I had a very different take on this movie than the previous commenter. I first watched the movie as an adult, with my 7-ish year old daughter and a couple of friends. Though somewhat simplistic in nature, the themes are pretty deep. I view the movie as a kind of audio-visual poem, a Tale rather than a mere story. Not that it's the best movie of all time (sorry, Lawrence of Arabia gets that award from me), but I always highly recommend it because the core ideas are interesting, and the story is told in such a peaceful, respectful way.

Though the plot is definitely tied to the decades old hostilities between the U.S. and the now-defunct Soviet Union (which fell about 4 years after this film was released), the problem of powerful entities at a stand-off is (sadly) a repeating one.I recommend it for any age, but it's definitely aimed at presenting adult themes to young minds.

Lovely film, a fable, completely unlikely since greed rules most sports men and women. But they aren't as important as the children

In light of the world watching the irrational irresponsible Russian aggression this film in March 2022 takes on a new Bettina a new glance into the fears the caring the concerns the realities of how destructive and how healing people can be. Here a child rises above the mundane to state his case with the help and support of one brave NBA star.

I rented it on iTunes and will watch it again over the next 48 hours again and again.

While parts of the movie I admit are far-fetched, I really liked the concept. Maybe if something like this really happened, we just might see a change in our nuclear policy - like the movie said "wouldn't it be nice?" I am not naive, and I understand how we got where we are now. Just what would it take to get rid of these things? The movie "Fail-safe" came out when I was 4, and I saw it when I was about 9. It scared the **** out of me, and I couldn't sleep for a week. There was a Nike missile site within walking distance of my house, and I thought there was a nuclear warhead there (I didn't know then, but I have since learned that the Nike system was capable of carrying a nuclear warhead). The Nike system was shut down in the '70's. Its' replacement systems, the Atlas and Titan systems, have been mostly decommissioned (as far as I know). Now we have airborne and submarine based systems. I'd love to see ALL nuclear weapons (ours and theirs)gone. What will it take? I know it will have to be more than a movie. It has to start somewhere. (climbing down from my soapbox...)

I think this is a great movie to watch with your kids, to stimulate discussion.