60 years after its release, Mary Poppins is no longer a film for all audiences due to its discriminatory language – Cinema News

The UK has changed the age recommendation for the classic Walt Disney film.

Although the usefulness of these scales is, at best, questionable, it is curious that it was decided to change the age rating of a film 60 years after its release: the British BBFG committee decided that Mary Poppins will no longer be classified as “for all ages.”

If Walt Disney rose from the grave, he would probably turn up his nose when he found out the news. The decision was made by the BBFG (British Board of Film Classification), the organization responsible for classifying audiovisual content created in the United Kingdom.

The BBFG decided to change the age recommendation of the film, which until now was U (like our Free, meaning it contains nothing harmful or offensive), to PG (recommended for viewing with some parental guidance) due to the use of “discriminatory language”.

Discriminatory Language in Mary Poppins

Specifically, they refer to the word Hottentota pejorative term used by Dutch colonizers to mock the Khoikhoi, an ethnic group formed by the first inhabitants of southern Africa, and later used to refer to black people in general.

In the film, Admiral Boom uses this word on two occasions: in a scene where he asks Michael about his plans (“Are you going to fight the Hottentots or look for hidden treasure?”) and in the sequence where he observes the number of chimney sweeps and believes they are a threat (“The Hottentots are going to attack us! Let’s give those devils their due”).

This is a rating that only affects the theatrical version, while the home version of the film is still classified as free. Therefore, except for those British families who make a point of checking the BBFG rating, it does not affect the film in any other way outside of that scope.

Interestingly, this isn’t the only classic film that lost its “for all ages” rating. This also happened with others, such as A Big Adventure, the 1978 animated film, which was upgraded to PG due to the violence of some of its scenes, or even Star Trek: The Movie.

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