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.
© Colman et al 2014.