Monterey Jack wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 10:17 pm
Meanwhile utterly innocuous fare aimed at the literal five-and-under crowd like
Paw Patrol gets slapped with a PG these days. For WHAT?!
For mild action/peril, good sir. Can't let anyone see a movie with mild action/peril without sufficient warning.
I see the problem as two-fold:
1. Studio marketing not wanting the "for babies" stigma. Once animated films like
Shrek got PG ratings for some crass humor but families treated it like any other G-rated animated film at the box office it was inevitable for this to happen. Since then pretty much every animated film that used to get a G gets a PG for at least "thematic elements" because studios don't want the G rating, unless a film series has grandfathered in G-ratings (see:
Toy Story 3 and
4 being G despite just as many "thematic elements" and "action/peril" as 99% of these types of films). (I remember reading a great article detailing all this when the first
Wreck-It Ralph was released and got a PG rating). This also pushes films that used to be PG into PG-13, making the volume of films with that rating much higher than is reasonable. Very rarely do you see live action films meant for non-family audiences get G or PG anymore. For example, a movie like
The Current War had some themes of capital punishment as well as a moment of war violence, but it's all implied and offscreen with some sound effects. It's rating: "PG-13 for some violent content and thematic elements." This would have been a more than acceptable PG film in the mid-80s, but now the perception of PG is "for under 13 ONLY", meaning films that are primarily for the 10+ crowd that can be seen by younger audiences but are really not meant for them want the PG-13 at a minimum so that adults don't think "this isn't meant for me." Compound that with all the tentpole action/adventure films that are marketed towards families, including kids of 7+, but wanting PG-13's so those kids think it's "cool" and "adult" - (Should all the MCU films be PG-13? Surely a movie like
Captain Marvel is PG material) - and you have a bloated PG-13 slate of films with huge gulfs between where they border PG and R.
2. G rating don't have content descriptions. When content descriptions were introduced in 1990 they exempted the G rating, making the assumption that those films didn't require content descriptions since they in principle had no offensive content. Well, if that's the guideline then once you start having descriptions of "thematic elements," "rude humor," and "mild" anything then by definition you have to bump it to a PG, even though it's near impossible for a narrative film to have no conflict whatsoever. Every Disney animated feature since
Snow White could have those terms applied. It's simply a dumb standard that has made two entire ratings (G and PG) become in any practical way synonymous and nearly pointless.