Saw this one coming! Disney has managed to further confuse their ratings / parental controls. Remember when we reported the shocking news about Disney cheating their own system to add a TV-MA title to Disney+ USA? The way they left the title “Unrated” to let it stream on the “family friendly” service with all its f-bombs in tact? Remember how we pointed out the the Beatles, men, have this unique privilege that was not given to Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Elisabeth Shue, and just recently.. Olivia Rodrigo?
Yeah, well things have just gotten even more complicated!
Flashback to a month ago. Disney announced they were FINALLY adding TV-MA and Rated R content to Disney+ USA. On March 16th, the day this wonderful change occurred, we commented on the absurdity of Disney’s pop-up and graphics used to welcome subscribers to the adult content.
We considered it absurd for 2 reasons:
1) The Beatles: Get Back was shown as one of their “ordinary” titles and not highlighted like the TV-MA titles. See image above for an example. This meant they were keeping the title unrated instead of using their noggin and properly rating it TV-MA, in line with how it streamed internationally. We figured this would also be a nice way to show they were serious about the parental controls. Especially since:
2) They ONLY added 6 Marvel TV-MA, making for a pretty half-assed rollout. We always understood the notion of using Marvel as your “in.” We just found it goofy to not surprise add more on “Unlocking Day” or at least announce some. Particularly since the graphic used during the mature content rollout internationally back in February 2021 showed far more titles “highlighted” as unlockable. See that below.
Well, the plot thickened EVEN THICKER this past week. We noticed that The Beatles: Get Back has now “disappeared” from accounts that are rated TV-14. Now, the title only shows up on TV-MA ratings level. So they’ve made it so you have to be on the TOP level once again. Even though the top level is now higher than before.
Despite this, the title STILL has no rating listed.
Honestly, we wouldn’t be surprised if they move it back to the TV-14 level and this was a mistake. Because of the fact that it featured in the graphic as a “normal title, you know? Either way it continues our longstanding vendetta against their marketing (?) team (or whoever this stuff falls under). They get into situations like this all the time.
Why would they have produced a graphic showcasing The Beatles: Get Back as one of the “ordinary” titles when A) it was always a mature title, but a fish out of water
and
B) they were going to immediately bump it up to the TV-MA level anyway.
The proper choice of how to handle this is to keep it at TV-MA level AND to give it the rating, officially. We hope that logo appears soon. Either way, once we post this article it will resolve within 1 week. Usually when we call out these mistakes or discrepancies their little birds that are watching us make a change.
Here’s hoping THE BEATLES: GET BACK officially becomes the first NON-Marvel TV-MA title to break that seal. If we could suggest additional TV-MA titles, we suggest moving the entire FX hub from Hulu to Disney+ and launching an FX brand tile… but that’s a completely different story.
Drew Ryan is a film, TV, and Disney geek. He has degrees in English, Student Personnel Administration, and Library & Information Science from Lawrence University, Concordia University-Wisconsin, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Interested in the minutia and licensing of streaming service content, he is always publishing lists, suggestions, and advocating for Disney’s missing library to be added to Disney+. Drew subscribes to Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, and Paramount+. You can find him waxing nostalgic over classic Disney Channel or geeking out over Marvel, CW shows, & Disney on Twitter.
