Thematic elements is a term used by the Motion Picture Association of America

Motion Picture Association of America

The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...

 and other film ratings boards to highlight elements of a film that do not fit into the traditional categories such as violence, sex, drug use and language, but may involve some degree of malcontent. This rating reason raises a warning to parents and guardians to learn more about a film before they allow their children to view it. These thematic elements include death, discrimination, defiance, child abuse

Child abuse

Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...

, coming-of-age issues, verbal abuse

Verbal abuse

Verbal abuse is best described as a negative defining statement told to you or about you; or by withholding any response thus defining the target as non-existant...

, disability, abortion, religion, and other serious subjects or mature discussions that some parents and guardians feel may not be appropriate for their young children. Films with strong thematic elements include The Cider House Rules

The Cider House Rules (film)

The Cider House Rules is a 1999 American drama film directed by Lasse Hallström, based on John Irving's novel of the same name. The film won two Academy Awards, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with four other nominations at the 72nd Academy Awards...

, Juno

Juno (film)

Juno is a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Ellen Page stars as the title character, an independent-minded teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy and the subsequent events that put pressures of adult life onto her. Michael Cera, Olivia Thirlby, J. K....

, The Aviator, The Color Purple

The Color Purple

The Color Purple is an acclaimed 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker. It received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction...

, In Her Shoes, I Love You Phillip Morris

I Love You Phillip Morris

I Love You Phillip Morris is a 2009 American romantic comedy-drama film based on the 1980s and '90s real-life story of con artist, impostor, and multiple prison escapee Steven Jay Russell, as played by Jim Carrey. While incarcerated, Russell falls in love with his fellow inmate, Phillip Morris...

, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (film)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 American fantasy-drama film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord is loosely based on the 1922 short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald...

. Mild thematic elements appear in many other PG and PG-13 films.

External links

• MPAA FAQ (includes definition of thematic elements)