Parents' Guide to

Forbidden Planet

Movie NR 1956 98 minutes
Forbidden Planet Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

By Nell Minow , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 6+

Classic '50s sci-fi flick is campy fun.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 6+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 7+

Based on 5 parent reviews

age 13+

Not just a harmless cult movie for us...

This may be a famous cult movie but its not appropriate for young kids as it has some pretty awful messages about women deserving whatever they get if they look beautiful and wear certain clothes around men. I turned the movie off. My kids need positive messages about consent culture, not a reinforcement of a culture women are still fighting 60 years later. It might be okay for older kids but only if you are prepared to talk to them about the subject. It just wasn't a fun movie.
age 2+

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (5 ):
Kids say (2 ):

The gadgets and special effects seem quaint to us now, but the movie is still fun to watch for younger children, and it still raises some important questions for older ones. FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956) was the first science-fiction movie set entirely on another planet. It's loosely based on Shakespeare's The Tempest, the story of Prospero the Sorcerer and his daughter Miranda, who are alone on an island until a storm brings their former countrymen to them. Robby the Robot is the obedient Ariel. And the Id is the powerful and angry Caliban.

The Id, of course, is named for Freud's famous concept of the id, the instincts and impulses of the unconscious mind. Morbius says that he and his wife survived because they were the only ones who loved the planet and wanted to stay, that the monster was created from the fears and jealousies of the other colonists. The implication is that Morbius' jealousy when Alta falls in love with Adams brings the Id's destructiveness out again. In a way, this movie is more a way of exploring unconscious feelings we all harbor than it is speculation about life in the future or on other planets.

Movie Details

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