Skip to content
CLEARAGE Parent notes on movies
← All movies
Batman: Year One poster

Batman: Year One

Movie 2011 64 min Action, Animation, Crime, Drama, Thriller Last reviewed 12 Sep 2026
Official Rating PG-13 ClearAge 14+ Quality ★★★☆☆

No Australia rating available — showing United States

Why our age differs

Official is PG-13. We say 14+ because a child sees his parents killed, and the city story includes sex work and drugs. The drawing is still a cartoon

What we flagged

View all categories

Scores are 0–5: 0 means none.

Violence
Moderate
Sex
Mild
Frightening
Moderate
Language
Mild

Our take

This is a short, dark crime cartoon, closer to the live-action origin than to kids Batman. A child sees his parents murdered. Later there are street fights, guns, corrupt cops, sex work, and a cocaine shipment. Watch with a parent from 14. It is too bleak for most younger kids

Uplifting themes

Two men try to do better in a city that rewards the opposite A cop tries to stay honest. The young Batman is still learning, and he makes rough choices

Story (may spoil tone)

A wealthy playboy named Bruce Wayne and a Chicago cop named Jim Gordon both return to Gotham City where their lives unexpectedly intersect.

What we flagged

Scores are 0–5: 0 means none.

View all categories

Violence
Moderate
Sex
Mild
Frightening
Moderate
Language
Mild

Details

Violence Moderate Street fights, guns, and cops who hit first. Cartoon, but the city feel…

Street fights, guns, and cops who hit first. Cartoon, but the city feels mean

Language Mild Crime talk includes hell and damn. Not a flood of strong words

Crime talk includes hell and damn. Not a flood of strong words

Sex / nudity Mild Sex work is part of the city story. It is implied, not an explicit sex…

Sex work is part of the city story. It is implied, not an explicit sex scene

Drugs / alcohol Moderate A cocaine shipment sits in the crime plot. Dealing, not a how-to

A cocaine shipment sits in the crime plot. Dealing, not a how-to

Frightening Moderate A dark, rotten city and a child in an alley. The mood stays grim

A dark, rotten city and a child in an alley. The mood stays grim

Child peril / abuse Strong A child sees his parents murdered in an alley. That scene is the wound…

A child sees his parents murdered in an alley. That scene is the wound of the story

Gore / death / weapons Mild Guns and some blood. Deaths happen. The drawing does not linger on woun…

Guns and some blood. Deaths happen. The drawing does not linger on wounds

Dangerous behaviour Mild Street fights and vigilante jumps look cool. They are crime, not a game

Street fights and vigilante jumps look cool. They are crime, not a game

Grief / bereavement Moderate The death of parents starts the hero path. Loss sits under the whole sh…

The death of parents starts the hero path. Loss sits under the whole short film

Talk after watching

  • A cop and a rich man both try to fix a rotten city. What can one person change?
  • A child sees something he cannot forget. How do you talk about that without making it a game?