Parents' Guide to

Snowmen

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Drama has positive messages; bullying and iffy humor, too.

Movie PG 2011 85 minutes
Snowmen Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

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

Community Reviews

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age 11+

Based on 4 parent reviews

B-127
B-127 Adult
December 23, 2019
age 14+

This disappointing "family film" is not appropriate for kids

Sometimes early on in a film you can get the disturbing sense that you just don't "trust" the filmmakers with your children. This is one of those movies clearly marketed for kids which is wholly inappropriate for young kids. For some reason certain family films seem to have some kind of underlying malevolence, as though the filmmakers' true intent was to scare or disturb children rather than entertain them. In the opening sentences of the narration, a young boy (about age 10) announces that he will die in this movie, but says but that it's okay, and that he's okay with it. A few moments later the boys discover a frozen corpse, and it's a pop-up/scare moment intended to make the audiences jump, like a horror movie. The body is shown up close and graphically. Just before that there is a terrifying sequence in which the boys are almost crushed to death by a snow plow. There are moments where they aren't sure what it is; but they are terrified and trying to crawl out of their snow cave. It looks like one of the boys isn't going to make it, and he is screaming for help while snow falls in his face and a boulder of snow crushes him. He gets out alive at the last second (almost impossibly) but it's not played for laughs but instead for terror. Finally, the kids get to school and try to become famous for finding the corpse. When the other kids are not impressed, the lead actor then begins to graphically describe the corpse with additional, fake details like 'and then the snow fell off his face, and we could see him, and his face was blue and' - and that's when I turned it off.
Yeet20
Yeet20 Parent of 11-year-old
October 29, 2019
age 9+

Amazing hart warming

This was an amazing movie telling kids about the power of friendship there was an iffy scene were he says he made a snow woman implying her breast and there’s a bit were you see a dead corpse but other than that amazing

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
Too much violence
Too much sex
See all 4 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Billy Kirkfield is a 10-year-old boy with terminal cancer. All he wants out of life is to "not die a loser." With his best friends Howard and Lucas, they try to make the best of school but must always face down the wrath of the school bully Jason. Things start to change when Billy and his friends peruse a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records. Inspired, Billy decides to try and break the record for the most number of snowmen made in a single day. He rallies his friends, his school, and even his community. While trying to do this, Billy must learn to stand up to and even empathize with the bully Jason and try to understand that being a good and honest person is much more important than aspiring to fleeting fame.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (4):
Kids say (18):

The acting amongst the kids and adults is better than many low-budget movies like this, and the action manages to remain engaging throughout. The biggest problem with this movie is that it feels stretched out and padded -- after getting the audience interested in whether or not the school will set the record for the most snowmen made in a day, the characters take a detour, and the actions and lessons feel forced. Still, the movie does try to address complex issues in a thoughtful way, in spite of the iffy humor and schoolyard violence.

Within the first six minutes of SNOWMEN, two boys engage in a snowball fight, culminating in one boy tackling the other and holding him down while trying to force snot bubbles onto his face, three boys are nearly suffocated when the snow tunnels they have made are covered by a bulldozer, and this same bulldozer uncovers a recently deceased elderly man who stares these boys directly in the face. Fortunately, the movie levels out a bit after these intense scenes, and what emerges, despite the bullying and gross-out humor, is a better-than-average coming-of-age story unafraid to deal honestly with issues such as childhood cancer, bullying, and empathy.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about bullying. How is the bully portrayed in this movie? How do the main characters see the bully over time? How do the characters use empathy to understand why the bully behaves the way he does?

  • How accurately do you think this movie reflects the reality of a 10-year-old boy with terminal cancer?

  • How does this movie compare with other coming-of-age movies?

Movie Details

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.

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