Parents' Guide to

Gentle Giant

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 7+

Prequel to Gentle Ben series has some violence, drunkenness.

Movie NR 1967 94 minutes
Gentle Giant Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

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

Community Reviews

age 12+

Based on 2 parent reviews

age 15+

No film for kids; drugs moments

R: violence and some drug usgages/drunking images
age 8+

Gentle Giant

A look at a different time with a boy trying to convinve a town that a captured bear isnt the monster they think it is. Quaint, nostalgic and probably a bit slow for children today...but nevertheless a good movie.

This title has:

Great role models
Too much violence
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (2):
Kids say: Not yet rated

While nothing extraordinary, GENTLE GIANT is a quaint slice of '60s "boy and his bear" filmmaking. It's one of those movies where wild animals are possessed with incredible capacities for affection and understanding human speech, where the lines between good guys and bad guys are clearly demarcated, and the young boy (the great B-Movie actor Clint Howard, no less) steals every scene with adorably precocious one-liners. It doesn't tearjerk like similar films from that era, and the violence is relatively tame.

Yes, some of the action is a bit cheesy and dated, and you can almost see the man inside the bear suit in some of the scenes, but on its own terms, and for fans of these kinds of films, no matter your age, Gentle Giant is still an entertaining film for the whole family.

Movie Details

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