What age is The Secret Garden appropriate for?

8 alone, 7 with a parent; 8 in France. The whole movie, watched in full: what's in it, and how to talk about it with your child.

Why is The Secret Garden not recommended under 8?

What's in it: our reading; dead parents, a house on fire; a child believed to be ill. The detail, fact by fact, is in the zinema guide, which reads the work itself (images, sound, dialogue).

zinema · movies · what age

The Secret Garden: what age is it for? 8 alone, 7 with a parent

8 alone, 7 with a parent.

Movie · 2020 · 1 h 36 · family, fantasy, drama

YRS

The trailer

Alone, or with you

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not yetwith an adult, or to talk about afteralone

The official US rating is PG; we never go below it, and here we go above: 8. Alone from 8; from 7, with an adult or by talking about it afterwards.

Official US rating: PG; zinema says 8. In France, zinema would say 8.

Watch the trailerContinue in zinemathen where to watch it, in zinema · more trailers, and where to watch films · Where to stream itWhere to watch

What it's about

Mary Lennox is born in India to wealthy British parents who never wanted her. When her parents suddenly die, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle. She meets her sickly cousin, and the two children find a wondrous secret garden lost in the grounds of Misselthwaite Manor.

Why 8

Our readingDead parents spoken of at the start, a manor on fire at the end, and a garden that heals in between: eight, seven with an adult.
reading
Dead parents, a house on fireMary loses her parents in India right at the start, her cousin believes his mother died because of him, and the manor catches fire at the end; death is spoken of often, never shown.
A child believed to be illColin is shut in his room, convinced he is going to die, and his father avoids him; screams at night, an injured dog, a stern uncle. Nothing violent, a child's sadness.

What the movie brings

A garden that heals, and an orphaned girl who heals others by losing herself in it.
The idea that a child can get up again when an adult has written him off.
Post-war England, moors and a manor, as in the book.

Watching it together

Before

Say beforehand that Mary's parents die at the very start, and that the garden will mend everything; the fire is scary for five minutes.

After

at 8 and up

Colin believes he cannot walk because he was told so: what makes him stand up?

See the facts

Death of a character●●● · saidmeasured

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For the same age, on zinema

Tenzing 10, 9 with a parent
A Minecraft Movie 9, 8 with a parent
KPop Demon Hunters 8, 7 with a parent
Coyote vs. Acme 8, 7 with a parent

The latest guides

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A zinema reading from September 19, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made