G-Force
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The Story
Yes, the guinea pigs can talk. And so can the mole (voiced by Nicolas Cage). They’ve been trained as not-quite special agents by a smart human guy named Ben (Zach Galifianakis) to serve the United States government as high-tech spies. But an FBI honcho (Will Arnett) has just pulled the plug on the program after the team apparently failed to steal the right secret document from corporate bad guy Mr. Saber (Bill Nighy).
Now guinea pigs Darwin (Sam Rockwell), Juarez (Penelope Cruz), Blaster (Tracy Morgan) and Hurley (Jon Favreau) must work together to escape from a local pet store and from the feds in order to stop Saber’s dastardly plan to take over the world using the secret computer chips in all his appliances in homes and stores around the globe.
Content Issues
Rated PG for lots of non-lethal action, a few mild poop and fart jokes, and a few uses of God’s name for swearing. There are also several colorful phrases that will remind older viewers of swearing (“yippee-ki-yay, coffee maker”) though no swear words are actually used.
Worldview Talking Points
Just to be clear, all of the talking critters are CGI, but they live in a world of live-action actors and surroundings. The results—cute and chuckle-worthy, but not remarkable—were enough to dethrone Harry Potter in that film’s second weekend. Animated, family-friendly talking furballs with jokes and adventure is almost a guaranteed win at the box office, for some reason.
None of the film’s worldview perspectives dig very deep, but the “G-Force” team does live in a world of values worth talking about, especially with younger fans of the film. They include ideas like “family is important—even if it’s not your biological family,” “your specialness comes from what you do, not who you are,” and “animals are pretty much people, too—sort of.”
We hope a few of the following questions will help you to talk through some of those ideas with your kid(s) if you and they have seen the film.
- Which character was your favorite? Why?
- If you had to be a talking, secret agent animal, what would you want to be? Why?
- If any of the animals in our family could talk, what kinds of things do you think they would say?
- Family is a huge deal to both Hurley and Speckles, the mole. Why do you think having a family is such a big deal to people who don’t have a family? How can we help people without families?
- Do we have any people we call family who we are not actually related to? How do unrelated people become family to each other?
- In the film, Darwin is upset when he learns that he’s just a “regular” guinea pig. He had believed he was special because he’d been genetically enhanced. Hurley convinces him that he is special because of all the cool things he’s learned to do. What do you think makes someone special? [Parent: Try to emphasize that we are special, in one sense, because we are created by God and because God was willing to pay for us with the life of Jesus. But also encourage the idea that everyone can learn to do special things by working hard and seeking wisdom.]
- Are some people more special than others? Why or why not?
- One of the animal characters really hates humans, because humans killed his family. Why did he eventually change his mind about that? How hard would it be to forgive someone for hurting your family?
- Do you think it was hard for God to forgive you for your sins? [Parent: A good verse for forgiving others because we are forgiven in Ephesians 4:32.]
- Of couse, “G-Force” is just a made up story. In the real world, animals can’t really talk. When is it right for humans to kill animals—and when is it wrong to kill them or treat them badly? How do we make those decisions about what’s best for people when it comes to killing or saving animals in real life?
- Would you ever want to be a secret agent and use all of that high-tech equipment? What was your favorite gadget in the movie?
