A Christian Look at the MPAA
How Shrek 3 is Bad for Everyone
The entertainment industry has been the bane of much debate in recent years. While many families feel that movies should be monitored before their children view, others allow their children to dive right into Hollywood's bottomless pit of debauchery. So, what exactly constitutes a family friendly movie?
Obviously, as Christians, we want to watch movies that avoid profanity, nudity, and violence. However, these restrictions cannot be enforced upon all families or all movies. So, Hollywood allows the Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA, to put in its two cents, offering a movie rating system which inevitably leaves much to the imagination.
What to Expect
When parents prepare to bring their children to a movie like, Shrek the Third for example, they should be aware of the PG rating given to the movie. Looking at the bigger picture, a rated PG movie is not as bad as a PG-13 or even a rated R movie.
So, a PG movie should be perfect for the family, right? But should there really be entertainment readily available for the whole family? Shrek 3 is just one of many films being billed as 'entertainment for the whole family'. The MPAA says that Shrek 3 gets its PG rating for some crude humor, suggestive content and swashbuckling action (www.mpaa.org). Clearly the institute is labeling the product for what it is, making light of the process. Basically, Shrek is a kid's movie jam packed with profane jokes and adult situations. As Christians struggle for entertainment for their kids, children's movies are the last place to turn.
Adult Discernment
Adults may revel at the chance to watch something entertaining for children, yet stimulating to the adult mind. But this stimulation is not lost on children, however, as they tend to pick up on the exposure to adult themes and content. As a parent, you would not expose your child to adult themes from a rated R movie, yet when PG rated movies use this tactic, parents exploit the adult themes as a get away from the childlike humor. The innocence of children should not be sacrificed for a couple of obscene jokes or relatable situations. The system of rating movies is not completely at fault here. They attempt to label the movies for what they contain. However, the sad truth remains, Hollywood is continuously making and marketing kid's movies with adult themes, hiding them behind non threatening words like PG or confusing ones like swashbuckling action.
Shrek the Third is supposed to be for kids
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