Next Harry Potter film gets PG rating
The upcoming film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has received a PG rating by the MPAA.
So what does this mean? Well, if you know anything about the Harry Potter series, you’ll know that the books get progressively darker in tone with each installment. Half-Blood Prince being the sixth out of seven books makes it one of the darker novels. A PG rating means that most of the darker elements are probably toned down or removed from the film.
This film, already hampered by a delayed release and poor early reviews, is not giving me high hopes.
As I have said many times before Half-Blood Prince is my favorite Harry Potter book so I have a lot of expectations for the film adaptation.
So, do you think the PG rating is more bad news for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Or is it meaningless? Do you think the rumors about Twilight being the cause of Half-Blood Prince’s delay are true?
- My earlier take on the Half-Blood Prince trailer
- Parallels between Harry Potter and Star Wars
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Movies
Comments
By Phil
January 8, 2009 12:27 AM | Link to this
PG doesn’t mean a movie won’t be violent or dark. For example, look at Star Wars Episodes I & II, both of which had rather gruesome character deaths and startling body part removals. They were PG. Wasn’t until the violence reached a much more disturbing plateau in Episode III that it garnered a PG-13 rating. And I believe Harry Potter isn’t really that violent of a series. Creepy and sometimes disturbing, yes, but not violent. And creepy alone doesn’t add up to a PG-13. On a different note, I don’t think “Goblet of Fire” and “The Order of the Phoenix” deserved PG-13 ratings anyway. Nobody really knows how the MPAA comes up with their ratings (even after watching “For Your Consideration”). I’m betting the ratings board has changed some members since the last two PG-13 Harry Potters, and those people tipped the vote to the other end of the scale. Also, considering the Christian right doesn’t like Harry Potter and that many members of the MPAA board are (or have been in the past) Christian fundamentalists, the previous PG-13 ratings could be a result of their personal bias to prevent more younger kids from seeing these movies that they deem to be satanic than would if the movies got PG ratings.By ELF
January 8, 2009 1:06 PM | Link to this
Order of the Phoenix left me anxious to get to the next one and it didn’t have a “happy ending”. I suspect this one will be even more serious. It’s OK. The characters are growing up along with the kids who have followed from the beginning. I am in my 50’s. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.By Kim
January 8, 2009 2:32 PM | Link to this
I know that I am really tired of waiting for this film! I am a HUGE fan of both the books & the movies, but this is stretching my patience thin. Talk about anti-climatic! I was disappointed in the huge gaps in the story with the Order of Phoenix movie, so I am concerned about this one. I can’t imagine this film not getting a PG-13 rating if it sticks to the book because I can see it being disturbing to young viewers. But then so could Bambi - and it’s rated G - so what do I know? Ratings are mostly a mystery to me!By MC
January 9, 2009 8:33 AM | Link to this
Phil, so very well said! I have always wondered how many of those right wingers have watched HP or read the books and secretly enjoyed them!!!By Christian HP Fan
January 9, 2009 9:20 AM | Link to this
Broad generalizations about groups of people is uncalled for. I happen to be a Christian and a “right winger” as you’d like to call me, and I am a huge fan of the Harry Potter series. In fact, I used to talk about them with my minister, who read the books and watched the movies with his children. Christians who cannot separate religion and stories are the minority.By Phil
January 11, 2009 7:18 PM | Link to this
I disagree. Coming from a Christian background, I’ve known far more Christians who won’t touch the HP books vs. those that actually make up their own minds and see them as a good, moral story with a clear delineation between good and evil. I even remember this one minister who decided to read the books so he could tell his congregation why they were bad, and even then people frowned at his approach, as though he was watching dirty movies to learn and then teach his congregation why they were bad. Glad to hear there are still a few free-thinkers on the Christian right.