Could there be anything more awkward than sitting down to watch a movie with the whole family and then having to explain to your four-year-old why a mom is trying to hook up with her son? Yeah, these scenes were definitely not meant for kids...
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00:00Could there be anything more awkward than sitting down to watch a movie with the whole
00:04family and then having to explain to your 4-year-old why a mom is trying to hook up
00:09with her son?
00:10Yeah, these scenes were definitely not meant for kids.
00:13Sure, the cast of Ghostbusters was well-known for their work in projects targeted for a
00:17more mature audience, but the film and the ensuing franchise had a lot of appeal for
00:22younger audiences.
00:23The movie certainly didn't appear to think of itself as being solely for little ones,
00:27but since it went on to produce things like an animated series, video games, and toys,
00:32it seemed that the marketing team pushed the film as something for kids to enjoy.
00:36All of this knowledge results in one particular moment raising more than a few eyebrows.
00:40Halfway through the movie, the Ghostbusters business takes off, leading to a montage sequence
00:44of our heroes busting ghosts all over New York City.
00:48In the midst of all this family-friendly feel-good hero success, the film takes the opportunity
00:52to have a beautiful female ghost give Dan Aykroyd's Ray Stantz an extra special reward
00:57for his hard work.
00:58Switch me on.
01:06Yes, it comes via a dream sequence while Ray sleeps, but the unexpected bit of sexy time
01:11definitely elicits a reaction of, wait, what now?
01:15Aykroyd actually defended the scene to Polygon in 2021, saying,
01:18Sexual encounters with spirits are very, very common.
01:21I wish they'd let that scene go a little longer.
01:25Back to the Future is one of the most beloved films of all time, watched the world over
01:29by people of all ages.
01:31It's got everything a viewer would want from a sci-fi movie.
01:34Interesting characters?
01:35Check.
01:36A fun plot revolving around time-traveling in an old car?
01:39Check.
01:40The main character almost hooking up with his mother?
01:42Oh yeah, big check.
01:44A little explanation might be necessary.
01:46After messing up his own timeline in the past, Marty McFly is attempting to get his then-teenaged
01:51parents together at their school's Enchantment Under the Sea dance, but things go awry when
01:55that all-too-familiar movie trope pops up, Mom trying to make a move on her son.
02:00I guess that doesn't make any sense, does it?
02:03Believe me, it makes perfect sense.
02:07The crisis is averted, however, when good old Biff shows up to stop the unholy union
02:11from happening, and forces himself on Marty's mother instead.
02:15His father arrives to confront Biff and stop this second disaster, but his victory didn't
02:19exactly make viewers feel all warm and fuzzy.
02:22Even at the time of the film's release, its incestuous third act was criticized, and the
02:26film almost didn't even get made because of it.
02:29Michael J. Fox himself has retroactively admitted he felt the familial plot point was weird
02:33at the time, though he did get to kiss Lea Thompson, so who knows how much he actually
02:37objected.
02:38If it was released today, Clash of the Titans would almost certainly get slapped with an
02:44But since the 80s were apparently a lot chiller than modern times, and the PG-13 rating wasn't
02:49a thing until 84, the movie gets by with lots of violence and nudity under a PG banner.
02:54If an early scene depicting Perseus being breastfed as a baby didn't make the family
02:58viewing party awkward enough, then the romantic scenes later on between an adult Perseus and
03:03Princess Andromeda probably did the job.
03:05The romance certainly skews a lot more intimate than PG films from today ever get close to,
03:10and film critic Roger Ebert sure seemed like he'd let his kids watch it, writing in his
03:141981 review,
03:15"...Clash of the Titans is a family film.
03:17There's nothing in it that would disturb any but the most impressionable children, and
03:21yet it's not by any means innocuous.
03:24Just goes to show how much times have changed since the early 80s."
03:28Surely there's nothing inappropriate about an animated movie based on a children's book.
03:32Think again.
03:33The Last Unicorn may have bombed at the box office when it originally came out in 1982,
03:38but it garnered praise from critics, with the New York Times writing,
03:41"...children, except perhaps for very small ones, ought to be intrigued by it.
03:45Adults won't be bored."
03:47It's since gained a cult following, but adults hoping for a hit of childhood nostalgia might
03:51be somewhat surprised by one of the scenes in the film.
03:54The Last Unicorn centers on the titular mythical creature discovering she's the last of her
03:58kind and setting off to find others like her.
04:01She's joined by the amateur wizard Shmendrick, who at one point attempts to use his magic
04:05to escape from being tied to a tree, only to cause the tree to come alive and fall in
04:09love with him, and then things get weird.
04:12The animated tree is drawn with two very obvious breasts, and it attempts to keep Shmendrick
04:17around by smothering him in its cleavage.
04:19Shmendrick himself seems uncomfortable with the tree's attempted seduction, though it
04:22can only be speculated how any children watching felt about it.
04:27A Marvel movie, it ain't, 1982's Sheena was based on the comic book Queen of the Jungle,
04:32with Tanya Roberts starring as a woman raised by a remote native tribe.
04:36Roberts was already a well-known actor after having appeared in The Beastmaster and Charlie's
04:40Angels.
04:41She was also a well-known naked person after posing for Playboy.
04:45The powers behind Sheena apparently saw Roberts' willingness to appear nude and decided that
04:49it was just what their PG movie needed.
04:51One scene in particular features a fully bare Sheena bathing in a river, encouraging reporter
04:56Vic Casey to join her.
04:58It's a sexually charged moment between the two, and for what it's worth, struck a nerve
05:02with reviewers at the time.
05:03Roger Ebert apparently thought Clash of the Titans handled PG nudity better.
05:08Good news, we made it out of the 80s!
05:11Bad news, the 90s still had a thing for putting awkward moments in movies targeted for kids
05:15and young adults.
05:17If you watched the 1990 dramedy Mermaids as a kid, you may remember that while the film
05:21touches on sex, it's in the context of a movie exploring the awkwardness of puberty, a subject
05:26that unavoidably will have sexual elements to it.
05:29And hey, there's no nudity, so grab the family and have a movie night!
05:33But re-watching Mermaids with the knowledge of what's acceptable by today's standards
05:36makes this flick a lot more eyebrow-raising.
05:39Mermaids mainly focuses on Winona Ryder as Charlotte, a 15-year-old struggling with her
05:43growing interest in sexuality and her devout obsession with Catholicism.
05:48Charlotte's primary love interest throughout the film is Joe, a — let us check our notes
05:52here — 26-year-old adult man.
05:56Towards the end of Mermaids, Charlotte finally overcomes her fear of sin and has sex with
06:00Joe while her unattended 9-year-old sister nearly drowns in a river.
06:04Take a moment to recover from that sentence if you need it, but know that the film has
06:08its defenders.
06:09In a retrospective review for The Guardian, Nadine J. Cohen defended the film's appropriateness
06:14for children despite the clearly problematic romance between Charlotte and Joe.
06:18Thinking about it now, the fact I saw it as a child raises questions about my parents'
06:22parenting, but it has a PG rating and they're not here to defend themselves, so let's call
06:27it a different time and move on.
06:29The 1990 film Dick Tracy brings in added elements of violence to our list.
06:34It's a lot darker and more mature than you'd expect from a movie based on a newspaper comic
06:38strip, although Roger Ebert called the violence unrealistic in his four-star review.
06:43Violence aside, what Dick Tracy does have is some pretty risque moments courtesy of
06:46the former queen of risque herself, Madonna, who plays nightclub singer Breathless Mahoney.
06:52In one noteworthy scene, Breathless attempts to seduce Dick Tracy in her dressing room,
06:56with the singer appearing in sheer lingerie.
06:58The scene-stealing performance certainly pushes the PG bar, but would you expect any less
07:03from Madonna?
07:04If you stumbled upon Rupert Wainwright's feature-length directorial debut Blank Check while clicking
07:09through Disney+, you, along with many others, probably spotted a moment that rightfully
07:13deserved some online criticism.
07:16The 1994 comedy focuses on an 11-year-old named Preston who is given a blank check by
07:21an escaped convict to keep him quiet after a car crash.
07:24It's a typical Disney movie premise — a young boy becomes an instant millionaire and
07:29spends his money frivolously, and then kisses an adult woman at the end.
07:33Wait, what?
07:35Disguising himself as a billionaire, Preston attracts the attention of Shea Stanley, a
07:39bank teller played by the adult Karen Duffy.
07:42At the end of the film, Shea promises to let Preston take her on a date when he's old enough,
07:46and the two share a kiss.
07:48With the film available on the traditionally family-friendly Disney+, Blank Check trended
07:52on Twitter as people had a lot to say about this particularly questionable age-gap romance.
07:57One person who didn't seem to mind the kiss was the 11-year-old actor himself, Brian Bonsal.
08:03Years later, a now-appropriately-aged Bonsal took to Facebook to write,
08:06I had an absolute blast filming this movie.
08:09Everyone was a joy to work with, and it's awesome to see so many people still enjoy
08:13it.
08:14And now we enter the 2000s, an era where the creative minds behind movies had learned their
08:19lessons from the past and... just kidding.
08:21There are still plenty of inappropriate scenes in kids' movies here as well.
08:25DreamWorks' 2000 musical film The Road to El Dorado centers on Miguel and Tulio, two
08:30morally questionable protagonists whose search for El Dorado finds them mistaken by the Lost
08:35City's natives for deities.
08:37And boy, do they ever seem to take advantage.
08:39One scene finds Tulio becoming romantically involved with Chell, a native who wants to
08:43escape El Dorado.
08:45A startled Chell pops into frame as Tulio slowly rises, and their positioning and behavior
08:50sure make it appear as if she's been performing a sexual act on him.
08:54IGN blamed its place in the film as the result of tonal inconsistency, writing,
08:58DreamWorks originally planned to make El Dorado a more serious picture and shoot for a PG-13
09:03rating.
09:04However, this more mature approach was reconsidered, and the decision was made to water down the
09:08movie to prevent the exclusion of the younger audience.
09:12The 2007 animated film Bee Movie stars Jerry Seinfeld as Berry, a bee enamored with the
09:18outside world who forms a bond with a florist, Vanessa, and eventually sues the human race
09:23for bee abuse.
09:24Rewatching the movie provokes many questions from viewers, like, why did Seinfeld want
09:28to make this?
09:29Who decided it should be a courtroom drama?
09:32And most of all, does that lady want to have sex with a bee?
09:35This romantic attraction between Berry and Vanessa is far from subtle.
09:39For what it's worth, Seinfeld has at least acknowledged that the Berry-Vanessa romance
09:43was strange in hindsight.
09:44I apologize for what seems to be a certain uncomfortable, subtle sexual aspect.
09:53Although the earlier Harry Potter films were definitely aimed towards children, the series
09:57got a lot darker as it went on, and at times, awkwardly intimate as well.
10:01Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 finds teenage Harry on a quest with Ron and
10:06Hermione to destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes, which contain parts of the noseless baddie's
10:10soul.
10:11The possession of one such Horcrux, a locket, begins to corrupt Ron, who's becoming increasingly
10:16jealous and paranoid about Harry and Hermione.
10:18At one point, the Horcrux attempts to corrupt him further by showing him a disturbing vision,
10:23first of Harry and Hermione insulting him, then of his two friends in the nude kissing
10:28passionately.
10:38Many fans of the Harry Potter books found this scene unnecessary, given that it doesn't
10:41exist in the original Deathly Hallows book.
10:44And even fans of just the movies might have found it upsetting, since over the course
10:47of the series, they've essentially watched these characters go from little kids to naked
10:51adults.
10:52Quick, someone cast Obliviate!
10:54You need to forget this happened.