Date: 16th August 2001

Disney Criticised For Bubble Boy Movie


Movie studio DISNEY have been slammed for making fun of children with chronic immune disorder in their new film BUBBLE BOY (2001).

The comedy, which opens in America next week (begs20AUG01), centres on the exploits of a lovelorn teenager confined to a plastic bubble.

But the film has angered many real 'bubble kids'. 10-year-old SCOTT MCGUIRE was so incensed he wrote to studio head MICHAEL EISNER.

He fumed, "It's called a comedy, but we don't think it's funny to make jokes about serious diseases. I spend many hours a month getting transfusions at the hospital so I can try to stay healthy. It would make me really sad to think while I am at the hospital, lots of people are sitting in a movie theatre laughing about a serious disease. "

McGuire is one of around half a million children who are diagnosed with primary immunodeficiency (PI) disease, which leaves them highly susceptible to infection. Although patients are no longer confined to an actual bubble an intensive treatment regime forces them to lead restrictive lifestyles.

A Disney spokesman says, "The bubble is the set-up for a road trip comedy. There was no malicious intent. " (RP/WNWCGG)

Source: WENN