What makes adult animation "adult"?

Basically this. I think an adult animated film is categorized as one for having content that most deem unsuitable for children. But adult and mature are two different things in my perspective, though they get conflicted into the same category.

Adult =/= mature, because there are many immature adults out there quite obviously. There are many actually mature animated films that most of the general public assume to be kids movies because they merely judge by content. But once again, that's the conflicting issue with the general public's understanding of what's 'mature' and what's just 'adult'.
 
Hoo boy, do I agree with YOU. Look at the shows on Adult Swim right now; is that mature humor? I think it's strictly frat-boy humor, and "mature" is not a synonym for that. And you are spot-on about the Incredibles. That was all-ages humor at its best. IMO, adult animation in its highest form involves humor derived from human relationships, rendered with some insight and depth. You can find that type of humor in the best Disney films, all of the Pixar films, a scant few Dreamworks films (maybe Kung Fu Panda), and in rare TV toons. Spongebob, for instance, manages to appeal to adults in part via the show's basic storyline - an Everyman working at a drudge job that he happens to love (from which is derived a great deal of the show's humor) and the fact that Spongebob himself is a character of warmth and depth. There have been missteps every now and then, but for the most part, Spongebob has a real personality, which helps make him a "real person", which in turn makes him indentifiable to adults. Maybe kids - little, little kids - can find entertainment value in a character like Cosmo of FOP via his screechy voice, weird-colored hair and the fact he's dumber than they are - but for real adult humor it takes a well-written, well-conceived character. As a semi-adult, I appreciate toons that respect my intelligence as much as they respect kids'. Walt Disney always said that he made cartoons for audiences, not for children; and IMO the best toon producers follow his example.
 
To use an analogy, is a person's maturity diminished because they choose to have a sense of humor or have fun?



Exactly. As much as I like Family Guy and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, the later episodes have to continually stress that they are for adults (Look, "We're showing off a lot of blood" or "Look, the characters are using profanity nonstop".

As much as Gargoyles, Batman The Animated Series and other shows like them may have elements that are unrealistic, the serious moments and the intense actions are used tastefully and not for the heck of it.

To use another analogy, who would you consider to be mature?:

A. The adult who uses profanity non stop to prove he/she is mature.

or

B. The kid/teen who is well behaved in school, the library, on public transportation and can still have fun & joke around when the time is appropriate.
 
To me, it's well-written, sophisticated dialogue. Junvenile violence and swearing, however, does not make a cartoon "adult". I can live with these things in cartoons but if they're all that particular show has to offer than you can forget about me watching it.
 
Nevertheless, those pop culture references are jokes that mostly only adults would get, whether you find them intelligent or not. And since shows like Family Guy are so filled to the brim with jokes that only an adult would find funny because only an adult would be able to comprehend the joke in the first place, that makes the show qualify as "adult" in my book. The "intellectuality" (or lack of it) of the jokes have nothing to do with it.

However, "maturity" is so hard to define that the meaning of the concept is almost completely subjective. So anyone can go ahead and consider Faimly Guy the last thing on earth that should be considered mature, and i wont make a fuss about it.
 
I would say Family Guy is more of a sketch show, the bastard child of the comedy shows WBAnimation made in the early 90s and Youtube. I like how I can watch 5 minutes of the show without being lost, the pop culture blender aspect... and, to be honest, I am intrigued by the possibilities of its format as a pop culture collage if thought through and developed- as opposed to having manatees write it.
 
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