The Lost Medallion: The Adventures of Billy Stone

It's really hard to truly find wholesome family movies or any type of content that is appropriate for children these days. The Lost Medallion comes pretty close. No crude behavior, no bad language and no political agendas in the movie. There is however a religious message about God and his love for everyone. It's not overbearing but it is there - depending on your point of view, this can be a positive or a negative. It's more heartwarming than anything because one of the characters is trying to make a group of orphans feel better and tells them God has a plan for them and he cares for them. It's at the end of the film. It was also refreshing to see a little girl character who wasn't also a kick-butt, ninja-gladiator who could take down a group of muscle-bound men, you know, what we normally see if film and tv. She's smart and independent, she helps save the day at one point and I believe she does punch someone, but theres also a point where she her needing help. TV and films currently program young women to be strong and independent, not needing help from anyone especially boys and men, so it was almost odd to see her playing the "damsel in distress" in one scene. There's a little bit of ageism with one of the character who states he is an "old" man once or twice but he redeems himself later by busting a few karate moves. My biggest issue with this film is the violence. And I don't mean the sword-type fighting. There are several deaths in the film which was surprising considering the overall "G-rating" of the story. I was surprise to see characters die, my six year old hid his face under his blanket and my ten year old said, "Oh my God, is he gonna die!" or "Hey, there's killing in this movie!". The main character (a child) also gets punched in the face (by an adult, the villain) which I also thought was inappropriate. As a parent of three boys, I find myself more accepting of violence if there's no crude behavior, bad language or political agendas in film. And that's sad, because I'd rather there not be any killing in my children's shows as well. But its a trade-off sometimes. Violence is black and white - Easy to tell your kids, killing is wrong. Fighting is wrong. So it's less complicated to explain these types of behaviors in tv and film vs. the subtle programming of other behaviors we see in our kid's content. And that's why I say The Lost Medallion is almost a wholesome family movie. Except for the issues I mentioned, it's the closest thing you're going to find. Because of the killing in the movie, I recommend this film for middle school aged kids and up. If there were no killing, I'd say 6 years old and up.

My kids picked this movie from Amazon Prime. Although as an adult, there is a very clear Christian subtext, my (non-Christian) kids totally missed that. What really stood out was the heavily dated racial stereotypes throughout the movie. Like, it makes 30 year-old Indian Jones moves look progressive. Basically, a couple white kids arrive, and show a tween tribal king that he's been a huge jerk, and then act out their white saviour complex by saving the tribal villagers from a nefarious, heavily racialized evil-emperor wannabe type. For good measure, there is a wise old asian man who speaks in proverbs to provide some sage advice to the kids. But even he is a trope. the messages of "it's what's inside that counts," and "find strength within you" aren't specific to one culture, and there was no reason for this story to rely so heavily on dehumanizing stereotypes.