Peanut Allergy Imperils Heroine in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Of all the fantastic risks faced by the characters in the new animated film Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs -- enormous ears of corn dropping from the sky, avalanches of leftovers, spaghetti tornadoes, psychotic gummi bears -- there's one that may not seem so fanciful to some young viewers and their families: the risk of anaphylactic shock from exposure to peanuts.
In this case, of course, the danger is not from peanut butter in a classmate's sandwich but from a tunnel lined with sharp spikes of peanut brittle that must be navigated for the world to be saved. For spunky meteorologist Sam Sparks (voiced by Anna Faris, pictured), who's previously mentioned her allergy to peanuts, those spikes represent a much more real source of peril than, say, being eaten by a zombie roast chicken. It's enough to make her turn back from the final confrontation between scientist Flint and his invention gone awry, but not before she's scratched by a brittle blade and blows up like a balloon.
Fortunately, there's a doctor with a shot of epinephrine back at the flying car (what, a woman who totes around her own Doppler radar doesn't have an injector on her?), and our heroine is saved. The world too, eventually. I thought it was interesting that peanut allergies are sufficiently high-profile now to be an adventure-movie plot point. Is it a positive thing, that a character who is shown to be smart and capable happens to have a peanut allergy, and that Flint pretends to have one himself to get her to like him? Or a negative thing, that said allergy jeopardizes the world-saving mission and pulls Sam out of the action, while its effects are shown as being less life-threatening than puffed-up comical?
If you saw the film, especially if you saw it with a peanut-allergic child, share your thoughts in the comments. And if it's on your viewing schedule for a child who may be sensitive to such depictions, be warned.
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Love the movie! We prepared our 7-year old with peanut (and egg) allergy ahead of time and spoke with him about it after the film. Personally, it’s awesome to bring more attention to this deadly allergy (especially how it’s portrayed as a tactile (touching) method reaction). Like anything misunderstood, education is the key to awareness.
The movie was cute, and funny….
but when they got to the peanut allergy part, I was really upset by it. My daughter is allergic to peanuts. It upsets me how unrealistic it is, and the ‘heroine’ took light of the matter, she hung onto the rope instead of getting her epipen right away.
I always tell my daughter, her teachers, anyone who is with her.. if she has a reaction, first thing is to use the epipen, RIGHT AWAY, and THEN call 911 and get to the hospital. Peanut allergy can kill within minutes, seconds. Not only did the heroine did NOT carry her own epipen, she didn’t care to tend to her allergic reaction RIGHT away, or go to the hospital.
I saw the movie with my friends, and I would NOT let my daughter see it, it’s misleading, I wouldn’t want her to take light of the situation if it happens to her, and to ever go anywhere without her epipen.
What concerns me most is comical aspect of the allergic symptoms. Our 7 year old son has severe peanut allergy and one of our biggest worries is that some kid would think it would be funny to see him swell up like he saw in a movie. I think “Meet the Robinsons” a few years back did a better job with their peanut allergy reaction.
Was thinking of taking my pa son and daughter to movie but will not give my $ to studio who think it is cute or funny to include peanut allerigies in their movies. I think this belittles the seriousness of the allergy. As noted by another parent, my biggest fear is that other kids will think it would be funny to see what would happen if they gave my son peanuts.
I took my 4 year old with tree nut allergies to this film not having heard that a peanut reaction was part of the plot. I was stunned. It was shown like a comical inflation of the body, she was only semi-rushed (by a guy in a chicken body!) back to the car where she’d left her epi-pen, and she immediately recovered from the pen. It sends the wrong messages to non-allergic kids, and could easily upset a kid who has experienced a real reaction. Bad judgment call by the writers of a kids film, in my opinion.
If I had any idea that this movie portrayed peanut allergies the way it did, I NEVER would have let my 8 year old peanut and tree nut allergic daughter see it! She hasn’t been able to sleep because of “bad dreams” from the peanut brittle scene and keeps saying it was so scary to see her blow up. How unbelievably irresponsible for the studio to put something like this in a kids movie. She saw the movie over a week ago and has woken up four nights now! For someone to be so insensitive to a real life scary thing for a child is unacceptable! Shame on them!
Thank you so much for your comments! My peanut/nut allergic daughter was invited to a birthday party “at the movies” on Sat night. Thank goodness for allergymoms.com with a link to this article … it couldn’t have been more timely. My daughter is 7 and very logical and I know my biggest job is to teach her to own this allergy. She doesn’t enjoy movies at the best of times (she can be sensitive to the climax)… and I can’t imagine if she would have seen what you have described. Yikes! Thank you again!
I was told that there was something about peanut allergies before we saw this movie. I was told that they were not making fun of peanut allergies so I chose to take my food allergic child to the show. When the girl in the movie was going into anaphylaxis, my child and his buddies sat watching as if they were watching any action show and someone was in danger…no laughing. Then, as the girl’s face got bigger w/ swelling and her voice began to change, I heard a loud, grown man from behind us start to laugh like it was the most hilarious thing. AS soon as he began to laugh, the mothers in front of me began to laugh. I was horrified. I didn’t see any children laughing…only adults. Apparently they thought anaphylaxis was hilarious. Afterwards, my son and his friends said it wasn’t funny but that it just seemed like she was in danger and needed help. I was the one walking away from this extremely upset…I wanted to scream at these parents and ask them if they would think it would be funny to watch their children go into anaphylaxis. I was much more sensitive than my child was about it. I left the theatre very angry! I’m glad my son wasn’t.
My son has an allergy to peanuts and tree nuts. I had no idea about the scene but it was really wonderful for my son to see. When he saw how the epi pen helped her and I connected for him that her shot helped her like he keeps his shot with him, he smiled and said, “Oh Yeah, just like me.”
I think that while it might not have been 100% realistic, I focused on the positive with my son and the scene was successful for us.
The movie had a chance to handle the topic of food allergies responsibly and unfortunately blew it! I fell that the topic of food allergies could have been left alone once Sam Sparks mentioned having a severe peanut allergy. That would have been more than sufficient in creating awareness, if in fact that is what the movie attempted to accomplish??It would have shown that strong, intelligent individuals often live full lives with food allergies. The problem with the film is that not only did Sam’s character not carry her own epi-pen but that the movies tries to make a life-threatening condition a punch line. BOO HISS! If the movie producers wanted to have spotlight the increase of allergies witihin our society, they should have presented it in a respectful and realistic way. It is NOT funny to “blow up” and struggle to breathe. No one I know has ever rebounded in 2 seconds after having a dose of epinephrine. Hopefully the next film that decides to spotlight food allergies will do so in a respectful manner or just leave it out all together.
I liked the movie a lot. My son with the nut allergy had never seen a character with a nut allergy in anything ever before and was pretty jazzed about it. While her blowing up with an attack was played for laughs, the movie did point out that she was taking a risk to save other lives, and that the risk required a shot administered quickly to prevent her from dying. I admit it is not realistic that the blowing-up part happens before the potential throat-closing part (never discussed really on-screen). I am happy with how it was handled, including talk of having an epi-pen on hand. Publicity in a major movie aimed at kids now exists. Ever have other parents at school say “What’s the harm?” Well, now they’ll know.
Sorry I didn’t see the movie but my child’s class went to see it. When the teacher was telling me about how “great it was that they showed the child having a reaction” my first reaction was that they were trivializing it. I would think any parent with an allergic child would be outraged that they would make this into a “comical” situation that had a cheery happy outcome. My understanding is that it isn’t comical for anyone involved. My sympathies to those parents who have kids with allergies. I hope you can make this a teaching moment to those around and say it isn’t so easy!
i brought my 5.5 year old with treenut/peanut allergy to see this movie not having any idea about the allergy scene, and was thrilled to see the mention in the beginning, but when the character when into shock towards the end, my child looked up at me and said “let’s get out of here” — scared to death! it is a scary issue, i just wished i had known about it ahead of time so i could prepare my child. shame on me for not researching the movie better!!!
I saw it with my 10 year old severely allergic son, who had just had an allergic reaction to shellfish two weeks earlier (rescue, hospital the whole works) he has been very sensitive and fearful since reaction and when he got in the car he cried all the way home. It opened up a big conversation about how we (husband and I) don’t know how he feels and don’t understand him. But it did open the lines of communication.
We saw this movie over the weekend with our two boys, one of whom has a peanut allergy. I had no idea that peanut allergy was even mentioned in the movie and actually, considering that this movie was all about food, I thought it was great that it was included in it! While I agree that there should have been more emphasis on getting the Epipen to her faster, there were other aspects that I could tell that were deliberately included that I liked. For example, the fact that she had a reaction to peanut without actually eating it is an important for people to see. Most people think that as long as the child doesn’t actually eat it, he or she is not at risk for reaction. I also liked how the Epipen actually looked like an Epipen and even had the name printed on it. Then it was injected properly right into her thigh through her jeans (as is should be). I am pleased that peanut allergy played a part in this movie about food and is simultaneously helping people be more aware.