Movie review
August 6, 2025 · 93 min · PG
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Sketch is a 2025 family fantasy comedy where a young girl's grief-driven monster drawings come to life after her sketchbook falls into a magical pond, throwing her town into chaos. Her widowed father and brother must reunite with her to stop the creatures and process their loss. The film blends adventure, humor, and emotional family themes with some contemporary counseling scenes that encourage expressing dark feelings through art as a healthy outlet.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Sketch.
Woke representation / casting
Diverse young cast fills family roles in a modern American setting, but casting stays incidental to the grief-and-monster story with no visible identity signaling, quota emphasis, or prominent "brilliant minority" archetypes.
Woke political dialogue
School counselor scenes promote drawing out anger and grief through art as healthier than bottling it up; this reflects current therapeutic language but stays non-political and supportive of family resolution.
Identity-driven story themes
Core focus is personal grief, sibling support, father's responsibility, and creativity as healing; no race, gender, sexuality, or social-justice plotlines or messaging drive the narrative.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Counselor favors expressive art therapy over emotional restraint, which some see as mild preference for modern psychology; overall story affirms family bonds and father's role without attacking patriarchy, Christianity, or traditional norms.
Production
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. Original story with no changes to established characters, source material, or historical figures for ideological reasons.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Parent and Christian social media criticism targets scary "demonic" monsters and PG tone as unsuitable for kids, but no notable voices call the film woke, DEI-driven, or identity-politics propaganda; complaints stay about content suitability.
Creator track record context
Team includes faith-oriented producers like Jon Erwin and Steve Taylor (whose earlier work includes reflective Christian stories that critique rigid evangelical culture); director and lead actor show neutral or faith-based personal backgrounds with no identity politics or activist patterns.
