Mary Poppins film age rating raised from U to PG

[Dash riprock]

Reading the thread title I thought this must have been something to do with Mary Poppins bag and the late Sticky Vicky.

Seriously, has someone been through this film with such a fine tooth comb to deem this discriminatory?

Hottentots sir, bloody thousands of 'em .

 

[Trauntrian]

Reading the thread title I thought this must have been something to do with Mary Poppins bag and the late Sticky Vicky.

Seriously, has someone been through this film with such a fine tooth comb to deem this discriminatory?

The implication in the article is the Khoikhoi people of Africa are offended by the term, so its possible that they've raised complaints about the scenes.

I think the Indiana Jones first 3 films, and Ghostbusters should be a 15 too, watched them recently and some canny scary scenes.

They have been raised to a 12 from their original PG ratings, but that's probably just because the 12 cert didn't exist when they came out.
I don't think there's anything in them particularly to warrant a 15, some scary or gory scenes but nothing that's going to traumatise a 12 year old really.

 

[Patch]

I think the Indiana Jones first 3 films, and Ghostbusters should be a 15 too, watched them recently and some canny scary scenes.

You see some stockinged legs when the court clerk is raised into the air (the bit where the two brothers kick off with the judge who sent them to the electric chair).

 

[Metro Man]

I’ve got a rare sight disorder from watching Mary Poppins too many times.

It's called umdiddleyumdiddleyumdiddley eye.

Yes...I read about that in the Lancet...

"When there's 'ardly no day nor 'ardly no night
There's things 'alf in shadow and 'alfway in light"

 

[Dave Herbal]

Mary Poppins Returns is a PG, but then again the music hall number has a verse about bucking

Nellie Rubina was made of wood
But what could not be seen was though
Her trunk up top was barren
Well, her roots were lush and green
So in Spring when Mr Hickory saw her blossoms blooming there
He took root despite her bark
And now there's seedlings everywhere

 

[MiddleAgedMan]

What is the actual language that they are referring to? Would make the thread a bit more interesting if we could discuss the particulars .

I'm guessing it's one line, or one phrase ?

(I'm not clicking that link)

That would have been too easy and too sensible. It's not the SMB way

 

[Gobuchul]

I think Watership Down was upgraded to a PG last year.

Does Kehaar swear? He tells the rabbits to piss off in the book.

 

[look out piano]

Supercalifragilisticfuckingwellatrocious....

 

[Honess10]

Walking a fine line here with the mods, but the phrase used is Hottentots, shouted twice by the Admiral.
It's a racially offensive term used to describe some tribes in South Africa

Haha get tae fuck hottentots no reason whatsoever for Mary poppins to be PG that’s ridiculous. Watership Down on the other hand…. Should be a 15 that kernt!

 

[Far Tibetan Mountain]

Walking a fine line here with the mods, but the phrase used is Hottentots, shouted twice by the Admiral.
It's a racially offensive term used to describe some tribes in South Africa

Wilbur Smith uses it all the time.

 

[Honess10]

I think the Indiana Jones first 3 films, and Ghostbusters should be a 15 too, watched them recently and some canny scary scenes.

Hilarious watching 80’s films on sky after only ever knowing them from TV broadcast back in the day. Remember watching open mouthed with my daughter as the guy literally gouges the other fellas heart out in temple of doom. I was like… whaaaatttt… since when does this happen!! we were shielded from so much. My wife whose Spanish was just shaking her head.. seems in the uk we had a different edit back in the day

 

[RossTheNinja]

Hilarious watching 80’s films on sky after only ever knowing them from TV broadcast back in the day. Remember watching open mouthed with my daughter as the guy literally gouges the other fellas heart out in temple of doom. I was like… whaaaatttt… since when does this happen!! we were shielded from so much. My wife whose Spanish was just shaking her head.. seems in the uk we had a different edit back in the day

Aye. I only knew that scene existed about ten years ago. Must have watched it fifty times on TV.

 

[Big Jeff]

It’s a great film. I watched it quite recently.

I also watched Saving Mr Banks which is also a great film.

It stars Tom Hanks as Tom Hanks.

 

[Trauntrian]

Hilarious watching 80’s films on sky after only ever knowing them from TV broadcast back in the day. Remember watching open mouthed with my daughter as the guy literally gouges the other fellas heart out in temple of doom. I was like… whaaaatttt… since when does this happen!! we were shielded from so much. My wife whose Spanish was just shaking her head.. seems in the uk we had a different edit back in the day

Might be my memory playing tricks but wasn't that scene always in?

They might have cut it down for TV broadcast and loads of people taped it off of the telly and remember that version perhaps?

Might be my memory playing tricks but wasn't that scene always in?

They might have cut it down for TV broadcast and loads of people taped it off of the telly and remember that version perhaps?

Perhaps I'm wrong and its my memory fooling me.

Looking on the BBFC website, the version released in the 80s right up to 2000 was about 6 minutes shorter than the version currently certified!

I'm sure I saw that scene as a child though

 

[Black Cat Gypsy]

No problem with this personally.

U and PG are no different in terms of availability, but I'd expect them to align with modern U and PG films.
A film rated U, I'd expect it to have nothing at all that would need questioning or explaining in a historical context.

Other movies that should be upgraded from U to PG, just off the top of my head, are Dumbo, Pinocchio and Watership Down. There's scenes in all of those that would never make a U these days and it should be consistent.

Tellingly, live action remakes of each of those are PG

Watership Down should be 18! The amount of childhoods the film scarred.

 

[JL1985]

As a parent, the language used in Mary Poppins has been my biggest concern, right up there with knife crime.

 

[CEF]

Not really. This is totally on their agenda to rally their readership and convince them that communists are taking over the country.

If they weren't going around looking for obscure bits of racism in old films, then it wouldn't be reported.

Did they really think that highlighting a forgotten word, that no one was using or knew the meaning of, was fighting racism?
"With parental guidance, kids will stop abusing South African herders in the playground with that word they learnt watching Mary Poppins. I'm fighting racism"

 

[Morse]

Kids won't have a clue or care what a 'Hottentot' is. How in the world is raising the rating to PG going to change anything? Most parents won't know, either.
The people on the ratings board must think that when a parent hears the word, they'll sit down with their kids and discuss why it's a 'bad word' and why it should never be used. This of course simply won't happen, and if it did, it would simply draw the kid's attention to the word when they wouldn't have even noticed it.

It's ridiculous how oversensitive the world is becoming. Everything is overanalysed and scrutinised to try to find something to score points about.

 

[Kent_Mackem]

I was surprised to see Gremlins was a 15. Puts it on a par with The Shawshank Redemption.
I've seen scarier Scooby Doos.

 

[HABA87]

I don't see the issue with reclassifying Poppins. Just as I didn't see the issue with reclassifying Star Trek, Watership Down and there will likely be others.

It's just process.