It's an extremely well-crafted and smart morality tale.
The ruffians aren't fooling around as they abuse, berate, and even burn young Tom, but his actions spark a rebellion resulting in a terrific montage of kids turning the tables on the bullies with orchestrated pranks and attacks. The new headmaster wants to squash it out of his school, but while most kids just go along with it (whether it's happening to them or others) it takes Tom stepping up to bring it all down. Friendship, honor, and respect are the threads running through this classic tale, but all of them are wrapped around a main narrative involving bullying.
