Group Admins
Animated films are great. They inspire the youngest of us to reach deep into our imaginations and experience the adventure, the excitement, the passion. Even as we grow older we for some reason stop watching these films. I don’t know why that is.
Maybe it’s because since we grow older, since we grew up watching a film like these, we feel that they may be movies for children. Alternatively, I would wholeheartedly disagree with that idea. Sure these movies contain some “safer” concepts and don’t really show the depravity of man, but I do believe that they touch on very familiar subjects within our family and with our friends.
You have got a rating system in the movies, right? G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17. Anyway, think of the films. Simply because Lord of the Rings was PG-13, did that mean it was necessarily bad for kids to watch? That’s opinionated. Okay, think of a film you like but your kids do not like it while they do not understand it. The themes are over their heads and they do not go for all that characterization. In our movie rating system what would we rate a movie like that? It will not have anything the children shouldn’t be seeing, it’s just that they don’t understand. What do you think MPAA would rate it?
Now with anime it’s the businesses who distribute the anime who rate the see full anime. Their rating system is just a little not the same as the films: They’ll take all factors, not simply sex, violence, nudity, language, etc. but also factor in if younger audiences will be able to understand it. So on the back of an anime the rating could possibly be OT for Older Teens, but really all they did that for was because the story is difficult to understand. Now granted OT can be for the other stuff too, but you need to recognize that they think of everything when they rate.
You could have a G movie that is for little kids, as well as a PG movie that they completely don’t understand. The rating system did not help in this case; you may need to read up on the film so you know what is in it, and that really goes for all entertainment, including anime. You need to read up on something you want to watch, read, listen to. It may be okay; it may not. You cannot expect the rating system to do everything for you, because it will not.
While there are lots of adult oriented anime films, animations that can be produced by Disney or Pixar deal with some very complex themes in a much more subtle and emotional way that many harsh films never touch on because those films focus more on shocking us rather than enlightening us.
There may be no doubt in my mind that if you grew up watching these films like Toy Story, The Lion King, Bambi, and also the likes you were shaped by them dramatically as a child.
Many of the older films helped push the technology in the film industry around the world. It also put a standard on the craft of storytelling that I believe is more rarely achieved in today’s film environment.
