Parents' Guide to Luke and Lucy: The Texas Rangers

Luke and Lucy: Texas Rangers has its moments in offbeat laughs and silly antics. But those OK-for-a-7-year-old moments in this animated film are marred by some inexplicable adult references, sustained gunslinging, and more than one off-color stereotype than doesn't make sense for a movie featuring kids as its main action heroes. Though it's tough to guess how old Luke and Lucy are -- they play video games, but Lucy still carries a doll -- it's offputting to watch them show their way around an interrogation room so naturally, fish a gun out of a bad guy's back pocket and turn it on him, or visit a seedy bar with a neon pink sign for a sex club called Eros blinking outside in the background. But when they all waltz into a bar to watch a voluptous lady coo a two-minute tune about what a bad girl she is, figurng out what movie you're trapped in gets genuinely confusing. This may make sense if your kids are familiar with the Belgian Spike and Suzy comic books, upon which this movie is based, but their debut in 1945 makes that unlikely.

For older kids, the shoot-em-up western action and steampunky cowboy robot Jim Parasite make for an entertaining video game come to life, and parents may enjoy the jokes and brief bullet-dodging Matrix moment. The cowboys are fun and the shrink-your-way-to-world-domination is a clever thread. And while explaining the Mexican stereotype and all the machismo might make for an educational moment, if you're looking for an all-ages adventure without all the baggage, keep looking.