# Getting Crap Past The Radar - in G Rated Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 11, 2014, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302 "2014-08-11T14:31:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/81 "2014-08-15T03:35:40Z")
This is pretty tame, but I was amused by the sequence in _The Little Mermaid_ where Ariel, just having been turned human, asks Scuttle if he notices anything different about her, and he says, “New… seashells?” and glances down at her cleavage. (I could also swear, though, that, in the sequence in which Ariel gets her legs, there’s a single frame of full frontal nudity just as she flashes off the screen.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/82 "2014-08-15T04:53:51Z")
> [@from\_a\_to\_z](#): > > I remember that joke being used only once in the movie. See the “It Must Be June” rehearsal, when each chorus boy has a girl sitting on his lap, at 17:57 for the Region 1 DVD: > > Both [IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024034/) and the DVD itself have **42 Street** as Not Rated, and it’s full of wild situations and lines. For example, on stage during a cattle call as Dick Powell walks by with Ruby Keeler: > Someone is welcome to explain why 42nd Street is Not Rated, but [Casablanca](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/) 9 years later is rated PG. The movies were effectively meant to be seen by anyone after they cracked down. It’s true that now people are putting PG ratings and otherwise on films, for reasons not at all clear to me. But the sense was that everything ought to be viewable by anyone (with occasional cautions on things like that shocking “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” in Gone With The Wind), but, for practical purposes, things were meant to be viewable by anyone – there were no restrictions on them, as there were in other countries, or as there would be after the introduction of the “GMRX” ratings. I have a picture of a promotion for **The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms** when it first showed in Britain. You can clearly see that it has a “Certificate X” seal on it. That meant it could only be viewed by adults. It’s a film today shown at all hours on TV, and which I grew up on in the 1960s. The idea that it’s for adults only seems laughable now (and shows you that, at its inception, even the US version of “X” didn’t mean that the film only contained hardcore porn), and I suspect it was laughable in the US when the film first came out. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/83 "2014-08-15T05:28:51Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > This is pretty tame, but I was amused by the sequence in _The Little Mermaid_ where Ariel, just having been turned human, asks Scuttle if he notices anything different about her, and he says, “New… seashells?” and glances down at her cleavage. Cleavage, heck! She’s butt-nekkid from the brassiere down! He sees things that Playboy Magazine didn’t show for decades! > [@](#): > > (I could also swear, though, that, in the sequence in which Ariel gets her legs, there’s a single frame of full frontal nudity just as she flashes off the screen.) It’s small, remote, kind of abstract, and I don’t know if you see anything from the front. I remember it only being a side view. You can see her hips, and a little tuchis, but that’s it. It’s kind of monochromatic, indicating that the water is no longer crystal clear to her, now that the sea is not her home. ---
**Author:** ![from\_a\_to\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@from\_a\_to\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/from_a_to_z)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/84 "2014-08-15T08:35:09Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I have a picture of a promotion for **The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms** when it first showed in Britain. You can clearly see that it has a “Certificate X” seal on it. That meant it could only be viewed by adults. It’s a film today shown at all hours on TV, and which I grew up on in the 1960s… Per the British Board of Film Classification’s history of the 1950s [here](http://www.bbfc.co.uk/education-resources/student-guide/bbfc-history/1950s), also see wikipedia [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_British_film_certificates#1951.E2.80.931970), the X category excluded children under 16. X films included [**Rebel Without A Cause**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048545/), 1955, and [**Blackboard Jungle**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047885/), 1955: “A series of negotiations then began, resulting in substantial cuts for an X certificate.” I would guess that [**Beast**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045546/) was X for violence, or perhaps from a successful attempt of the exhibitors to imply inter-species involvement. (Looking up at post #83 makes me think of [**Miranda**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040597/). Alas, BBFC’s 1912-1949 section doesn’t mention her. But I’d like to be involved with even a U-rated Glynis Johns.) ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/85 "2014-08-15T14:39:54Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > One of my favorites of this was an insanely filthy joke in the animated film [Flushed Away](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424095/reference): > > \*It’s just that curry you had last night, Spike. I’m the same, I’ve got a bum like the Japanese flag. \* > > Although, upon checking, it’s PG. Insanely filthy? Bum like the Japanese flag? Not in Britain, mate. Over here that is just a toned-down version of the “Arsehole like a cherry tomato” comment made about the after-effects of a really naff but hot curry.😃 But then that kind of humour is a Brit thing, I think. Like the {in}famous “Kiss my arrr… tichoke!” line in Curse of the Wererabbit. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/86 "2014-08-15T16:37:44Z")
> [@](#): > > I would guess that Beast was X for violence, or perhaps from a successful attempt of the exhibitors to imply inter-species involvement. You’re joking (I hope…), and the “violence” part undoubtedly covers it, but it’s still hard to believe – there’s no blood (except Rhedosaurus blood, and that’s _essential to the plot_.) . There are a lot of crushed buildings and cars. Aside from mpeople who are in danger of immedialty being crushed by falling stuff (and their demise is never shown), the only human injury you see is a New York cop who gets picked up by the torso and gulped down. Harryhausen himself couldn’t understand objections to that, saying that today “you’d see intestines hanging out”. This was less traumatic, everything considered, than the similar demise of the lawyer in _Jurassic Park_. ---
**Author:** ![from\_a\_to\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@from\_a\_to\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/from_a_to_z)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/87 "2014-08-15T23:09:19Z")
According to the British Film Institute here, [http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/comment/obituaries/mighty-ray-harryhausen](http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/comment/obituaries/mighty-ray-harryhausen), in a 2014 article by Michael Brooke, > [@](#): > > Harryhausen devised a three-plane technique whereby the animated creature was effectively “sandwiched” between live-action background and foreground plates (the latter superimposed via mattes), thus allowing people to flee in whatever direction was available. This created what was then an unprecedented degree of realism, so much so that a nervous BBFC gave it one of their newly-introduced X certificates on its original British release, although this has since been substantially downgraded. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/88 "2014-08-16T00:07:42Z")
> [@from\_a\_to\_z](#): > > According to the British Film Institute here, [http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/comment/obituaries/mighty-ray-harryhausen](http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/comment/obituaries/mighty-ray-harryhausen), in a 2014 article by Michael Brooke, Very interesting. Harryhausen’s “Reality Sandwich” was what his advertising later called Dynamation or Dynarama. He did it originally because he didn’t have the staff or the money or the time to construct elaborate miniature sets with glass paintings and forced perspective (like they used in _King Kong_). With his technique – first used in _Beast from 20,000 Fathomsd_ – he could use real-life locations and simply “drop” his creations into the middle o0f them. It was a revolution in special effects, and adopted eventually by others. But this is the first I’d heard that it was responsible for his British Certificate “X”. ---
**Author:** ![Sodalite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@Sodalite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sodalite)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/89 "2014-08-17T10:13:35Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > More obligatory: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbg0ycJGAa0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbg0ycJGAa0) > > Guess they forgot about Daisy. Disney characters with no pants? Forget sneaking it in, they wrote a song about it. [The No Pants Dance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtG3ayixcwU) You’re welcome. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/90 "2014-08-17T15:51:34Z")
Flipping through the channels today I paused on Madagascar - the scene where they land on the beach. I’ve seen this at least five times before (and been in the room while it played about 30 times) but I never noticed before. At about 1:10: :eek:..:eek:..:eek:..:eek:..:eek:..:eek:..:eek: Holy Moly!!! ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/91 "2014-08-17T21:24:15Z")
> [@simster](#): > > what the holy hell is that? A beloved part of many a British childhood. Mr Boods has a Clangers Snakes/Chutes and Ladders board game. He brought it out on the second date. Created by the same bod behind Bagpuss. > **[Clangers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clangers)** > > Clangers (usually referred to as The Clangers) is a British stop-motion animated children's television series, consisting of short films about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon-like planet. They speak only in a whistled language, and eat green soup (supplied by the Soup Dragon) and blue string pudding. The programmes were originally broadcast on BBC1 between 1969 and 1972, followed by a special episode which was broadcast in 1974. > The series was made by Sm... ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/92 "2014-08-18T05:30:12Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Holy Moly!!! The hippo with the starfish and crab? ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/93 "2014-08-19T14:00:04Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > The hippo with the starfish and crab? I think he meant the lion getting whacked in the balls. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/94 "2014-08-19T15:03:04Z")
Not a movie, but I still remember from my childhood [the No Bikini Atoll.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88QOmxSa-IE) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/95 "2014-08-19T15:22:50Z")
> [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](#): > > I think he meant the lion getting whacked in the balls. No definitely the starfish and crab. “Alrighty boys, fun’s over.” Filth! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/96 "2014-08-19T17:39:38Z")
I think it’s that, and the fact that it’s specifically a crab in the nether regions. “You can catch crabs at the beach. Both kinds.”. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/97 "2014-08-19T18:53:52Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > Erection visualizations and metaphors are commonplace. Sometimes it’s defensible, like if an entire character is standing tall and proud, or then they get depressed and go limp like someone let the air out of their tires, but sometimes it’s way too blatant. Probably the most famous is [Buzz Lightyear’s wingboner.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLWJCqn0hl0) And from the series that inspired the term “wingboner”, we have an episode in which a unicorn has [horn issues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dh1kftvMGE). Later in the same episode, a character who already shares a name with an alcoholic beverage–“Applejack”–gets stuck with another for a nickname, “Appleteeny” (pronounced, of course, like “appletini”). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/98 "2014-08-19T19:12:15Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Not a movie, but I still remember from my childhood [the No Bikini Atoll.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88QOmxSa-IE) Sounds like a ripoff of Crusader Rabbit’s earlier “Nothing Atoll”. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/99 "2014-08-19T19:21:15Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > The hippo with the starfish and crab? Of course! Seriously? They come out of the box attached to her breasts and genitals. She says “Ok boys, fun time is over!” and they pop off and scuttle back into the sea. Which part of this is confusing? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302/100 "2014-08-19T20:40:48Z")
Oh, wait, you were interpreting the “OK boys” line to be addressed to the crab and starfishes? That honestly didn’t occur to me at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-crap-past-the-radar-in-g-rated-movies/695302.md?page=6)