Leo the Reptile

Leo is a 2023 Netflix animated movie that is centered on the title character. He has been stuck in the same Florida classroom for decades with his terrarium mate turtle Squirtle. When he learns he only has one year left to live, he plans to escape to experience the life of the outside world.

This Netflix movie is categorized as a realistic fiction movie, as the setting takes place in a school classroom in Fort Myers, Florida, which is based on a real location. The main characters are the fifth graders in Mrs. Salinas’s classroom. Despite his old age, Leo realizes that he can talk to the students and is surprised by how well he can give the kids his advice. The kids’ names are Summer, Eli, and Jayda, and two boys both named Cole, Skylar, Logan, Mia, Kabir, and TJ. There are a lot of realistic fiction elements such as a class full of kids.

Though this animated movie is classified as a kid’s film, the movie is told through Leo’s perspective, as he is the title character. His glass cage symbolizes confinement in one area. Squirtle is his only friend before the events of the film. At the beginning of the film, Leo longs to see the Everglades and escape his confinement, but all of that changes after seeing how popular he has become with the fifth-grade kids. When he is taken to the Everglades by the substitute teacher Ms. Malkins, he is disheartened, as the Everglades wasn’t his dream after all. Leo’s real goal is a change in scenery.

Leo shows viewers that a change in scenery, an old reptile’s advice, and adventure are the main topics of this animated film. A change in scenery means that, when one character stays in the same room for a long period, the character grows bored and imagines life outside confinement. The epilogue shows how Leo can meet new faces when he and Squirtle are put into a kindergarten classroom.

An old reptile symbolizes an elderly figure whose wisdom can help young people in life, as shown in many scenes where Leo talks to the kids one by one. Leo’s wisdom is a surprise element in the film; the kids are surprised to hear that Leo can talk in full sentences, though this is kept a secret.

The students go on an adventure to find Leo when he is taken to the Everglades. From Magic Land Park, they hijack the bus which takes them directly to the Everglades to save their class pet.

There is some representation of African Americans and women in Leo, as they play major roles in the film.