At what age do you let your kids watch a movie where somebody’s heart gets ripped out of their chest?
I remember when Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom came out, rated PG and showed a scene that caused such an uproar the PG-13 rating was created. Essentially it was the scene where the shaman villain reaches in to a victims chest during a ceremony and pulls out the still beating heart. It’s not overly gory, but it’s certainly not something little kids should be watching.
Flash forward almost 20 years. I’m sitting on the couch to watch Wreck-It Ralph with three of my kids, ages 5, 7 and 9. It’s rated PG for “some rude humor and mild action/violence” (a couple of poop jokes and military video game characters shooting a swarm of bugs are examples). Early on in the film, in a key scene, where various video game bad guys are gathered into a support group, in order to emphasize a point, one of the bad guys reaches over and pulls out the heart of the zombie character sitting next to Ralph. As if this weren’t disturbing enough, you can see a couple of spurts of blood.
This scene was not only unnecessary, had it been clipped, the film would have been none the lesser for it. And since when is ripping the heart out of somebody considered mild violence? Sure, it’s an undead character, but the act of reaching in and ripping out the heart is anything but mild. Top that off with a couple spurts of blood, and this feels like a clip from an R rated film, not from PG rated family fare.
Wreck-It Ralph isn’t a bad film, and other than this one shot, it’s actually a great film for families. My kids loved the movie, and the lesson of being more than what people perceive you to be is important.
But one of the lasting images was that scene with the heart. My 9 year old was creeped out by it. My 5 year old turned away and doesn’t ever want to watch that scene again.
Am I being overly sensitive? It’s just a cartoon, after all.
I don’t think so. The character that rips the heart out is Kano, a cyborg from Mortal Kombat, a video game known for its gore and violence. It’s pretty safe to assume most parents won’t let their young kids play that game. “It’s just a game” can be used for justification, and that same justification can be used with Wreck-It Ralph. Sure, it’s “just a movie” and “just a cartoon” or whatever” but the act of ripping somebody’s heart out, even if they are a zombie, is not mild.
If any other studio had released the film, I think the scene would have been trimmed in order to receive a PG rating. Because it is a Disney release, they are given what I see as more leeway because of their perception as “family friendly” – and for the most part this is true.
When I posed the question at the top of this blog post to some colleagues online (fellow dad bloggers) I got a wide range of answers. Some said 5 or 6, some said 10. There was no clear consensus. I never said it was for an animated film, but the general feeling was that it was up to the parents to determine what was appropriate for their child to see.
This is where film ratings come in. To have a consistent expectation of what will be contained in a film is not unrealistic. To have even animated undead hearts being ripped out on screen in front of children may be alright for some parents, but it isn’t a universal truth. This is where parents rely on a film’s ratings to tell us what is in store. This highlights a larger problem with the inconsistency of film ratings. We expect a certain amount of some violence and conflict in a PG movie. There was such an outcry over Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, I just never expected to see any sort of similar scene again in a PG film.
Wreck-It Ralph is still a great film. This scene, however, is a major blemish on its greatness. Wreck-It Ralph would have been better off without having a character rip out the heart of another. Watch Wreck-It Ralph with your kids. Talk to them about what is and isn’t appropriate. I was shocked to see this happen in a PG film, and it makes me wonder where the next line is that will be crossed.