Parents' Guide to

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Musical sequel is escapist fun; some innuendo, drinking.

Movie PG-13 2018 114 minutes
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 10+

Based on 22 parent reviews

clarkoatmen
clarkoatmen Parent of 9-year-old
January 3, 2024
age 12+

Bad choice

My mom showed me this movie because she thought it was the first one. Big mistake! I think that they should not have made the movie after the main actress did not want to do the sequel. They should have stopped there. Instead they decided to kill off the mom. This changes quality from the first movie. They did not support some statements in the first movie. This was depressing as a 9-year-old. If you are planning to show this to kids, you are making a mistake. A great replacement if you were planning on showing the second movie is Momma Mia 1 instead of Momma Mia 2.
doctora
doctora Parent of 6-year-old
November 26, 2022
age 13+

Upbeat with some high calibre cameos

This film is not reaching new heights or breaking new ground, but it is entertaining and if you have any soft spot for ABBA songs then it is quite pleasant to watch. I am not particularly fond of musicals and I enjoyed this film and enjoyed everyone hamming it up for the camera. The film does its best to influence our sentimentality and we are rewarded with high calibre cameos. At the end it leans hard on sentimentality and upbeat dancing and that's ok.
See all 22 parent reviews

What's the Story?

MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN is set about five years after the events of Mamma Mia!, with Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) planning the grand reopening of a bed-and-breakfast in Greece after the death of her mother, Donna (Meryl Streep). But the opening is threatened by a thunderstorm as well as Sophie's stress related to her husband, Sky (Dominic Cooper), who's considering a lucrative job offer in New York. The movie is both a sequel and a prequel: Half takes place in the present with Sophie, and half is set back in 1979, when a young Donna (Lily James) graduates from college, parties with her best friends, Rosie (Alexa Davies) and Tanya (Jessica Keenan), and decides to travel the world. As 20-something Sophie tries to capture her mother's spirit in the hotel, 20-something Donna hooks up with Harry (Hugh Skinner), Bill (Josh Dylan), and Sam (Jeremy Irvine) all in the same month -- explaining why the older versions of themselves (Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, and Pierce Brosnan, respectively) could all potentially be Sophie's birth father.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (22 ):
Kids say (54 ):

It's wholly unnecessary, but this sequel/prequel is frothy fun for those who enjoyed the original's music and upbeat energy. Streep is definitely missed, but she does return for a surprisingly poignant cameo. The flashback story starring James et al. is entertaining enough, and it's a treat to see Christine Baranski and Julie Walters' odd-couple comedy antics carried through in the earlier timeline with Davies and Keenan. The three lads all believably portray younger iterations of Firth, Skarsgard, and Brosnan, with Davies' Sam, in particular, making it clear which of the men Donna truly considered a potential partner. It should also be noted that the younger actors have considerably better voices than the older dads, although, once again, it's the women who do the heavy lifting.

The movie's ABBA-filled soundtrack includes some repeat titles from the original, like "Mamma Mia," "Knowing Me, Knowing You," "Dancing Queen," and "The Name of the Game"; most of the additional songs are lesser-known B side tunes like "Angel Eyes," "Andante, Andante," and "When I Kissed the Teacher." But there's a fun "Waterloo" number that takes place in a Napoleon-themed French restaurant, as well as a perfectly timed rendition of "Fernando" featuring Cher, who cameos as Sophie's celebrity grandmother. It's not an exaggeration to say you wait most of the movie for Cher to show up, but she's worth it.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the characters in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Which are role models? Why? What character strengths do they display? Why are empathy and gratitude important to the story?

  • Do you think the movie's sexual allusions and insinuations are funny? Inappropriate? Why or why not?

  • What messages does the movie send about relationships and marriage?

  • Why do you think musicals based on hit songs are popular? Do you need to be familiar with the band or artist's songs to enjoy the movie musical? Do musicals translate well to the big screen? What makes them successful (or not)?

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