CARTOONS KILL: casualties in animated recreational theater in an objective observational new study of kids' introduction to loss of life

BMJ. 2014 Dec 16:349:g7184. doi: 10.1136/bmj.g7184.

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the risk of on-screen death of important characters in children's animated films versus dramatic films for adults.

Design: Kaplan-Meier survival analysis with Cox regression comparing time to first on-screen death.

Setting: Authors' television screens, with and without popcorn.

Participants: Important characters in 45 top grossing children's animated films and a comparison group of 90 top grossing dramatic films for adults.

Main outcome measures: Time to first on-screen death.

Results: Important characters in children's animated films were at an increased risk of death compared with characters in dramatic films for adults (hazard ratio 2.52, 95% confidence interval 1.30 to 4.90). Risk of on-screen murder of important characters was higher in children's animated films than in comparison films (2.78, 1.02 to 7.58).

Conclusions: Rather than being the innocuous form of entertainment they are assumed to be, children's animated films are rife with on-screen death and murder.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Cartoons as Topic* / psychology
  • Child
  • Death*
  • Female
  • Homicide / psychology*
  • Humans
  • Kaplan-Meier Estimate
  • Male
  • Motion Pictures*
  • Prevalence
  • Proportional Hazards Models
  • Psychology, Child*
  • Public Health
  • Recreation
  • Time Factors
  • Violence / psychology*
  • Visual Perception