Preteen girl looking at a cell phone with her parents

Personalized picks at your fingertips

Get the mobile app on iOS and Android

Parents' Guide to

Fierce Creatures

By Carrie R. Wheadon, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Some funny moments peppered with lots of sexual innuendo.

Movie PG-13 1997 93 minutes
Fierce Creatures Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 11+

Based on 1 parent review

age 11+

A comedy, typical of its time.

There are a lot of sexual innuendos and this film is typical of the time in being quite titillating e.g. lots of men gawping at a bikini-clad swimmer and the implication of having sexual relations in order to progress. There is also implied reference to beastiality. There is one scene where it is implied that someone has shot lots of cute animals which may upset sensitive children. There is also an implied suicide, which is made out to be humorous. However my young teenaged children enjoyed the film and found it hugely entertaining that you might try and portray cute friendly animals as vicious or use animals to advertise products!

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (1 ):
Kids say: Not yet rated

A couple of Monty Python alums thought up the funny premise of cuddly creatures needing to take on fierce alter-egos to bring in zoo visitors, and that 10 minutes of the movie is downright hilarious. Also pretty funny: Rollo faking the deaths of the animals to look authoritative, and the tacky things Vince does to the zoo in the name of profits (especially the lion dressed up in an "Absolut Fierce" banner). It goes downhill from there pretty fast.

The father-son mogul storyline is given way too much weight, all the sexual innuendo gets pretty tired, and Vince's sexual harassment is much creepier than it is funny. It's great to see the cast of A Fish Called Wanda reunite, but it should have been for a much smarter script. In this digital era, they could have released the 10 minutes of hilarity on the web and left the rest on the cutting room floor.

Movie Details

Inclusion information powered by

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate