I think they should show everything. Evan if they have to rate it PG-13.

They could show Rilian, Eustace or Puddleglum's (I forget who actually takes the serpent's head off) sword come whizzing down, cut away, but hear a thump so that it is very apparent that the sword made contact. Then they could subtly show the tail of the serpent still slithering slightly. This wouldn't be over-the-top gore, or inaccurate to the book.

By the way, I also fear that SC could go back to the no-specified-audience problem that we had in PC.

They could show Rilian, Eustace or Puddleglum's (I forget who actually takes the serpent's head off) sword come whizzing down, cut away, but hear a thump so that it is very apparent that the sword made contact.

It was a mixture of Puddleglum and Rilian. And they had to hit multiple times... (I just read that chapter )

So yeah I'm kinda starting to regret the no PG-13 thing...

I really don't see why killing a serpent isn't appropriate. I think a PG would be perfectly fine for that scene. It's the mental and spiritual torture of being bound to the silver chair which may push the movie into PG-13 territory.

A lot of the things described in the books would require a PG-13 rating if directly translated to film. However, so far, they have managed to overcome these problems and still retain a PG rating. So I think the snake killing will be ok. I don't think they nesscarly have to show the snake moving after it is dead...Its ok to read that in the book, but its a different story to show that on film. So it might have to be slightly reimagined, but it can still be done well. I mean they managed to show Aslan's death in LWW. I think its do-able

I really don't see why killing a serpent isn't appropriate.

It's not the killing of it that's the problem. It's the fact that and that is both a fact in real life and the way it is described in the book. It's the kind of thing that would make a lot of parents upset if they found their kids seeing that...

Wow, you guys are quite sensitive, yes. I hardly think this is one of those things kids should be protected from. If they're old enough to read the book, the movie should be no problem.

^Perhaps... I hope the filmmakers will see it that way... but I'm not sure if they will since the undragoning apparently "had to be changed" to keep it PG.

they've worked around similar things before, killing the serpent shouldn't be a problem.

From the man himself

A far more serious attack on the fairy tale as children's literature comes from those who do not wish children to be frightened. ...Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless: in fact, phobias. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil. If they mean the first I agree with them: but not if they mean the second. ...Since it is likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making your destiny not brighter but darker. Nor do most of us feel that violence and bloodshed, in a story, produce any haunting dread in the minds of children. As far as that goes, I side impenitently with the human race against the modern reformer. Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book. Nothing will persuade me that this causes in an ordinary child any kind of degree of fear beyond what it wants, and needs, to feel. For, of course, it wants to be a little frightened.
...
And I think it is possible that by confining your child to blameless stories of child life in which nothing at all alarming ever happens, you will fail to banish the terrors, and would succeed in banishing all that can ennoble them and make them endurable.

-Clive Staples Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing For Children.

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Good find, Clive Staples Sibelius.

they've worked around similar things before, killing the serpent shouldn't be a problem.

I'll wait and see what the HP franchise does with Nagini next July. That way we should know how it could be done.

Good find, Clive Staples Sibelius.

they've worked around similar things before, killing the serpent shouldn't be a problem.

I'll wait and see what the HP franchise does with Nagini next July. That way we should know how it could be done.

Thank you . Hardly a find anymore, since for me it's one of the essays of his I read most
The HP franchise has certainly never spared us on the scares and intensity. And they even got pretty graphic with the imagined love scene.

Nor do most of us feel that violence and bloodshed, in a story, produce any haunting dread in the minds of children. . . .

-Clive Staples Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing For Children.

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C.S. Lewis was talking about written stories, not films. There's a huge difference between telling a child about scary serpents and showing them graphic images of serpents being hacked to pieces, writhing and bleeding all over the floor. It would not have occurred to Lewis to discuss this issue because film censorship in his day was extremely strict. A lot of the elements common in PG-13 movies now a days were not permitted in any movies.

werewolf, the HP films have no contractual rating limit, although I think the filmmakers don't want it to be R, for practical reasons. The films have been PG-13 since GoF, and DH2 is unlikely to be an exception. The Narnia films, on the other hand, have to be kept PG by the terms of the agreement with Gresham. That being said, I think Trufflehunter's idea for the scene should work fine.

No, the HP films don't have a rating limit the way the Narnia films do. But they obviously watered down some of the deaths in DH, just the same. According to Deathly Hallows, the book,

The serpant moving after it's head gets cut off shouldnt make it PG-13. I was walking down my driveway once and I saw a headless serpand moving around (I supposse a car ran over it). I was still in elementary school and I wasnt scarred for life. It certainly didnt feel like a "PG-13" moment of life.