Mary Poppins has been named the most complained about film of 2024 following its use of discriminatory language.
In rather surprising news, given the Disney family film’s release in 1964, it still managed to attract ire and comment 60 years later.
The popular musical starring screen legends Dame Julie Andrews as Mary and Dick Van Dyke as chimney sweep Bert respectively, has long been a childhood favourite and rated U (Universal) by the the British Board of Film Classification.
Decades later, it was followed up by 2018 sequel Mary Poppins Returns, starring Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer – as well as a delightful cameo return from Van Dyke.
However, last year the organisation adjusted the rating of the original Mary Poppins, reclassifying it as a PG (Parental Guidance) and moving one step away from the suggestion that it was suitable for all audiences.
It is this decision which sparked backlash, with the BBFC revealing in its annual report that of the 224 complaints it received in 2024, 56 of them were about Mary Poppins’ reclassification.
The BBFC had adjusted the movie’s rating due to the use of the term ‘Hottentots’, which it classified as discriminatory language.
Admiral Boom, portrayed by Reginald Owen, uses the word twice throughout the film, which was a Dutch racially loaded term, originally used in the 17th century by white Europeans to describe the Khoikhoi, a nomadic indigenous population of South Africa.
Thought to be one of the oldest people in the world, the Khoikhoi were driven off their land by white colonial expansion.
As the Dutch took over land for farms, the Khoikhoi were dispossessed, killed, or enslaved. Those who chose to remain ended up as farm labourers for the invading settlers.
At one stage, Admiral Boom dangles from the roof in a boat and asks if one of the Banks children is off to ‘fight’ them.
Later in the film, he also uses the term to describe the chimney sweeps, with their faces blackened by soot, and says they’re being ‘attacked’ by them.
The BBFC report, which also shared that Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is now a PG, also revealed that the complaints were requesting the classification remain unchanged because, although offensive, it is now considered outdated and the same term has also appeared in
other films.
However, the report argued: ‘The two uses of the discriminatory term ‘hottentots’ are neither criticised nor condemned, increasing the risk that very young viewers might repeat it without realising the potential for offence.’
It added: ‘Regular research tells us that a key concern for parents is the potential for children to be exposed to discriminatory language or behaviour which they may find distressing or repeat without realising the potential offence.’
Others hit back at the decision when Mary Poppins’ new classification became public knowledge in February 2024, calling it ‘plain ridiculous’ and ‘strange’.
Defending its decision at the time, a BBFC spokesperson told Metro: ‘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. We therefore classified the film PG for discriminatory language.
‘For context, we only review (and potentially reclassify) previously classified content when it’s been formally resubmitted to us.’
Elsewhere, James Cameron’s sci-fi thriller The Abyss received the second largest number of complaints, at 17, following a rumour that a new 4K cinema release had been cancelled owing to concerns over a scene in which a live rat is submerged in liquid.
The BBFC clarified that it had had concerns when the film was originally submitted in 1989 that the scene constituted the ‘cruel infliction of terror’ on an animal and therefore contravened the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937.
It confirmed the organisation’s stance had not changed and that the scene had been re-edited in all versions of the film classified by the BBFC since then.
Other films’ ratings which drew formal complaints included that of Dune: Part Two due to its knife fight between Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler’s characters, and Saltburn, with people arguing its ‘depiction of sexual obsession was too disturbing for [a rating of] 15′.
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