MovieChat Forums > Taiyô no ko Esuteban (1986) Discussion > Warnings on DVD Boxset

Warnings on DVD Boxset

posted 16 years ago by plastic_sword
18 replies | jump to latest

Hey everyone :)

I got my UK Mysterious Cities of Gold DVD box set a few days ago and the warnings next to the censorship rating are very interesting. I can't recall exactly the phrases used, but it went something like this:

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WARNING - PG

Contains scenes of natural nudity, characters in danger, mild threats, scenes of a live bull fight, chicken killing...etc etc.

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My first reaction was to BURST out laughing. What struck me was how pathetic the media have become since the 80s to have to write this. In only 2 decades, we feel the need to warn parents that their children are about to see natural nudity. So Esteban and Tao go for a skinny dip in a mountain lake...so what? Why the warning? What is actually *wrong* with that scene? It was completely natural and non-sexual.

And as for the danger element - this is why most of us fans love the series so much: realism and danger where neccessary. It definitely gets scary watching certain scenes, the Jade Mask scene always makes me a little anxious, and the Urubu's chasing the characters through the mountains scares me to this day. I'm sure we can think of a bazillion other scenes that scared us as children, but also as adults. BUT while I think it is not excessive danger and morbidity and violence, it is plenty compared to today's tame standards*, so it does warrant a warning. I don't even think any blood is shown in the cartoon...?? Is this correct, I remember the editors having to remove a certain bloody scene where the Olmec flying machine's laser kills a few soldiers? So it could've been worse. ;)

Anyway...it just makes me laugh how much times have changed. The nudity thing is a joke IMO. The rest is justified.

What are everyone elses opinions on this? If anyone has the boxset to hand maybe they can provide us with the full version of the warnings.

:)

*By the way, I have not seen modern children's TV for a few years now so I could be very wrong about this.

[–] craig-353 16 years ago

I never even noticed the rating until I read this post. I agree with you. Its laughable how worked up the censors get these days. Especially over such a harmless scene.

Personally I would have still got the box set even if it had come with a cancer warning on it! I've been waiting a long long time for it! :D

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] paulparker77 16 years ago

It made me chuckle too but the extra guidance notes are really referring to the content in the documentaries as opposed to the cartoon itself. I mean in one of them you see a women pinned down by men and she is struggling frantically. I know what you are saying about everything becoming more and more sanitised but in this case I think the extra warning is justified.

[–] LuisaGallo 16 years ago

I agree the bathing scene is totally innocent, and should be treated as such!!
I don't know why they included a scene of the boys semi-clothed but you can see they are just kids, they have no muscles and I cannot imagine anyone seeing it a sexual!!!!!!

[–] plastic_sword 16 years ago

I have just realised this (re: documentary) - I think you are right. I never saw the documentaries as a child. Either they were not broadcast during the years I watched the show or I would, after being heavily inspired by an exciting episode, run outside to play.

I am currently upto the episode 'The Ship Solaris' and am watching the documentaries as I go along. I have noticed the woman being pinned down, presumably to be decapitated as a sacrifice. Eep!

Now I am wondering, is the 'natural nudity' referring to a documentary? Perhaps they feature an indigenous tribe who wear little or no clothing?

[–] skutt 16 years ago

Documentary number 21, and Documentary 39 contain scenes of natives who live along the amazon. They contain the "natural nudity"

[–] plastic_sword 16 years ago

It all makes perfect sense now. I am seeing these documentaries for the first time... :-/

[–] dsb-6 16 years ago

from memory, the documentaries feature real animal slaughter too - which surprised me at the time.

[–] m_andre_gelinas 16 years ago

I think the warning is because of the litle documentary after each episode... where you can see REAL person and REAL animal. It's not for the cartoon!

[–] henstoat 16 years ago

Does seem to refer to the live action documentaries.

Still, I don't see what problem people have with these sorts of warnings. It's a compromise, since so many parents are terrified of their children being exposed to immorality and go around blaming cartoons, games et cetera on increasing violence in society. I'd rather have warnings on all DVD cases than a crusade from conservative lobbyists that results in mass censorship. This way it's the responsibility of the buyer to judge for themselves - they can't complain of being tricked, or of their children being 'exposed' to terrible things without their say-so.

[–] Ranger16 16 years ago

I actually think the chicken sacrifice is quite graphic:

You see the chicken being held in place as the blade is brought down - the next second it's flapping about, apparently headless. You'd see this if it was paused!

And the narrator hopes that the human children featured in the doc will have a good meal! I always thought that was a bit off!

[–] union_jak 16 years ago

I never like seeing chickens get decapitated, yet so many documentaries think this is happily accepted by the viewer.

The scene on the MCoG doc was a bit much, but if it wasn't a problem in the 80s, it shouldn't be now. I thought kids today are meant to be desensitive to all that anyway?

[–] sekhmet_lion 16 years ago

I think it's nice that they finally warn of animal violence. I'm strange I'll admit. I'm happy to watch a horror or such film where the humans are chopped up and such but when it comes to seeing an animal hurt, even an obviously cgi animal, I get squeamish.
But a PG warning for the documentaries aren't so bad, there are a lot of "prudish" people out there still, and a warning is fair. Although it could be made clearer that the warning is for the 'special features' and not the cartoon.

[–] Sly-Norton 16 years ago

I've not got that far into the box set yet but I remember there was a scene where the Olmecs were trying to get Esteban to grant them access to the City of Gold by torturing Tao dangling him from their flying machine and smashing him repeatedly into a cliff face which I thought was maybe a bit much for some younger viewers...

[–] TaoFan72 16 years ago

SlyNorton, first of all it's doubtful that Tao would've survived that, and if he did he'd at the very very least have cuts and bruises, but no, nothing. The cartoon is tame in its depiction of injuries, in fact there practically ARE no injuries shown.

[–] Sly-Norton 16 years ago

TOTALLY UNREALISTIC! I'm sending it BACK!

[–] o_th_fret_o 16 years ago

PG is perfect they did a great job with rating this.
The documenateries have nudity, you can even see a chicken get its head cut off! well you see it flail around headless, but that's pretty sick. The whole series is pretty dark its not meant for the Disneys Bambi audience.

[–] yourauntgussie 8 years ago

I'm so, so tickled to find The Mysterious Cities of Gold is now considered a classic. I stumbled across it in the summer of 1986, and every weekday thereafter, nearly broke my silly *neck* in order to be home at air time. I was far too poor to afford a VCR.

Don't know what the "Parental Warning" looks like on the U.S. version (I, too, hate it when U.S. citizens use the term "Americans" as though Brazilians, Canadians, Salvadorans, etc. don't live in the Americas), but I'll find out when I receive my version, but I agree with you 100%.

We Westerners -- and we USish (Better that USians -- too close to Russians) in particular -- are soooo freakin' weird about nudity. Check out the message boards for the Miyazaki classic, My Neighbor Totoro to find a thread from some hysterical person who was *mortified* at the scene where a Japanese father is in a Japanese bathtub with his two young (approx. 7 & 4 years old), equally Japanese daughters. All of 'em are starkers. (The mother, incidentally, was confined to a hospital, recovering from some unspecified respiratory disease.)

That's the way Japanese families bathe, folks! There's nothing even *vaguely* erotic about it, let alone incestuous! Gracious, but we USish are ignorant about other cultures. It's embarrassing.

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