Rating Descriptors

I blame CEM. Sometimes my mind goes on investigative overdrive and this one starts and ends with her.

Her class wanted to watch Mr Poppers Penguins for their Valentines Day Party at school. The dilemma? It is rated PG for "mild crude humor and some language" which means that all the parents had to sign off on it. With the party approaching she had to go for plan B: Toy Story 3. Since I spent the weekend discussing why ratings exist I am overly sensitive to whats in a rating, descriptors and definitions.

So tonight while watching previews prior to Descendants (highly recommend BTW), a preview for a movie came up “intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence and for language." huh?

So, at dinner I googled ratings (apparently the ratings board is made up of elected parents. I am so adding this to my bucket list.

For inquiring minds here is how the ratings work:

The Motion Picture Association of America has for the past few years put rating descriptors into their rating boxes. Some of them are straightforward- violence, sex, language, etc.

But, some of them are rather odd. Some other things the MPAA (over-protective parents) are concerned about, apparently:

-zombie violence

-scenes of dental torture

-non-stop ninja action

-lots of language

-hockey rough-housing

-irresponsible gun use

-grossness

slime

-an adolescent punch in the nos

-a bawdy puppet show

-and of course, the all-time famous description, for Twister:"rated PG-13 for intense depictions of very bad weather

Now that you are aware, you will never watch previews the same again, You too can blame CEM.