Was pre-90s American animation ever serious?

B

Bobadub

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As we all know, Batman: The Animated Series changed animation back when it premiered almost 13 years ago. It was an animated series that was very serious in nature and paved the way for similar shows to follow later on.

But what about TV animation that preceded it? There were plenty of action toons before it (especially in the 60s and 80s) but most if not all were lighthearted and campy in nature and atmosphere.

Out of all of the shows then, I believe Dungeons and Dragons was the only cartoon that took itself pretty seriously. You could feel that the characters were in actual danger and the situations didn't feel that they simply played for laughs.

So what I'm asking is: were there any other pre-90s cartoons that were serious and why was it until the 90s that serious shows became a little more common?

(This mostly pertains to television animation but posters are welcome to add information relating to theatrical animation as well)
 
In a way, so was B:TAS, come to think of it. Most of the characters were comedy acts in one way or the other, Bats himself being one of the few exceptions. Looks to me like American action cartoons have always had a comedy bent, it's just that what constituted "serious" for a TV series has shifted over time - B:TAS came after Twin Peaks, but the live action contemporaries of Transformers and He-Man were stuff like A-Team.

(Course, I don't know that much about live action American TV history, so my theory could be completely off)
 
Generally animation was typecasted as a comedy format as much as it was a kids format.

As for serious animation pre-90s the few that come to mind:

1. The Super Powers Team Galactic Guardians: While it was no drama it lacked some of the corniness that the preceding Superfriends season did. Most notably is The Fear in which Batman's origin appears onscreen for the first time (including his parent's death and his fear of the alley which is dealt with in the episode), and the Death of Superman (which the team cope with Superman's passing, while Firestorm feels responsible).

2. Star Trek The Animated Series: Overall the show was handled by the cast/crew of The Original Series and was written to be as close to the original show as possible. You had the one liners with Spock, Kirk & McCoy and some comical episodes, but you never really have any comic relief characters that are typical of many classic toons. Best episode to demonstrate the series seriousness is Yesteryears which includes a moment that was kept despite network higher ups wanting to remove it:

A Younger Spock has to choose whether to let his injured pet live in pain or put him to sleep.
 
One to immediately come to mind for me was the 1960's Johnny Quest series, maybe the first "serious" animated series produced for America. If there were any earlier than this (1964, I believe) let us know.
 
And let's not forget Transformers:The Movie.

And correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure that season three of G1 can be considered somewhat dark.
 
Jonny Quest was probably the original serious tv cartoon, and I think that most of H-B's adventure shows in the 60s (Space Ghost, Herculoids, etc) followed suit and a few of their 70s and 80s shows did as well (Godzilla, Valley of the Dinosaurs, Galactic Guardians, etc) though not to the degree of Jonny and the 60s shows. Filmation had Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Blackstar and Bravestarr. In the 80s, we had shows like Dungeons & Dragons, Thundarr, Centurions, Defenders of the Earth and others. I think that some of what helped B:TAS stand out from what came before and after was it's maturity, incredible balance of style and substance, and the voice acting.
 
Unless "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" counts, maybe the first "serious" American cartoon would be the early 40s Fleischer "Superman" shorts (which partially influenced the 90s animated DC shows' look).

-B.
 
You are so in error. B: TAS premiered almost 20 years ago, not almost 13.
September 1992, to be exact.

And, you ask, why "wasn't it until the 90s that serious (animated) shows became a little more common"?

A cause would be the USA's 1991 acceptance of punk music. From then on, popular music got dark and gritty and started asking questions unimaginable in the 1980s. America ceased looking at herself as a happy, blissful, carefree land. TRUTHREVEALING TIME had surely come. This affected most other arts/media, TV animation being one of them. Film animation, not so much.

Thanks, Zack.
 
Some people might not agree with me on this but i consider many Disney feature lenght films to qualify as "serious" animation. Of course there was a lot of comedy in them, but, ,at least with his earlier films, Walt always made sure that drama and suspense were present as well. Pinocchio and Bambi are probably the best examples of this. In fact, i cant really think of any instance in American animation prior to the 90's that felt as serious as Bambi's mothers death. At the very least, Disneys feature lenght films were among the extremely few American cartoons during the golden age that tried to invoke any other kind of response from their audience than laughter. Fleischers Superman shorts would count as this as well, since suspense was what these tried to convey rather then humor.
 
If we're including animated films, then the earlies example I know of is The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918). It's also notable for the fact that - unlike most of the "serious" American cartoons that came afterwards - it actually deals with serious subject matter.
 
Um, yeah... least until the "boy band" craze, Spice Girls and Britney Spears hit in the late 90s. ;-)

Flashing back to 1991, I don't recall punk being popular----popular music was still pretty "80s" (Paula Abdul, MC Hammer, and some heavy metal acts were popular, as well as late 80s/early 90s rap groups). A year or two later, grunge hit more full-force (Nirvana, etc.)...

Don't think the music at any rate influenced animation's seriousness... if anything, they greenlit Batman:TAS per the live-action films' success at the time (and the success Warner Bros. had with their first modern TV cartoon, "Tiny Toon Adventures", to spur them to try another series, albeit a more dramatic one).

-B.
 
fievel the first movie, and the land before time were great movies with very serious plots.

the over arching story archs that we see now a days in shows like JLU was never conceived because the market was either always underestimated or was just not prepared for it. though shows like thundercats, heman, johhny test, space ghost, gi joe, herculoids, and superfriends would go the after school special route or drum up some campy intensity.
 
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