dben-21589 The 1.4/5 Star rating on Netflix should have been a dead give-away that this movie would not be that good. The animation was good, the story line was extremely cheesy but was bearable, the music was really good, but there were just a few weird things that made me want to turn it off multiple times.The dad was a failure and was trying to live through his son, and held his son to unfeasible standards, causing his son to feel like a perpetual failure. A great message for the target audience, and a very real issue. Those unrealistic standards that the dad had for his kid i this movie was to be like Tarzan: to climb trees, ride a bike, be strong, and read books. The kid wanted to ditch school to go dumpster diving to collect trash to build uber creepy "garbage friends" that he stored in an abandoned warehouse. Usually these types of movies encourage kids to "be themselves", and encouraging parents to accept their kids for who they are. But, the dad's "encouragement" was uncomfortably extreme for a children's movie, and was downright abusive at times. In risk of sounding like an authoritarian, no parent should encourage their kid to be like Ivan. -I have no idea why the animators decided to give all the women really weird boobs.-I have no idea why girls in Ivan's grade were old enough to have boobs, drive vehicles, look like teenagers, yet be barely learning how to read. It's like they were all 15 year-old learning how to read for the first time.-I don't know why Ivan had to chase letters around the room to represent his dyslexia. That scene didn't make much sense to me. -His creations were EXTREMELY creepy. It was even weirder that the girl like them.-I know that the witch was representative of his fairy god mother. Yet, she was really creepy. He found her drinking in the middle of the woods, got naked, and slept in her clothes. Then he drank weird potions she gave him. I think it was supposed to be funny, but it was weird.-The kid's life was a living hell. Why would she give him a potion that would make his pain go away for only a day? To send him back to the pit of despair?-The years of abuse the dad gave to the kid ended with a simple talk?-At the end, he never really overcame being bullied, or learned how to read.There were other things off about this movie, but these were some of the highlights.

carolcrawford-36301 There was many things wrong with this film. One thing is that it had a bad lesson. In the movie, the boy is bullied hard. He tries to stand up for himself, but at the end of the movie it goes back to him getting bullied but with a new friend he made. So, the lesson is that it's better to get bullied with someone else then to get bullied by yourself. That is not a good moral. The lesson that they should be teaching children is that you can stand up for yourself and that you should, not to be okay with bullying as long as you're with someone else. That's my main problem with the movie. Other problems for me are that there are a few plot holes,and that the characters look gross. If you look at the females in the movie they have something OFF with them, you'll see what I mean. To sum it up it's not a great movie, but it's not the worst movie I have seen.

dinorita1217 This movie is surely not for kids, but its not that bad you just need to see the hard facts of life. I am sure there are many kids that are living Ivan's poor lonely life, with an idiotic selfish ignorant father who only cares about himself. the moral really as I see it is within the relationship of father and son. Sometimes you have to stand up to your parents and show them what they are doing to you and embarrass them in public for them to realize how pathetic they are acting. Ivan shows compassion, nobility, besides the facts that he had been tortured verbally and physically he is a strong kid after everything. and What child doesn't get back on their bullies if they had a chance for one day? So this type of cartoon is more for teenagers and adults to understand. but everyone has their own point of view.

jillhip1 Don't recommend this for children. The movie started out promising, with great graphics and a cute kid. However, you met the father who treats his son very poorly.Throughout the movie you come across bullies and many others who abuse him.Like the others said, the moral is it is better to be the victim of bullying rather than being the bully itself. I wouldn't want to show kids that this is okay. Didn't like the message from this movie, and definitely did not like the way things ended. They don't hold back on anything, showing cruel forms of abuse and revenge. I also noticed his dyslexia in the movie. It was horrible how the kids and even the principal himself, treated Ivan. Even though this movie may show many true and realistic events, it's not the type of movie for kids.