The Rationale of Movie Trailers
June 15th, 2008 | by Scott |So, we took our girls to see Kung Fu Panda (yawn) this evening. Kung Fu Panda is a PG rated movie geared toward children and families. Therefore, we went in with a certain expectation of family oriented affair.
Now, I’m not one that is overly uptight about things but there were two trailers preceding the movie that left us cringing and hoping that our girls wouldn’t pick up one.
The first trailer was for “Hancock” and was completely inappropriate for a children’s movie:
The other was for “The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants 2.” We knew we were in for it when the green bar said the film was rated PG-13 for “mature material and sensuality.”
Is it just me or are both of these trailers completely out of place before an animated feature film? I don’t have a problem with either movie or its subject matter, but not before a movie about a Panda. It really left a bad taste in our mouths.
6 Responses to “The Rationale of Movie Trailers”
By Sunny on Jun 15, 2008 | Reply
Wow! I’m really shocked that they would show those types of previews before a children’s movie. Personally, I don’t think that previews that are rated higher than the actual movie should be played.
By justin on Jun 16, 2008 | Reply
Those were not the trailers we saw before KFP. We saw the trailer for Wall-e and I don’t remember what else.
By Travis on Jun 16, 2008 | Reply
Prude.
By Scott on Jun 16, 2008 | Reply
Sunny, my experience has been that there is an equivalency in ratings. I was stunned by the inclusion of those two.
The theaters in our town are notorious for having about 15 minutes of trailers before every movie, even in matinees. I guess that puts them beyond the number of acceptable G and PG movies they can show the trailers for.
By len on Jun 16, 2008 | Reply
I have no problem with either movie, but agree that these trailers shouldn’t have been shown before a “kids” movie. I especially don’t like the trend of generally accepted curse words being used in movie previews, and even in some commercials on TV.
By Jim MacKenzie on Jun 16, 2008 | Reply
Scott, we’ve been complaining about this for about 10 years with no response from the movie industry. It’s stinks.
The closest we got to an explanation came from a theater manager who said he would take note of it and do his own splicing of previews from now on. He said he had the leeway and ability to do it. Having said that, it is interesting your theater showed different previews than mine. I took Keeley last weekend and they didn’t show either of those previews. All of ours were PG. Maybe the manager needs to be encouraged.