Not surprisingly, "good" or "neutral" characters were more likely to instigate what the researchers called "funny" violence, while "bad" characters were more likely to instigate "sinister" violence.

Funny acts included Dumbo shooting peanuts from his trunk at the female elephants in Dumbo and Tigger toppling Rabbit in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Sinister acts included Uncle Scar slaying Mufasa in The Lion King and Mickey Mouse attempting to axe the water-carrying broom in Fantasia.

While in 49 percent of the films at least one character rejoices over an act of violence, characters call for non-violence in only 32 percent of the films.

Still, Yokota cautioned that she and Thompson don't make any links between violent films and children's behavior--though she did provide a word of caution for parents.

"Just because a movie is G-rated doesn't mean the level of violence is safe for kids," Yokota said. "If parents are concerned about violent content, they can't overlook G-rated movies."

Peggy Charren, the founder of the group Action for Children's Television, an advocacy group, said she agreed.

She, like the study's authors, favors a change in the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system to make it more content-based and more descriptive.