RIDLEY JONES: Episode 1.1: Ready or Not, Here I Come and Some Like It Hot
Exciting museum adventures carry worldview concerns for discerning adults.
Should You Watch It?
RIDLEY JONES is exciting and offers worthwhile lessons about responsibility, asking for help, rescuing others, making wise decisions, and trusting family and friends. Its unusual museum setting and adventurous stories can hold attention, and children will likely enjoy the characters and animation.
The concern is not the basic adventure but the program’s worldview. It presents Romantic, feminist, and LGBT ideas, along with a secular outlook and magical elements. The young characters also enter dangerous situations without adults, although Ridley’s mother and grandmother provide positive guidance.
Because the source rates the episode −2 for family content, it is not suitable for children or young teens. Discerning adults may find merit in it, but families should choose something else for younger viewers.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESRidley Jones is a young girl who lives with her family in a museum that comes to life at night. She hopes to follow the family tradition and become one of the magical caretakers.
Along with friends from the museum exhibits—including a dodo bird, a dinosaur, an astronaut monkey, a mummy queen, and a bison—Ridley faces two adventures. In one, she works to stop a caribou stampede. In the other, she and her friends try to escape a dangerous rockslide.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means RIDLEY JONES is an interesting, entertaining program with meaningful flaws. The concept is unusual, and the episode is exciting to watch. Children will likely enjoy its characters and animated adventures.
The two 14-minute stories move through light action and peril, including a caribou stampede and a rockslide. The program also teaches responsibility, problem-solving, history, emotional growth, and asking adults for help. Its creative premise and positive lessons give it real merit, even though its worldview keeps it from being a clean recommendation.
The Worldview
RIDLEY JONES presents a strong mixed pagan worldview alongside moral lessons about responsibility, listening to parents and grandparents, helping others, and making wise decisions. Museum figures magically coming to life adds an occult element, while the series offers no reference to God or God’s law. Its Romantic message—“Be who you truly are”—can carry troubling interpretations when separated from truth and moral boundaries.
The series also presents feminist empowerment and LGBT themes. Fred the Bison identifies as nonbinary, and Ismet the mummy princess has two married mummy fathers. Ridley’s family life centers on her mother and grandmother, without a father figure, and the program does not represent a typical biblical family. Ridley often does what she thinks is right until she is proven wrong, though her mother and grandmother help her grow in responsibility and wise decision-making.
The show’s desire to teach children courage, responsibility, and help for those in danger is valuable. Scripture grounds family in this instruction: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife” (Genesis 2:24).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong mixed pagan worldview with some moral elements and moral lessons such as learning responsibility, listening to your parents and grandparents, helping others, and making wise decisions, marred by some Romantic, politically correct lessons teaching children to “Be who you truly are” with no reference to God or God’s law, title character tends to spend most of the time doing what SHE thinks is right until she’s proven wrong, some feminist empowerment lessons, and some LGBT, pro-homosexual messages (a nonbinary character stars in practically every episode, and one character has two homosexual fathers who appear in multiple episodes), plus some occultism where museum figures magically come to life
Foul Language
No foul language
Violence
Light, mild action and peril such as young girl falls down when a talking dodo bird startles her, large dinosaur skateboards off a rail, and girl has to dodge its tail, stampeding her of caribou crash into objects and drag girls along by a rope, characters leap over a running elephant, characters threatened by rockslide, girl uses rope to save bird from dangerous rockslide
Nudity
No nudity
Alcohol Use
No alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Title character sometimes is disobedient but part of the program’s story is about her learning to be more responsible and make wise decisions, as taught by her mother and grandmother, and there isn’t a representation of a typical family in this show (there is no father figure whatsoever in Ridley’s life, all she has is her mother and grandmother, which are atypical of a traditional biblical family ordained by God’s Word Written in Genesis 2:24 and by Jesus in Matthew 19:1-12).
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
When should a child ask an adult for help rather than handle a problem alone?
Proverbs 11:14 · James 1:5What does it mean to make a wise decision instead of simply doing what you want?
Proverbs 3:5–7 · Ephesians 5:15–17How can parents and grandparents help children grow in responsibility?
Deuteronomy 6:6–7 · Ephesians 6:4What does Scripture teach about God’s design for marriage and family?
Genesis 2:24 · Matthew 19:4–6The Final Word
RIDLEY JONES offers exciting adventures and positive lessons about responsibility and helping others. Its worldview concerns, however, make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For discerning adults, the answer is WORTH WATCHING — ADULTS ONLY. For a younger family, begin with.
