The 90s Goosebumps show was a children’s horror series, but is it the same for the 2023 reboot? Is the Disney+ Goosebumps series suitable for kids? Here’s what we know about Goosebumps’ age rating.
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What Is Goosebumps About?
As explained in the series’ official logline, Goosebumps “follows a group of five high schoolers as they embark on a shadowy and twisted journey to investigate the tragic passing three decades earlier of a teen named Harold Biddle – while also unearthing dark secrets from their parents’ past.”
The characters in the Disney+ series include Nathan Bratt, a new schoolteacher; Isabella, a smart and shy student; James, the class clown; Lucas, a skateboarder; Isaiah, a popular football player; and Margot, an intelligent bookworm.
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Is It Safe for Kids to Watch the Goosebumps Reboot? Age Rating Explained
Goosebumps is rated TV-14 for “intense violence and strong coarse language.” This means that Goosebumps contains content that may not be suitable for kids.
Considering that Goosebumps is classified as a horror series, violence is expected. And considering that the show does follow a group of teenagers, the use of foul language is not really surprising.
While in the Goosebumps books, the characters were often middle-school aged, executive producer Nicholas Stoller said that they changed the characters into high schoolers to “age up the series a bit” and dive into the theme of teens transitioning into adulthood.
Stoller said (via New York Post):
“We wanted to age it up a bit. One of the things we’re exploring is that, when you’re a teen, you’re becoming an adult. So, we thought that making it high school aged wouldn’t affect the storytelling, except in a positive way, to dive into that theme, and age up the series a bit.
From a storytelling standpoint, the kids can do stuff that they wouldn’t be able to do, if they were middle school kids. A lot of our touch stones weren’t just horror, but also the great teen stuff – the John Hughes movies, stuff like ‘Freaks and Geeks’ and ‘My So Called Life.'”
The Disney+ series is a mature take on Goosebumps compared to the 90s show, so the 2023 reboot may not be suitable for kids. The poster of the show even indicates that it’s “Scarier than you remember”, so it’s best to watch Goosebumps on Disney+ without your kids.
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