(RNN) – Disney is reportedly asking theaters to add an epilepsy warning to the much-anticipated “Incredibles 2” after a number of social media users warned of scenes with intense flashing lights as the film was released this weekend.
A post by the user @exigetspersonal originally spread on the microblogging site Tumblr, in which the user wrote in part:
“This is not a joke. I was at a first-night showing tonight, and my immediate thought was how disastrously unsafe this movie is for my photosensitive epileptic friends.
“There are multiple scenes in this movie with full-screen, black-and-white flashing strobe effects. They all happen without warning, and last anywhere between a few seconds to more than two minutes. In a darkened movie theater, this means the likelihood of a seizure could be VERY HIGH if you are sensitive to these effects.”
That post received more than 73,000 reblogs or likes. The post then separately spread on Twitter, with the user @METICHE getting more than 48,000 retweets and 40,000 likes for a screenshot of it.
for anyone watching the Incredibles 2!! pic.twitter.com/HuIS1A6qc6
— valentine (@METlCHE) June 15, 2018
In response to that tweet, one person who said they were not epileptic, but photosensitive, said the movie “triggered a fainting episode that lasted several hour” and that “my mom and sister had to carry me out of the theater because I couldn’t walk.”
Another user, @veron4ica, described some of the scenes, most notably that “the villain’s weapon of choice in the movie is bright white lights that are at a rapidly flashing/strobing frequency, with the intent to disorient people.”
She said the scenes lasted as long as 90 seconds in one instance.
Variety reported on Saturday that Disney had become aware of the response and was asking theaters to add a warning for photosensitive and epileptic moviegoers.
One Twitter user, @KristinSupe, posted a photo from a theater with the warning reading:
“INCREDIBLES 2 contains a sequence of flashing lights which may affect customers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy or other photo sensitivities.”
Photosensitive epilepsy warning in the wild! (We were seeing something different today, but hope to take the boy to incredibles 2 for his first theater movie soon) pic.twitter.com/mg1a7xoSyh
— Dr. Kristin Supe (@KristinSupe) June 16, 2018
The Tumblr account Movie Health Community has started a petition at change.org asking Pixar to “include a visible epilepsy warning at some point in the theater-going experience.”
It had more than 1,100 signatures as of Saturday evening.
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