Kevin Smith’s Yoga Hosers gets R-rating over cartoon testicles

It looks like Kevin Smith has run foul of the Motion Picture Association of America once again, with the filmmaker taking to Instagram to announce that his latest film Yoga-Hosers has been slapped with an R-rating. However, this time it’s not down to foul language or gratuitous nudity, but rather a cartoon drawing of a pair of testicles…

SEE ALSO: Kevin Smith responds to the negative reviews for Yoga Hosers

The #MPAA gave my kids movie @YogaHosers an R rating for a cartoony drawing of testicles on a book cover. So now, for the 4th time in my 22 year career, we will hold an appeals screening with the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board and try to get the R overturned for a less severe (and far more appropriate) PG-13. I also ran afoul of the MPAA the first time I made a movie set in a convenience store, when they initially slapped Clerks with an NC-17 rating for language. Back then, Harvey Weinstein hired mega-lawyer Alan Dershowitz and turned our rating appeal into a Free Speech case. But on the day of the actual appeals screening, it was just me and the Miramax lawyer getting up in front of the appeals folks to argue for a less restrictive rating without having to change or trim any shots. We won that day and Clerks received the R rating without a single cut. The next two occasions I fought an MPAA rating was on Jersey Girl (won a PG-13 instead of the R they gave us) and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (which went from an NC-17 to an R, without cuts). I don't mind doing this dance with the MPAA a fourth time (hey – at least they even OFFER an appeals screening) but this #YogaHosers R rating is riDONKulous. The core audience for the flick is tween girls (it's Clueless meets Gremlins!), so I refrained from salty language to make a totally kid-friendly movie. And while it's a "horror" movie, there's no blood on display: when our Bratzi bad guys get killed, concentrated sauerkraut explodes everywhere – not guts or entrails. Honestly, this movie is TAME (or "lame" according to some reviews). Even so, next week I'll screen the flick for the MPAA appeals audience and, lawyer-like, plead my case for why the film is really PG-13 – all so that I can keep the graffiti drawing of nuts on a fictional library book in my goofy girl-power monster movie. Weird life. Mind you, this is NOT a First Amendment issue at all; instead, it's the very definition of a First World Problem. But before I can tour the movie in June & July and release it in theaters this August, I'm gonna have to win #TheBattleForTheBalls! #KevinSmith #harleyquinnsmith #lilyrosedepp #johnnydepp

A photo posted by Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith) on Apr 18, 2016 at 12:12pm PDT

“Yoga Hosers centers on 15-year-old yoga nuts Colleen Collette (Lily-Rose Depp) and Colleen McKenzie (Harley Quinn Smith), who have an after-school job at a Manitoba convenience store called Eh-2-Zed. When an ancient evil rises from beneath Canada’s crust and threatens their big invitation to a Grade 12 party, the Colleens join forces with a legendary man-hunter from Montreal named Guy Lapointe (Johnny Depp) to fight for their lives with all seven chakras, one Warrior Pose at a time.”

Yoga Hosers sees Harley Quinn Smith and Lily-Rose Depp leading a cast that also includes Tony Hale (Arrested Development), Natasha Lyonne (Orange is the new Black), Austin Butler (Aliens in the Attic), Adam Brody (The O.C.), Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf), Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series), Stan Lee (Mallrats) and Jason Mewes (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), along with Tusk stars Johnny Depp, Justin Long, Haley Joel Osment, Genesis Rodriguez, Ralph Garman and Harley Morenstein.

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Originally published April 20, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.