The BS of the MPAA

[D'Snowth]

The funny thing is, Drew Carey mentioned this once on Whose Line, when Kathy Greenwood and Ryan Stiles were subjected to watching footage of maggots for Colin Mochrie in front of a green screen, both of them on the verge of vomiting, to which Drew looked to the camera and remarked, "and yet, you can't show people smoking on TV." It's like what's been mentioned on this very forum many times before: violence is a big no-no, but gratuitous sex is okay.

And you know what else is odd too? You can say just about every swear word imaginable on TV now (but somehow, the f-bomb is still off-limits), but you can't mention drugs. I remember another instance from Whose Line where Drew was bleeped by the censors for making a meth joke . . . what sense does that make? Even when you consider there's all kinds of PSA on TV, the internet, and even billboards that exclaim in big, bold letters: "METH DESTROYS FAMILIES." But you can't actually say it (or other drugs) on a TV show? I guess we're supposed to fear kids will research to find out what these drugs are and start experimenting with them themselves?

 

[mr3urious]

Another film I feel doesn't deserve the rating it got was the 2009 animated film 9. It was rated PG-13, but its lack of blood and swearing feels more appropriate as a PG.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

That makes me wonder if "Antz" would've been PG had it come out a few years later. That movie was pretty darn violent and it had more language than most animated movies.

 

[Drtooth]

The Shrek films kinda had a weird pass as well. Unless it was a mistake and poor communication, I once read that Shrek was to have a PG-13 rating based on some movie preview article in something. Don't really believe that would be the case. But yeah, Antz was a dark film and more adult than Bugs Life. It would totally have gotten a PG-13 rating, unless they toned it the heck down.

 

[D'Snowth]

It seems like each Shrek movie got more and more toned down than the one before; the original certainly had occasional mild language, and more adult and gross-out humor, all of which had virtually disappeared in the sequel (though much of the gross-out humor afterwards was more childish and silly rather than real gross-out humor, like Donkey peeing on a fire like a dog to put it out).