Adult themes and PG rating (nothing is sacred)

Rating: 4/10 (4 June 2009)

I'm writing this primarily because of all of the reviews and comments that are playing down what is REALLY in this film with remarks like "the beginning is a little sad" or "it's PG because of some slightly intense chase scenes but it's nothing" - it's not fair to people who are doing their homework and trying to figure out if it's suitable for their young children. I've never before left anything close to a negative review about a Pixar movie. And even now this is not exactly negative, but it's truthful. I think they went a little too far with adult themes in this film, to the point that I will hesitate before rushing out to see another rated PG Pixar movie with my youngest child.
*****SPOILERS BEGIN HERE*****
The movie starts with the old man as a young boy. He meets a girl, they grow up, they get married. They aim to have children, they put a nursery together, and then - you see the wife sitting in a gynecologist office, and she is receiving news that she is infertile (some argue she had a miscarriage). She's crushed, and he promises her to fulfill their dream of going to South America, and they start a savings for this trip. Over the years, bad things happen, and each time they raid the trip fund. Carl finally realizes they are running out of time and buys the tickets in their old age. But Ellie ends up in the hospital and dies, never living her dream. Cut to now - Carl lives alone, and his home has become an island in a huge construction site. His view every day is dust and dirt, and construction workers and their vehicles. One day a vehicle bumps his mailbox and Carl bashes the worker who came to set it right in the head with his walker. Yes there is blood. He ends up in court, is declared a threat to society, and it is determined he will lose his home and be placed in a nursing home instead. By now I am thinking this isn't my idea of a good time, or a light afternoon with the kids. But I stayed, having faith it would turn around from there. The kid who ended up stowing away as Carl tried to escape his fate turns out to be a child of divorce who has been abandoned by his father. The two of them run into Carl and Ellie's childhood hero, and the hero turns out to be sadistic and deranged and the rest of the movie is spent with them being chased by this "hero" as he is trying to kill them. The one good dog Doug, spends the entire movie trying to get Carl to take to him. In spite of his harmless good nature, Doug is also targeted for abuse from Carl (much like the construction worker that was only trying to help). Carl growls at him to go away calling him a "bad dog" in a most cruel way, and kids cried as the dog slunk off with his tail between his legs. One little girl wailed But he's NOT a bad dog! He's a GOOD dog!! for ten minutes. The bird Carl and the boy were saving from the demented adventure guy is badly injured as she helps them escape, and she's a momma bird, and there are babies left (more abandonment) if Carl can't get them reunited. She ends up limping in a leg splint. The house itself is beat up, gutted, and almost burned down at one point, before it finally has to be sacrificed for the sake of saving everyone in the film. During the "happy" ending, you see the kid getting his promotion to senior scout, all the kids are standing there with dad, and he is there on stage alone. Granted Carl shows up to stand by the kid during this moment, but how many kids of divorced and absent parents do you think need this kick in the head to remind them of what they also don't have? Basically very little is left "safe" here - growing old, death, infertility, abandonment, broken promises, losing your home, court sentences, nursing homes, bad news from doctors, unfulfilled dreams, inability to get ahead, missing fathers, disillusionment, kids tied to chairs, birds with broken legs, babies left with no mother, mothers left without children. There are funny moments, and touching moments, but for me it wasn't enough to lift the heavy blanket of everything else that transpired. Of course, I had my little girl with me. I would look at her at times to see how she was taking the movie, and I'd see the bottom lip poking out, and she'd look up at me with those big soulful eyes, and suddenly I would want to wring the necks of the people who wrote certain plots of this film. But I never dreamed I would need to prescreen a movie from Pixar, and so I didn't, and this was where I went wrong. So in closing - how so many people are glossing over this stuff is beyond me. I've seen a few comments from people who feel like I do, so I know I'm not alone in my feelings that Pixar really went for the grown ups with this one. And plenty of adults are screaming about how much they like it, and I say of course they do, the film was written for them. But I think it came at too much of a cost in regards to the kids who have been cheated out of a movie that should have been geared more towards them. Someone speculated that maybe Pixar did it because wanted to be taken seriously- but as a result, I think they valued themselves more than they did the audience. And that's a sad thing to see.