Monday, May 7, 2012

G violence vs. PG cute.

So what is the deal with kids movie ratings? How is a movie who's characters spend the entire film plotting to, talking about, and attempting to kill each other G rated? Because, apparently it's OK to do violence to characters that aren't shaped like people. But guess what? My kids don't know the difference. Not really.

The hubs and I finally previewed Cars 2 last night because the Things (aka our children) have been begging us to see it. We had avoided it this long because I had preconceived notions related to the story line. I despise the big-oil/big business is bad meme that I knew existed in this picture, but figured it might be a teachable moment. No. Such. Luck. It was funny, we adults were genuinely entertained for most of it, but there is no way in hell my 4 and 5 year olds will be watching this. It's violent! With a capital V, Violent. Cars are killed, shot at, blown up, and plotted against throughout, but apparently, since they're only cars, it's OK for a G audience. I don't get it. It's OK to do violence to characters that have all the attributes of people except for the physical ones?

Admittedly, I have no idea how movies are rated or who does it, but in my opinion, they fail miserably.  My brain keeps going back to Tangled. A crazy cute, funny movie with some violence that earns it a PG rating. I think PG is a little much, but I accept it because kids really shouldn't hit people with frying pans and the old lady does knife the hero at the end. Fine, but if Tangled gets a PG shouldn't Cars 2 get an R? What the hell?

My kids adore Lightening McQueen. They would be distraught at the thought of other cars trying to destroy him, every bit as distraught as when Rapunzel or Flynn Ryder find themselves in danger. They don't know the difference. They don't see skin color or size, they barely see the sex of the characters, and they certainly don't register on any meaningful level that McQueen isn't as real as Rapunzel. As much as we talk about cartoons and pretending, they don't yet understand.

The short version of this story is that the movie rating system is not helpful at all. For anything.  My children will not be seeing this movie. It is way too violent.

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On a totally unrelated note, here is my Supermoon shot from this year. Yeah, it stinks. The moon doesn't get high enough to see until it's too dark to get a good pic. I may edit some shots together, but for now it is what it is.

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