Western Study: Cartoons show more death than films for adults

A new study has revealed that children’s cartoons show death more so than films for adults, with their main characters two and a half times as likely to be killed off.

The main characters in cartoons aimed at children were also almost three times as likely to be murdered – often in violent ways – than protagonists in films for adults, according to a University of Ottawa study published in the British Medical Journal on Tuesday.

Moreover, two-thirds of children’s cartoons see their important characters die, compared to only half in films for adults.

“Rather than being innocuous and gentler alternatives to typical horror or drama films, children’s animated films are, in fact, hotbeds of murder and mayhem,” said study researchers, Ian Colman and James Kirkbride.

Parents of main characters were five times more likely to die in cartoons than in films for adults, the study showed.

Notable deaths included shootings in Bambi, Pocahontas and Peter Pan, stabbings in The Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty, and animal attacks in Finding Nemo and Tarzan.

The analysis covered top-grossing children’s cartoons from Snow White, produced in 1937, to 2013’s Frozen, and compared the deaths of main characters with the two top-grossing films for adults released in the same year.

The study did not include action or adventure films marketed to children, nor films with animated cars and toys as it was not clear that the concept of death exists for such characters.