The Avengers opens this week, and it is awesome. You may have seen the giveaway I’m running at the Disney Blog for some cool Avengers swag, but if you haven’t, go enter, I’ll wait.

I’ve also got something very special to give away here, and it too involves The Avengers. And Stan Lee. It’s a great power, great responsibility sort of thing, but with less spiders.

I’ve got two(2) weekend festival passes to the 2012 Catalina Film Festival, which includes a presentation by, and the honoring of, Mr. Stan Lee. Also, a special screening of Marvel’s The Avengers.

The catch? The winner needs to be in Southern California because travel to Catalina Island and other accommodations are not included in the prize.

Still, seeing Stan Lee and The Avengers is pretty cool, and Catalina Island is a great getaway. I’ve seen worse giveaways.

How to enter: If you are in SoCal and able to attend the Catalina Film Festival this coming weekend (May 4-6) then leave a comment below stating which Avenger is your favorite and why. It’s that easy!

Comments will close at 11:59 p.m. PST on Wednesday, May 2. Winner will be picked at random and contacted via email. Due to the sensitive timing of this giveaway winner must respond ASAP. If I do not hear back within 3 (three hours) I will contact another winner. I know, it’s not a lot of time, but hey, it’s my giveaway.

Excelsior!

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See the video of Mark Ruffalo on his inspiration for the Hulk!

Read my review of The Avengers at DadCentric!

Photo: Disney/Marvel

Image by Flickr user "bossco" used under CC licensing

Before letting their kids see a movie, there’s one thing that almost every parent does: check the rating – that ubiquitous box on nearly every movie poster that gives parents at-a-glance data that generally categorizes films. The ratings, which are assigned by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), have been the de facto classification and guidance for nearly half a century.

As a parent, it is important to know about film content. This, according to MPAA ratings head, Joan Graves, is the primary purpose of the ratings board. “The ratings system exists for one purpose: to inform parents about the content of films,” she has said. Yet, when PG-13 films contain half a dictionary’s worth of profanity, nudity, and more violence than R-rated movies of the past, can you actually make an informed decision from a simple MPAA rating about which films are acceptable for your child to see?

Over the years the PG-13 rating has become a muddled landscape where movies include both acceptable family fare and films that could just as easily have been labeled R. Parents can generally tell if their kids are ready for R-rated movies and PG movies are generally OK, but PG-13 is where the grey area is.

As many parents have long suspected, there has been a movement of R-rated violence creeping into PG-13 movies for some time. A recent study published in the Journal of Children and Media confirms that PG-13 movies are significantly more violent than those a generation ago. And besides the shootouts and slugfests, PG-13 is also where the money is; most box office blockbusters are found in this category. In 2011, there was more box office money from PG-13 movies (roughly $5.5 billion) than all G, PG, and R movies combined.

Consider the recent hullabaloo regarding the documentary, Bully. At first, the movie was rated R, a rating that outraged many proponents who knew the rating would prevent what they considered an important film from being seen by the highly valued younger teenage audience. An intensive campaign followed by reportedly editing the sound from three words, which earned the movie a PG-13 rating. If three words are all that separates a PG-13 from an R rating, how much can parents really rely on the MPAA for guidance when selecting movies for their children?

The Importance of Ratings

Ratings are important.

For some parents, the rating is the only piece of information they consider when deciding if their children can watch a film. While this shortcoming is certainly the parents’ fault, it is understandable that some hurried parents simply refer to this easy indicator to decide which movies they let their kids watch.

Unfortunately, MPAA ratings don’t tell the whole story. A simple PG-13 or an R glosses over the true content of a film. This is an imperative distinction to make because, while this criticism does not advocate censorship in any way, it is important for parents to be aware of all of a film’s content. Children mature at different times and a dozen different twelve-year-olds may all be at a dozen different levels of maturity; some capable of dealing with the subject matter of a film while others are unprepared.

Image by Flickr user "o5com" used under CC licensing

The MPAA rating is important in other instances, as well. Community centers, day camps, and similar groups are reticent to show anything higher than PG to mixed crowds. The same rule of thumb applies to schools, who do what they can to shy away from controversy. One of the very few exceptions to this rule is the movie Schindler’s List, which is rated R, but has enjoyed many school viewings and even a network television broadcast.

The backlash against movies with higher ratings applies commercially, as well. Films that are unrated or saddled with an NC-17 can often find it difficult to be shown in many theaters. Many newspapers and television stations will refuse to advertise NC-17 and unrated movies, for fear of backlash from some of their audiences, who perceive these movies as not worth mentioning. Finally, after a movie’s theatrical run, movie studios look to the home market and DVD and Blu-ray sales. Unfortunately, there are some national retailers and renters who refuse to stock unrated and NC-17 disks. It can safely be said that a movie that falls outside one of the four accepted cryptic boxes (G, PG, PG-13, and R), faces some formidable challenges.

But the most important responsibility a MPAA rating has is to inform responsible parents about the content in a film. Most parents are responsible and are concerned about what their kids see. And, because we can’t preview every movie before our kids see them, the rating is vital in decision-making. Unfortunately, the MPAA rating is antiquated and doesn’t provide parents with enough information to make good decisions. Revisiting the Bully movie, we can see that the movie was originally rated R for “some language,” which could be seen in the rating’s descriptor text. But reviewing more detailed information, we learn that there are more than three dozen incidents of intensely threatening and or violent scenes in the movie. Depending on your child’s maturity and your family’s principles, the violence might be far more offensive than a handful of profane words, but you would never know about that content from the MPAA’s rating.

The issue extends beyond the theater, as well. Kids seem more mature. Maybe it’s that the 24-hour news cycle and the constant bombardment of media from television and the Internet have left them more seemingly calloused than previous generations. Hollywood – either because of this or as the cause of this, depending on your perspective – takes advantage of this situation by marketing PG-13 properties to children far younger than their own ratings recommend. Stroll down any toy aisle and you’ll see a slew of licensed toys based on PG-13 movies, yet marketed towards very young children. Lego has a Pirates of the Caribbean set called “The Cannibal’s Escape” with a recommended age of 6-12. Fisher-Price sells a Green Lantern Jet that’s aimed at toddlers as young as 36 months. Both of these movies are rated PG-13, yet the licensed toys are marketed at much younger children. Similar examples are seemingly endless.

I’ll be interviewing these guys (the cast of Disney/Marvel’s The Avengers, not the actual LEGO figures) in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

Look here for a first look at the new line of Avengers LEGO bricks!

Also, the Avengers are on Twitter and Facebook for all your superhero social media needs.

You started the music. You lit the lights. Some of you even dressed up right (I’m not judging). And now you want Muppets. I get it.

You came to the right place.

I’m giving away two (2) copies of The Muppets, the hit movie from Disney, in a fancy combo pack (the Wocka Wocka Value Pack) that has DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital copies, as well as the very awesome (not counting Jefferson Starship) soundtrack. All you have to do is enter (more on that below).

Disney sent me a copy for review, which became the centerpiece of our Friday Family Movie Night. The boys had seen the film, and loved it, so they were very excited to watch the Blu-ray. They really loved the special features (listed below) and we spent a very long time watching all of them.

The combo pack has a number of bonus features (depending on which copy you are using, Blu-ray has the most), including:

Some of you may know that I really did meet the Muppets (below, I’m the one on the left), and yes, it was as cool as you think it is.

Here’s how you enter the contest: Leave a comment below stating which Muppet you would most like to meet and why (Note, this contest in no way suggests that such a meeting will ever occur, in fact, it probably won’t. Honea Express, crushing dreams since 2005!). Make sure to provide your email address in the box provided (NOT THE COMMENT BOX). Comments will close on Thursday, March 29, at 11:59 p.m. PST. I will draw two (2) winners at random from the comments left below. I will then email said winners instructing them to claim their prize (and asking for mailing addresses – no P.O. boxes). Winners will have 24 hours to respond to the email or their prize will become forfeit and another winner will be drawn. Open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only. The review combo pack described above and both of the prizes mentioned in this contest are courtesy of Disney, they’re cool like that.

Wocka, wocka!

CLOSED: Congrats to Cody & Erica. The movie is in the mail (or other delivery service)!

Blogging hasn’t made me rich, unless you’re one of those saps that thinks friends make you rich, then sure, I’ve made a few bucks. But here’s the thing, friends don’t pay the rent, unless they are really great friends, which I’m sure some of them are. Call me!

What blogging has done, in addition to the many friends I’ve met (especially the great ones), is allow me opportunities that I never would have had with a regular job like a job. For instance, in the past year I’ve drank too much whiskey while talking to Bog Iger in Hawai’i, chatted with Steve Whitmire (Kermit the Frog) while hanging out at Jim Henson Studios (get The Muppets on DVD/Blu-ray tomorrow!), and watched my oldest son get his Jedi on at Skywalker Ranch. All of these experiences (and more!) have been incredible opportunities and I am thankful for them. Sure, they were the result of lots of hard work, and they themselves resulted in even more hard work, but every single one of them has been worth it. And then some.

Which leads me to my next great adventure: Next month I will be Disney’s guest at Pixar Studios in Emeryville, CA, and all will be right with the world. Well, my world anyway. I don’t know what you’re into.

I’m fully aware that you probably hate me a little bit right now, and I can say, with all honesty, I’m okay with that.

The trip includes a tour of Pixar Studios, a screening of Disneynature’s Chimpanzee (in theaters on Earth Day), a sneak peak of Pixar’s Brave and La Luna (the Oscar-nominated short to be shown before Brave), and a day at the wonderful Walt Disney Family Museum, which I just took my son to for his report on Walt Disney because I’m THE. BEST. DAD. EVER. True story.

You still hate me. I can feel it.

Here’s where you, the reader, come in. If you have any questions for Mark Andrews, the director of Brave, or any of the film’s animators, then please leave them in the comments below and I will ask them (unless your question sucks) during the interview process. It’s just like being there! Especially for me.

Hey kids, do you have the Facebook? Then you can “Like” Brave, Pixar, and Disneynature at your leisure. You can also like me. You can really like me. But I totally understand if you don’t.

Disclosure: This trip is on Disney’s very kind dime, but the opinions will be mine (something they know quite well).

Okay enough with excuses, time for our Daddy Day Care story.

Saturday morning, after knowing that kids will be allowed on both of our morning and afternoon events, we did get ready for the travel, of course