Open Forum Friday: Why Aren’t There More Animated Movies for Grown Ups?
Call me a geek, call me a fanboy, call me what you will… I am a cartoon junkie. I’m part of a generation that grew up on animation, and I never really lost my affection for bright colours, silly characters and surreal worlds. I know I’m not the only one. But as I got older, I wanted deeper stories and more adult humour. While TV shows like The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy and the Adult Swim line-up have proven that cartoons can appeal to an older audience, movies (with the exception of anime) have been seriously missing the boat. Plenty of animated films get released every year, but almost every single one of them is created to appeal to children. Why?
Well, I guess the main reason is that family films are a reliable market that bring in huge box office numbers. Parents will do anything to keep their kids entertained, and generally speaking, kids aren’t particularly discriminating when it comes to choosing what they want to watch. That said, I still think there’s a decent sized market for animated films targetted at older moviegoers. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was released in theatres a few years back and received rave reviews (I don’t remember how well it did though). Beavis and Butthead Do America broke box office records if I remember correctly. On the other hand, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within bombed and pretty much prevented any more non-kiddie CG films from ever being greenlit anytime soon. Are you excited about the upcoming Simpsons and Aqua Teen Hunger Force movies? Can they be successful and possibly start a new trend in animated movies? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.
Comments (7)
I don’t think they’re going to revolutionize anything. The animated films that are targeted at adults usually don’t fare well – just look at last year’s “A Scanner Darkly”.
Posted by Marina on February 23rd, 2007I’m with you, Sean. One of the problems is that feature animation is usually expensive and time consuming and going the kiddie route almost ensures larger returns.  Since Adult Swim shows are so budget, they don’t have much to lose in releasing a feature film but I don’t see how the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie could bring in a decent return. Â
We’ll have to see how Robert Zemekis’ Beowulf does when it’s released later this year.  It’ll be a CG movie (using the same method as Polar Express and Monster House), but with a supposed “R” rating.  If it does well, we may be looking at more adult themed animated movies.  The drawback is that there will inevitably be those who think that animated movies for adults don’t need a good story as long as there’s lots of gore, swearing and T&A.  Anyone recall the wretched line of HBO adult cartoons from the 90’s like Spawn and Spicy City?
Posted by Nuno on February 23rd, 2007The Simpsons movie will fill seats, even though I’m pretty sure they’re a couple years late on bringing a full length feature out. 18 years and they’re still on the air…
ATHF on the other hand, while I love the series and catch them when I can I don’t think that this movie is going to filling too many theatres. I think it’s great that they’re going to try the mass market, but I just don’t see it doing very well. This is a case where they’re going to make up the revenue through DVD sales.
Posted by cuebert on February 23rd, 2007I’ve had a discussion like this before, and I think initially the point that came up the most was that it’s impossible to market and actually make (lots) of money in the end. For there to be “more” they’d need to be easily made, easily marketable, and that just won’t happen. I mean, yea there are a lot of us that love seeing them, but most adults don’t connect with animation, even Pixar they like, they may see once, but won’t be buying the DVD or anything more. It’s unfortunate but I think it’s the truth.
I think you’re right in saying that there is a big generation that grew up on it and that still likes it, but it’s hard to get to them. I think TMNT is going to be a good example. Even at Comic-Con last year, the director was very pleased to see so many “grown ups” supporting TMNT, and was saying that this is proving to the studios that there really is an interest beyond the kids who watch TMNT. I’m interested to see the turn around on that movie. I don’t know if it’ll be huge, but I think of a lot of young adults (or at least people in the generation that grew up around the original Ninja Turtles movies) will be out to see that. And even that’s not really “animation,” cause it’s CGI, but close connection.
So to answer the question, I think there is some possibility, but it’s very on-the-edge and so dependent on what it is. Look at The Simpsons Movie, that’s another example of a movie that I know will break all kinds of records (at least for an animated movie… maybe) on opening day because crowds of all ages will go to it. It’s like the South Park movie (except with a vastly wider appeal) but with the same idea of taking the well-established TV show and making a feature film. But how often does that come along? I want more well-thought original animated films like A Scanner Darkly and not so many of the TV adaptations.
Posted by Alex Billington on February 25th, 2007I think Americans just can get over the cartoons are for kids stigma. I’m sure a large segment of the population still regards videogames for kids. Even though the average gamer is 18-35 years old. And much like cartoons the fans are becoming older. And their passion for cartoons hasn’t gone away. In japan both comics and Anime are consider serious entertainment for all ages.
But here neither are taken very serious. I think its going to take that one movie that transcends that stereotype to open the flood gates. Much like the way Ringu and the Grudge made J-horror popular in the states.
So I think it will change it has to.
Posted by The man on February 25th, 2007Yeah I think ultimately it’s hard to convince a studio that if you’re going to go the animated route that you’d want to eliminate the younger demographic from the equation. It just doesn’t make sense for them to limit their audience like that.
As Alex mentioned, the performance of TMNT at the box office will probably determine whether or not we see more CG movies that aren’t simply kiddie flicks about zoo animals. I can’t really see it being much of a breakout hit though.
And as Nuno mentioned, the production costs for animated movies are pretty prohibitive. Maybe Adult Swim can overcome that barrier, but then it kind of defeats some of the fun of seeing an animated film on the big screen, if they aren’t really upping the quality.
Posted by Sean on February 25th, 2007Another issue I think is related to adult-focused animation is the ‘fanboy’ phenomena. Any adult-focused animated movies I can think of; such as Heavy Metal/HM2000, most Anime and comic-book adaptations are geared towards an already established fan-base.
It was cool to see the violence in Heavy Metal but I’m sure much of my potential experience was lost due to me never having read the series.
It’s very evident in regards to The Simpsons movie, everyone knows the show therefore everyone has some interest in the movie.
The difficult task for an adult-intended animated movie is making something original so a fresh audience is created.
If you consider the same elements (children and fanboys), I think Pan’s Labyrinth did a fine job of creating a fantasy for adults while being original. I would like to see an animation take a similar approach.
Posted by Matt on February 25th, 2007Leave a Reply