This was my solution to a homework assignment in a Software Engineering course -- create a "pattern" document for something in real life. Based on the POSA books, this documents the "kid movie review for parents" pattern, using a review I wrote of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) as the example.

1. Online Kid-Safe Movie Reviews
Steve Nuchia
Pattern Name:
Online Kid-Safe Movie Review Pattern
Aliases:
None at this time

2. Movie Pattern
Problem:
Parents need relevant information on which to base
movie choices for their children.
Context:
Movies are made for and promoted to children. The
children also experience peer pressure to see the
latest movies. Parents have neither time nor desire
to pre-screen movies, so they rely on published
reviews. The information they need, however, is
different from that in a traditional movie review.

3. Movie Pattern: Forces
Forces:
●
Promotion and peer pressure create a desire to see
movies among children.
●
Parents want their children to have a variety of
positive experiences, including appropriate
movies.
●
Allowing kids to see movies provides gives
parents a break.

4. Movie Pattern: Forces
●
For reasons that are not entirely clear, the makers
of children's movies often include elements that
are objectionable to many parents.
●
Parents have idiosyncratic ideas about what
constitutes an objectionable element in a movie.
●
Parents do not have time to conduct extensive
research on and pre-screening of movies.
●
The need to make a decision on a movie may
arise at inconvenient times, e.g. when a video is
to be shown at a friend's sleepover.

5. Movie Pattern: Solution
Solution:
A comprehensive collection of movie reviews,
written in a consistent style and available online,
provides parents with the factual information they
need to make a go/no-go decision about a movie.
Each review publisher chooses a set of content
categories and parents seek out review sites that
consistently provide accurate information about
the content categories most important to them.

6. Movie Pattern: Solution
Categories universally include
– Sexuality (overt and suggested. Nudity may be a
separate category or included here.)
– Violence (including gore, weapons may be a separate
category or included here)
– Language (generally focused on words, may include
attitudes toward authority figures, etc)
– Substance use (alcohol and drugs, overt or suggested.
Often differentiates between accepted/condemned
depictions.)

7. Movie Pattern: Solution
Categories may also include
and may include some of these:
– Spiritual or religious elements (+ attitudes towards)
– Criminal or antisocial behaviors (accepted or
condemned)
– Racial or ethnic depictions, intolerance, and attitudes
displayed toward such.
Timeliness: to be a useful resource, the reviews
need to be available when children become aware of
the movie. The reviews can’t be works of art.

8. Movie Pattern: Solution
A kid-safe movie review contains the following
elements, generally in this order:
1) A content-at-a-glance summary, giving a semi-
quantitative score on each of several core content
categories. Variants include
bar chart, color-coded, or iconic display
tabulation (more comprehensive category list)
Numeric one-to-N scale or verbal equivalent
e.g. Violence: none/mild/extensive/extreme

9. Movie Pattern: Solution
2) A plot summary, emphasising the elements used
to create and resolve dramatic tension. Because
almost anything dramatic has the potential to upset
some people, the plot summary should give a
concise, perceptive, and unbiased description of the
entire film. Balancing these requirements is
obviously a challenge.
3) An unbiased subjective appraisal, focusing on the
thematic content of the film. Some indication of the
artistic merits of the work may be appropriate, but
parents need to know what message is embedded in
the plot. Many reviews rate the adult-appeal here.

10. Movie Pattern: Solution
4) A comprehensive breakdown of the content of the
film, by content category. For each of the categories
established by the publisher, a concise and factual
enumeration of the events in the film is given.
This allows a parent to apply fine-grained judgement
in borderline cases, something they have to do a lot
of. For instance, a parent may decide that the
handgun suicide in The Dead Poets Society is
handled appropriately but the shotgun killing spree
in The Frighteners is overdone. To make that
decision without seeing the movies, a parent needs
to know not just what happened but how it relates to
the plot and theme of the movie.

11. Movie Pattern: Solution
Another example: there is a very powerful partial
nudity scene in Witness. This is, in my opinion, the
exception that proves the rule: a nude scene that is
not gratuitous. Many parents of adolescent boys
might disagree. Making decisions like that is their
job. The reviewer’s job is to give them the
information they need to make it well.
The attitudes of the characters toward a potentially
objectionable element and the thematic role of that
element are relevant and require a critic’s
judgement.
In addition to the defined content categories, a catch-
all paragraph for miscellaneous observations is part

12. Resulting Context
Resulting Context:
Parents are able to obtain the information they need,
when they need it. They are able to apply their own
criteria to the content of the movie, as described by
the reviewer, rather than relying on the reviewer to
make value judgments on their behalf.
If the format is too rigidly followed by too many
reviewers, the potential exists that movie makers
would attempt to slip objectionable material through
gaps in the categorization scheme. Diversity and
common sense among the reviews is needed.

13. Movie Reviews: Rationale
●
Traditional reviews are aimed at the intended
audience. They focus on quality rather than
suitability. When objectionable content is an
issue it is usually because it is distracting or
perhaps because the element is not gratuitous.
●
A parent does not need to know the art-history
context of a film, nor how the actors' careers will
be affected by this role, nor that the black-and-
white version is better. Come on, we're talking
Pokemon IV here.

14. Movie Reviews: Rationale
●
In addition to age-graduated moral and political
rules, parents are interested in safeguarding their
kids' emotional health. The plot devices used to
create dramatic tension in children's movies may
not be objectionable most of the time, but may be
inappropriate to specific children in times of
stress. For example, many movies aimed at
'tweens deal with separation of parents. Seeing
The Parent Trap or Stepmom while trying to
come to grips with a real-life separation is
probably a bad idea.

15. Movie Reviews
Known Uses:
Has also been applied to music and books for kids.
Consider adapting this pattern when go/no-go
decisions are made by proxies based on diverse
criteria.
Related Patterns:
Audience-oriented Reviews
Instant Animated Classic

16. Movie Reviews
Sketch: None
Author: Steve Nuchia
Date: 9/9/02
References:
– www.screenit.com (not screen-it)
– www.kids-in-mind.com
– www.family.org
Keywords:
Sex Drugs Rock-n-Roll Violence (there, that ought
to ensure top billing on the search engines).

17. Example: Spirit
●
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
●
Animated childrens movie.
●
Sex 1 Violence 3 Diversity 2 Theme +
●
Plot summary: Spirit is a young male wild horse
who is captured by cavalrymen in the era of
western expansion. He struggles against captivity
and their attempts to “break” him. Reluctantly
cooperating with a young captured Indian, they
break free. Spirit is gently but effectively
captured by the Indian and we are introduced to
village life.

18. Example: Spirit
●
The mare owned by the boy is used to control
Spirit, but Spirit is unbreakable even for the
Indian boy and is eventually released. He then
witnesses but is unable to prevent a cavalry attack
on the village. The mare is gravely injured and
Spirit is forced to abandon her.
●
He attempts to locate and rejoin the herd, but is
recaptured and transported to be used in railroad
construction. He breaks free, causing havoc and
destruction in the process. Meanwhile, the Indian
boy has been looking for him and finds Spirit just
in time to help him make good his escape.

19. Example: Spirit
●
In the chase scene that results, the cavalry officer
develops a grudging respect for the horse and boy
and prevents their being shot at the last minute.
●
Spirit is reunited with the mare, who survived
without explanation, and they are set free. Spirit
rejoins to herd to assume his birthright as their
leader.

20. Example: Spirit
●
Theme
●
The dominant thematic element is “indominable
spirit”. The title character allows himself to be
ridden but cannot be forced to do so. This could
be seen as laying the groundwork for an
abstinence message later in a child’s life.
●
Sexuality
●
The only sexual content is the conventional boy-
meets-girl story between the two horses. The use
of the mare to corral Spirit may be seen as
objectionable but it is not overplayed.

21. Example: Spirit
●
Violence
●
The initial attempts to break Spirit’s spirit involve
elements of ritualized combat and torture. The
scene in which Spirit causes the locomotive to
slide down the mountainside involves grave
danger to humans and animals. The attack on the
village and the final chase involve actual combat
and the deliberate use of firearms with intent to
kill at a distance. Results of violence are not
graphically depicted and, except for the
disruption and dispersal of the village, the impact
of overt violence is minimized.

22. Example: Spirit
●
Spiritual/Religious
●
No overt religious content and no spiritual
context for the thematic elements. A generalized
animistic spiritualism, primarily represented by
an eagle who’s primary role is to denote the
pristine natural world, is detectable a detectable
but not heavy-handed presence. In particular, no
attempt is made to connect it with Indian spiritual
observance or beliefs.

23. Example: Spirit
●
Diversity and Political Correctness
●
Graphic elements connoting black slavery are used to
differentiate free and subjugated horses, particularly in the
initial capture scene and in the train ride sequence. White
men are universally bad (though not evil), Indians are
universally good (though not necessarily wise).
●
Miscellaneous
●
Nothing comes to mind
●
Summary
●
An Instant Animated Classic, Spirit is watchable for adults
but not a must-see. Acceptable by most standards for
children of any age.