RALEIGH -- As 5-year-old Chance Johnston sat bouncing in his seat in the movie theater Saturday morning, it was hard to tell who was more excited, Chance or his mother.
They were about to see "Toy Story 3," though the movie had little to do with their excitement.
Chance is autistic and nonverbal, and his mother, Veronica Gist, had never taken him to the movies for fear that it would be overwhelming for Chance and disruptive to other patrons. But on this day, at the Regal Cinema at Brier Creek, Chance and Gist were in a theater filled with other autistic children and their parents.
"He's been hugging me nonstop since we got here," Gist, 40, said. "He knows something exciting is going to happen, but he doesn't know what."
Cary's Mariposa School for Children with Autism had rented two Brier Creek theaters so that families with special-needs children could watch "Toy Story 3" in an environment that would embrace their idiosyncrasies.
The house lights would remain on during the show; the sound would be turned down. The children would be free to shout, sing and get up and move around the theater without worry about bothering other moviegoers.
For the next two hours, as Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Rex the Dinosaur careered through their latest adventure, the audience relished an experience that most families take for granted.
"Being his dad, I just want to do things like this," said Mike Dren, who brought both his daughter Victoria, 7, and his son Anthony, 5, to the screening.
Anthony is autistic and nonverbal and rarely sits still for any length of time. He appeared to pay little attention to the movie, spending his time near the entrance fidgeting and tearing at scraps of paper.
But his father considered the outing a success. After being reluctant to initially enter the theater, Anthony ended up staying till the end and being surrounded by others like him.
For Dane Shears, Saturday morning marked the first time in years that he'd been to a movie and stayed through to the end. Shears' daughter, Natalie, 4, is autistic and attends Mariposa.
He said Natalie gets restless in theaters and wants to leave, or begins making noise that distracts other moviegoers.
Shears began trying to organize Saturday's special showing after reading a Time magazine article that described similar events around the country.
After calling several movie theater owners, he finally found a receptive one in Regal. Shears, 43, rented out the theaters without knowing how many tickets he might sell, but demand turned out to be beyond his wildest dreams.
The school sold 250 tickets in three days and ended up with more than 50 people on a waiting list for future events. Parents and children came from all over the Triangle - Fuquay-Varina, Johnston County, Carrboro and Chapel Hill.
Shears said just leaving the lights on and turning down the sound makes a big difference for autistic children, who easily experience sensory overload. It also helped that many of the children had watched the earlier Toy Story films and were familiar with the characters on the screen.
Most of the families were able to stay until the end.
The biggest laughs came from parents. Many children seemed more entertained by the surroundings than by the movie's plot, roaming the theater as their parents looked on and smiled.
But it was that ability to smile, and relax, that made the theater atmosphere special.
"This is what it's supposed to be about," said Daniel Labrador, the general manager of Regal Cinema at Brier Creek. "We're definitely hoping we can do this on a regular basis."
As for Chance Johnston, he left the theater bouncing even higher off the ground than when he came in. His mother wasn't far behind, tears welling in her eyes.
"This is the most amazing thing in the world," she said.
