Why aren't more realistic and serious animated movies being made?

[Braedan]

ok, op, what the he'll are you asking? you post is a mess. you title it claiming that animation is immature, then admit that some are mature, then give a number of rules to prove maturity, which you admit are useless. THEN you post a list of movies that meet the requirements.

What do you want? why are you here? what is your question?

I don't give rules to prove maturity. Where does it say that that's what they're supposed to do?

The point of my post is to ask why they make so few serious, realistic and non-comedic animated movies. If they did, animation wold be taken more seriously.

ok, thank you. though that question had NOTHING to do with the question asked in the title, the answer is thus.

It is more profitable to do family oriented animated movies.

 

[Athinira]

If animation is only for kids, would someone mind explaining Hentai?

Edit: Yes, i know it's slightly off-topic, but just when i saw the thread title (even if the OP post surprised me), it was pretty much the first thing that popped in my mind.

 

[Michael Hirst]

Animated movies can be universal or just for adults. I don't care how old or how mature you think you are Lion King is amazing as a film in its own right. Another example would be Toy Story I love the multi layered humour that makes both kids and adults laugh for different reasons.

The real immature people are the ones who try to hide behind a wall about things and would feel ashamed of what they might like, meanwhile the rest of us can really enjoy a world of possibilities that only exist in animation whether it be a Disney film, a brutal anime, A Pixar CGI movie or even a more unusual film like A Scanner Darkly.

 

[Ocelano]

Maybe 'cause they aren't. There are tons of kids' movies that are more enjoyable for adults. Movies like Toy Story 2, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Spirited Away, Finding Nemo, and so on. But the thing is, these movies are about a toy getting kidnapped and needing help form his toy friends, Batman fighting the Joker, a girl who goes to a magic bath house and meets an evil witch, a kid fish who gets lost and needs to be saved by his daddy fish, and they're all about kids' film ideas that they made an adult story out of. Sure, they're great movies, but here's what bugs me: It doesn't seem like there are that many animated films that take an serious adult movie idea and make an adult, serious movie that doesn't try to be humorous out of it. Or to put it more clearly, there aren't any films like Match Point or The Shawshank Redemption among the animated films and I think that that's the reason people won't take animation seriously. It won't handle realistic seriousness. And that's too bad, because if you were to make these movies with animation, they'd have the same great story but now they'd have beautiful animation as well. I rarely see any animated films that:

1. Are completely realistic in plot and look, that is, people have reasonably realistic proportions (animated realistic-looking people have a beauty all its own), and it doesn't contain supernatural or sci-fi concepts. No alternate timelines either, since that's a sci-fi genre. Of course, neither sf or fantasy are inherently childish. But live-action directors can create masterpieces without fantasy elements or sf elements. I'm just asking animation to do the same.

2. Include swearing where appropriate, (edit: this one isn't completely necessary. I realized that people never swear in old movies)

3. Don't sound like a kids' movie when you describe the plot. (So no talking animals, people!)

4. Aren't comedies. (Because if not all live-action movies are comedies, not all animated ones should have to be.)

5. It has to be theoretically possible for the movie to have been based on a true story. Or in other words, it doesn't have to have been based on a true story, but it has to be the kind of film that's so realistic that it could be passed off as based on real events.

Why aren't there all that many realistic animated psychological dramas? Or realistic animated thrillers?

PLEASE NOTE: These rules are useless at determining if a movie is good or not, or for kids or not, or mature or not. But if a movie breaks them, it's a sign that it's the kind of film that's almost always made live-action, even though it'd be just as good, if not better, with beautiful animation.

I watched Three Colors: Red a while back. Not a bad movie. I also watched Match Point a while back. Not bad. Why aren't there any animated movies like them? (And don't answer "CUZ MATCH POINT SUX!!! I'm talking about the genre and style, not the particular movie.)

Most animated films violate rules on my list. Well, the rules aren't for judging whether the movie is for kids or not, or whether it's good or not, though I guess it might seem that way. It's for judging whether the movie resembles movies like Three Colors: Red and Match Point. You know, the kind of movies that it seems are only made live-action. There's nothing wrong or childish with violating the rules per se, it's just that you should be able to make a film that follows my rules and still is good. If live-action films can do it, why shouldn't animation be able to do it too? Why can't fans of animations go see films like Three Colors: Red and Match Point in theaters that often? If we could, people would realize that animation isn't for kids a lot faster.

Why do I want movies that fit my list? Because I want to prove that animated movies are a look, not a genre. And it seems like thrillers and psychological dramas are very rare in animation. Some people ask why we shouldn't just make them live-action if they're going to be completely realistic anyway. My answer is that if we shoot them live-action, we'll lose the beauty of realistic animation.

These movies suit my list (please correct me if I'm wrong):
EDIT: There used to be a list here, but it got pretty pointless for a number of reasons so I removed it.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Some people are saying that the good thing about animation is that unrealistic concpts can be made much easier than in live-action movies, where it takes more money and effort to create sf-visuals, people with unrealistic proportions, and so on. But that implies that if there was a way to do all that stuff in live-action movies for free and completely effortlessly, animated movies would be pointless and they should stop making them. I think we can agree that this isn't true. After all, then we'd lose the unique beauty of animation. Surely nobody who's seen Tokyo Godfathers thinks it'd be better with sf or fantasy concepts, or without the beautiful realistic look it has?

tl;dr: It's because completely serious and realistic films are never animated that animation isn't taken seriously.

If I may say a good example of a non kiddy animated movie "Grave of the fireflies" set in very realistic mid war japan no talking animals or flying robots admittedly the whole thing is being watched by the main characters ghost but that's merely a metaphor for him looking back on his life up till his death at the start of the movie and doesn't actually interfere with the plot so hopefully an allowable exception

 

[tunderball]

I love animation, hell I just finished studying it for 3 years and with a little bit of luck I'll be an animator one day. But the idea of 'animation for animations sake' that your looking for is a little bit pointless, animation is a long and therefore extremely expensive process when practically the same effects your looking for in your list could be achieved by live action in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost.
Animation tends to only be used if there is a opportunity to create something with a unique look.

Basically you won't find much of what your looking for released in the West because there just isn't a market for it when compared the the 'kids' market which is huge. Anime films might have what your looking for however but I'm not a huge offisionado myself although Ghost in the Shell is very good.
Sorry about that anyway probably not what you wanted to hear but I'm a realist.

 

[hardpixelrain]

Scanner Darkly, Waltz with Bashir.

Full of themes that wouldn't entertain kids at all.
Waltz with Bashir fits pretty much all your criteria unless you discount it for having its surreal dream sequences (which honestly could be in a live action film).
Its a part documentary style story about a man who goes about interviewing others in order to regain his memories of the lebanon war.

 

[Henkie36]

Resident Evil: Degenration. Only if you have have played the games, I should warn you. Most logical way you can explain this moive is: ''filler for the plotholes RE 2 left behind.''

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Team America. That counts as 'animated', right?

 

[robert01]

Why should animated films not be enjoyable by adults? At what age do we lose the ability to be amused by 'non-adult' related themes? A lot of animated films that are created and marketed for children have stories and plots that are considerably deep enough for an adult to enjoy, be engaged by , and reflect upon the story. Animation is just the paint used on the canvas.

Cool World [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104009/] is the only movie I will reference, I leave that example on the table.

 

[kickyourass]

If you have a hard time finding an animated movie that isn't a comedy you are pretty much admitting to not looking (There is in fact a difference between a movie that has comedy in it, and a movie that is a comedy). That's ignoring that fact that you don't seem to count animated works that come from say Japan AND that you implied something can't be serious or mature if it has sci-fi or fantasy in it. If that's what you meant thatn you are blatently wrong, and if not then learn to word you shit better.

 

[Doom-Slayer]

Any M rated anime? I watch tons of them, and they are ceeeeeeeeertainly not for kids. Elfen Lied for example ironically contains a huge cast of kids, however its R18 FOR A VERY GOOD REASON.

 

[Reaper195]

3. Don't sound like a kids' movie when you describe the plot.

I take issue with this one. Have you ever seen The Prince of Egypt? That's the animated version of the Ten Commandments, and that really doesn't sound like a kid's movie when you describe the plot.

Or reverse it around and describe something like Avatar. Basic plot sounds like almost every kid movie involving that sort of thing to date (Namely because there is only one way to do the Avatar/Dances with Wolves/Pocahontas/ plot.

 

[Kadoodle]

I can think of some excellent ones.

Waltz with Bashir
The Triplets of Belville
The Illusionist (Watch in bluray for a thorough mind-fuck of beauty)
Any movie by Hayao Miyazaki

 

[Kadoodle]

Team America. That counts as 'animated', right?

Nope. It's live action, just with marionettes instead of people...no "Animation" at all.

 

[Innegativeion]

I was about to say

"because, objectively speaking, they aren't"

but then I read the first post.

Good man.

 

[bader0]

cbf going through the whole thread to see if someone has said this but. WATCH "THE SKY CRAWLERS" DO IT NOW STOP WHAT YOUR DOING AND WATCH IT. ALSO CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL.

 

[sapphireofthesea]

You really do need to look more into Japanese Animation man. There are alot of outlandish things, but the serious ones are usually a psychology theory given flesh and played out in the 'real world'
Stuff like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Lain to name a few. Elfen Lied is also good from an emotional point of view and does cover some extremely serious topics with a suitable reason for it's humours times (defo in the minority).

Give the first 3 a gander and see what you think, all three can be used to teach college classes on something.

 

[midknight129]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; and even if there aren't "realistic" animated movies similar in tone and theme to movies like Shawshank, the people who don't take them seriously and lump "animated" together with "for kids" (ironically, due to the influence of companies like 4Kids...) are simply enjoying their own opinion (even if it's a stupid opinion). I tend to prefer the comedy, un-realistic, and otherwise "kiddy" themes when they're well-blended with mature, philosophical, adult themes. This is one of the reasons I so enjoy Anime; it so often gets that great blend of the unbelievable with the plausible, the comedic with the deeply mental, and blends them so well that in the good ones, you won't even know where the one pole merges into the other seamlessly. For anyone to think that any story can be designated as "intended for kids" or "intended for adults" is a fundamental fallacy so the search for a film that satisfies criteria that makes it "purely for adults" is just as ridiculous and misguided as the assertion that animation is "just for kids".

Because, when you boil it all down, there's only one story: Someone has something and someone else wants it. Everything else you hang on that is purely aesthetic and each person has their own aesthetic value. The criteria you listed don't designate an animated movie that is "adult" but rather one that "appeals to you personally"; and that's a subjective matter not an objective one.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Why would you make such an animated movie when you can do the same with real actors and save several hundred thousand dollar?

No sci-fi, realistic plot, realistic people, world, etc? Why play much more to get worse acting when it's really cheap to do with real actors? What's more realistic than reality?

Animating inanimate objects is one of the most important parts of animated movies. If you don't need animation, than don't use it. If you do movies about ordinary people, than ordinary actors are enough.

You want movies which are better of with live acting to be animated. I don't see the point of doing so.

 

[Zakarath]

By the way, I find naming your threads trollishly just to get more attention rather irritating.