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Wednesday
07Jan2009

'Half-Blood Prince' Tones It Down For PG Rating

DateWednesday, January 7, 2009 at 9:53PM
Is Harry Potter becoming family friendly again? Rope of Silicon reports that Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince will be rated PG "for scary images, some violence, language and mild sensuality," as deemed by the MPAA.

The past two movies have been PG-13, and although the box office didn't show the effects of it, I heard more than one complaint from parents about the maturation of the series, both thematically and visually.

The curious thing about this is, I thought Prisoner of Azkaban was the most adult in nature, and if we're going by such an abstract concept as "scary images," I would say it's in the current PG-13 realm. Of course, that brings to mind the always bizarre interpretations of the Motion Picture Association of America, which will stamp a film like Amelie and The Exorcist are rated R but Jaws and The Incredibles are somehow both PG. Go figure.

The real problem with the MPAA's rating system now is that it's so overly protective when it comes to sex but not to violence. I can't imagine that those two things, if they even need different standards, are weighted more towards allowing violence than intimacy. But there you go.

We'll see how much they get away with in the new Harry Potter when Half-Blood Prince is released on July 17th.

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AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment4 Comments |

Reader Comments (4)

Gotta say I'm excited!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterLisa

I will have to say that I never even bother with any rating system at all. In my country, even a kissing scene is chopped off and movies about pigs like Babe are banned in the big screen but allowed on satellite TV. Go figure.
Anyway, the last few Harry Potter books are pretty dark so I guess it is natural that the movies are too.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterFoong

Well, Order of Phoenix was by far the darkest and broodiest of the Potters and not directly suited for all young ones.

Azkaban was still pretty jolly, only the willow was slightly scary.

With the success of the books and the movie franchise, I think the Half Blood Prince will get a large audience whatever.

I just hope that it is smaller than the last one to show that there is no gain in manipulating release dates too much.

Thursday, January 8, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterLengthy Johnson

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Tuesday, November 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJohn Smith

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