Father and child sit together smiling while looking at a smart phone.

Want more recommendations for your family?

Sign up for our weekly newsletter for entertainment inspiration

Parents' Guide to

Tom Sawyer

By Michael Scheinfeld, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 6+

A song-filled family adventure.

Movie G 2002 89 minutes
Tom Sawyer Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

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

Community Reviews

See all
age 11+

Based on 3 parent reviews

egfrg
egfrg Adult
May 16, 2020
age 16+

Some language

This movie was terrible. My family, and I, thought this version of Tom sawyer sucked. What a loser movie. There are lots of language, more than you can expect in this movie. R: strong language throughout.

This title has:

Too much swearing
Holly R.
Holly R. Parent of 1-year-old
January 10, 2019
age 8+

Tom Sawyer with furries and country music

There's an all star country cast in this furry adaptation of the classic book. There's an on screen murder but it's bloodless. Injurin' Joe throws the deputy and the blow from being tossed is what kills him and it's bloodless but still frightening for small kids. Everyone is a furry voiced by a country music celebrity or something and there's some characters that are poor role models. There's flirting between characters and Tom Sawyer is a Tom cat with two lady cats Amy and Becky. Huckleberry Fin is a fox voiced by Mark Wills and Becky the be cat's singing voice is Lee Ann Womack. It's pretty faithful to the original but because it's made more kid friendly it's butchered in parts of the story. There's flirting between characters and the violence is just barely within the G rating. The animation isn't the best but I can recommend this to country music fans because there's alot of country music and voice acting or people who like kids movies with furries.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
See all 3 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In this animated musical version of Mark Twain's tale, Tom Sawyer is a mischievous cat who loves fishing, daydreaming about pirates, and thinking about Becky Thatcher -- the pretty new girl at school. But when he goes to the boneyard with his best buddy Huck Finn to search for buried treasure, he comes face to face with the town's mean old grizzly bear, Injurin' Joe, who's also digging for gold. Tom and Huck witness Joe kill a deputy and pin the blame on an old hound dog named Mutt Potter. Fearing for their lives, the boys flee on a raft down the Mississippi River, but return to save Mutt from being wrongly hanged. In Dead Man's Cave, Tom and Huck stumble upon the treasure and defeat Joe once and for all.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (3 ):
Kids say (2 ):

This innovative adaptation of Twain's classic features country songs and the voices of Don Knotts, Betty White, and a few country-music stars. It's a pretty faithful adaptation, but will appeal primarily to younger viewers. Some of the scarier scenes have been toned down here, and there are plenty of songs, which, while lively, bring the movie to a grinding halt every 10 minutes. The animation is simple, but colorful.

Although The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was written more than a hundred years ago, Mark Twain's storytelling mastery still shines and will captivate most kids. Even today's savvy kids can relate to the universality of having problems in school, getting into trouble, falling in love for the first time, and yearning for adventure and intrigue.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the book of the same title. How does the book differ from the cartoon? If you saw the cartoon first, how did it influence how you imagined the book? If you read the book first, did the cartoon live up how you imagined the characters, the settings, and the action of the book?

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.

See all recommended movie lists

Related Topics

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

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