and "fag" as a name for a cigarette.

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Nancy Davis Kho

Adapted from the 1937 book of the same title by British author Noel Streatfeild , BALLET SHOES tells the tale of the three Fossil sisters, orphans whose benefactor Great Uncle Matthew (Richard Griffiths) brings to London in the 1930s to be raised by his niece Sylvia (Emelia Fox) and the formidable Nana (Victoria Wood) while he continues his world adventures. As money runs low for the family, Pauline (Emma Watson), Petrova (Yasmin Paige), and Posy (Lucy Boynton) enroll in a performing arts school so that they can get theater jobs to help augment the family income. But each grapples with problems -- Pauline with her ego, Petrova with her ambivalence towards acting compared with her true love of flying, and Pansy with white-hot ambition -- that leave the family's "happy ending" in jeopardy.

Is it any good?

Ballet Shoes presents an interesting slice of life that may seem anachronistic to children raised in the era of celebrity worship, and may require some explanation of the term "working actor." As the sisters achieve success on stage and in film, the family's money prospects don't visibly improve; they must still take in boarders and worry about paying the bills between curtain calls. There are also some mixed messages about the value of ambition and hard work: The sister who dreams of landing another steady acting job is accused of being selfish, though it's clear that those jobs are keeping the family afloat. Another sister who shows real talent as a ballerina is chastised when she speaks of her ambition, becomes unsympathetic in her pursuit of it, but then is lauded when she lands a spot with a professional ballet.

The cast of this BBC production is top notch, and fans of Hermione in the Harry Potter movies will probably enjoy seeing Watson in the Pauline role, though her acting is upstaged by that of the girls playing her sisters. Costumes, soundtrack, and sets are as high value as one would expect from a BBC production, bringing 1930s London to life. And scenes of the girls working hard to improve at the performing arts school emphasize that perennial lesson -- that nothing worth achieving comes easily. Ballet Shoes is a fine family film and shows that girl power isn't necessarily a modern invention.