ratings ramblings
We recently got Sesame Street: Old School for Otto (I believe I've ranted at length in the past on the absolute garbage being produced under that show's name these days), and we sat down to watch the first episode last night. To my surprise and disappointment, the episode begins with a warning from a cartoon character that the show "is intended for nostalgic adults, and not for today's preschool children". What?
We watched the episode trying to figure out what they could be warning us against. It did contain one segment of kids playing "around, through and over" in what looks like an abandoned construction site, which is clearly unsafe by today's standards (but looks like so much fun to me, but hey, I grew up with Adventure Playground which is the next best thing), but the rest of the show seemed fine. Of course, that is to my eyes. Watching and pretending I'm an overprotective parent who wants my child to live in an (Elmo-filled?) bubble, I'm guessing the warning is also there for such shocking and inappropriate content as a one-second shot of kids rollerskating with no pads/helmets, Susan's offer of (gasp!) cookies as an afternoon snack, and Gordon's comfortable (yet possibly a little too physical?) rapport with the kids.
Afterwards, we watched the extras on the Wizards DVD, including an interview with Ralph Bakshi where he keeps calling it "a kids' film". Woah. I'm absolutely going to let Otto watch it when I think he's old enough to understand it, but let's face it, it's a story about a post-(nuclear)apocalyptic magic society with no technology, and a bad wizard who finds old technology and Nazi propaganda and puts it to use, projecting Blitzkrieg footage in the sky while his army is attacking. Imagine my shock at learning that Wizards is rated PG. Which is what it should be rated in my opinion (for kids, but hey parents, you should watch it with them and explain the heavy stuff), but I don't usually agree with the MPAA on this stuff. I mean, The Blues Brothers is rated R (I'm never going to understand that one).
I'm not being as articulate as I'd like, but I feel like this is all related to the Savage Love thing I was writing about the other day, as well as so much of What is Wrong With Society (tm). I don't know where I'm going with this, but I find it all incredibly frustrating. I think it is important to present things to kids in a way they can understand/handle, but the world exists, and they live in it, so sheltering them from anything that could be considered inappropriate is just wrong. And kids are a hell of a lot smarter/savvy than most people give them credit for, and they find out about this stuff anyhow.
We watched the episode trying to figure out what they could be warning us against. It did contain one segment of kids playing "around, through and over" in what looks like an abandoned construction site, which is clearly unsafe by today's standards (but looks like so much fun to me, but hey, I grew up with Adventure Playground which is the next best thing), but the rest of the show seemed fine. Of course, that is to my eyes. Watching and pretending I'm an overprotective parent who wants my child to live in an (Elmo-filled?) bubble, I'm guessing the warning is also there for such shocking and inappropriate content as a one-second shot of kids rollerskating with no pads/helmets, Susan's offer of (gasp!) cookies as an afternoon snack, and Gordon's comfortable (yet possibly a little too physical?) rapport with the kids.
Afterwards, we watched the extras on the Wizards DVD, including an interview with Ralph Bakshi where he keeps calling it "a kids' film". Woah. I'm absolutely going to let Otto watch it when I think he's old enough to understand it, but let's face it, it's a story about a post-(nuclear)apocalyptic magic society with no technology, and a bad wizard who finds old technology and Nazi propaganda and puts it to use, projecting Blitzkrieg footage in the sky while his army is attacking. Imagine my shock at learning that Wizards is rated PG. Which is what it should be rated in my opinion (for kids, but hey parents, you should watch it with them and explain the heavy stuff), but I don't usually agree with the MPAA on this stuff. I mean, The Blues Brothers is rated R (I'm never going to understand that one).
I'm not being as articulate as I'd like, but I feel like this is all related to the Savage Love thing I was writing about the other day, as well as so much of What is Wrong With Society (tm). I don't know where I'm going with this, but I find it all incredibly frustrating. I think it is important to present things to kids in a way they can understand/handle, but the world exists, and they live in it, so sheltering them from anything that could be considered inappropriate is just wrong. And kids are a hell of a lot smarter/savvy than most people give them credit for, and they find out about this stuff anyhow.