Instead of enjoying what should have been family entertainment, Dr. Goldstein found himself having to explain why the characters smoked and drank alcohol, a conversation he didn’t expect to have with his children for a few more years.

Glamorizing Tobacco
"Initially I was fearful of talking about substance abuse with my kids," said Dr. Goldstein, a physician and assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. "My kids are five and six, and I didn’t particularly care about having to talk to them about the effects of smoking and drinking. But the more we saw, the more we knew we needed to talk to them about it."

The film industry has long been accused of glamorizing tobacco and alcohol in movies aimed at adults and teenagers. But Dr. Goldstein noticed a significant presence of alcohol and tobacco in feature-length animations aimed at preschool and elementary school-aged audiences.

His surprise over the frequent presence of tobacco and alcohol prompted Dr. Goldstein and his colleagues to look closer at animators’ use of these products in their films.

Published in the March 24, 1999, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the study looked at 50 G-rated animated films made over the past 60 years. "More than two- thirds of animated children’s films feature tobacco or alcohol use in story plots without clear verbal messages of any negative long-term health effects associated with use of either substance," the researchers wrote.

Researchers examined films made by Walt Disney Co., MGM/United Artists, Warner Brothers Studios, Universal Studios, and 20th Century Fox that were released between 1937 and 1997.

Good, Bad, and Neutral
The use of tobacco and alcohol in plot and character development was not limited to characters that were characterized as bad, researchers found. Certain types of tobacco use, such as pipe smoking, were associated with good characters, while cigarettes and cigars were used for both good, bad, and neutral characters. Despite the association of tobacco with bad characters, Dr. Goldstein believes those depictions still influence children’s view of smoking.

"When we watch All Dogs Go to Heaven, for example, even though the bad characters are associated with smoking, they have enticing qualities," Dr. Goldstein said. "When the characters are smoking cigars and blowing smoke rings, children could think that’s fun."

Reflecting Society’s Views
Also, the researchers found the use of alcohol and tobacco in animated films did not change with the changes in society’s attitude. "One of the surprising aspects is that depictions of alcohol and tobacco didn’t change over time," Dr. Goldstein said.

The fact that recent children’s films don’t recognize society’s evolved view that tobacco use is dangerous concerns Frank Baker, PhD, a psychologist and director of the American Cancer Society’s Behavioral Research Center.

"The interesting thing in all this is, despite society’s impression that tobacco is dangerous, there is still no recognition of it in recent films," Dr. Baker said.

The end result is animated films are glamorizing, or at the very least, normalizing, tobacco use for children much the same way the tobacco industry did with Joe Camel, Dr. Baker said. "Cartoons, especially those with animals can be very influential. The tobacco industry obviously thought so." Both Drs. Goldstein and Baker said the creators of animated children’s films need to take responsibility for their depictions of alcohol and tobacco. "We need to get the message to creators that they are encouraging children to do what society is saying is dangerous," Dr. Baker said.

Ultimately, parents need to monitor what their children watch and put tobacco and alcohol use in its proper context for their children. "Watch the films and be aware that current films have depiction of substance abuse," Dr. Goldstein said. "These films are probably not going to make kids run out and smoke, but what is the cumulative affect of this and everything else they are exposed to?"