MovieChat Forums > Walking with Beasts (2001) Discussion > 'Many scenes of gore and sex have been r...

'Many scenes of gore and sex have been removed'?

posted 17 years ago by Leda74
7 replies | jump to latest

The title is a direct quotation from the Alternate Versions section, detailing the way the American market handled this series.

I don't know whether to be amused or depressed at this, and for the moment I'm suffering an uneasy blend of both.

What on earth is wrong with a culture where not only do people feel the need to pretend that human beings don't have sex, but that no other species does so either? I'd just like someone - anyone - passing to reassure me that America's attitude to sex has not in fact become so eccentric as to consider a scene of two CGI Australopithecus mating as some kind of highly depraved porn

[–] Vihktor-24 17 years ago

These series were heavily edited in the US version, with most of the editing being absolutely unnecessary and... well, ridiculous. While I kind of understand the need for a new narration (even if the shows suffer a loss of scientific terms) I just can't comprehend how the HELL they figured that mating scenes in a documentary should be censored.I mean, television broadcasts shows and commercials with sexual content all day long, and it's a documentary with CG animals that gets censored... WTH? Of course, I don't live in the US, but I have enough knowledge of American television to know what I'm babbling about.

Anyhow, I don't know how they figured the gory and sex scenes would be of bad nature to the young viewer's (or anyone's, for that matter) minds and would affect them in some way. Heck, where I live, a re-dubbed non-edited version of Walking with Beasts aired right after some Saturday morning cartoons (rated 12, though). None of the shows contents were considered un-family-friendly here.

[–] Leda74 17 years ago

I don't know how they figured the gory and sex scenes would be of bad nature to the young viewer's (or anyone's, for that matter) minds and would affect them in some way.

I can only surmise that whoever made this decision not only has no children of their own, but has never even had any contact with children. I'm sure any parent will tell you that Junior's innocence on the subject of sex is gone for good after that first magical trip to the zoo...!

[–] SilverStarKat 16 years ago

As an American all I can say is right on. I think I have seen more suggestive themes and violence in commercials then on prime time tv shows.

[–] userwithnoname 17 years ago

Interesting thing about that scene is that it makes the claim that sex is an apeman's favourite pastime. Speculative but probable. Human's are very sexual animals. Why else would the the world's pornographic industries become so rich and profitable? And yet modern societies feel the need to censor these scenes...

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] feelingchimpy 10 years ago

I've seen the UK version and the US version and I don't remember any scenes of blood & gore being edited out, but the mating scenes were all censored (reproductive organs that were visible in the UK version were left out altogether of the US version) and the scene of the Australopithecus mating was taken out of the US version altogether. On my UK DVD copy none of the mating sequences are censored, except for the Australopithecus, which become pixelated beyond recognition when they start mating.

I know parents that let their children watch human sex scenes in movies but made their kids cover their eyes when the mating sequences were shown on Walking With Beasts. It doesn't make much sense to me, but what can ya do?

[–] JurijFedorov 9 years ago

The US Netflix version shows it all. Fantastic documentary.