Royalteen parents guide

Royalteen Parent Guide

More thoughtful than most teen romances, this movie is overloaded with negative content.

Overall C

Netflix: Party boy Prince Kalle develops feelings for new girl Lena, but she's hiding secrets of her own that could prevent them from ever being together.

Release date August 17, 2022

Violence B
Sexual Content C
Profanity D
Substance Use C

Why is Royalteen rated TV-MA? The MPAA rated Royalteen TV-MA for language, nudity.

Run Time: 107 minutes

Parent Movie Review

Lena (Ines Hoysaeter Asserson) has just moved to Oslo from a small town. Thanks to traumatic incidents at her previous school, she’s nervous about starting another secondary school year. There’s also an extra layer of worry: she’s in the same class as the Crown Prince Kalle (Mathias Storhoi) and his twin sister, Princess Margrethe (Elli Muller Osborne). As Lena and Kalle are drawn together, Lena’s past threatens to keep them apart.

“Teen girl falling in love with a prince” is well trodden territory in the YA genre, in all mediums. Where Royalteen differs from its predecessors is uses the familiar premise to tell a mature and authentic story, rather than taking the campy comedy angle. The teens are realistic in their interactions and problems, and the lack of privacy inherent in royal life is omnipresent. Lena’s past mistakes are big, but also not outside the realm of possibility. The deft writing is paired with a brilliant and vulnerable performance from Asserson, who portrays her character’s conflicts with a subtlety that grounds the film.

Although I enjoyed the movie for what it accomplishes from a writing and acting standpoint, it contains too much negative content for me to recommend it for teens. Substance use, profanity, and sexual content are all present to a relatively large degree. From my perspective, I found the sexual content to be handled well, with discussions of condoms and consequences, but the drinking and vaping are completely normalized, with consequences meted out only for the excessive drinking. To be fair, this is a Norwegian production, and it is likely that their drinking culture varies greatly from North America’s, so perhaps the teen drinking was another level of authenticity.

For fans of romance and royals, Royalteen is a well-made, thoughtful exploration of teenage love and problems. For viewers who are sensitive to sexual content, teen substance use, and profanity, this is one to sit out. At the very least, the English dubs are well done, which is more than I’ve been able to say about a lot of Netflix productions.

Directed by Per-Olav Sørensen, Emilie Beck. Starring Ines Høysæter Asserson, Veslemøy Mørkrid, Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne. Running time: 107 minutes. Theatrical release August 17, 2022. Updated

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Royalteen
Rating & Content Info

Why is Royalteen rated TV-MA? Royalteen is rated TV-MA by the MPAA for language, nudity.

Violence: Two teen girls fight each other, with one being thrown to the ground.
Sexual Content: A teen girl is seen in her bra. Teen couples kiss. A teen couple sleep in the same bed. A teen couple kiss on a bed. The girl takes her top off, without explicit nudity; the boy stops before they go further. They later have a discussion about condoms and pregnancy risk.
Profanity: The script contains 35 sexual expletives, around 30 mild and moderate expletives, and six terms of deity.
Alcohol / Drug Use: Teens (hinted to be 18 but never confirmed) consume alcohol at parties, some to the point of vomiting. Teens vape marijuana.

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Royalteen Parents' Guide

What consequences do social media have on the characters? What positive effects does social media have on them? What are some ways you can use social media in a positive way, and avoid some of the negative consequences that it can have?

Home Video

Related home video titles:

In The Prince & Me, a Danish prince goes incognito at an American university, only to fall for a young woman whose focus is on academics; not romance.

A high school student living in San Francisco is shocked to learn that she is actually a European princess in The Princess Diaries.

Tired of royal protocol, Princess Ann (played by Audrey Hepburn) runs off while on a visit to Rome. In Roman Holiday, she is rescued by a journalist, with whom she falls in love.

A haircut gone wrong sees a prince falling in love with a hairdresser in The Royal Treatment.