You Ever Notice...and What's the Deal...

[Drtooth]

I think it's more that we know it's CGI and therefore there's no real mystery anymore. In the days of practical effects you could wonder things like "how did the Muppets ride bicycles?" But nowadays, audiences know "Oh it's CGI" and that's the end of the mystery. And it's quickly become old hat.

CGI may take a great deal of skill but it never comes across that way. It's just too slick and perfect.

I agree to that. But to make it look like it takes no skill or money is hogwash. It's a technology issue. In the old days, they did have to be innovative because they only had access to so much. On the one hand, things did look a little more realistic, but then you have rubber suits you could see the zipper on in really cheap movies. I honestly do think we should make the most of everything available, and I do like how the Muppets still only use CGI as an assist, but still work with radio controlled devices. I loved the technology of Where the Wild Things are. They managed to fuse puppetry and CGI in a remarkable way that gave it that realistic enough to not look like a rubber suit, but not to look so polished that it's completely unrealistic.\

Do we have an over-reliance on CGI? Sure. Does it do away with kit-bashing and using weird stuff to get oddly more realistic effects? Absolutely? Is it the cheap quick fix everyone makes it out to be? No. And face it. As bad as the Smurfs movie was, imagine that they used real people painted blue and green screened. Not pretty.

You ever notice how most family movies are rated PG for "Rude humor"? That applies to like every CGI movie released in the past three years. Remember, Airplane and Monty Python and the Holy Grail were rated PG (though maybe that has to do with there being no PG-13 at the time)
The MPAA and the ESRB seem to be getting stricter with the ratings. G used to be the norm rating for family movies. What happened?

TV Tropes explains it
Look. The MPAA is essentially the film Mafia. The ratings system is complete poopoo to put it mildly. Somewhere down the line, the G rating somehow became a film killer. Even young children don't want to see a G rated film. I was absolutely shocked Monsters University got a G. It's impossible to get a G rating and no one wants it, so sometimes they'll throw in some needless toilet humor.

That's right. It seems like they throw in farts and butts to appeal to 5 year olds, but the sinister truth is they throw them in to not get a G. And as I've said before, every kid's movie I've seen in the past several years could have gotten away with a G rating except Rango where they legitimately swore and talked about prostates. It's all a scam.

 

[AquaGGR]

Look. The MPAA is essentially the film Mafia. The ratings system is complete poopoo to put it mildly. Somewhere down the line, the G rating somehow became a film killer. Even young children don't want to see a G rated film. I was absolutely shocked Monsters University got a G. It's impossible to get a G rating and no one wants it, so sometimes they'll throw in some needless toilet humor.

People seem to have forgotten that PG is to the MPAA like E10+ is to the ESRB. A prime example is The Lorax, there was nothing in the movie that justified it getting rated PG (it didn't even have much toilet humor). Also, The Muppets got PG'd all because of that one "fart shoes" joke that everyone overreacted about.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

People seem to have forgotten that PG is to the MPAA like E10+ is to the ESRB. A prime example is The Lorax, there was nothing in the movie that justified it getting rated PG (it didn't even have much toilet humor). Also, The Muppets got PG'd all because of that one "fart shoes" joke that everyone overreacted about.

Wait, the Lorax was PG? aside from maybe the overall theme of the movie itself...there's really nothing in it that I would say deserves PG. I mean, maybe the part where the once-ler takes off his pants but you gotta be stupidly immature to find that scene offensive.

 

[Drtooth]

PG sells movies. G doesn't. G is kid deterrent for some reason. Only Pixar gets away with G's. Madagascar 3 got a PG rating, and they didn't even keep the REAL lyrics of New York, New York. They can't even give them that mild H word. Remember, Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame mentioned several "cuss" words in their original biblical definitions and got a G. And as "sanitized" and "toned down" as the film was from the book, it was deeply disturbing and dark for a kid's movie. Rango, Paranorman, and I'll give them Coraline (that paranoia fuel would seriously warp a young child)... those deserve PG for having something offensive and or disturbing enough to be given a legitimate PG rating.

PG gives the false impression of hipper, edgier movie intended for the cool kids and G gives the impression of baby film. Why Pixar decided to go with a G for Monsters University just goes to show you how much guff they have. No one would dare get a G rating. And quite honestly, even I found the horrify the adults scene a little creepy for a G.

 

[minor muppetz]

Was there ever a time when parents wouldn't let kids see PG movies on their own? Because there's one episode of Full House, where DJ is supposed to be watching her sisters and Steve shows up to take her to the movies (this was a year before they became a regular couple), they had to take Stephanie and Michelle with them but when it was mentioned they planned to see something rated PG Stephanie pointed out that she and Michelle were too young for it. And this was in the 1991-1992 season.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I agree to that. But to make it look like it takes no skill or money is hogwash.

Well I'm saying CGI itself comes across as taking less skill. Again, too slick and perfect looking.

 

[minor muppetz]

Is it just me, or do most TV shows that heavily involve school have the assistant principal be more involved than the main principal? Characters like Mr. Bones on Doug and Mr. Woodman (who I think eventually got promoted to principal in the last season) on Welcome Back, Kotter. When I was in school I felt like the principal was the main boss and the assistant principal hardly did anything (though I rarely spoke to any of my principals or assistant principals), but on TV it seems the principal is almost non-existent.

And what's the deal with bad guys in video games being called "bosses"? Sometimes final boss, me and my friends used to call them "main bosses" (not sure if that was a real term or something one of us made up). Bowser, Dr. Eggman, Shredder, and others don't pay the heroes, so why call them bosses?

 

[D'Snowth]

Before I begin, I just want to say to Jamie and D.W. and others that I certainly do not intend to offend with his post, this is meant to point out how ridiculous stereotypes are.

So anyway, what's with the whole stereotype that "gay people are gay because they were molested as kids"? What sense does that make? I mean from what I've seen, most gay people don't seem to have an experiences of being molested as kids (or maybe they have and they don't talk about it). In fact, I know at least one person who had the misfortune of being sexually assault at a really young age, and that person is straight and totally against gay marriage... then again, there's actually a BIG difference between molestation and sexual assault.

But you know what would make a more "believable" stereotype? Saying that "gay people are gay because someone they knew died from falling out a window", because somehow that actually does seem to happen... in fact, both Paul Lynde and Anderson Cooper had that happen to them before, there's probably a far more logical connection between being gay and falling out a window than being gay and being molested as a kid.

 

[charlietheowl]

It's one of those lies that anti-gay activists tried to spread back in the day, like the idea of "homosexual recruitment" said by Anita Bryant and her gang of yokels in Florida. When people find something foreign to them and don't try to understand it, they fall prey to ideas like that.

 

[Drtooth]

Even that's giving them way too much credit. They need to hate something and they need some idiotic reasoning for it. They try these scientific sounding conspiracy theories to make it look like it isn't some backwater Sun Worshiping cult type religious excuse and come off even more idiotic and offensive.