OMG OMG those animated characters are.....

[fireheart17]

If they're so worried about it, they should check out one of the dozens of review sites available or go screen it themselves first. My sister did this with both Revenge of the Sith and Dead Man's Chest, just so she wouldn't have to deal with surprises. She took her three boys to both movies anyways, but she just knew ahead of time at which points she might want to quietly warn them or tell the smaller one to look away.

There's a website in Australia that does just this and it's government-funded IIRC. It is VERY thorough and might be worth checking out in general for films even overseas. Basically it gives the rating, the recommended ages (i.e the film is not suitable for <x> age, even if it has a PG rating) and then points out the following:

-Overall themes
-Violence (it does point out examples of self-defense and comedic violence)
-Material that might scare the various age groups (i.e. for under 8-year-olds, this might scare them, for under 13-year-olds, this might scare them etc.)
-Product placement
-Sexual references.
-Nudity and sexual activity.
-Use of substances.
-Bad language (this also includes the "milder" swear words)
-The overall moral of the story.

Here's the website.

http://www.youngmedia.org.au/mediach...oose_films.htm

And here's the Rango review.

http://www.youngmedia.org.au/mediach..._593_rango.htm

The website doesn't say "this or that are wrong", it's purely factual and lets parents decide for themselves. Just a quick guide to the ratings:

G: Self-explanatory, all-ages.
PG: Parental Guidance for under 15.
M: Mature themes, parental guidance recommended for under 15. More mature stuff than PG. The Harry potter movies are an example of Mature themes. It used to be that you HAD to be 15 to get into the film, nowadays it's just a general recommendation.
MA: You HAVE to be 15 or older to see this film on your own, but you can go in if you have someone over 18 with you.
R: Strictly 18 and older, no ifs ands or buts about it.

Definitely worth a read and I wish that parents would use this website more often.

[Greenday]

We have (in America):

G: For all audiances.
PG: Parental guidance suggested (still nothing bad). Apparently there COULD be some violence or brief nudity (I've never seen nudity in a PG film). No drugs are allowed though...
PG13: Parental guidance required for those under 13. More nudity or violence or even drugs. If a curse word is used, it has to be at least PG-13. More than one curse word and it has to be R unless a committee votes on it.
R: 18 or older to go in by yourself, or if you are under 18, you have to have someone 21 or older go with you (I really don't get it. When I was 18 and my girlfriend at the time was 16, they wouldn't let us in and stated that policy.). Pretty much anything goes.
NC17: No children 17 and under. Only NC17 I know of are pornos and there's no pornos at the movie theaters these days. The site says it's not just porn, but as I've said, I've seen some movies with tons of gore, nudity, drugs, etc. and none of them were NC17.

http://www.mpaa.org/ratings/what-each-rating-means

[Andara Bledin]

We have (in America):PG: Parental guidance suggested (still nothing bad). Apparently there COULD be some violence or brief nudity (I've never seen nudity in a PG film). No drugs are allowed though...

Splash. It's rated PG and has a full shot of Daryl Hannah's nude backside for several seconds, referred to as "fleeting nudity."

IMDb has a Parents Guide for every movie with ratings for each of five categories and descriptions of the scenes that contribute to each category. I remember that Entertainment Weekly did the same thing, though I don't know if they still do.

^-.-^

[Gravekeeper]

NC17: No children 17 and under. Only NC17 I know of are pornos and there's no pornos at the movie theaters these days. The site says it's not just porn, but as I've said, I've seen some movies with tons of gore, nudity, drugs, etc. and none of them were NC17.

There's no NC17 movies because studios avoid it like the plague as its the kiss of death. Problem is, they're starting to look at the R rating as the kiss of death now too. All the money is in the PG bracket. So they'll kiddify a movie just enough to squeeze it down to PG13. Even if its a movie that should rightfully be rated R ( like a horror movie ) and suffers quality wise to get it down to PG13.

Look at Aliens vs Predator: PG-13. For Aliens and Predators. Aka acidic dick monsters that want to make love to your face, and species of alien whose primary concern is how to buff your skull to a lovely shine to keep in his serial killer trophy room.

But yeah, just tone that down to PG-13. I'm sure it won't lose anything. ;p

[Greenday]

Hm, apparently Kill Bill Vol. 1 was NC17. The MPAA said Tarantino had to turn the one seen into black and white because it was just too much.

[HYHYBT]

Splash. It's rated PG and has a full shot of Daryl Hannah's nude backside for several seconds, referred to as "fleeting nudity."

Splash may be just old enough that there wasn't a PG-13 yet.

[Andara Bledin]

Splash came out in March of 1984, and PG-13 was added in July of 1984, so it managed to squeak in ahead of the rating. However, it's worth noting that nobody had any issue with nudity; it was gore and violence that prompted the adoption of an intermediate rating to bridge the gap between PG and R.

^-.-^

[AdminAssistant]

PG-13 was added because of Jaws, right?

[Andara Bledin]

PG-13 was added because of Jaws, right?

Actually, primarily because of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins. Spielberg was one of the people involved in it's creation.

^-.-^

[Dreamstalker]

Ghostbusters is PG, yet somehow it's still edited for content...there are at least four different broadcast versions out there, each one editing out different things. I have yet to see one where someone tries to digitally remove the cigarettes though (although I suspect it's just a matter of time).

I have a few promo photos where the actor was clearly holding a cigarette in the original shot but it was airbrushed out; I've had kids notice that there was something there and ask what. When I explained the reply was usually "that's dumb".

[lordlundar]

Terminator 2 has had a number of edited versions as well. One particular scene that always seems to be cut in it's entirety is when Sarah Connor takes out the T-101's chip and tries to smash it. It really grates on me because it's a pivotal scene in the movie.

[Lace Neil Singer]

In my experience, it doesn't seem to matter what rating a movie has; there'll still be some dickhead parent who'll bitch about the chance of their ickle pwecious seeing something they ought not to see, as tho the movie will force itself onto the child without the parent being able to prevent this.

As for the original topic; I imagined some of these braindead parents watching Heathers and going, "OMG they're smoking in every scene! That is EBIL!" and not noticing the fact that people are, you know, getting murdered. XD

[ExRetailDrone]

In my experience, it doesn't seem to matter what rating a movie has; there'll still be some dickhead parent who'll bitch about the chance of their ickle pwecious seeing something they ought not to see, as tho the movie will force itself onto the child without the parent being able to prevent this.

Ugh, this kind of thing annoys the hell out of me. Not too long ago at the video rental store where I work, I had an older woman come in. She returned a bunch of movies, and started ranting at me about 3 of them. She was going on and on and on about how we should screen the movies we rent (um, seriously? We have thousands of movies for rent) and how she was disgusted by the content of the movies she rented, and blah blah blah. She was mainly ranting about the amount of swearing in the movies, which were all rated R and every rating has a listing of reasons why it was rated that way (aka, language, surprise!). One of the movies was Stone with Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton... a prison movie. I tried explaining that my store has nothing to do with the content of the movies, that falls on the production company and writers and such, and how a lot of people don't have a problem with harsh language. She had the gall to tell me that once I had children I would understand (which belongs in another thread entirely). I wanted to tell her that if I had children of a young age, they sure as hell wouldn't be watching R rated movies with me! And honestly, who wants to watch a prison movie and hear the convict saying things like "Oh fooey, I won't be getting this darn parole this time? You jerk!". No one, because that's simply so far from reality that it falls into the category of ridiculous

[Hyena Dandy]

No one, because that's simply so far from reality that it falls into the category of ridiculous

And yet nobody bats an eyebrow at 'cowboy curses' (Dagnabbit).

Still, honestly, I feel the same way. There's a certain age that you can't really control what your children expose themselves to if they want. But if your 8/9/10 year old is watching an R rated movie, that is clearly YOUR FAULT.

[Gravekeeper]

Terminator 2 has had a number of edited versions as well. One particular scene that always seems to be cut in it's entirety is when Sarah Connor takes out the T-101's chip and tries to smash it. It really grates on me because it's a pivotal scene in the movie.

I only *just* saw that scene a few weeks ago and had a similar "Holy crap, this was cut out?" reaction. It was, however, cut out of the theatrical release strictly for time, not content. They deemed it an unnessacary scene to the story. Somehow. ;p

The other one that got me was the scene where he was trying to teach Arnold how to smile. It only appears in the full unedicated special deluxe director's cut edition, but it was hilarious >.>