Mufasa, the Lion King, has just clawed his way up the cliff to escape a stampede of wildebeest, only to be confronted at the top by his jealous and murderous brother, Scar, who throws him to his death in the gorge below. It is the tragic turning point in the film, leaving Simba, Mufasa’s little lion cub, bereft. “Whoopsie!” my four-year-old shouts from the sofa, as if someone has dropped a handkerchief on the floor.
My daughter, like most children her age, loves animated films – mainly Disney’s Tangled and, inevitably, Frozen. But according to a study published in the British Medical Journal this week, I should fear exposing her to cartoons because, say the researchers, the main characters are more than twice as likely to be killed off as those in adult films.
Violence and horror lurk in everything from Snow White, Disney’s first animated film from 1937, to last year’s Frozen, the studio’s most successful movie. They are, say the researchers from University College London and the University of Ottawa, “rife with death and destruction”. It is not only Disney: animations such as Finding Nemo and A Bug’s Life are also “hotbeds of murder and mayhem” that could cause long-lasting trauma and damage to children, the study claims.
Cartoon deaths may be grisly and sad, but causing long-lasting trauma? Come off it. Modern animation may be in 3D and the best it’s ever been, but even a four-year-old can tell the difference between a cartoon and real footage.
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