Mild Peril
I gave in and started Ice Age playing for Marco, for about the jillionth time, and noticed that the PG rating was attributed to some ‘mild peril’ in the film. I wonder if there is a ‘hot and spicy peril’ or if they skip right to ‘people die, painfully’.
Turns out, these are known as ‘rating reasons’ and the MPAA Rating Board gets as creative with these as it likes. The first Ice Age may be rated PG for ‘mild peril’ but things get decidedly less dangerous in its follow-up, Ice Age: The Meltdown, which earns a PG for ‘some mild language and innuendo’. Clearly nobody is in danger of life or limb in this sequel.
The third Ice Age movie, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, cranks it back up again with yet another PG rating for ‘some mild rude humor and peril’. The peril is no longer mild, and we’re finally getting the rude humor so lacking in the first two efforts. Only some though and it’s mild. But rude.