Parents' Guide to Autumn and the Black Jaguar

Filmmakers Gilles and Prune de Maistre are committed to inspiring young people to create change, and here they incorporate a new element into their work: laughter. Messages are often driven home more effectively with humor, and, in Autumn and the Black Jaguar, the de Maistres mix a serious topic—the existential threat of deforestation and animal trafficking in the Amazon—with comic relief in the form of Miss Shimmer. She suffers from agoraphobia and OCD, using a disabled hedgehog (which uses a wagon to get around) as an emotional support animal. The hedgehog's antics are a mix of cute and funny, and Rickards' comedic chops take the edge off of the film's earnestness. While her diagnosis isn't played for laughs, the movie's tone still sometimes feels off balance, as if Miss Shimmer is in a comedy and everyone else is in a drama (the classroom scenes feel so much like a Disney Channel series that it's shocking not to hear a laugh track). That might be a bit off-putting to adults, but for kids and tweens, there's a lot here that works.

Kids tend to enjoy seeing other kids in aspirational fantasy situations, and having a wild animal as a best friend tops the list for many. Autumn plays and snuggles with jaguar Hope, and the wishfulness of it all works to transfer her passion to viewers. That's worthwhile, because human intervention is needed to stop the decline of jaguar populations caused by human interference. But a scene in which a White American evangelizes to Indigenous Amazon people about why they need to get involved to stop deforestation and animal trafficking is cringe-inducing. Still, the de Maistres—who are devoted to making movies about protecting animals and inspiring children to see ways they can contribute to making positive change in the world—appear to be well-intentioned. And they do seem to be learning with each film they make how to effectively communicate information about a dire problem to kids without too much harsh reality.