Should be PG?

I personally feel this is a "G" rated movie (meant for general audiences) in every sense of the word.

When it came out, Disney was producing the major "G" rated movies which were a classic case of "garbage in, garbage out". They should have been rated "C" for child audiences and young children at that. The "G" rating became something to avoid - a classic case was the Star Wars movie which added the cutting-the-alien's-arm-off-in-the-bar scene to get the more popular rating of PG!.

The Black Stallion was released with a "G" rating, though. Whether it helped or hurt the movie I do not know, suffice to say the movie became a legend. It showed Disney a "G" rated movie did not have to be bland or sugary sweet. Evenutally, in 1984, Michael Eisner took over Disney and adopted a real world approach to the Disney movies. The end result was megasuccessful Disney movies!

The "G" in the G rating stands for "General Audiences". That means any age can be admitted. Generally, scenes that might frighten children are usually short and are followed up by some sort of "rescue". Deaths are normally off screen and not explicitly made clear. Instead, they're usually performed as a "this character doesn't return later" plot line - possibly with some mention that the character died.

"PG" suggests Parental Guidance (or some other adult). This comes into play where there is mild violence, such as fighting or gun play or even an onscreen death. Also, there may be some coarse language. So, that's why kids movies like "The Goonies", "D.A.R.Y.L." or "Cloak and Dagger" get a PG rating. All of those contain gun play and character deaths and "The Goonies" contains some course language.

"PG-13" came about as a result of controversy over "The Temple of Doom" and Gremlins, which had too much violence for children, but contained no major nudity or excess profanity, mainly "the F word". The official explanation of PG-13 is "Parents re strongly cautioned - may contain material not suitable for children under 13". This resulted in "Adventures in Babysitting" getting a PG-13 rating when it would have fallen under the "PG" rating just a few years earlier, despite the course language. However, some of the course language is sexual in nature, which automatically puts it in PG-13 territory.

So, the lack of sexual content, extreme violence, nudity or profanity of a sexual nature keeps it below PG-13. It jumps below PG and gets a G rating for the lack of profanity of any type or violence. In other words, the content is on par with any Disney animated movie, which usually contains characters in peril, words considered "impolite" or scary villains.

I saw this when I was 7. I didn't understand it all but I thought it was mesmerizing, especially the scenes on the island. I didn't think it was really a kids movie but I wasn't scared and never felt like "I shouldn't be watching this." I don't have a problem with the G rating.

I also saw The Black Hole in the theater and remember all the hoopla over it being the first PG Disney. At the time I thought it was because they said "hell" in it. Looking back, I realize that it was a pretty scary movie, though I don't remember being scared. Of course, more I just think of that movie as having a stupid plot and horrible graphics.