How come animation is still seen as something "kiddy" or "not good enough"?

[Tron Bonne]

The animation genre is luckily becoming more accepted. Up's & TS3's Oscar nominations are proof. Hopefully one day the genre will get the respect it truly deserves.

Eh, not really. With the Oscars Best Pic getting extended, they're pretty much looked out as being the picks that wouldn't make it if not for the extension, not much real value to it or anything. It's not like when Beauty & the Beast got in or anything.

 

[jmc]

The tide will change when Pixar wins an Oscar for Best Picture. Pixar are the single most consistent film studio on the planet yet their only downfall it the medium. Complete BS.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Y'know, I was just thinking that the last adult American animated movie that was made might have been 'A Scanner Darkly', ok, it was filmed with real actors and rotoscoped over later, but that's essentially the same process as the mo-cap movies like Beowulf(was this considered an adult feature?), Christmas Carol and Polar Express. It's still an animated movie.
And i guess that is easier to sneak in under the radar with the studios, they would not think of it as an animated movie when it was pitched. Even some of the actors on set did not know they would be drawn over and essentially replaced by animated versions of themselves. I have a Rick Linklater doc on dvd I recorded off tv, and the interviewer is on set talking to Woody Harrelson, who is unaware of the rotoscoping plan.

 

[jmc]

The biggest issue with adult animation is how do you market it. One of the downfalls of feature animation is that in the early years of the medium the focus was on making it accessible to everyone because it was a brand new type of film making. You could argue Disney's Snow White was the Avatar of it's time, an expensive project and a new type of film that needed to appeal to as many people as possible. Had they tried earlier on to make more mature animation perhaps the 'for kids' stigma wouldn't be around today, but the times were different as were the audiences, cinema itself was still in its infancy so more adult animation would have been unlikely anyway. And given Snow White was the only Disney film to make any cash until Cinderella you really can't blame them for staying within the boundaries of 'all ages'.

 

[Superfreak]

I agree, kind of.

animation as an art form, sure. Not for kids only

but animated movie vs live action: If two identical movies came out, that were identical in every way, except one was live action and the other animated, live action would win out by miles. That's just reality.

sure animation can be used for any target age group, but i'd much rather see things of equal or better quality in live action, especially as I get older.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

I agree, kind of.

animation as an art form, sure. Not for kids only

but animated movie vs live action: If two identical movies came out, that were identical in every way, except one was live action and the other animated, live action would win out by miles. That's just reality.

sure animation can be used for any target age group, but i'd much rather see things of equal or better quality in live action, especially as I get older.

'that's just reality', no it's not, in fact i would say the reality is that animation can be much better for certain stories. As I said earlier, 'Coraline' is a perfect example of a movie that would not have been as creatively successful if it was a live action feature.

There are certain vibes and atmospheres that are unique to animation.
You really think a Wallace and Gromit live action film would be better?

 

[Superfreak]

'that's just reality', no it's not, in fact i would say the reality is that animation can be much better for certain stories. As I said earlier, 'Coraline' is a perfect example of a movie that would not have been as creatively successful if it was a live action feature.

There are certain vibes and atmospheres that are unique to animation.
You really think a Wallace and Gromit live action film would be better?

read my post again, where I state that if two movies were exactly the same, exactly the same (as in exactly the same), just one live action and the other animated, I would prefer the live action one, and so would a majority of the audience, IMO.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

read my post again, where I state that if two movies were exactly the same, exactly the same (as in exactly the same), just one live action and the other animated, I would prefer the live action one, and so would a majority of the audience, IMO.

Yeah, dude, the only part of your posts I do not understand is your signature line, which i guess is French Latin for 'I count my money as I sit on the toilet, I dicatate my earning into a video camera as I plop.'
What I was doing was asking you to re-examine what you just said, maybe you were not thinking what you said through properly.

So i'll ask you again, more clearly and precisely.

You've seen the Wallace and Gromit shorts/movie right? Some of the most famous animations in the world.
Do you really think it would be funnier, to just have some live action bald comedian fall down a chute and start putting cheese on some crackers?
If you do, I would think you had quite a bland sense of humour, because a lot of the humour in those scenes come from the animated cartoon expressions of the clay models, expressions that are not doable by real life humans, as no-one looks like that! I don't care what those kids who hang out down by my local shops say!
and that is part of the appeal of animation, just one of the pros. If you replicated that kind of thing in live action much would be lost in translation.
The bloomin Flintstones car in the old 60s cartoon looks much better and funnier in cartoon form than John Goodman using his big fat twinkle toes to get himself to the drive in.
You see what i mean?

 

[Max J Power]

How adult do you mean? Would Heavy Metal and it's sequel count? How About Titan A.E.? or Starchasers or Transformers the Movie?

Shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy are often called adult cartoons, so I think older teens and up defines "adult" in this context. So yeah, Heavy Metal counts. Transformers and Titan AE were more all ages-oriented and I don't know anything about Starchasers. The last adult non-comedy animated series I remember is HBO's Spawn from the late 90s.

 

[terry78]

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[terry78]

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[terry78]

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[terry78]

If someone could pull off a primetime action show like every other network has, but in animated form, that would be the true sign.

 

[GhostPoet]

It's unfortunate that animation is still seen as "kiddy" But that's what the general audience sees it has. I can't count how many people i've talked to who feel that exact same way. You can thank America and Disney for that perception.