Mary Poppins film age rating raised

fretmeister

ICBM said:

Hootsmon said:

The Jungle Book will be up for slaughter soon with the ape jazz musicians

It already is - in fact if I remember rightly it was even criticised for it on release, with King Louie in particular being interpreted as a racist caricature. It sort-of is, but I honestly think it would go over the heads of most kids and thus not be as harmful. The Song Of The South is much worse.

The Nightmare Before Christmas has been criticised for Oogie Boogie being an obviously 'black' character too - hence why his song was done as an instrumental on the Nightmare Revisited album, I think.

The best version of that tune...



With the astonishingly deep voiced Geoff Castelluci - managing one of the deepest notes ever recorded at the end.

english_bob

Hootsmon said:

The Jungle Book will be up for slaughter soon with the ape jazz musicians

Nope. 

It was re-classified in 2013 and remains in the U classification. The detailed advice from the BBFC notes the "discriminatory stereotypes" in the film, but doesn't alter the classification for them.

https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-jungle-book-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc00otg1mda

Disney preface lots of their older works on Disney+ with exactly the sort of disclaimers someone earlier in this thread suggested- "this film is old, and reflects values of its time, some of which are not really OK any more", or words to that effect. I suspect that as and when they re-release any of them in the cinema they'll do something similar.

Offset

ICBM said:

Hootsmon said:

The Jungle Book will be up for slaughter soon with the ape jazz musicians

It already is - in fact if I remember rightly it was even criticised for it on release, with King Louie in particular being interpreted as a racist caricature. 

Kinda... if Louie had been played by a black artist that may well stand up - but he wasn't.  He was played by the wonderful Louis Prima.  I do get your general point though.

Kurtis

Old white guy privilege. 

EricTheWeary

IIRC King Louie was supposed to have been voiced by Louis Armstrong but in a rare moment of awareness Disney realised that portraying a black man as an ape might not go down well. So the character was voiced by Louis Prima instead. Unfortunately Prima's Italian American accent sounds like someone caricaturing African Americans to many ears. 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

IIRC King Louie was supposed to have been voiced by Louis Armstrong but in a rare moment of awareness Disney realised that portraying a black man as an ape might not go down well. So the character was voiced by Louis Prima instead. Unfortunately Prima's Italian American accent sounds like someone caricaturing African Americans to many ears. 

I have to admit, until today I thought Louis Prima was African American.  I guess I'd never seen a picture of him.

ICBM

To be fair, none of it is as bad as Mickey Rooney in Breakfast At Tiffany's.

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

To be fair, none of it is as bad as Mickey Rooney in Breakfast At Tiffany's.

Which I assume now comes with a warning.

Hmmm, what about You Only Live Twice...?  They don't show Fu Manchu, Charlie Chan or Mr Moto movies any more so I guess they're not so much of an issue.

Sporky

Where do we rate John Wayne as Genghis Khan? 

Philly_Q

Sporky said:

Where do we rate John Wayne as Genghis Khan? 

Not highly.

Cols

ICBM said:

To be fair, none of it is as bad as Mickey Rooney in Breakfast At Tiffany's.

And of course, the lighthearted 1975 Disney comedy One Of Our Dinosaurs is missing, which features Peter Ustinov as a Chinese spy in what would be regarded now as a hugely offensive racial caricature.

Still rated U.  My kids have seen it, but not before a quiet chat with me beforehand about why it was acceptable at the time but not today.

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

Hmmm, what about You Only Live Twice...?

The ridiculous Japanese get-up Sean Connery wears is in the book, so it possibly has to be retained - in a way it's so laughable that it's not even racist, since he makes no attempt at an accent or any of the stereotypical mannerisms really. Shir Sean was a good Bond, but never a good actor.

I used to rate YOLT as among the best Bonds, but to be honest it's really the one where the series jumped the shark, with the crazy villain's lair and all the other stuff that's become so much of the clichéd 'Bond movie' that now I'm not sure...

Cols said:

And of course, the lighthearted 1975 Disney comedy One Of Our Dinosaurs is missing, which features Peter Ustinov as a Chinese spy in what would be regarded now as a hugely offensive racial caricature.

I'd forgotten all about that! I saw it as a child, but I don't think it's even crossed my mind in the last forty years.

It may well be reclassified at some point - I doubt they can do all of them at once.

Sporky said:

Where do we rate John Wayne as Genghis Khan? 

As perhaps the worst miscasting in history? I've never actually seen it.

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

Philly_Q said:

Hmmm, what about You Only Live Twice...?

The ridiculous Japanese get-up Sean Connery wears is in the book, so it possibly has to be retained - in a way it's so laughable that it's not even racist, since he makes no attempt at an accent or any of the stereotypical mannerisms really. Shir Sean was a good Bond, but never a good actor.

I used to rate YOLT as among the best Bonds, but to be honest it's really the one where the series jumped the shark, with the crazy villain's lair and all the other stuff that's become so much of the clichéd 'Bond movie' that now I'm not sure...

I've never liked it, and that's largely down to Connery's ridiculous Japanese disguise, those scenes made me cringe when I first saw the film, and they still do.  I think the supporting cast is fairly boring too, and although people always go on about Roald Dahl's involvement in the script it's no better than any other '60s Bond film.

Kittyfrisk

When I was at school in the dark ages, in music lessons we were often obliged to sing 'hearty' stirring songs like 'The British Grenadiers' & others such as the traditional sea shanty “Johnny Come Down To Hilo".
 Even then, aged 14-15, we knew what was cringeworthy. Sadly the music teacher didn't get it.
No, not ringing any bells?
Try reading the first verse of the lyrics, then have a think about how it would go down at your next traditional family singalong...
https://traditionalshanties.com/2022/09/04/johnny-come-down-to-hilo/

Kurtis

People used to like all sorts of shit 

Kurtis

I remember watching something about the making of the wizard of Oz. 
Apparently they gave all the actors pep pills (speed) during the day for filming then sleeping pills at night, for weeks/months at a time. Some of the makeup used was toxic, highly carcinogenic and left permanent scars.

Nothing to do with anything really, just thought it was a bit mad 

bertie

ICBM said:

Hootsmon said:

The Jungle Book will be up for slaughter soon with the ape jazz musicians

It already is - in fact if I remember rightly it was even criticised for it on release, with King Louie in particular being interpreted as a racist caricature. I

wasnt he meant to represent Cab Calloway ??

EricTheWeary

bertie said:

ICBM said:

Hootsmon said:

The Jungle Book will be up for slaughter soon with the ape jazz musicians

It already is - in fact if I remember rightly it was even criticised for it on release, with King Louie in particular being interpreted as a racist caricature. I

wasnt he meant to represent Cab Calloway ??

No…

EricTheWeary said:

IIRC King Louie was supposed to have been voiced by Louis Armstrong but in a rare moment of awareness Disney realised that portraying a black man as an ape might not go down well. So the character was voiced by Louis Prima instead. Unfortunately Prima's Italian American accent sounds like someone caricaturing African Americans to many ears. 

english_bob

ICBM said:

Cols said:

And of course, the lighthearted 1975 Disney comedy One Of Our Dinosaurs is missing, which features Peter Ustinov as a Chinese spy in what would be regarded now as a hugely offensive racial caricature.

I'd forgotten all about that! I saw it as a child, but I don't think it's even crossed my mind in the last forty years.

It may well be reclassified at some point - I doubt they can do all of them at once.

The ones they've done so far have been the ones they've re-released I think. They may want to forget about some of their back catalogue.

darthed1981

ICBM said:

And of course, the lighthearted 1975 Disney comedy One Of Our Dinosaurs is missing, which features Peter Ustinov as a Chinese spy in what would be regarded now as a hugely offensive racial caricature.

I'd forgotten all about that! I saw it as a child, but I don't think it's even crossed my mind in the last forty years.

It may well be reclassified at some point - I doubt they can do all of them at once.

It's conspicuously absent from Disney Plus...

It was never that good and it's incredibly racist, might be for the best...