Adult, non-comedy animation right here, right now (and it's not Japanese!)

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I had the idea for this topic after seeing this post in the "minority opinions" thread:



It took me a while to get round to it, though, but now I think it'll make an interesting companion to Joey's post about the status of animation in America.

Okay, here we go. Contrary to what some people believe, adult (ie, apparently not primarily intended for children) non-comedy (ie, possibly light-hearted but not really in Simpsons territory) animation is regularly made outside Japan. Here's a small sampling of stuff that's available to watch online legally:

Kamiya's Correspondence
Dog
Black Day to Freedom
King Pylon
Waking Up Inside the Fish

I'll reserve comment on these for now. The rest of you can take a look through them and post your thoughts. Which did you like best? Are they what you expected when you asked for adult animation? Disappointed, or pleasantly surprised? Inspired maybe? Have they made you think a little differently about the animation scene?

I'll be interested to hear what people have to say.
 
I would like to think Delta State was adult animation (though some might argue against its use of rotoscoped characters)... and it wasn't a sitcom (though it did use the 'three fixed camera' system of shooting).
 
There definitely is adult non-comedy animation out there. You just have to look for it. The question isn't could there be an animated film that's a straightforward drama, but rather, how well would such a film do in American theaters? Unfortunately, the prevailing attitude is still that "cartoons are mostly folly for kids", and most filmmakers aren't willing to take the chance to produce an animated non-comedy out of fear that the movie would tank at the box office.

Case in point: when the animated feature based on George Orwell's Animal Farm opened in theaters in 1954, Halas & Bachelor studios' most difficult task was trying to promote it; they had to go out of their way to convince its' audience that they were not watching a children's barnyard funny, but a political statement with serious overtones.
 
Back in the summer of 1998, there was an animated prime-time drama called Invasion America, that ran on the WB network. Despite some pretty good production values, a good story and a voice cast that included Tony Jay and Leonard Nimoy, it only lasted 6 episodes. The WB would later recycle a lot of the show's concepts for Roswell, which became one of their more popular shows for three seasons

I'd love to see a TV season in America with a few animated dramas mixed in with the endless infestation of lame comedies and reality garbage. But I don't think it will happen in the current generation. Some of us have been waiting 40 years for the rest of the country to cast off their perception that "cartoons are for kids", and it hasn't happened yet. Even the animated sitcoms rarely meet my definition of "adult" entertainment because the humor is so juvenile and they are, like most of the live-action sitcoms, are written for the lowest common denominator of the national audience.
 
Well, this has been enlightening.

People complain about the lack of non-comedy animation for adults. I come along with a bunch of cartoons saying "hey! Here's that adult animation you were asking for! Whaddya think of it?"

And people respond by completely ignoring them and discussing the stuff that they're already familiar with.

So much for voting with your feet...
 
The Plague Dogs, from the author (and director) of Watership Down, is a pretty good adult animated film. It's not for everyone as it's pretty depressing. The director's cut is the preferred version that's unfortunately only available on DVD in Australia.
 
As much as a I love The Plague Dogs, it was released 26 years ago, which kind of misses the "right now" part of this thread
 
That's is a valid point. Another reason that most animators don't do straight drama is simply because there's nothing "cartoony" about that. Most people tune in to animation to see things happen which can't be accomplished in live-action, in short, the reality and physics-defying "squash-and-stretch" technique which has become a staple of animation. A dramatic feature by its' very nature couldn't be as exaggerated, and therefore, not cartoony. Most people feel that if animators were to put those kinds of restrictions on a story, they might as well be watching live-action.
 
You can do some pretty crazy but still dramatic stuff in animation. One could argue that animation increases suspension of disbelief, so even more extreme stuff can be done in the name of drama. Evangelion, for example, is perfectly suited for animation and is quite serious (though is does contain comedy, but even the Shakespearian tragedies can be funny at times, so I don't think anybody wants stuff completely lacking in humor).
 
Like I said in the first post, I'm defining "non-comedy" loosely as "possibly light-hearted but not really in Simpsons territory". There are plenty of films (live action and otherwise) which have had their light-hearted moments but couldn't really be labeled "comedy" in their IMDB entries.



Just because it's not a comedy or expressly intended for children doesn't make it "straight drama" - I mean, I wouldn't say that any of the shorts I linked to could be described as such
 
Gargoyles and JLU seemed to justify being animated despite their dramatic tones. Unless of course you're refering to simple nonaction drama, then yes I see your point.
 
True, but they come out everynow and then. As for the cartoons MonkeyFunk listed, they're only available online.

What we need are some animated dramas that actually air on television on a regular basis.
 
Finally, people are starting to discuss the cartoons that the topic was supposed to be focusing on!

Okay, I'm going to have to take you up on this. Why are you dismissing these films just because they're distributed over the Internet? What's wrong with that? I mean, with the talk of online TV that's in the air now, maybe this is the way forward.

If you want there to be a market for animated series in the same vein as these shorts, then a good start would be to encourage people to watch these shorts. Show them to your friends. Forward them to your favourite blogs. Support the DVD releases (Kamiya's Correspondence can be found, amongst others, on this disc). There won't be a TV series if people aren't willing to watch the stuff.
 
Before we see non-comedy animation on American television, we will see hybrids. Hybrids are the key, and it is starting. Most blockbuster movies made today are already hybrids: mixed animation and live action. And Adult Swim is has a few action-comedies. It's these hybrids that are the next step. Mature animation will come but it will take generations.
 
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