ARLO THE ALLIGATOR BOY

ARLO THE ALLIGATOR BOY is an animated coming-of-age musical comedy on Netflix about a young alligator boy who travels from a swamp in New Orleans to New York City to find his biological father. ARLO THE ALLIGATOR BOY has some funny comical moments and positive lessons about kindness and friendship, but the music is not very good, and the story has an alarmingly high level of offensive content and deliberately promotes an abhorrent homosexual, transgender agenda as well as bestiality.

After being abandoned in a New York City sewer as a baby, a half alligator, half human child named Arlo up floats all the way to a swamp in New Orleans, where he’s adopted by an ex-convict. She raises him as her own until his 15th birthday, when she tells him he has a father in New York (his name was on his hospital wrist band) and encourages him to go find his birth father.

Along the way, Arlo meets a giant woman named Bertie, who rescues him from two people trying to capture him. After falling off the freight train they hopped, Arlo and Bertie meet a group of thieves and scammers at a barn fight, who drive them the rest of the way to New York. Once there, Arlo finds and meets his father, only to have him reject him. As a result, Arlo falls into a deep depression and proceeds to float aimlessly through the sewers of New York contemplating suicide in song.

He washes up on the shore and just so happens to be reunited with his friends, who encourage him to confront his father again. The group crashes the Met Gala that his father is hosting. After confronting him, Arlo’s father allows Arlo to be taken away by the movie’s villains intending to exploit Arlo for money.

What will happen to poor Arlo, the alligator boy?

ARLO THE ALLIGATOR BOY has some positive elements, but it lacks overall quality, both in production and content. A large majority of the movie is sung, but the songs are incredibly hard to understand. Also, they aren’t catchy or entertaining for any age. The movie also has a high amount of offensive content including violence, inappropriate sexual content, bestiality, nudity, animal cruelty, and miscellaneous immorality such as greed, kidnapping, exploitation, felony, and family dysfunction.

ARLO THE ALLIGATOR BOY teaches some positive moral, redemptive messages about kindness, friendship and forgiveness. However, these lessons are undermined by a strong Romantic, humanist elements. It portrays all the characters as being born innocent however they have been damaged and shaped by their exposure to the world’s intolerance, discrimination, bullying, and rejection. The movie also lacks any mention of or belief in a higher power. Although it never denies the existence of one, it focuses solely on the material world.

ARLO THE ALLICATOR BOY aims to influence children with modern non-Christian, unbiblical attitudes. For example, the movie mainly focuses on inclusion, specifically inclusion of the “LBGTQ” community, into society. There’s an obvious LBGTQ character in the story. Also, the movie’s underlying Romantic message of tolerance and inclusion has a poignant, yet subtle focus on people in the LBGTQ community. All of the characters are labeled as “different” and don’t fit into society. Most of them are half-animal and half-human, and one is a giant. All of them have been bullied and influenced into hiding their true identity or, in the case of Arlo, fall into a dark depression filled with suicidal thoughts. However, they all find healing by sharing their true identity or by “coming out” to the world. The characters are praised for this and eventually build a community for those who are different.

While everyone can on some level relate to Arlo and his friends’ struggle for inclusion, worth and belonging, the movie sadly doesn’t teach every child how to best deal with these issues. Its aim is toward one community and as a result it teaches children to embraces themselves, regardless of what others think, and find a community that supports them. While this is good advice, no matter what a child is facing, it is never that easy because other people’s thoughts, both good and bad, will always influence a child on some level. Teaching children how to deal with this rather than just walking away and not caring is a much better use of resources. The mentality of not caring is damaging, can harm relationships with family and friends, and doesn’t teach children how to determine if other people’s criticism is constructive or just plain mean. Also, apathy divides communities and actually causes more division than inclusion as too many people become unwilling to hear other people’s thoughts, opinions and feelings.

Media-wise families will want to avoid the highly questionable politically correct messages and inappropriate content in ARLO THE ALLIGATOR BOY.