JPNor
Shared on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 14:25Yesterday, my wife, son and I met up with a friend who also has a 3 year old, to go to the movies. Originally we were going to see Rio but it was completely sold out so we saw Rango instead. Rango is rated PG so our friend was a bit concerned about the content for his son. My thought was that it's an animated film so the PG content was probably limited to a couple pee or fart jokes.
The movie was actually really decent. It's a western and while it's obviously a kids movie, I was really surprised by a fleeting reference to Hunter S Thompson and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The PG rating was mostly because of one scene of dialog which contained "Sign the damn paper" and "Go to hell!" Also, a few very minor characters died and I doubt our kids fully grasped what mortality is all about.
My kid watches Family Guy so I wasn't upset about the slightly salty language in the film, however I was surprised that it made it into a kids film in the first place. I got to thinking though - a couple fart jokes and a "go to hell" are pretty much the most a PG movie can get away with today. PG movies are exclusively family films but this wasn't the case years ago. Remember Spaceballs? The movie is somewhere between 20-25 years old and was also rated PG. One scene in the film's climax, Rick Moranis says "Fuck, even in the future things don't work."
Not only was the "fuck" completely unnecessary, it still made it through the MPAA and into a PG movie. No way in hell that would fly today. I've already got two fucks in this blog - oops, make that three - so if my blog was a movie, it would probably already be rated R.
Regarding what I let my kid see on TV and movies, I'm right in the middle. I don't mind the occasional "damn" or even "shit" so I don't completely shield him from the reality of the world. However he is 3 and very impressionable so I wouldn't want him watching the South Park Movie (could you imagine him running around school yelling "DOG SHIT TACO!"?). Violence is the same way. He doesn't need to see the Saw movies but even Spongebob has silly cartoonish violence, and he seems to understand the difference between real life and fiction.
If you have young kids, where do you stand? Do you try to stick to G-rated stuff or let them see some more adult-ish content?
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Comments
Submitted by CrashX27 on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 14:58
Submitted by FadeIntoBlack on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 16:03
Submitted by BalekFekete on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 18:54
Submitted by CrypticCat on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 20:56