Adult animation

Adult animation, also known as mature animation, and infrequently as adult-oriented animation, is any type of animated motion work that is catered specifically to adult interests, and is mainly targeted and marketed towards adults and adolescents, as opposed to children or all-ages audiences. Works in this medium could be considered adult for any number of reasons, which include the incorporation of explicit or suggestive sexual content, graphic violence, swear words, dark comedy, or other thematic elements inappropriate for children, and/or any young viewers. Works in this genre may explore philosophical, political, or social issues. Some productions are noted for their complex and/or experimental storytelling and animation techniques. This includes animated films, television series, and web series.

Adult animation is typically defined as animation that skews toward adults. It is also described as something that "formative youths should stay far, far away from" or has adult humor and comes in various styles, but especially sitcoms and comedies. Some have stated that it refers to animations with "adult themes and situations," which uses "explicit language" and make jokes that adults, and occasionally teens, are "more likely to understand" than others. On television, such animations often run in the evening, but they are not generally pornographic or obscene. AdWeek called adult animation "animated projects aimed at grown-ups, not kids." They also focus on issues that adults handle, and have cheeky, and occasionally crass, humor "that has no limits—bouncing between funny and offensive," while evoking a "balance of reality and fantasy." They may also contain violence or sexual themes.

Americas

Argentina

In 2019, Ayar Blasco's third Spanish-language animated film, ''Lava'' was released. A 67-minute comedy and science fiction film, it tells the story of a lonely tattoo artist named Deborah who "endeavors to save herself and her town from an alien invasion," with the aliens coming in various forms, trying to get humanity to submit, with Deborah trying to convince others to resist these attacks. One critic, Vassilis Kroustallis, described the film as a "welcome COVID-19 satire," doing well when it comes to self-reflection and interesting characters, and weaker when it comes to plotlines. In November 2020 it was announced that Rock Salt Releasing had gained "global sales rights and U.S. distribution" for the film, complete with English dubbing.

Canada

Adult animation has slowly moved forward in Canada. From 2002 to 2003, ''Clone High'', a Canadian–American adult animated sitcom, a parody of teen dramas such as ''Dawson's Creek'' and ''Beverly Hills, 90210'', first aired in its entirety on Canadian cable network Teletoon at Night between 2002 and 2003, later debuting on MTV. After controversy regarding its depiction of Mahatma Gandhi, which prompted hundreds in India to mount a hunger strike in response, MTV pulled the series, which had been receiving low ratings. Additionally, ''Clone High'' attracted mixed reviews from television critics upon its premiere, but it has since received critical acclaim and a cult following. Some critics described it as having a "silly premise" and noted that it was short-lived.

Then, from 2004 to 2007, ''Tripping the Rift'', an American/Canadian adult CGI science fiction comedy television series, which aired in Syfy, then airing on channels of other North American and International broadcasters, aired on Space and Teletoon at Night. It also aired in France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, and Central Europe. Then in 2008, Anchor Bay released the 75 minute unrated ''Tripping the Rift: The Movie'' on DVD on 25 March 2008. The series was described as "strange riff on Star Trek", with one reviewer saying that while the show has "some out-of-date CGI animation," it mixes spoof of sci-fi with political satire and social commentary. In addition, from 2007 to 2008, an American animated television program by Adam de la Peña, titled ''Code Monkeys'', which follows the adventures of fictional video game company GameaVision, ran for two seasons, from 2007 to 2008, on G4 and G4 Canada. The series was described as being an "arcade-themed comedy," while having a style of "lude ic stoner humor" while having visuals of a distinct flavor.

In 2005, a British-Canadian adult animated series about a British high school in South London, titled ''Bromwell High'', aired on Teletoon at Night in Canada first, then had an incomplete run on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. It was a co-production between Hat Trick Productions in the UK and Decode Entertainment in Canada. It was originally to be entitled ''Streatham Hill'', but was renamed ''Bromwell High'' in January 2005. Streatham Hill is a real London suburb, while Bromwell is fictional. Reviewers stated that it made fun of living in a London suburb while "delivering a surreal and outlandish viewing experience," parodying British culture itself, having simplistic but edgy humor while staying a "wholly original" animation.

In 2016 ''Secret Path in the UK and VH1 in the US) that "the movie was the less successful telling of ''The Wall'' story as opposed to the album and concert versions." Later, although the symbol of the crossed hammers used in the film was not related to any real group, it was adopted by white supremacist group the Hammerskins in the late 1980s. In terms of the animation, even before the original Pink Floyd album was recorded, the intention was to make a film from it. The original plan was for the film to be live footage from the album's tour, together with Gerald Scarfe's animation and extra scenes, and for Waters himself to star. EMI did not intend to make the film, as they did not understand the concept. Later, Alan Parker convinced Waters and Scarfe that the concert footage was too theatrical and that it would jar with the animation and stage live action. After the concert footage was dropped, Seresin left the project and Parker became sole director.

In 1986, England produced yet another politically themed animation, '' When the Wind Blows'', which recounts a rural English couple's attempt to survive a nearby nuclear attack and maintain a sense of normality in the subsequent fallout. The film stars the voices of John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft as the two main characters and was scored by Roger Waters of ''Pink Floyd''. The film is a hybrid of traditional and stop-motion animation. The characters of Jim and Hilda Bloggs are hand-drawn, but their home and most of the objects in it are real objects that seldom move but are animated with stop-motion when they do. In the United States it was released on Blu-ray on 11 November 2014 by Twilight Time in a limited edition of 3000, and in the United Kingdom, a dual-format release containing both the DVD and Blu-ray version was released on 22 January 2018 by the BFI. Severin Films released another Blu-ray of the movie in the United States through their Severin Kids label on 21 April 2020.

In 2016, '' Ethel & Ernest'' was broadcast on television on BBC One. Some critics called it a "placid, exquisitely observed chronicle of an ordinary English marriage."

In November 2020, the ''Daily Express'' reported that an adult animated comedy named ''The Prince'' was coming soon to HBO Max. They described it as a show which will poke "fun at the British monarchy...lampoon ngvarious royals."

Denmark

In 2011, the 3D computer-animated fantasy comedy film ''Ronal the Barbarian,'' parodies the barbarians and other stereotypes of the sword and sorcery fiction, role-playing games and films such as Conan the Barbarian and the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' class, with nods towards the 1980s fantasy boom and its association with traditional heavy metal.

In 2021, '' Flee'', an animated documentary film was based on a true story that follows of a refugee named Amin Nawabi, who shares his hidden past for the first time, of fleeing his country to Denmark for his safety. Sommer noted "I had early development sketches of the main character where he was more stylized.” The film had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 28, 2021, where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary section. Among film festivals and critics were garnered more important acclaim for its thematic content and depiction of Afghanistan, and is considered one of the most highly acclaimed and award-winning animated documentaries since ''Waltz with Bashir'' (2008), which it results as a spiritual successor. Flee makes history at the Academy Award records, which was selected as the Danish entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, where it received a nomination, along with nominations in the Best Documentary Feature and Best Animated Feature categories, making it the first PG-13, adult animated, foreign-language, and animated documentary film to be nominated simultaneously. It also received many accolades, mainly for animated and documentary categories including the recipient of Golden Globes, BAFTA and Annie nominations, winning the latter for Best Animated Feature - Independent.

Central and Eastern Europe

In 2018, ''Chris the Swiss'', a Swiss animated documentary film directed by Anja Kofmel, premiered. It was screened in the International Critics' Week section at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. It was described as a war animation which combines live-action interviews, newsreel animation, and more to focus on the Yugoslav Wars.

Then, in October 2020, Alex Dudok de Wit of ''Cartoon Brew'' wrote about the CEE Animation Forum, held virtually from 6 to 8 October, which he called "a seedbed of interesting European animation," noting that six features were pitched to potential partners and buyers, half of which were for families, with the other half being for "older audiences." In the latter was ''Igi'', a Georgian feature produced by Natia Nikolashvili, ''King Wray'', a Romanian feature produced by Anton Groves and Damian Groves, and ''The Black Swallow'', a French feature produced by Louis-J Gore. While the Groves brothers and Gore were looking for co-producers, Nikolashvili was looking for "financial and creative partners."

France

In 1973, Rene Laloux directed '' La Planète sauvage'' based on the French science fiction novel ''Oms en série'' by Stefan Wul. It has been televised in the United States and United Kingdom as ''Fantastic Planet'', and several DVD editions have been released. Also in 1973, an Italian film, '' King Dick'', was released and became a cult classic in the United Kingdom. A West German short called ''Snow White and the Seven Perverts'' ("'' Schneeflittchen unter die Sieben Bergen''"), produced by Love Film, also appeared. This little film mostly parodies Snow White and has been included as part of other compilation films.

The first foreign animated feature to receive both an X rating and wide distribution in the United States was '' Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle'', a French-Belgian film. A dubbed version, which featured new dialogue performed by American actors and comedians such as John Belushi, Adolph Caesar, Brian Doyle-Murray, Judy Graubart, Bill Murray and Johnny Weissmuller Jr., received an R rating. According to distributor Stuart S. Shapiro, the X rating hurt the film's distribution, but the dubbed version "took the bite out of the film. It lost its outrageousness." ''Tarzoon'' was banned by the New Zealand Board of Censors in 1980.

In July 2018, Balak's independently animated series, '' Peepoodo & the Super Fuck Friends'' began airing online on the show's website. The series, produced by French animation company Blackpills, consists of comedic sexual education cartoon shorts for those over the age of 18. It is the second series produced by the animation studio Bobbypills. After a campaign of crowdfunding on Kickstarter, a second season began production.

Germany

In 1990, ''Werner – Beinhart!'', a German animated film based on the comic book sold 4.9 million tickets, making it the third most successful movie in theaters in Germany in 1990, behind ''Look Who's Talking'' and ''Pretty Woman'', and one of the highest-grossing German films in the 1990s with a gross of $24 million (€19.7 million). The film contains animated sequences that are embedded in those of the live-action sequences, which form the background story. Between 1996 and 2011, four more animation film adaptations were made based on the Werner comics.

''Felidae'' is a 1994 German adult animated horror/mystery film directed by Michael Schaack, written by Martin Kluger, Stefaan Schieder and Akif Pirinçci, and based on Pirinçci's 1989 novel of the same name. Produced by Trickompany, the film features the voices of Ulrich Tukur, Mario Adorf and Klaus Maria Brandauer. The story centers on domestic house cat Francis and the grisly feline murders taking place in his new neighborhood. In a review, Eric Hansen of Variety said the film lacked screen time for the plot, and that it needed more to avoid confusion. Hansen complimented the voices behind Francis and Bluebeard, but criticized Klaus Maria Brandauer's voice-over as a "by-the-numbers performance."

Russia

Soyuzmultfilm, a Russian animation studio based in Moscow, which was launched in 1936, the studio has produced more than 1,500 cartoons. began specializing in the creation of animated TV series, feature films and short films. The studio made films in a wide variety of genres and art techniques, including stop-motion, hand-drawn, 2D and 3D techniques. This included cartoons for an adult audience like ' in 1954 by , ' the same year by and Boris Stepantsev, and ' in 1955 by and Roman Davydov. The studio also produced ' in 1957 by , and ' in 1957 by Yevgeny Migunov. The latter film was shot entirely in a way that was innovative for that time when films were done in a conventional manner.

In November 2020 it was announced that Premier, the video platform of Gazprom-Media, and the TV channel 2x2 had begun a partnership which would produce adult animation while "working with well-known Russian and international companies." At least three animated series will then be released in 2021 and 2022. The Director of 2x2, Denis Vsesvyatsky, was quoted as saying that this will open a "new era in the adult animation industry in Russia" as they look for potential partners, while the CEO of Premier, Ivan Grodetsky, described "connoisseurs of adult animation" as a new audience for the platform in an attempt to attract new users. In December 2020,
Russian artist Prokopiy Ulyashov, 27, re-imagined ''The Simpsons'', a mature animated series, styling them as "characters from famous Soviet animation series and cartoons."

Spain

In 2015, '' Birdboy: The Forgotten Children'', a Spanish animated drama- horror coming-of-age film, premiered. It followed the titular character, Birdboy, a shy outcast in a post-apocalyptic society, and Dinky, a teenage mouse runaway fleeing her desolate island home. The series was also described as a film which dissects social ills in Spain in a "funny, sad, sweet, macabre, and surgeon-sharp" manner.

It was later said that Alberto Vázquez, who created ''Birdboy: The Forgotten Children'' and later, ''Homeless Home'', was at the forefront of adult animation itself. Also, ''Birdboy'' won Best Animated Feature at the 2016 Goya Awards, Vázquez scored a historic win by simultaneously receiving the prize for Best Animated Short (''Decorado'', which was also honored at Cannes).

In June 2020, a trailer was released for Vazquez's next feature film, ''Unicorn Wars'', which is an adult animated film about the gruesome war against teddy bears and unicorns, or as the teddy bears call them, devils.

See also

* List of highest-grossing adult animated films
* Modern animation in the United States
* List of adult animated television series
* List of adult animated web series
* List of adult animated films
* Independent animation
* Animation in the United States in the television era
* Cartoon violence

Notes

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