Parental guide ratings were always part of the movies and TV series and acted as a “measurement” of who could watch certain content. TV Parental Guidelines were first proposed in the United States in 1996 and became mandatory in 1997. The School for Good and Evil will be released on the 19th of October on Netflix, and people started to wonder about the movie’s rating. This article will discuss if The School for Good and Evil is scary and provide you with our age-rating parent guide.
According to Netflix, The School for Good and Evil movie will be PG-13 – in other words, children younger than 13 years of age are not advised to watch the movie. On the other hand, the source material for the movie, the book series of the same name, parents recommend the books to be for children 11+ years of age – for middle and high schoolers.
We will discuss this topic more by mentioning the movie’s set Parental Rating, speculating if the rating is correct based on the movie trailers and synopsis to today, and comparing it to the book series, which is the source material for the Netflix project. If you are interested in this topic, stay with us until the end of the article.
The School for Good and Evil movie’s official rating
Parental Ratings have been part of entertainment content since the 1990s. The American public was concerned about more explicit sexual content increased during the 1990s, and the United States Congress decided to act and prevent unwanted children’s exposure to adult content.
When it comes to The School for Good and Evil, the Netflix movie is officially set to the PG-13 rating, and this is the official definition and meaning of the rating by the TV Parental Guidelines:
“On the whole, PG-13 movies are considered to be appropriate for older children, but not younger ones. Even in the cases of older children, a parent should consider their own stance towards the themes of the movie before allowing their child to attend.”
In other words, the Parental Guide organization is trying to separate the PG-13 content from others. It distinctly states any movie with drug use, brief nudity, death, some foul words, and ultimately, violence without gore warrants a PG-13 rating. So, why did the organization rate The School for Good and Evil movie like that? The trailers and teasers show an obviously darker tone compared to the source material, which we will discuss later in the article.
All in all, Netflix decided to develop the movie for wider audiences since the fantasy genre usually attracts more age groups. The School for Good and Evil could easily attract young adults and adults, and the seemingly dark tone deals with real-life issues in the fantasy world. The movie has great potential to attract a wider audience if we combine all that with jump scares, mild foul language, violence, and romance that could include brief nudity.
Now, how does the rating fair in The School for Good and Evil book series, and how can it affect the parents and their children? Well, the book series is milder and more dedicated to the children’s book genre. The School for Good and Evil books have romance, battles, and mild violence but are more for children than the movie seemingly strives to be.
The parents rated the book series as appropriate for middle and high schoolers, and it is officially rated as Rated G or suitable for general audiences. Anyone can read the books, and all ages are admitted. With that being said, let’s go through the rating components for parents to decide if The School for Good and Evil is suitable for their children.
The School for Good and Evil: Violence
We cannot determine if The School for Good and Evil is definitely violent from the trailers and teasers, but we can see that there is a usage of magic, at least in the way to hurt other people. Now, there is no gore and explicit presentation of blood and other usual parts of the violence, so Netflix’s movie is definitely trying to show that there is a conflict that includes magic but does not include violent scenes.
When it comes to violence in movies, a PG-13 rating seems to balance the movie content and its potential for uncomfortable scenes. Violence was always a sensitive topic in fictional media. The PG-13 rating looks like a compromise for younger and older audiences and indicates that the movie has at least some aggressive content.
The School for Good and Evil: Language
The language in The School for Good and Evil suggests the characters will have profanity, or the least aggressive sexually-derived words, which will probably come from the older characters in the movie, like Theron’s, Fishbourne’s, and Washington’s characters.
This kind of language is normative in PG-13 movies, but the vocabulary does not include the word “fuck”, which would prompt Netflix to up the parental rating to at least PG-15. Some PG-13 movies had the word “fuck” in their dialogues, but only a few times during their length, which won’t be necessary for The School for Good and Evil.
The School for Good and Evil: Substances
Drug use content moves the movie rating up to PG-13 or more. Since 2007, smoking cigarettes has been included in the PG-13 rating, and some creative workers in the film industry were not happy. The anti-smoking campaign is in full force in the 21st century, so the need to raise movie ratings is not a surprise.
When it comes to The School for Good and Evil, we still do not know if the producers will include the usage of substances in the movie, knowing that the rating is PG-13. We shall wait and see.
The School for Good and Evil: Nudity
Of course, most of the movies have some kind of romantic relationship. The fantasy genre is not different, and the fact that The School for Good and Evil has “True Love’s Kiss” and the characters that are potential love interests of the main characters, at least a brief nudity or suggestion of sexual acts could be hinted in the movie with the PG-13 rating.
Despite the G rating, even the books had kissing scenes, a gay character, and the suggestion of romantic acts in some scenes. Netflix will definitely include more, and in the trailers, we saw Sophie and Agatha interact with male, possible romantic interests.
The School for Good and Evil: Sex
Interestingly enough, The Motion Picture Association film rating system does not have explicit criteria for sexual content, which is surprising. However, if the sexual content exceeds the subtle suggestion criteria and goes on a full brief presentation of the acts and more, the rating goes up automatically.
The PG-13 seems to have suggestions of sexual acts, which is not surprising with the family, and teen movies, like The School for Good and Evil movie.
Is The School for Good and Evil scary and appropriate for children?
There is a reason why Netflix’s movie The School for Good and Evil has a PG-13 rating. The trailers show that the movie is focused on attracting more mature audiences, hence the set rating.
The School for Good and Evil could have scary moments for children younger than eleven, and CGI and the fairytale world can be a bit overwhelming for some kids. Parents do not need to prevent older children from watching the movie because it is essentially a fairytale with a modern spin on things.
The original book series is essentially a children’s franchise, with middle schoolers being the youngest audience, and those kids could definitely watch The School for Good and Evil.
Of course, this is based on Netflix’s trailers, teasers, and promotional content. Before the movie’s release, the final thoughts suggest that The School for Good and Evil will be a family movie focused on 13-year-olds and older audiences. So parents, do not be frightened – the Harry Potter franchise had a similar start.
Other alternatives include parents watching the movie before their children and concluding if it is appropriate. Nevertheless, we cannot wait for the movie to be released and see if Netflix will provide us with PG-13 content. Let’s just hope it’s good.
