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flippythemaster t1_j9wxtwq wrote

Backlash to Poltergeist is one of the events that led to the establishment of the PG-13 rating, along with similar reactions to Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Before the establishment of PG-13, it was G for general audiences (that is, parents wouldn’t need to be involved at all) PG for parental guidance (that is, there are scenes and content a parent might have to discuss with their kids afterwards), R for restricted (that is, this has scenes that are not appropriate for kids regardless of parental intervention) and X (typically considered “extreme content”*). With the dawn of the 80’s it became clear that film productions were pushing at the edges of these categories and, while certainly PG’s name would imply that a parent should be aware of potentially objectionable content, there were pearls to be clutched and most parents didn’t want to go through the effort of screening the films their kids watched—which were typically substitutes for babysitters—anyways. Remember that this is the same era that brought us the great Satanic Panic over D&D!

So a stopgap was established and PG films pretty much became exclusively the stuff of kids fare, with PG-13 becoming the go-to rating for content of the kind you’d see in those wonderful Spielberg films of the 80’s

*not to be confused with XXX, which was adopted by porn distributors who figured that if ONE X was saucy, imagine how good THREE would be!

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Cute_Consideration38 t1_j9wzhyi wrote

Thus making Disney the "go to" baby-sitter of Earth whispering moral obfuscation into the ears of billions of mesmerized children.

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_Fun_Employed_ t1_j9xgxew wrote

This is one of those comments where I can’t tell the author’s intent and it worries me.

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Captain_Naps t1_j9xcj5a wrote

> whispering moral obfuscation into the ears of billions of mesmerized children.

If Disney hadn't taught me to be perfectly happy with the bare necessities, I'd be living an overindulgent and stress-filled life in these turbulent & inflationary times.

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typewriter6986 t1_j9y45z4 wrote

It's 5 in the morning and I just realized that The Bare Necessities and Hakuna Matata are basically the same song.

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shalafi71 t1_j9xha8r wrote

What sort of moral obfuscation? "Corrupting the youth" is a charge that must be heard. And you must be serious.

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Cute_Consideration38 t1_jaamg0l wrote

Moral obfuscation like:

You don't have to do what your parents say even if your father is the king. You know better than he does..

And if you see a cute guy, you should totally give up everything including EVER seeing your family again, and losing your gifted singing voice in a voodoo ritual so that you can go shack up with a sailor.

And then if it turns out that you're not happy with your choices you can breach any contract you entered into and if the other party doesn't want to oblige then it's perfectly okay to steal your payment back from them.

The Little Mermaid did it, and everything worked out well for her!

Also it's perfectly alright to break into places you're not allowed to be. And if you're hungry, you can totally steal food, because if you don't you'll starve and die. And while surviving, if you're have to destroy other people's possessions, or ruin their chance to make a living, so be it. Aladdin could have gotten a damn job. "Gotta eat to live, gotta steal to eat!"

Shall I go on?

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shalafi71 t1_jaar9sy wrote

Ah! Makes more sense. But I see Disney simply telling stories that resonate with children, making 'em money. Every example you give is a child's power trip fantasy. "Yeah! I could do that thing!" Got any kids around? They're dumber than rocks when it comes to nuance; They're not reading life lessons into a cartoon.

Do you honestly see Disney having some sort of moral agenda? Reddit tells me all corporations are mindless money-making machines with no morals.

If you state that Disney does have some sort of agenda, especially a liberal one, why aren't they publicly dropping the hammer on DeSantis for his shenanigans? (May be getting far off track here, especially if you're not up-to-date on the story.)

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Cute_Consideration38 t1_jab2tlw wrote

The moral agenda is, I admit, an illusion as everyone knows their agenda is profit based. But in an effort to maximize profit they cater to the child's disdain for rules and authority. Kids want to see examples of how it's possible to do bad things but still be liked, loved, and get everything that they want.

I mean if Aladdin got caught doing 90 percent of the things he does, during the era that is suggested, he would have a knife plunged into his abdomen and then he would pathetically bleed out on the cobblestone as wild dogs fight over his fingers. No ambulance, no lenient judges if you survive the stabbing, no investigation into your murder if you don't survive it. But that wouldn't make a good movie for babysitting, soooo....

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antieverything t1_j9yengg wrote

Yep. PG became the new G and G is super-G.

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peach_dragon t1_j9zdjiy wrote

I remember my G rated movies having the word “damn” in them. And when PG 13 came out, they could say “fuck,” but only once.

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Shas_Erra t1_j9xvjqo wrote

In the UK, the classification was:

U - Universal. Anyone can watch.

PG - Parental Guidance. Maybe some adult themes, situations or language.

15 & 18 - pretty self explanatory.

The 12 rating wasn’t introduced until 1989 and 12a (a bridge between PG and 12) in 2002.

In other words, growing up in the 80’s was wild. There’s a tonne of films I remember watching as a kid that I wouldn’t dream of showing to my daughter yet.

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krukson t1_j9xzg6k wrote

I remember watching Robocop when I was just 10. That was a wild ride.

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areseven t1_j9yauya wrote

Yeah, this is exactly it. At that time, G was seen as just for kids, and R was seen as just for adults. So PG was the standard. I’m not sure why the author of the article is so confused about how it got a PG rating. I guess you had to be there to understand!

Also worth mentioning that it’s funny now to think that The Sound Of Music was rated G in spite of largely being about the rise of Nazis. It just simply meant “this film is fine for everyone”. But they were still trusting that people would actually know what kind of movie it was and what it was about. Clearly a mistake!

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