DVDizzy Forum

I was just wandering if anyone else has noticed that "The Pirates of the Carribean" has not yet been rated. Is this because it received a higher rating than what Disney wanted and they need to reedit the film? I hope that they keep it PG I have nothing against watching movies with higher ratings but I think Disney should keep their family films G or PG. Does any one alse know anything about this?

Most likely, a final cut of the film just hasn't been sent to the MPAA yet. I'm pretty sure it will be PG, even if it seems notably darker and scarier than anything Disney's put out under their label in years.

well, i hope it is a PG. If it is PG-13, I will be totally outraged (the whole disney is for kids. They've taked out soo much stuff to stay kiddy, and for the kids).

PG or PG-13, doesn't matter to me! I am there opening day either way!

Wooohoo!

I really don't care what it's rated as long as it's not G.

Satoshi wrote:I really don't care what it's rated as long as it's not G.

I really don't think you are going to have to worry about that!

I have no doubt it'll recieve PG. The violence will be on par with stuff in SW movies, I think - lots of action and sword-slinging, but hardly any blood (which usually determines the rating of PG-13 when it comes to action).

Well, it's been rated and it's the first PG-13 "Disney" film.

Luke wrote:Well, it's been rated and it's the first PG-13 "Disney" film.

Wow, didn't expect that one.

Only PG-13?

So no hardcore loving then?

Hmpf.

Maybe I'm getting it mixed up with somethign else...

Luke wrote:Well, it's been rated and it's the first PG-13 "Disney" film.

Yeah, according to the IMDB the movie is rated PG-13!
Of course this is risky, but I think it will do well, since it seems Disney is trying to hide that "Pirates of Caribean" is a Disney film - the advertising never mentions the Disney name! I think it may call atention of a major grown up audience.

______________________
"Pato Donald! Como vai você? Como vai essa força? Como tem andado? A quanto tempo que não o vejo! Or, as you American say: What's cooking?"
-José Carioca, "The Three Caballeros"

wow! I'm impressed. I didn't think Disney had the balls for something like this. I have to admit that makes me more excited to see it. Movies have changed over the past forty years and the audience doesn't want to see a "family geared movie anymore". I saw the matrix reloaded a couple weeks ago and there was a 7 YEAR OLD BOY THERE!!! I'm like, uh, this is rated R. I guess Disney finally is going with the flow and.....wow....i'm really speechless. Does anyone know if the real, real, trailer is on any dvd. you know the one where they actually show the people? I'd be interested in seeing it again, and again, and again, and...................

I read the junior novelization to my little brother and the movie has a pretty dark plot. If you are one who does not want to know anything about the movie before you see it, don't finish reading my reply. The gold that the pirates stole cursed them. To break the curse, they must return the gold to where it came from and spill the blood of the descendant of the man who died trying to stop them. I'm not saying who that is, but they think it's Elizabeth (the girl on all the trailors) and so Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner set off to rescue her. I figured the whole blood spilling thing would have secured it a PG-13 rating. Not to mention the pirates are indistructable and would probably scare the socks off of most kids. I would have thought after it received a higher rating than PG, Disney would have released it through Touchstone or Miramax or something. They usually try for PG. I also have read about The Haunted Mansion Movie and that seems like it could also be PG-13.

from the LA Times:

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who's built a career on high-velocity action pictures, was turned off when Disney Studios sent him a script for a movie version of its theme park ride "Pirates of the Caribbean."

It was bland, too tame, he told the Disney brass. After all, he's the man who brought the masses "Top Gun," "Armageddon" and "Bad Boys." Still, he was intrigued and brought aboard some like-minded creative types to jazz up the project.

He promised two things to Disney executives bankrolling the $140-million film: "I'll make the best movie possible and it won't be an R."

Instead, Bruckheimer has presented Walt Disney Pictures with its first PG-13-rated movie after the studio's decades-long run of entertainment safe for audiences of all ages.

Although there's no sex, drugs or profanity, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" is filled with computer-generated scenes of pirates transforming into skeletons as the moonlight melts their flesh. Throats are slit. One youngster who won't be going to the movie, which opens July 9, is the 5-year-old son of Disney production chief Nina Jacobson. "I think it's too intense and scary," she said.

That's what the Motion Picture Assn. of America thought too when it put a PG-13 stamp on the movie this week for its "action/adventure violence."

Industry experts see Disney's decision to release a PG-13 movie under its legendary family film banner as recognition of the changing cultural, technological and box-office realities that influence today's action-movie market.

"What Walt Disney had — a Norman Rockwell America — no longer exists in the 21st century, and Disney is simply acknowledging that reality," said consultant Peter Sealey, a former Columbia Pictures marketing chief and an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley.

Today, Sealey and others say, youngsters are raised in a more amped-up culture, weaned on violent video games and hyper-realistic visual effects on the Internet and on the big screen.

"Even Disney is being forced to ratchet up its level because it knows what teens are used to in all forms of entertainment — movies, music, TV, video games, Webcasting and comic books," said psychologist Stuart Fischoff, an expert on the effect of mass media on society.

As a result, with few exceptions, action movies these days must carry a PG-13 to draw large crowds of teenagers who think anything with a softer rating is for their little brothers and sisters.

"PG-13 is the cool rating," said Paul Dergarabedian, whose company Exhibitor Relations Co. tracks box-office results. "It's the rating that doesn't talk down to teens."

That's why they have flocked to such PG-13 action movies as "Spider-Man" and "2 Fast 2 Furious," along with the "Lord of the Rings" and "X-Men" franchises, among many others.

The trend toward edgier fare does not signal the slow demise of PG- or G-rated films. The phenomenally successful "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter" movies, for example, were rated PG. Disney/Pixar Animation Studios' G-rated "Finding Nemo" is the most popular movie in the country.

Still, the economic realities of different genres cannot be ignored when there's so much money involved, even when Disney is the investor.

"They see all these huge movies that are acceptable to parents that are PG-13," Bruckheimer said of Disney executives. "They're moving with the marketplace."

Until now, the studio has released its PG-13- and R-rated films under the "mature-theme" banner of its Touchstone Pictures, launched in 1984 with "Splash," a sexy, romantic comedy starring Daryl Hannah. Disney also owns Miramax Films, known for its often provocative and celebrated adult-oriented movies.

Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook likened the rating on "Pirates" to the height restrictions and health warnings that accompany the company's scarier theme park rides in Anaheim and Florida, such as Space Mountain, Tower of Terror and Indiana Jones.

With the selection of Bruckheimer to produce the movie, Cook said, "we knew we would be making a thrill ride."

Cook also stressed that under no circumstances would Disney Pictures release a movie that included foul language, sex or drug use. "There are no exceptions to those rules," he said.

If Disney's 1954 science fiction adventure "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" had been made today, it probably would have been rated PG-13 because of a giant squid attacking a submarine, Cook said.

In the early going, Cook and production head Jacobson had hoped "Pirates" would be a PG movie. But Bruckheimer had other ideas.

The producer thought the first script came across as "a straight pirate movie" and told Disney, "I don't know what to do with this."

So he called on "Shrek" screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, whose cleverness and wit he admired. The pair came up with a twist that hooked Bruckheimer and Disney. The pirates would be cursed.

As the writers began pounding out a new script, Bruckheimer wooed director Gore Verbinski, best known for his stylish and scary thriller "The Ring," released last year.

Meanwhile, he was determined to snag a star not known for light-hearted family features, Johnny Depp, who had appeared in such offbeat fare as "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," "Edward Scissorhands" and "Sleepy Hollow."

Bruckheimer saw Depp as "an edgy actor who will kind of counter the Disney 'Country Bears' soft quality and tell an audience that an adult and teenager can go see this and have a good time with it."

Depp wasted no time taking his character beyond what even Bruckheimer had envisioned. He modeled himself after Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, whom he's known since the mid-1980s.

"I was reading about the 18th century pirates and thought they were kind of like rock stars. So, when I thought, 'Who is the greatest rock 'n' roll star of all time?' it was Keith," Depp said during a phone interview from France, where he lives.

In the film, Depp wears a red bandana draped around his beaded hair and a thin stripe of black makeup under each eye. He staggers and swaggers.

Depp shocked Bruckheimer and Disney executives before shooting began when he decided to add yet another touch to his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow. He had gold caps placed on all his front teeth.

"Jerry was slightly uncomfortable and the Disney executives weren't exactly enthusiastic about it," Depp recalled.

In a compromise, he uncapped a few. "I said, 'Look, these are the choices I made. You know my work. So either trust me or give me the boot.' And luckily, they didn't."

Despite the PG-13 rating, the 40-year-old Depp said he would feel comfortable taking his 4-year-old daughter to see the movie. "When she was 2 years old, she watched 'The Wizard of Oz' and loved it," Depp said. "At 17, I remember being freaked out about those weird monkeys. She's totally cool with that stuff."

But before any filming began, questions began surfacing at Disney's Burbank offices. Based on sketches of the grotesque skeletons, executives worried that the project was moving into the world of PG-13.

"We told the filmmakers to try very hard to get the PG," Jacobson said. She said she asked them to "steer clear of things like language, sex and significant amounts of blood that will push us toward a PG-13."

As the production pushed forward, Disney executives saw some of the footage, including a bloody stabbing scene. They flinched but didn't demand that the intense sequences be cut.

"You'd lose the guts of the movie," Cook said. "It would be like cutting out the dip on Space Mountain or the Indiana Jones rides."

Although "Pirates" is the first PG-13 movie for Disney Pictures, it won't be the last. On Thanksgiving weekend, Disney will release a movie version of another theme park attraction, "The Haunted Mansion."

Jacobson said it could draw a PG-13 rating "because of the scariness factor." But she added that, like "Pirates of the Caribbean," it will "still be the exception to the rule."

i agree with that article! im glad disney is molding to what's in now just like they should of done in the 80s and did in the 90s

MickeyMouseboy wrote:i agree with that article! im glad disney is molding to what's in now just like they should of done in the 80s and did in the 90s

can't really say I'm impressed with disney- either go with the family friendly film or go all the way (from the premise of the film this should have been fairly violent/scary and gratuitous etc IMHO). Instead a compromise seems to have been made and the resultant film doesn't seem to cater to either audience

i disagree with you maj, kids now a days rather watch scary movies even though they get scared or wont be able to sleep cause they like the thrill of it. so i think most people are going see this movie and of course there is going to be mocking from the tabloids against disney and so on but in the end the movie will prevail and will bring in big bucks and will sell good on DVD! i know im going to see it!

I agree with you MickeyMouseBoy! Can't wait to see it!

Sure, kids enjoy watching "scary movies", but that's what Disney's other branches are for.

I just hope that they don't start making their Disney family films PG-13. Frankly, while there have been tons of great PG-13 films, in recent years, it's come to represent the sacred middle ground between children and adults to appeal to both. And now like, what, 80% of films are rated PG-13. Surely, movies don't need violence, profanity, and nudity to be good, but it's sad to see so few with an edge, something other than the suggestive, commercial, superficial gift-wrapped film that the studios have been delivering lately.

Like I said, it's foolish to think that the quality of a film is determined by a rating, but it's really the thought that goes into it these days. Films are made from the get-go with the intention of bringing in as wide an audience as possible and almost all mainstream films are shot for the PG-13 rating. Is it the belief that an R, PG, or G film can't put up the type of box office numbers? Complete crap - look at this year's top 2 grossers so far - Matrix Reloaded (R) and Finding Nemo (G).

Getting my rant back on topic, I feel that Pirates should NOT have been trimmed down to reach a PG. I also feel that the rating system currently in place is rather idiotic, and that studio product being catered around it is artistically depressing.

Somewhat off-topic, I'm not particularly looking forward to this movie. Not because of the rating, but to be honest, I can count on one hand the number of Bruckheimer productions I find halfway entertaining, and I can really only think of one that I really and truly liked. Hopefully, this one doesn't follow the glossy formula of his past projects to a T.

Luke wrote:Hopefully, this one doesn't follow the glossy formula of his past projects to a T.

Flashy visuals over plot? Style over substance?