Most animation movies hitting movie screens in China are now three-dimensional ones. These movies mainly target younger viewers and come with much higher ticket prices. However, doctors warn parents that children under the age of six should not be watching 3-D movies as they may pose a risk to younger viewers' eyesight.
The summer vacation movie market has been flooded by all kinds of 3-D movies, especially cartoon movies targeting children. Many kids say that they love watching 3-D movies more than traditional 2-D ones.
"The image is more vivid than 2-D movies, and more visually stimulating, especially the stories with lots of action and impressive scenes."
"I feel like the characters are coming out of the screen, it's so cool!"
Movie theater managers say that most of the animation movies on the screen during the summer vacation are 3-D films. Tickets sell out very quickly for 3-D movies. This trend has become more and more obvious ever since the success of "Avatar". Movie-makers tend to produce 3-D animation films and movie theaters also love to introduce 3-D films in order to attract children. On top of this, the ticket prices for 3-D films are much higher than 2-D animation movies.
Manager Jia Hui works for a movie theater based in Tianjin. "There are more 3-D movies this summer; hitting the screens one by one starting from June. 'Madagascar 3' and 'Ice Age 4' are very popular among children. Another seven to eight new 3-D ones will debut before the end of the summer vacation."
But at the same time, parents have found that they are left with little choice other than taking their children to watch 3-D movies. There are a limited number of 2-D screenings available in the market. Jia Hui says tickets for 3-D movies are often double the price of 2-D films. The profit made is also quite considerable.
"More than 60 percent of the movies are 3-D, only a few are 2-D. They bring in a lot of money for us."
Many children say that they do love watching 3-D films, but at the same time, they also feel a little uncomfortable after watching the 3-D images for a sustained period of time.
"I feel a bit dizzy and nauseas after watching the movie."
Foreign health experts have pointed out that watching 3-D movies can cause damage to children's eyes. According to research conducted by the University of California, watching 3-D movies by wearing the special glasses may cause fatigue and eyesight damage and researchers suggest that children under the age of six should not be viewing such movies.
Eye doctor Guo Yufeng from Tianjin Tianhe Hospital echoes this statement.
"Children under the age of three haven't developed mature eyesight, so even if you let them watch 3-D films, they still can't achieve the 3-D visual effect. Normally children under the age of six may have eyesight damage if they watch too many 3-D images. We also don't encourage adults watching such movies for too long. This will also bring extra fatigue to their eyes, and it's not good for one's eyesight."
Doctors suggest that parents be extra cautious when choosing films for their children and call for greater consideration concerning the health of children's eyesight from both movie-makers and movie theaters. A child's eyesight takes years to fully develop while easy money can be made overnight by movie vendors.