US animation that has FAILED.

This is a list of US animation that attempts to break the barrier of the kid/teen demographic, usually by featuring more sex, violence, or "coolness" in some way. In most cases, these fail to gain any respect, yet at some point someone must have said "this will raise the bar for US animation and usher in a new era of mature, sophisticated animated films and series that can be enjoyed by the masses in an uninhibited form of creative expression that knows no bounds."

-Invasion America, short lived miniseries by Steven Spielberg, used typical WB animation but attempted to be more mature than the average saturday morning cartoon by having a somewhat serious storyline and an occasional risque comment. Nobody cared because it still looked and felt like an average WB cartoon, and wasn't particularly groundbreaking.

-Heavy Metal 2000, attempted to revive the cult hit Heavy Metal while adapting a story from its magazine. Rather than provide unique stories from multiple authors, it became a typical "testosterone-driven female kills and maims in a world full of sex and violence." Little character development or backstory (for example, her tight red outfit and cool sword simply appear with little explanation). Suffers from "trying to be hardcore" syndrome.

-Sin: the movie, based off the game, attempts to deliver an interesting and somewhat epic story in the style of anime. It actually has an interesting feminine character, and at least a little plot. But mostly its an excuse for tons of action scenes, and still suffers from "tries to be hardcore" syndrome. It also has a poor resolution, as the main villainess simply falls off camera, whispering "I'll be back if they ever make a sequel." Another strange note is the subtitles for the Japanese version have completely different dialogue in some places.

-Anastasia: Could have been a serious and dramatic period piece. Actually it was, but it was incredibly superficial and didn't address important historical issues such as death. It tries to be epic, but since it tones down and kiddifies the truth, and ends up being more like a Disney movie than anything else.

-Titan A.E: While not an adult movie, the previews at least implied it could have been en epic, serious sci-fi movie. Instead it turned into a WB style teen movie with limited plot or depth. Typical mindless unsympathetic villains, no real drama or emotion attached to the loss of Earth, and annoying attempts to be hip and cool through the middle. The amount of money spent on this and Anastasia caused the sutdio to go bankrupt.

-Final Fantasy: the Spirits within: Expectations included: Epic sci-fi movie, epic plot in the style of FF games, and a groundbreaking CGI movie that could revolutionize animated movies in the US for an older audience. Instead, it aspired to be a B-grade hollywood movie.

-The Animatrix: Eh. Some parts were cool. Not all of them were that great. Might have carried the "adult animation" genre forward, or widened its audience, but not significantly.

Movies I haven't viewed: Lady Death, Van Hellsing: The London Assignment, and Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury.

Conclusion: The animation market wants to expand to an older audience. It tries to breakthrough into the mainstream, in hopes that ones of its features will be immensely popular, create a fanbase, and make lots of money for its producers. But it hasn't, due to the following challenges:

-Hardcoreness. The assumption that "more mature" means more sex and violence, and that a huge teen/adult male audience will flock to it. The faultiness here is that bad action movies already exist. Good ones at least have a plot and likeable characters.

-Broadening genres. Besides action and sci-fi, there isn't much. Perhaps they feel there isn't room to cater to more niche audiences, such as a female oriented drama, comedy, or satire.

-Licensing. Most of these are licensed to tap into some preexisting fanbase. One would assume this means "built in audience," but it also means "limited audience." You're taking "people who like watching X movie" and taking only a small percentage of those who'd watch an animated feature based on it. There are plenty of other sources to tap into, especially comics like in Japan. But hollywood would much rather spend money on a live action adaptation of a comic due to its broader appeal. The challenge is making an animated feature as good or better than a live action equivalent (Batman: Mask of the Phantasm vs Batman & Robin). Also, there are hundreds of independant comics that can be adapted, just look at any comics catalog. But companies are probably too scared to put any "risk" into telling a story with views that don't have mass market appeal.

-Perception of characters. We still use archetypes such as the muscleclad superhero and superheroine. There haven't been too many "normal" characters with interesting backstories, and I think part of this is fear of looking "weak." If you had a truly feminine girl with quirks and shyness, or a timid guy, then you wouldn't have an invincible flawless herop character. I think some people are afraid of showing a character who isn't perfect, or can't defeat the bad guys with one hand. There needs to be flaws and quirks and interesting backstories and personalities and little details, rather than assuming peole will like "generic invincible girl/guy."

-Curves. For some reason, people cannot draw curves. Ever see an ad or artbook that attempts to mimic the "anime" style? There's always something not quite right about it. I believe it has to do with social perception in different cultures, such as "we're tough and unyielding, so we have square jaws" vs "pretty cherry blossoms and kittens = soft pillowy cuddly girls that are excessively cute." Or, they think if females aren't presented as hard and strong, it makes them automatically look weak. But everything needs some amount of femininity to make it more believable. I think this conflict between "should I draw her like a soft harmless animal" or "should she act and talk like a guy" is what subtly seperates curved characters from WB geometric faced characters.

-Lack of funds. If it takes money to make money, how can you work on a more "independant" film if you don't expect it to break through the mass market? You create something cheap, with mass appeal, that has the potential to be wildly popular, so that you can gain capital and hopefully make that more unique, thought provoking epic you dreamed of. But step A never happens. Because the cheap mass market idea os too obivous, too superficial. And if you're going to do that, why make an action movie? Why not make animated porn?

Answer: Because you can only draw chicks that look like guys.

Disclaimer: The above opinion happens to be biased. And an opinion.

Ok after reading most* the posts here, I have a few things to say.

Right now, I'm 18 (male) and in a college that is devoted to 3D animation and graphics (expression.edu). I don't consider myself a normal person, I have split personality disorder, and I listen to lots of heavy metal and don't have much of a social life to speak of. Now that you know about me let me say some things.

"US animation that has FAILED." - I will have to agree to a point, only recent US animations. There has not been a single "real" animation that I have liked in a good while. When I said "real" I mean, one that’s not a comedy. Family Guy is funny, South part is funny, Simpson’s are good, but none of those are very serious, most of them just poke fun at the current pop culture. They have solid plots and great characters. But they lack any kind of atmosphere. I'll try and explain as best I can...
When I open up an Aliens comic I get a sense of atmosphere, I know that stuff is gonna happen and it hold a different kind of seriousness to it. As where-in I watch a Family Guy ep, I never feel like I care what’s gonna happen to the characters or the plot. I mean its funny sure, but I'm not getting any connection with the enumeration as I would if I watched a old X-Man or even a Thundercats ep. Although some of that might be connected with me having seen those as a child and me watching family guy as a adult.

I've watched some "anime" from Japan, most I dislike, but the crazier ones I dig (Elfenlied). A lot of people where talking about cultures. The thing I see happening is that the people who control the media in the US are a bunch of pussys (No joke intended). It makes me hurt that I see a good independent comic, well drawn and good plots ect ect. But I know it will never get anywhere. Due to television the comic industry has suffered big time. People just don't read comics, they would rather just put in a DVD and space out. I'm not saying that’s a bad thing, I do it all the time. I'm just saying that I know that I'll never see the same dedication and love that I would if I read a comic. Because I know that the DVD I watch will have been put though hundreds if not thousands of tests and committees and re-written and all that other junk, until its just a other DVD just like all the others. (I'm not say that all DVDs and Movies are pointless and the same thing, I'm just trying to show my point as best I can.) There’s been some acceptations of this that I've liked, one of my favorites being FireFly (aka Serenity). Good job to the Sci-Fi channel.

Holy crap I've gone off topic, I feel that it’s simply an issue of money and time. Two things that the west will always have a problem with. It is simply cheaper to make a whole series of Family Guy then it is to make a few eps of a show like Tundercats. If needed Family Guy could crank out a one ep in less the 4 days, tops. I would imagine that it took the makers of thundercats a lot longer (per ep). And the time paid to those people ect ect. Family guys people would get paid less then the thundercats people (if they where paid the same) because of the hours worked. Now that creates a problem. The people at the top of the cooperate ladder care about two things. Making money and keeping there jobs. If they don't do one of those two things right, they don't do the other. And that puts them in a tight spot. They just try to make money. And they no longer see the art, they see the $ signs. All they want to know is if THE MASS will like and buy into it. Now that makes an other problem, because what THE MASS is currently into is the ghetto (sp?) style. Although they have there own art and stuff, I don't see ANY animation. So, that being said, if THE MASS doesn’t see animation THE MASS won't want to see animation and wont buy into animation, therefore the people on the top wont make animations because they wont make money. The mass of people I talk about is just American pop cultures people. Mostly teens and young adults.

Most of this probably doesn’t make sense to anyone but me. But if you do get anything out of this, know that its YOU and YOUR friends that effect weather or not "US animation FAILS". Goodnight and good luck. This is my oppontion.