Parents Television Council Reviews

PTC reviews aim to provide you with advance information about an entertainment offering so that you can be the final arbiter of what you and your family see.

Daddy Day Camp

by Aubree Bowling 

Release Date: August 8, 2007

MPAA rating: PG for mild bodily humor and language

Starring: Cuba Gooding, Jr., Lochlyn Munro, Paul Rae and Richard Gant

Recommended age: Not recommended for children under the age of 10.

Overall PTC Traffic Light Rating: Yellow 

A sequel to the Eddie Murphy film Daddy Day Care, Daddy Day Camp explores the relationship between fathers and sons and sportsmanship.  Charlie Hinton and his best friend Phil run a successful day-care business. They decide to expand when they learn that the camp they attended as children is for sale.  The camp is run down, but Charlie and Phil are determined to make it a happy place for kids to attend, and do their best to fix it up.  With threats of foreclosure and a rival camp owner terrorizing them with paintball attacks, Charlie must call on his straight-laced military father, Buck, to come and help get the campers ready for the inter-camp games -- and get enough customers to keep the business running.

Caution Cones for Parents:

Violence in the film is mostly slapstick: adults perform pratfalls, are tied to trees and are hit in the crotch by children on three occasions, and some children are chased by bees. A few slightly more serious incidents also occur. A bus crashes into a building with all the kids on it, though the children are unharmed. A bathroom explodes, and children from an opposing camp shoot unprotected children with paintball guns.

Sex is limited to partial nudity. A small boy’s naked rear is shown as he urinates into a potted plant. An adult man is shown on the toilet with his pants around his ankles. Later, a man has his pants pulled off revealing very tight underwear, shown several times from the front and behind.

There is no profane language in the film, but the words “suck” and “crap” are used, as well as insults such as “idiot” and “butt-head.”

Parents should be aware that the film contains many instances of rude, disrespectful and disruptive behavior. One adult character is very hateful and spiteful.  He is mean to his son, forces the children at his camp to cheat, and berates them harshly for losing. The children show very little respect for their camp counselors and parents.  They tie adults to trees, throw things at them, talk back to them, and call them names. The nice camp kids bombard the mean camp’s owner with food and vegetables and pull his pants off with a hot-wired jeep. The children from the opposing camp cheat in every event during a competition. Off-color humor is prevalent, including scenes of passing gas, toilet references, jokes about adult diapers, a water balloon filled with urine broken on a boy’s head, a discussion about bed-wetting, and multiple scenes of vomiting.

There are a few positive messages in the movie about how cheaters don’t win, having fun during a competition is more important than winning, fathers should love their sons unconditionally, and teams work best when members respect each other.

Due to the excessive toilet humor, “comedic” violence, and strong language, the Parents Television Council does not recommend this movie for children under the age of 10.

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