Mars Express: parents' guide
Best for ages 15 and up. Not formally rated.
A smart, violent French animated sci-fi thriller for older teens and adults. A detective with a drinking problem and her partner, a dead man whose mind lives on in a robot body, hunt for a missing student on a Mars colony in 2200. It is unrated, but reviewers say it plays like an R: bloody shootings, robots' heads sliced in half, heads on pikes, around a dozen f-words, a red-light district of sex robots, a nude synthetic woman, and the hero's relapse into heavy drinking. A sympathetic character also has a history of domestic violence. Best for about 15 and up.
What's in it
Violence
StrongFrequent and bloody: people are shot, a woman's neck is snapped, robots' heads are split open spraying blue fluid, severed robot heads hang on pikes, a robot cat is blown apart, plus car crashes and explosions.
Language
StrongPlugged In counted about 13 f-words and nearly a dozen s-words, plus 'ass,' 'bastard,' 'crap,' 'hell' and 'balls,' and several misuses of God's and Jesus' names.
Sex and nudity
ModerateA red-light district shows sex robots in revealing outfits and windows of figures with bare breasts, one licks a man's chest, a fully nude synthetic woman is seen at a man's home, and robot sex is implied in an abstract way.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
StrongThe detective is a recovering alcoholic who relapses, gets drunk, vomits and has to be taken home. Students take a homemade mind-altering focus drug, and a character smokes.
Scary or intense scenes
ModerateTense chases with monstrous robot pursuers, characters held at gunpoint, and robots begging for their lives before being destroyed. The film also has flashing images that may affect photosensitive viewers.
Sensitive topics
- Addiction
- Domestic abuse
Worth talking about
The film asks whether robots that think and feel deserve rights. Ask your teen where they would draw that line, and how the humans treat beings they consider property.
On our lists
Similar picks around 15+
Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, Plugged In, bbfc.co.uk, gkids.com, the MPA. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.