What makes adult animation "adult"?

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samonosu

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So everyone talks about animation not only being for kids. Which is true, but I was thinking what makes it particularly adult? For example you could argue that Avatar and The Incredibles have mature story telling and seem adult despite being marketed to kids, then you could look at Family Guy and say how juvenile the humor really is considering it relies on crude jokes about poop and sex. It may be adult but it's not mature.

I think a nice balance is something like Rumbling Hearts. Forgive me for having to use an anime but it has some nudity and sex but it's rather tasteful and it has a mature story that I assume most 9 year old's won't find interesting.
I think that some of the cartoons based on comic books could also qualify.
 
I don't know what kind of audience Family Guy wants. You'll have all these juvenille jokes thrown in with some showtunes.

Is there anybody out there who has both Family Guy and Anchors Aweigh in their dvd collection? (besides Mr. McFarlane)
 
Ironically, it's always the most juvenille of material that people use to call adult animation "mature." Sex, gore, swearing, poop jokes, whatever, it's always those things that make the mainstream see certain animated shows/movies as "mature" when they're really nothing but more graphic versions of the material that's been shown on stuff like Nickelodeon for over a decade.

The Incredibles was one of the most mature films I've ever seen, animated or otherwise. It had real people with real problems, suspicion of adultery, even genocide; it was a very mature movie. But oh, no sex? No gore? No bad language? It's a kid's flick.

Basically, the mainsteam is just stupid. :sweat:
 
There's mature as in 'real mature Bradley', i.e not being stupid and idiotic and theres 'mature' as in sex references and serious plotlines. A cartoon doesn't have to be taken seriously (i.e be overly realistic) to be overly mature. I mean shows like Pepper ann were realistic but weren't overladed with sex references and poop jokes. IMO shows like Pepper ann or The Weekenders are 'mature' in that they aren't silly and nonsensical. But a show like South Park or Drawn Together is mature in the adult fashion and that's why i refer to this 'maturity' as being adult of nature and not as mature.
 
Family Guy....I won't call that an adult animation show.

I think it's the theme of what the animation show's. Like a "Coming of age" theme, something to relate in your life. It can still be funny, have a lot of action and it could be in a different world, but the theme have something you can relate to. Or it has a mature theme in it. But thats me. ;)

But I don't think an adult animation is all about blood, sex, or dumb jokes.
 
I've always seen it more as a decision made by whoever's marketing the cartoon. They market it to kids, it's a kids' cartoon; they market it to adults, it's an adults' cartoon. As a rule of thumb, the best stuff (in any medium) is ultimately created for the creators themselves.



Yeah but... it also had superheroes, an evil mime artist called Bomb Voyage, and a teaser trailer that consisted entirely of a fat guy tryng to put his belt on.
 
Well, yeah, but I don't really see your point. Are you trying to say that those things cancel out the mature content or something? I never said The Incredibles was a 100% serious, super dramatic film. For all of its content and themes, it's still a very accessable movie for kids/adults/whatever. I merely used it as an example of the irony that what really makes a production "mature" in my eyes is usually overshadowed by the juvenille things that people seem to associate with "adult" animation.
 
Family guy is certainly an adult cartoon seeing it how despite all the low brow poop and sex jokes there are also a lot of jokes that would go straight over any child's head. In order for something to be "adult" it does not have to have a mature theme or storyline. If it did, Monthy Python would be a kids show...
 
"Adult" means that, according to the puritanical parenting groups that control everything, only adults should be watching the show.
 
I always considered the "adult" cartoons (Family guy, South Park, KotH, etc.) as adolescent before I considered them adult. Swearing and sexual humor are what the high school kids like. Something I would really consider adult is suspense and thriller. Perfect Blue is an example of this. Anime has an adolescent draw to it, but I can't see the hip young crowd clammering for Perfect Blue (that and the whole rape thing).
 
I really hate the assumption that, if you just make a reference (no joke, just a reference) to a movie or TV show that was made before all the five-year-olds in the audience were born, that makes the animated movie or televison series making the reference somehow "adult". :shrug: How is being reminded of other movies and TV shows you've seen before make something adult?
 
The only jokes on Family Guy that would go over kids' heads are the references to movies to movies and TV shows that were made before their time.

As for the poop and sex jokes, very often an abundance of toilet humor and saucy language is the exact opposite of mature. If Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Robot Chicken didn't contain the saucy language, the dark themes about suicide, murder, sex and so forth and the "pee-pee, ca-ca" humor, both shows could easily qualify as kids' shows.
 
The false sense of maturity that the people working at williams street have. Oh & the violence, blood/gore & inuendo. Seriously though I wish they would say explicit like alot of CDs, & movies do these days, cause I mean c'mon theres very few actual "Mature" things about AS. But I digrese.:p
 
I consider an adult show something that doesn't pander to a young audience by including material that parents might find unsuitable.
 
Before the revival, FG had some very mature jokes, that were obscure and clever. The one episode where Meg gets dressed up and Stewie is like, "somewhere, there's a picture of you getting prettier." You have to be aware of literature to get that one. Hell, even the Jemima's Witness gag in the very first ep. was clever.
 
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