Why is western animation just for kids movies?

[MCerberus]

I think we're all making too much about demographics in this stuff. Animation really fills a two-dimensioned spectrum of what it's allowed to get away with an maturity. You have Wall-E, a movie that's pretty tame but kids simply do not 'get' most of it. Just a funny robot. Then you have Cartoon Hangover, where they perform surgeries on a dinosaur with a tree-chopping axe, give the middle finger, and murder a lot. It's mostly immature, but gloriously revels in it. There's a lot of awful cartoons that talk down to children, and the occasional gem where a more traditional 'adult' show goes deep.

And the lines are blurring even more. Ward (the guy behind Cartoon Hangover) set up Adventure Time as a vehicle to explore ambivalence. You have Hussie doing a lot of animation work that... well it's a theme and narrative cluster****, but an ambitious and never-ending one. Venture Brothers is pretty much an ongoing grand experiment in failure. Looking back, even Batman: TAS wasn't 'for kids', it was the vision of Batman fans for Batman that just so happened to air on Saturday mornings.

 

[kasperbbs]

Well most animation in Japan are based off manga and the west only has comics, mostly about super heroes which are also being animated, but are mostly aimed towards children. If i recall correctly the "Spawn" animated series was made for adults and it was pretty good, but i might be wrong since i watched it at least 8 years ago, other than that i don't recall anything worth watching that the west has animated.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

On another note, my ex once showed me this anime that should prove how mature it could be, and it was Elfen Lied, and it fucking sucked.

It was ugly, cruel, unnecesary violent, tasteless and made me barf in my mouth.
I'm not that well versed in anime, most of it seemed to me to be like Disney, for kids and adults.

But if Elfen Lied is what passes for "mature", then heck no, keep that crap away from me while I watch Beauty and the Beast for the xxxth time.

I want magic, I want feeling, I want beauty! Elfen Lied had none of that.

Please tell your ex to show you the Elfen Lied manga instead. The anime had to stop halfway through Elfen Lied and instead copped out its ending. The manga is also pretty damn violent, but it explores the nature of Dicloni and Lucy's character a hell of a lot better than the anime did.

Also, for anime being mature, I would like to direct you to:

Death Note/Code Geass (both really work here, although Code Geass has mechs)
Cowboy Bebop
Puella Magi Madoka Magica (The first two episodes are SUPPOSED to seem extremely girly, btw.)
Ghost in the Shell

There's probably a lot more too, but those are the ones that immediately come up to mind when I want to show people something that has well-written characters and story.

As for Western Animation, yeah, it's mainly due to the stigma behind animation. I know a lot of people that usually write off anything animated as "cartoons," and save for the exceptions like Futurama, South Park, and Simpsons, and some really good children shows like Adventure Time and Regular Show, it's hard to convince anyone above the age of, say, 15ish to waste their time on animation.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Animation and anime are often considered two genres because of the cultures they are made with a minset in. Compare Ben 10 and attack on Titan. The Japanese version of Lilo and Stitch to Courage the Cowardly Dog.

As such, animation is often considered childish because cartoons are animated.

Heavy Metal is a crappy, horrible exception.

 

[VanTesla]

I could just say it's because of the western culture, but that would not be exactly the whole reason or in many cases the main reason for why it is not as big as it could be. Also if we look at many animation that ave come out the past decades many are geared to accomandate multiple ages and not just children. Hell even the original Looney Toons have so many jokes that would only be caught by older people that would fly right over a childs head. Also Japan is not the bastion of mature animation as many people clame when that is still a minority of what comes out of todays shows geared towards children or just pure echi which in my opinion is not considered mature but just grown up child fulfillment fantasies...

Also many western companies just don't see enough profit or audience to justify funding animation geared only towards older people if it's not satire and somewhat cheap animation. I would't mind seeing some attempts of serious drama, suspense, mystery, and etc western animation that is not either satire or pure hack n slash, but it is to high of a risk factor in the eyes of many channel companies that would rather play it safe.

I just remembered that the first Batman animated movie Batman: Mask of The Phantasm was pretty mature for a animation and came out in theatres. That movies lives up even today as a good mature animation that can be watched at any age. The other Batman movie which was a straight to videos release well recieved and mature with much emotion and drama for dealing with Mr. Freeze running out of time to save his wife and Batman trying to save Batgirl while also trying to help Freeze at the end.

 

[VanTesla]

On another note, my ex once showed me this anime that should prove how mature it could be, and it was Elfen Lied, and it fucking sucked.

It was ugly, cruel, unnecesary violent, tasteless and made me barf in my mouth.
I'm not that well versed in anime, most of it seemed to me to be like Disney, for kids and adults.

But if Elfen Lied is what passes for "mature", then heck no, keep that crap away from me while I watch Beauty and the Beast for the xxxth time.

I want magic, I want feeling, I want beauty! Elfen Lied had none of that.

I would never show someone Elfen Lied as mature or as a first pick into anime ever... That would be one of the worse choices in my opinion to a person new to anime and I would not consider that a mature anime in the sense of say one Like "Monster" which is a anime based more in reality and is a suspense thriller with some good characters and some hard issues. There are some good and better anime out there it is just hard to find sometimes for there is tons of crap in the sea of anime to sift through. There is an anime out there that can be enjoyed by any individual, but finding that one is the challenge.

If you would like a more disney esc movie in japanese perspective I highly recommend any film by Hayao Miyazaki. Princess Mononoke is one of my favorites of Miyazaki and the interesting thing is the english dub is far different than the japanese sub in some of the context. Both versions of Princess Mononoke I like, but the Japanese sub I prefer for the english dub make the male protagonist seem like the lead while the Japanese sub is much more directed to the female lead.

 

[Fumbles]

That said I really want to create a hard sci-fi drama (with some action naturally) for adults that is animated. I think we can do with a cartoon that isn't strictly comedy or adult themed.

Cough...cough... A Scanner Darkly...Renaissance.

 

[GoaThief]

I find most of the allegedly mature anime that's recommended doesn't live up to it's billing. Sex and gore can often be anything but.

I think to find the gems amongst the rough you have to look for more obscure or left field affairs, something like Tokyo Godfathers [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/mobile/m/tokyo_godfathers/] fits the bill for me nicely.

 

[Kair]

I really liked Beowulf. Have you not seen it?

 

[VanTesla]

I really liked Beowulf. Have you not seen it?

Didn't they use live actors with motion capture for that film? I think he means purely animated without say mocap like Beowulf or Avatar's Navi.

 

[Daniel Janhagen]

I don't agree with the premise for the OP question, and don't feel I can contribute meaningfully to the discussion as such because of that (and also, because I cba). I will say that I quite liked this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technotise:_Edit_%26_I

 

[Techno Squidgy]

There's actually tons of adult oriented western animation, just most of it isn't very good. Ever hear of Heavy Metal?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Metal_(film)

I'm not sure if you're implying that Heavy Metal isn't very good...

Which would be totally fair, it isn't all that great. However, I think everyone should watch it just so they can say they did. It's pretty much unique, as far as I'm aware. I loved every second of it. That soundtrack...

 

[Soviet Heavy]

That said I really want to create a hard sci-fi drama (with some action naturally) for adults that is animated. I think we can do with a cartoon that isn't strictly comedy or adult themed.

Cough...cough... A Scanner Darkly...Renaissance.

Starship Troopers Roughneck Chronicles, Titan A.E (okay that one is more "teens and older" but it shouldn't be discounted). There's a lot of this hanging around.