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Young Sherlock Holmes

(1985, Rated PG-13, Thriller, Starring Nicholas Rowe, Alan Cox, Sophie Ward)

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 9, age appropriate for kids over 11; suggested age 11.

  • Is it any good?

    2.0

  • Common Sense says

    Exquisite idea, mediocre result, but OK for older kids.

Why We Rated This on for Ages 11 and Up

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    Holmes is ever polite and fearless seeker of justice (even though it harmed his own family; only the sketchiest details given). He and Watson (who overeats and tries to smoke a pipe) are shown to be consistently smarter than the adults, who are either oblivious (especially Lestrade of Scotland Yard) or treacherous villains in disguise. The "exotic" depiction of Arab-Egyptian culture (emphasis on the "cult" part) is pretty cartoony.

  • Violence:

    More PG than PG-13. One fatal shooting. Characters "mummified" non-explicitly by hot wax. Mild wounds from sword-thrusts. Hand-to-hand fighting, strangulation. Bloodless, hallucination-inspired mayhem and death include one character who stabs himself in the chest, another getting run over by a carriage, another besieged by rotting skeletons, another imagining little monsters pecking and biting at him.

  • Sex:

    Not an issue.

  • Language:

    "Hell" and "damn," just about one time each.

  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.

  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Pipe-smoking by the young Watson and Holmes. Social drinking (but not by underage characters).
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Young Sherlock Holmes

Parents need to know that perils in this young-adult Sherlock Holmes drama include threats of the heroine being sacrificially turned into an Egyptian-style mummy, and kids being strangled and run through with swords. There's some potential nightmare imagery for young viewers -- scenes of demonic entities and rotting zombies; it's made clear that these are only hallucinations, but the chills are still vividly rendered. Young Watson tries tobacco smoking.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about the idea of Sherlock Holmes as a boy. How well is it done here? This movie suggests that Holmes' intellect and penchant for crime-solving backfired -- when he busted his own father for some unspecified offense. Is being this brilliant a help or a hindrance for a kid? You might compare Young Sherlock Holmes to other stories that portray youthful mystery-solvers, including the "Encyclopedia Brown" series, and Eye of the Crow, Death in the Air, and other recent YA novels by Shane Peacock that try to depict (in far more depth than this film) the troubled childhood of Conan Doyle's great sleuth.
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