Did you know?

[bluedreamer]

I was just in the middle of eating my juicy Fantale (a chewy caramel with a rich chocolate coating.... mmmm) ..anyhooo.. and on the wrappers of these delicious treats is plenty of useless/ful trivia, one of which was:

"The Muppet Movie (79) was cut by New Zealand censors on grounds of violence."

Interesting ... does anyone know which part of the movie was considered "violent" by any chance? Or if any other Muppet movies where censored for similiar reasons?

 

[BigSPEEGS]

Maybe just all of the references to frog's legs and the shooting of the mock-up Kermits. Censors have always baffled me.*



-SPEEGS



*I have also always wanted to beat the FOAM STUFFING out of them! Goshdarn censors! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

 

[Skeeter Muppet]

They baffle everyone, Speegs. They baffle everyone.

 

[bluedreamer]

Hiyahiyahiya

Yeah that's what I thought too, maybe chasing Kermie for his legs was a bit too much for the Kiwis..... or maybe it was having him in that chair with Mel Brooks?

I never understood censorship either, what's the point of making a movie in the first place then? I ask ya?

By the way BigSPEEGS, looooooove your avatar pic!

byeabyeabyea

 

[BigSPEEGS]

Originally posted by bluedreamer
By the way BigSPEEGS, looooooove your avatar pic!

Thank you, thank you and thaaank YYYYOU!


This is a subject I'm actually pretty learned on (when it comes to film, anyway). Ratings can be one of the worst forms of censorship. Sometimes, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) panel, with a radar screen about the size of a pebble, just don't "get" some films and automatically rate them R. Example: Waking Life, which didn't deserve the rating at all.

Other times, they're just plain predjudiced. Example in point: The film L.I.E., which had a pedophile as one of it's characters, was rated NC-17. There is almost no graphic sex (and when there is, it's between two consenting adults) and pretty much nothing suggested either (between the two main characters, the pedophile and a teenage boy). Now compare this to other films such as American Beauty or Tadpole. American Beauty had an older man having relations with an under-age girl, and the whole premise of Tadpole was a fifteen year old boy dating women much older than him. American Beauty was rated R; Tadpole was rated PG-13.

Homophobia? Most definitley.

Yeah, so censors stink. Anyway, how 'bout those Muppets?



-SPEEGS

 

[Salmoto]

Well I so hear that Tadpole wasn't even going to be destributed for a time becuase of the boy etc....etc..... but the anti-censors fought for it, and it enjoyed a moderate release.

 

[dwmckim]

Maybe New Zealand censors couldn't get past the puppet aspect and took the film at face value.

With puppets (and cartoons) you can get away with a certain slapstickish amount of violence that you otherwise couldn't with human actors...a scene with bar ruffian picking up someone and throwing him into the bartender or onto a ceiling fan where he gets hurled into a piano just wouldn't translate as well!

BTW, reminds me of how there was all the fuss around '96 about the V-chip and how one television reviewer noted that Muppets Tonight, if taken at face value, probably would not pass the anti-violence bar! (Actually, even for me, i found the Foo-Foo scene a little disturbing - maybe it was that "clang" sound effect when he was thrown into the metal bar!)

...another good point actually! I think when there's any elements of realism or an actual sense of REALLY getting hurt, it can be disturbing. I can laugh at Piggy karate chopping Kerit til the cows come home - especially with the frog's goofy faces but i got real disrurbed by the pirate being blown through the roof in MTI mainly because of the convincing horrified "OWWWCH" he makes after it happened!

One more related memory - i remember feeling SO horiibly sorry for Bert when i was a kid and watched Christmas Eve on Sesame Street at the part where Ernie plays his barrel trick. Mainly because Bert makes a Big Deal about how Ernie will get hurt and then Bert really does get hurt (and his reaction seemed to drive it home). I was giggling right along with Ernie until they cut to Bert against the wall unable to vocally respond to Ernie at which point i started to cry because i was so sorry for him. (Especially because he was trying to keep someone else from getting hurt)

 

[gymkatarules]

Some countries cut the shot of the sailor breaking the glass and threatening Fozzie when he's on stage cause they didn't think that belonged in a kids film. There's your answer.

-Chris

 

[bluedreamer]

Originally posted by gymkatarules
Some countries cut the shot of the sailor breaking the glass and threatening Fozzie when he's on stage cause they didn't think that belonged in a kids film. There's your answer.

-Chris

Isn't that wierd, until you said it, I would not have realised it. I guess people see violence when they are looking for it but when you watch something "for fun" you don't see it. And that's another thing I suppose, even when I was a kid, I never perceived the Muppets as a kids flick only. And just for the record, I think that's one of the millions of reasons I love the muppets, they are realistic (well you know what I mean in the sense of values) and don't pull wool over your eyes (is that the saying??) .... mmm my brain hurts

<<Maybe New Zealand censors couldn't get past the puppet aspect and took the film at face value.<<

Good point, I'm so in my own world I forget that.

what's violence when throwing penguins around is ever so therapeutic??

 

[BigSPEEGS]

Originally posted by bluedreamer
...and don't pull wool over your eyes (is that the saying??)

Maybe it's the foam?



-SPEEGS