Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
The UK still bans things for the most stupidest of reasons. The movie The Abyss is banned in the UK for a really stupid reason. There is a scene of a mouse being submerged in a breathing liquid and it's not even a real mouse. It's special effects. I'm an adult and something like The Abyss should be my choice if I want to watch it or not. Parents could have turned on parental controls on Disney+ if they don't want their kids to see that.
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The Abyss isn't banned in the UK.
The problem has always been that it was a real rat and
not an effect.
James Cameron thought it was okay to subject an animal to what was effectively drowning for the purposes of entertainment. The law here in the UK says that treating animals in that manner is unacceptable, so that scene had to be cut for cinema release in 1989 and it was also cut for the VHS and DVD releases. Disney were apparently fine with the cut being retained for the planned Blu-ray and 4K UHD release last year, but it was Cameron himself who put his foot down and refused to allow it. End result: it wasn't released in the UK.
Your choice to watch The Abyss unedited is fine - I've imported the Blu-ray myself as the home media history of it after the Special Edition VHS in 1992 was just one fiasco after another - but for that scene to not be cut for a UK release or screening, you're first gonna have to explain to the rat in words that it understands that being immersed in a hyper-oxygenated fluid isn't actually drowning it and you're also gonna have to get it to sign a consent form.
Why Cameron chose that particular hill to die on is just one of life's more bizarre mysteries. He could probably have created a replacement CG model for a fraction of the money it cost to destroy the grain structure using his AI 'enhancement' technology.
And, er, someone should probably write a book about it. Or something. And please announce it here as
news - quickly!