Smoking In Movies Good For Kids?

Paramount's new animated feature, Rango, has a lot of people up in arms. It seems some of the characters in the PG-rated movie are shown smoking cigarettes and cigars. In fact, according to Yahoo, there are more than 60 instances of smoking throughout the film.

 A Paramount spokesperson says that the movie does not glamorize smoking in any way: "The images of smoking in the film, which primarily involves the animals, are portrayed by supporting characters and are not intended to be celebrated or emulated."

The main character, Rango -- voiced by Johnny Depp -- is never shown smoking.

But that might not be enough to appease parents and anti-smoking groups like Breathe California.   

Just Asking ... Would you take your child to see a movie with smoking in it? Did you watch a lot of movies with smoking as a kid? Did it affect how you look at smoking?  

As a teenager, I worked at the Palace Twin Theatre and Duncan Drive In.  I used to see all of the movies that had smoking in them.  And I saw movies growing up on the television. (Remember the ABC Sunday night movie?)  Yeah, lots of smoking in those movies, but, it did not directly influence me to smoke. Nor did it make me look differently at smoking in general.