Give me an example of an adult-oriented, mature western animated film or TV show

[viranimus]

Well first and foremost I would absolutely agree with the notion of The MaXX. Takes me back to a very acid-y point in my life which made it Aeon Flux and most anything on liquid television all the more fitting.

Some suggestions I would offer. which may or may not have been mentioned already, but I think I have pointed to mostly more obscure stuff.

Heavy Metal, the 70s version is awesome. Heavy metal 2000 isnt completely horrible either, just no where near as good. Along the same vein of Heavy metal is Fire and Ice. Also not quite as good, but not bad either.

Pink Floyd's The Wall. Not exactly animated, however it features very mature animations at times Like the scene of two flowers ... pollinating the everlovin hell out of each other.

Back in mid 2000s Universal studios started making some animated features to tie in with their film releases Like Pitch Black: Dark Fury, and Van Helsing- London somethingorother. Think there was a third one too but cant recall which.

Of course Batman:TAS. You can include Batman Beyond IF you can look past the psuedo 1950s style infusion of highschool into "the future". Also as a side note to Batman. The "Gothic Knight" film was actually eastern but it was also on par with the Animatrix.


Pirates of Dark Water was somewhat kid oriented but showed some mature streaks in it as well.

You could make a case respectively for both Ren and stimpy as well as Invader Zim, but its debatable. Least the Nickelodeon version of R&S. I have long since wiped the memory of what Spike did to R&S. Honestly.. it didnt happen.

I know I am missing a few other obscure ones but too tired to think atm.

 

[ace_of_something]

EDIT 2: Made it really, really big now.

Well um. So you want a regular movie/tv show except it's animated? What's the point then? Part of the reason you're not getting what you're asking for is it's really REALLY specific.

Anything i've thought of has been recommended already though i haven't noticed:
http://www.animationshow.com/ Some of them are funny but others are dramatic some are 'clay animated' or 'cgi animated' It's collections of part of an animation festival they are all shorts though. It was originally a festival (2 1/2 hours of shorts run together) Then dvds. Now a website celebrating what can be done with the medium.

My personal favorite was the first year of the a three part series where a man describes people he knew in his childhood: His Brother, His cousin, and his uncle. Just kind of describing their quirks and a few anecdotes. It's touching and very real despite being very poorly clay animated.

this is the more avante garde end. Please keep in mind the quality of this upload is pretty poor. Also in 2002 it was fucking mind blowing.

 

[Elamdri]

I'm trying to write an essay on how animated films and TV shows can be as mature as live action ones. The issue I am finding is that it's somewhat difficult to find adult-oriented, mature western animated shows and films (due to the whole "all animation is for children" thing in the west).

[HEADING=1]By mature, I do not mean it includes "mature humour". As a rule of thumb, most comedy will not count due to this.[/HEADING]

And, if at all possible, try to avoid anything too avant-garde. Just to clarify, again, western animation. I'm fine when it comes to other parts of the world. And adult is the other buzzword - I'd like something that's totally geared towards a mature audience. Yeah, Toy Story 3 was emotional, but I don't want something that's a kids' movie that can also appeal to adults.

EDIT: Needed to change that to a larger size since nobody seemed to be reading it.

EDIT 2: Made it really, really big now.

I'm curious as to why you're excluding comedies from your sample. Just because something is funny doesn't mean it also can't be mature.

Check out

Titan AE
Heavy Metal
Persepolis
Animal Farm
Watership Down
The Plague Dogs

 

[Therumancer]

I'm trying to write an essay on how animated films and TV shows can be as mature as live action ones. The issue I am finding is that it's somewhat difficult to find adult-oriented, mature western animated shows and films (due to the whole "all animation is for children" thing in the west).

[HEADING=1]By mature, I do not mean it includes "mature humour". As a rule of thumb, most comedy will not count due to this.[/HEADING]

And, if at all possible, try to avoid anything too avant-garde. Just to clarify, again, western animation. I'm fine when it comes to other parts of the world. And adult is the other buzzword - I'd like something that's totally geared towards a mature audience. Yeah, Toy Story 3 was emotional, but I don't want something that's a kids' movie that can also appeal to adults.

EDIT: Needed to change that to a larger size since nobody seemed to be reading it.

EDIT 2: Made it really, really big now.

Try Ralph Bakshi's work, namely "Fire and Ice", or "Wizards". Not to mention either of the "Heavy Metal" movies "Heavy Metal", or "Heavy Metal 2000".

"Fire And Ice" is an animated sword and sorcery movie largely based around Frank Frazetta's artwork. "Wizards" is not as well animated but is an interesting blend of fantasy with apocolyptic storytelling which leads up to a very interesting ending, "Heavy Metal" is a sort of cult classic that tried to do some of the stories from "Heavy Metal" magazine (which was adult-oriented comics) in an animated form, with mixed results. "Heavy Metal 2000" was something that tried to largely capture the essence of the artwork Julie Strain modeled for
in the magazine (she was a regular/inspiration for a lot of their covers and such).

None of these are new, which might actually help them carry some weight for the class yout dealing with. I'm not sure if anyone else mentioned any of these. All of these works were attempts at doing animated movies for an adult audience, with mixed results.

I'm also not sure if anyone mentioned it, but the first season of the "Batman" animated series was an attempt to do a more serious animated show for a prime-time audience as opposed to it being directed purely at a children's audience with weekend morning, or after school cartoons. This arguably makes it more "family oriented" than purely "for adults" but it's noteworthy.

Then of course we have "Felix The Cat", "Gonad The Barbarian" and other similar things, but I'd imagine those would be off limits for class of this sort.


EDIT:

Oh and I'd imagine MTV's "Aeon Flux" might also fit the bill.

apologies if a lot of these were mentioned before.

 

[thefrizzlefry]

Try Moral Orel, especially the third season. The Mountains Goats' "No Children" is featued prominently in the first episode of that season, and it's beautiful. The same is true of the use of Io Perry's "Valintine." In fact, I'm just going to go ahead say that Moral Orel has the best use of music in any show since Daria went off the air.
It's also really bleak. It's definitely a cartoon for adults only; kids just wouldn't get it.

 

[tthor]

Thats kind of a hard topic since none really exist. You could probably get away with saying that Southpark fills that description but I dont think there are any others. Most of them are either aimed at young kids of teenagers.

I just thought of the perfect example, Dilbert. Anybody who has seen this show will know it was most definitely not meant for kids. I doubt most kids would even understand a quarter of the jokes in it.

i remember watching it as a kid, and not really understanding most of the jokes i think lol

Cowboy Bebop...

Bebop is japanese, not western. awesome anime tho

 

[Therumancer]

To quote myself, verbatim:

She legitimately looks like she's about to keel over and die.

That is one of the most disturbing pictures I've seen. Is there a reason she's suppose to look like that?

OT: I have no idea. There's a bunch of adult oriented cartoons on Netflix though.

Ahh indeed most of my suggestions were mentioned in this thread, I spotted this right after I edited my post.

Aeon Flux had very stylized animation, but it worked for the series, and they also played off the style of animation used on a few occasions in some fairly clever ways.

To say Aeon Flux could be surreal is an understatement, and the show isn't even all that consistant. However the fact that she looks so thin and like she's about to keel over at times.... yeah well, let's just say there is an episode where they put a bionic stick
figure inside of her.

 

[Delsana]

Remember that the rating system classifys that which is immature or vulgar as mature, when it should be IMMATURE.

With that knowledge I can actually understand this thread.

 

[MurderousToaster]

I'm trying to write an essay on how animated films and TV shows can be as mature as live action ones. The issue I am finding is that it's somewhat difficult to find adult-oriented, mature western animated shows and films (due to the whole "all animation is for children" thing in the west).

[HEADING=1]By mature, I do not mean it includes "mature humour". As a rule of thumb, most comedy will not count due to this.[/HEADING]

And, if at all possible, try to avoid anything too avant-garde. Just to clarify, again, western animation. I'm fine when it comes to other parts of the world. And adult is the other buzzword - I'd like something that's totally geared towards a mature audience. Yeah, Toy Story 3 was emotional, but I don't want something that's a kids' movie that can also appeal to adults.

EDIT: Needed to change that to a larger size since nobody seemed to be reading it.

EDIT 2: Made it really, really big now.

All of those caveats boil down to, to me, uninteresting. Why do animation if it's not allowed to be funny or weird? Why would an adult want to watch something that isn't trippy, isn't sci-fi, isn't funny yet is a cartoon? Do you think The King's Speech or A Few Good Men would have made better animated films than live action movies?

I had some examples, but your restraints removed them. So I'll just say Cowboy Beb-oh. Never mind. Waking Life-no, can't use that, either. A Scanner Dark-dammit!

I will explain. I am trying to write an essay. The part I am writing of the essay is about Western animation. I am trying to prove that a fully animated, adult-oriented feature can be as mature as a live action one. Does that make it easier to understand why I put the restraints on there? I'm here for help with a part of an essay, not out of personal interest to find a particular show.

I don't want it to be too avant-garde because this is an English teacher we are dealing with. I don't want it to be humorous because, well, I'm trying to prove that they can be mature, not that they can make dick jokes. I don't want it to be outside of the West because I'm doing that later in the essay and have plenty of ones for that.


(Also, I never mentioned it not being Sci-Fi or not having comedy elements in it. What I meant was that I don't want South Park or Family Guy or Beavis and Butthead or any of the animated 100%-comedies they put on Adult Swim, because that's not the point I'm trying to make.)

Your response and your OP both suggest that the difference between your idea of comedy/humor may be the problem. Your edits drive the point home. It would appear that you don't take comedy very seriously (or perhaps your teacher doesn't, or maybe both), and that you think dick jokes are emblematic of all comedy. I don't suppose you're a regular viewer of The (American version of The) Office, wherein they take dick jokes and reappropriate them into something both satirical and innocent. It's transcendent. It's beautiful. It's art. You don't believe comedy is mature? I don't believe repeatedly editing the OP to make certain sections bigger, louder and bolder (it's called 'screaming' for a reason) is very mature. Comedy tends to not stay in mature areas for very long, but your views are incredibly, disablingly (it IS a word, dammit!) reductive if you think that humor is incapable of maturity.

You DID say you didn't want sci-fi, and as a huge sci-fi nerd, I don't know how to tell you this, friend, but Aliens was weird. Battlestar Galactica is weird. Aeon Flux, both the acid-trip cartoon and the terrible film it inspired, is fukkin' weird. I don't think you'll prove your point to an English teacher who's too stuffy for King of the Hill (perfect example, by the way) by showing her the animated equivalent of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Also, since I assume our dark masters want us to pass along whatever captcha tells us, iselsrwa ofSo*

Look, I'm not trying to prove a point here. I just want an example of a specific sort of thing to put in this essay, okay? I like animated comedies. I love sci-fi. You seem to have gotten it into your head that I'm some sort of fucking robot that hates everything funny and thinks that all animation should be the same as cinema.

When I say that I don't want anything "too" avant-garde, what I mean is that I don't want something that you could just call mature because of how weird it is. I didn't just say "ANYTHING OUTSIDE OF TOTAL NORMALITY IS OUT.". Also, I was afraid that the nearest flock (herd? tower?) of hipsters would jump into the thread and begin listing off obscure French arthouse films about mimes on LSD or something.

When I say that most comedy won't count, it's because, again, that's not the point I'm trying to prove. I'm not trying to prove that animation can deal with comedic adult topics as well as films, I'm trying to prove that they can deal with that sort of topic seriously. We all know that they can be funny, that's a given. Everyone with a TV knows that. There's nothing to prove there that hasn't been proven.

And the reason I made it bigger is because people weren't reading any part of the OP at all before they posted, especially that part. I'm just not trying to find a comedic example that adults can relate to because we all know that's just not the topic of the essay.

I would like to clarify, once again, the restrictions I put on it are not because that's how I feel about what animation should be. It's because that's the sort of example I'm looking for.

 

[keosegg]

Tale of Tales by a Russian guy called Yuriy Norshteyn. Often called the greatest animated film of all time.

To quote wikipedia:

"Tale of Tales, attempts to structure itself like a human memory. Memories are not recalled in neat chronological order; instead, they are recalled by the association of one thing with another, which means that any attempt to put memory on film cannot be told like a conventional narrative. The film is thus made up of a series of related sequences whose scenes are interspersed between each other. One of the primary themes involves war, with particular emphasis on the enormous losses the Soviet Union suffered on the Eastern Front during World War II. Several recurring characters and their interactions make up a large part of the film, such as the poet, the little girl and the bull, the little boy and the crows, the dancers and the soldiers, and especially the little grey wolf. Another symbol connecting nearly all of these different themes are green apples (which may symbolize life, hope, or potential)."

Also, The guy uses glass to animate the film, which makes the thing absolutely gorgeous to look at. And you know what's even better? It's all on youtube, right now.

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmcp4XNCWRY

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBniVo80Mec

Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjndixMcl8g&feature=related

Part 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB7H1wrcFjc&feature=related

Edit: Can someone tell me how to embed video in my comments?

 

[Knife]

Edit: Can someone tell me how to embed video in my comments?

Like this : "youtube=Tmcp4XNCWRY" (whatever comes after the "=" in the link) except with [] and without the ". And you get this :
Also since videos take a bit of space you might want to put them in a spoiler like this :
"spoiler=whatever" hidden whatever "/spoiler" (substitute " with [] accordingly)

Spoiler: What is this?

This is a spoiler

 

[Asita]

Saw a couple of reccomendations for Futurama, thought I'd be a little more specific. While the series is usually fairly lighthearted, it does have some rather poignant moments in it. Of particular note in this regard is the episode "The Luck of the Fryrish", which focused largely on family relationships and loss (as did Jurassic Bark). The episode "The Sting" is similarly notable as it focuses largely on survivor's guilt.

 

[Azure Sky]

Lets see... Western...

Do you mean 'western design' or 'western origination'?

If it is the latter, that's 99% of my material gone, 'Starchaser the Legend or Orin' comes to mind though.

If it is the former... Steamboy? Can't think of many that try to be 'western' by design off the top of my head.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Princess:

And here I thought I would be the only one to mention this movie.

It did make me feel like shit though. Jesus, that ending...

 

[Stevo_s]

I'm trying to write an essay on how animated films and TV shows can be as mature as live action ones. The issue I am finding is that it's somewhat difficult to find adult-oriented, mature western animated shows and films (due to the whole "all animation is for children" thing in the west).

Baccano is anime, but it is very mature, and has a really good story.

 

[kwydjebo]

Short answer.

Any and all DCAU

Just about any Comic Book Hero related Direct to DVD release (That wasn't clearly for kids)
Planet Hulk, Green Lantern First Flight, Hulk Vs., Ultimate Avengers (1 & 2), Batman: The Red Hood (Awesome), Justice League Crisis, Superman/Batman etc. etc.

Reboot (TV Series)
Beowolf (Animated film)
Pixar's Up (animated film....it got a freakin' best picture nomination in 2010...It was nominated alongside Prcious, The Hurt Locker, Avatar, District 9, The Blindside....)

Primetime Cartoon Sitcoms (Simpsons, Futurama, Family guy, etc. etc.etc, Yes I read the OP, long answer explains this)
Lucy Daughter of the Devil

LONG ANSWER!!!!

First off, "how animated films and TV shows can be as mature as live action ones". Wouldn't it be easier to show how live action shows and movies can be way dumber? (See any film starring Pauly Shore...or the Jersy Shore even).

Second I take issue with "By mature, I do not mean it includes "mature humour". As a rule of thumb, most comedy will not count due to this.". Comedic shows (animated and non) are very capable of dealing with serious/mature issues.
Now this is just my opinion (I'm not saying YOU'RE WRONG), I'm just pointing out that I feel you're trying to make an argument (for your essay) and immediately limiting yourself by exempting a considerable portion of the material available because of some belief that comedy and mature content are mutually exclusive (If you're trying to prove that Animation can be as DRAMATIC as live action, then thats a different kettle o' fish). Remember that Animation is entertainment, and entertainment (particularly now) is driven by commerce, and sure you can make a serious tv show or movie starring dramatic actors and get backing for it, the idea of a serious dramatic cartoon, unless it was attached to some sort of existing franchise...say like the Matrix (The Animatrix), or a comic book animated features attached to a major company (Marvel/DC, see Thor, Hulk, Batman, Justice league, Wonder woamn and Green Lantern Animated films that have flooded the market in recent years, to mention a few, funny how A live action Wonderwoman Movie has been in Preplanning forever, a live action TV show had a pilot made but will likely never see air, but it was no problem getting her out an animated DVD),or character that has already been well established (Spawn or Hellboy) that release direct to DVD. A show like the Daily Show (not animated I know but I'm making a point here) is clearly comedy, but it is adult oriented, to say nothing of relevant issue which it uses comedy to make its point. Also throughout the history of entertainment, comedic material has often been used to mask more serious social content.

Shows like Family guy, simpsons, futurama, and others, are in fact comedies, but are in no way made for kids (okay maybe Simpsons is a little closer to family friendly, but Family guy is NOT). I would argue that the number of serious celberties who have lended their voice and image to such shows should give them credit. Al Gore appeared as himself on Futurama...former VP, Former emporer of the moon, Environmental activist. He was getting his message out through a well established medium. I also believe he was involved on an extra feature from one of the Futurama DVDs. Futurama deals heavily with parody, but the difficulty with such a comedic approach is that you have to parody things the audience will recognize, and a fair bit of the content that they have lampooned has been stuff a younger audience isn't likely to have known.

And what of South park? A comedy that is SO Adult oriented.

Beavis and Butthead weren't for kids...mind you mature was a label it didn't really earn.
Someoen mentioned Daria, the antithesis of Beavis and Butthead, it had humor, but wasn't a straight up comedy. It was actually a pretty mature look at highschool and workings there of, with the sarcastic outcast main character not always being as right as she thought she was (But not always wrong either)

Justice League and Justice League Unlimited (Heck the Batman and Superman animated series that preceded them as well).
Honestly if you look at the story and character progression in those, there was plenty of stuff that really would have been over most kids heads (But they still could have enjoyed it). Sure kids could enjoy it, but most of the content was mature. Hell, they did a Batman Mr Freeze direct to video movie that probably came out within a year or two of the Batman and Robin Movie (With Mr Freeze) and storyline alone, I'd say the animated one was hands down 1000 times better than that Joel Shumacker garbage. (Funny how a well recieved cartoon about Batman could only spawn direct to Video/DVD content, while a live action farce got a feature film)
The 2nd season of JLU completed a season long story arc (Begun at episode 1, and carried as an ongoing backstory with a 4 part finale) with Superman ready to kill Lex Luthor, and then the final episode of JLU season 2 (About Batman Beyond, "Epilogue" I think), just watch it and then show me a 6, 8 or 10 year old that could process that!

Several years ago (early to mid 90s) a company named Mainframe made a CG Cartoon called Reboot, about the lives of characters who lived in computers. The first 2 seasons it was pretty much a generic kids cartoon (it aired on ABC), nothing too bad, good always won, evil scampered away, the occasional morality lesson. But they split off from ABC and the 3rd and "4th" seasons (season 4 was actually a collection of few 2 hour (made for TV) movies, which ended on acliffhanger they still have yet to resolve)and established more mature and complex stories. Violence, death (or death like occurences), implied sex. This got good airtime in Canada, don't know if any US networks picked it up.

If you look at the history of western animation you actually see a strange progression. Feature animated films date back to the 30s and 40s, possibly earlier (Disney, Snow White, Dumbo, others) and they weren't strictly for kids.
The Flintstones were in the 60s (I think, or 70s) and that was actually a primetime show, like the Simpsons of that time. Around that time there was also Yogi Bear and others, which were more kid oriented. Much of comedy in all of them was classic slapstick, or vaudvilliean even.
At some point it was decided that cartoons were for kids, and this belief was held for some time (in western society), and still is by some.
But with shows like the Simpsons, Family guy, and Futurama animation is getting more credibility. Hell Pixar's "Up" got a Best Picture nomination back in 2010

In fact, if the point of your essay is to prove the old image of cartoons not being a vehicle for mature stories or concepts, you should really compare some 70s cartoons like Superfriends or Batman to their more modern counterparts, like the DCAU series, or the direct to DVD features.

Its funny you said you didn't want to include any "avant garde", because that stuff is more likely to be less kid oriented, since that would be more artistic (And focused on telling a particular story or getting a point across instead of being commercially successful), while most mainstream western animated feature films target the widest possible audience (Its all about the bucks)and with the prevailing notion still there about cartoons being for kids, they (believe that they) can't afford to release something for adults that kids won't enjoy (Or worse yet, be prevented from seeing) and still be profitable.

Anyways, hopes this helps some, not trying to pile on, just looking to impart some knowledge, and a (hopefully coherent)different point of view that might provide you some ideas (if nothing else).

 

[Teckdeth]

Metal-fucking-ocalypse!

Though, it's probably one of the most immature shows on TV...

Erm, I'll get back to you.

 

[kickyourass]

Well most shows on Adult Swim would fit the bill in my opinion (Though I'm not sure how 'Mature' most of the humor is), stuff like Boondocks is definitly not for kids. Afro Samurai, influenced by Anime but it's a western production. Yellow Submarine maybe, I loved it as a kind but it's the sort of thing I've only understood once I got older so, maybe it would count. I'm tempted to include Avatar: the Last Airbender but it's not really adult oriented (even though it is one of the best animated shows of the past decade). Wizards, now there's an adult oriented animated movie if I ever saw one.
And that's all I got.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I'm trying to write an essay on how animated films and TV shows can be as mature as live action ones. The issue I am finding is that it's somewhat difficult to find adult-oriented, mature western animated shows and films (due to the whole "all animation is for children" thing in the west).

[HEADING=1]By mature, I do not mean it includes "mature humour". As a rule of thumb, most comedy will not count due to this.[/HEADING]

And, if at all possible, try to avoid anything too avant-garde. Just to clarify, again, western animation. I'm fine when it comes to other parts of the world. And adult is the other buzzword - I'd like something that's totally geared towards a mature audience. Yeah, Toy Story 3 was emotional, but I don't want something that's a kids' movie that can also appeal to adults.

EDIT: Needed to change that to a larger size since nobody seemed to be reading it.

EDIT 2: Made it really, really big now.

Well as you said yourself in the west animation is generally aimed for children, which means there isn't all that many Adult oriented animation. And the stuff you get tends to be very low brow humor (Which you don't want

I think the only thing I can think of right now might be Æon Flux.