"Virtual Wonderland Party" Results in Fiasco
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 8:55 pm
"VIRTUAL WONDERLAND PARTY" DVD FEATURE RESULTS IN FIASCO
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
BURBANK, California (AP) -- A seemingly innocent program for children on the new Alice in Wonderland DVD causes numerous complaints and a damaged reputation for Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment.
Yesterday, Disney issued a new "Masterpeice Edition" DVD of one its animated classics, Alice in Wonderland. Among the several bonus materials is a feature called "Virtual Wonderland Party" - a program similar to the likes of "Barney" that combines live-action humans in costume as the characters with 3-D games, re-creating the tea party sequence from the film.
Among the various interstitials provided in this feature is a song-and-dance number called "Let's Paint Our Noses Red", in which the costumed people on screen along with children by their side, hold prop buckets of paint, and pretent to paint themselves, singing the lyrics: "We're painting our noses red; Let's paint our faces red; Let's paint our beds red; Let's paint the world red."
This led to the first of many incidents in Seattle, Washington, in which a young boy apon watching this segment, went into his father's workroom, and opened a jar of paint, using a brush to cover his head with the substance, and proceeded to paint everything in his room red. Within minutes, the boy suffocated himself my blocking his mouth and nose from air with the thick liquid. Apon discovering this, the parents rushed him to the emergency room, and his condition has not been released.
"We think it's absolutely horrifying that they are putting junk like this on kids shows. Who do they think they are teaching our children to do dangerous things like this?" the mother, Teresa, made a statement.
These parents' angry complaint to Buena Vista Home Video was only one of the many that came in within that day. Among the other incidents reported of children immitating the characters in the "Virtual Wonderland Party" was a girl who attempted to bake cookies with raw fish and other meats inside of them and proceeded to come down with the Escherichia Coli virus.
This has led to numerous threats to sue the company, and Buena Vista is likely to recall the Alice DVD soon.
UPDATE: In the midst of all these reports, another accusation has come against Buena Vista Home Entertainment this evening for a seperate incident.
The parents of a young boy who was allowed to participate in the taping of the "Virtual Wonderland Party" DVD feature, are now claiming that during the segment "Follow Me", in which the characters played a follow-the-leader type game, giving orders such as "touch your head, now touch your elbows, now touch your toes, etc.", the man who was in costume as the Mad Hatter character told their son to "now touch my crotch". According to their statement, when the boy refused to do so, the man (who's identity is not being released at this time) chased the boy into is trailer in an effort to kidnap him, before the child managed to make his way back to the set. Supposedly, apon finding the boy later, the man proceeded to make the threat: "If you tell your parents about that, Santa will see that you're a taddle-teller, and he won't bring you any presents next Christmas."
This is a hard blow to the BVHE, which is already dealing with the numerous other accusations stemming from young viewers watching the "Virtual Wonderland Party" feature. Thus far, BVHE has declined a comment.
Just kidding.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
BURBANK, California (AP) -- A seemingly innocent program for children on the new Alice in Wonderland DVD causes numerous complaints and a damaged reputation for Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment.
Yesterday, Disney issued a new "Masterpeice Edition" DVD of one its animated classics, Alice in Wonderland. Among the several bonus materials is a feature called "Virtual Wonderland Party" - a program similar to the likes of "Barney" that combines live-action humans in costume as the characters with 3-D games, re-creating the tea party sequence from the film.
Among the various interstitials provided in this feature is a song-and-dance number called "Let's Paint Our Noses Red", in which the costumed people on screen along with children by their side, hold prop buckets of paint, and pretent to paint themselves, singing the lyrics: "We're painting our noses red; Let's paint our faces red; Let's paint our beds red; Let's paint the world red."
This led to the first of many incidents in Seattle, Washington, in which a young boy apon watching this segment, went into his father's workroom, and opened a jar of paint, using a brush to cover his head with the substance, and proceeded to paint everything in his room red. Within minutes, the boy suffocated himself my blocking his mouth and nose from air with the thick liquid. Apon discovering this, the parents rushed him to the emergency room, and his condition has not been released.
"We think it's absolutely horrifying that they are putting junk like this on kids shows. Who do they think they are teaching our children to do dangerous things like this?" the mother, Teresa, made a statement.
These parents' angry complaint to Buena Vista Home Video was only one of the many that came in within that day. Among the other incidents reported of children immitating the characters in the "Virtual Wonderland Party" was a girl who attempted to bake cookies with raw fish and other meats inside of them and proceeded to come down with the Escherichia Coli virus.
This has led to numerous threats to sue the company, and Buena Vista is likely to recall the Alice DVD soon.
UPDATE: In the midst of all these reports, another accusation has come against Buena Vista Home Entertainment this evening for a seperate incident.
The parents of a young boy who was allowed to participate in the taping of the "Virtual Wonderland Party" DVD feature, are now claiming that during the segment "Follow Me", in which the characters played a follow-the-leader type game, giving orders such as "touch your head, now touch your elbows, now touch your toes, etc.", the man who was in costume as the Mad Hatter character told their son to "now touch my crotch". According to their statement, when the boy refused to do so, the man (who's identity is not being released at this time) chased the boy into is trailer in an effort to kidnap him, before the child managed to make his way back to the set. Supposedly, apon finding the boy later, the man proceeded to make the threat: "If you tell your parents about that, Santa will see that you're a taddle-teller, and he won't bring you any presents next Christmas."
This is a hard blow to the BVHE, which is already dealing with the numerous other accusations stemming from young viewers watching the "Virtual Wonderland Party" feature. Thus far, BVHE has declined a comment.
Just kidding.
