HI-TIDDLY-DE... BOOZE AND SMOKES BRING RAP FOR DISNEY

Many parents would have thought there was nothing like a trip to see
Pinocchio or 101 Dalmatians to extend the age of innocence of their children.

But these apparently harmless films and other classics have now been accused
of encouraging youngsters to smoke and drink alcohol.

The films, previously a by-word for old-fashioned morality and family
values, actually depict, if not a hotbed, then definitely a soupcon of
boozing and smoking.

And matters are not improving: last year's hit Antz, aimed at the child
market, also depicted a scene of drinking.

A study based on a frame-by-frame analysis of 50 animated feature films made
for children in the United States found that at least one character in more
than two thirds of the films used tobacco or alcohol with no indication that
the practices were unhealthy.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) warn
that the tens of millions of children who watch the films, often repeatedly,
might be influenced to experiment with the substances as they grow up.

Dr Adam Goldstein, an assistant professor of family medicine at the UNC- CH
school of medicine, said: "Of 50 films reviewed 34, or 68 per cent,
displayed at least one episode of tobacco or alcohol. use.

Twenty-eight, or 56 per cent, portrayed one or more incidences of tobacco
use, including all seven films released in 1996 and 1997."

He said that 76 characters smoked for a total duration in all films of more
than 45 minutes, and 63 characters drank alcohol for 27 minutes.

Good characters consumed the substances as frequently as bad characters did.

The feature-length animated films showed cigar and wine consumption most
often, but cigarettes, pipes, beer, spirits and champagne were also depicted.

"Guilty" characters include the glamorous Cruella de Ville from 101
Dalmatians with her trademark cigarette holder, pipe-smoking Gepetto from
Pinocchio and a crow in Dumbo with a cigar.

Dr Goldstein said he was inspired to do the study after visiting the cinema
with his children and being "struck and dismayed" by seeing tobacco use in
animated films.

It would be unethical to expose children as young as three to tobacco and
alcohol scenes to test their effects, but animation experts agree that
children are influenced by the animated films they watch.

"The impact of exposure at an early age to tobacco or alcohol use in
animated films is beyond the scope of this study, but the success of
cartoon-based campaigns such as Joe Camel may shed insight on the potential
impact... on youth."

"Children are clearly seeing positive images of addictive substances that
their parents, teachers and society all discourage," he said.

The researchers examined for alcohol and tobacco use nearly all child- rated
animated feature films released between 1937 and 1997 by MGM/United Artists,
20th-Century Fox, Universal Studios, Walt Disney and Warner Brothers Studios.

While a third of recent non-animated films contained some kind of
anti-tobacco statement, according to earlier studies, the researchers round
that none of the animated films had any verbal message against alcohol or
tobacco, they found.

Films made after the US surgeon-general's 1964 report on tobacco hazards
contained as much smoking as they did before the report.

The investigators found that characters who drank frequently got drunk,
passed out, hiccuped, lost their balance or fell over. An average of 2.5
characters per film drank in the 25 films that showed drinking.

Dr Goldstein said: "During the movie Antz, which we did not review because
it came out in 1998, there was a three-minute drinking scene in a bar. When
I asked my five-year-old son Michael what they were doing. he said 'They are
drinking beer.' When I asked him how he knew that, he said 'You just know it'."

The physician said he believed that tobacco and alcohol should be left out
entirely in new children's animated films, just as sex is left out, or the
harmful effects must he emphasised.

Substance abuse in older films should be made clear on labels or the
internet so that parents can decide whether their children should see them.

The results of the study will appear in a future issue of the Journal of the
American Medical Association.