Mary Poppins Film Rating Raised

In the UK, Mary Poppins is no longer considered a film for general audiences. Disney's 1964 classic, starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, has had its rating reclassified by British film censors from a "U," which stands for "Universal," to a PG (parental guidance), the BBC reports. The British Board of Film Classification explained its reasoning, saying the film was resubmitted to the board this year in advance of a theatrical re-release and the BBFC found that it now "exceeds our guidelines" for U-rated films due to discriminatory language. The problem, per the Guardian: the racist term "hottentots," originally used by Dutch settlers to describe the Khoikhoi people of South Africa and later applied to all Black people.

In the movie, Admiral Boom, the neighbor of the Banks family, uses the term twice, once to refer to chimney sweeps whose faces are blackened with soot. "While Mary Poppins has a historical context, the use of discriminatory language is not condemned, and ultimately exceeds our guidelines for acceptable language at U," the BBFC says. A U rating indicates a film has no material that is likely to do harm or offend anyone, and the board further explained that parents are concerned about kids being exposed to offensive material that is not condemned in the film, and that children might repeat later without realizing it's offensive. Mary Poppins is still rated G in the US, KTLA reports. (More Mary Poppins stories.)