The nature of animated television shows has dramatically changed over the past few years. At first, the assumption was if it’s animated, it’s a children’s show. That all changed with the increase in popularity of extremely adult animated shows like Family Guy, American Dad, and many others. Now as we approach the year 2020, we see all different genres of animated entertainment from all walks of life. Today, I wanted to talk about a few shows that I find extremely interesting due to mature manner of including more “adult” or taboo topics without compromising the appeal of the projects to their child audience OR their adult audience.
Adventure Time
The first show that I wanted to cover is Adventure Time. Adventure Time was almost undoubtedly the pioneer to many of the popular, animated television shows that we see today. Everything about this show is unforgettable: the original music, the bright and colorful characters, the unique and interesting world, and of course the mature and at times relatable themes and story arcs.
In case you have never heard of Adventure Time its follows the adventures of a boy named Finn, a twelve year old hero of the land, his best friend and adoptive brother Jake, a dog with the magical shape-shifting powers, and all of their friends the unique yet eerily familiar world of Ooo. Sounds like your typical Fantasy themed kids show, right? Until you realize that the land of Ooo is all that is left of the now partially destroyed Earth after the nuclear apocalypse called “The Great Mushroom War”, and Finn is the last known surviving human in existence. Years after the war, the world became dominated by incredibly diverse races such as candy people, vampires, wizards, robots, and many more. This is where our story is just beginning. We go along with “Finn the Hero” on his journey to protect the princess of the realm as well as through the struggles of growing up and trying to understand his feelings about being the last human.
Adventure Time covers themes like losing loved ones, parenthood (from both child’s and parent’s perspectives), Alzheimer’s style memory-loss, war, and even the end of the world. Through it all though, the characters learn, grow, and change not only to better understand one another, but to also better understand themselves. This show appeals to children through the entertaining stories, colorful world, and charismatic characters. Meanwhile, Adventure Time also maintains the attention of its adult viewers with it’s impactful yet light-hearted writing/dialogue and its emotional, relatable character relationships.
Steven Universe
Steven, the show’s main protagonist, is a young, half-human, half-Gem boy who must learn how to channel his gem powers from his gemstone which he inherited from his mother, the former Crystal Gems leader Rose Quartz. He doesn’t have to do it alone though. Steven has help from the other crystal gems such as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl as well as other humans like his dad Greg, his best friend Connie, and the other many other residents of Beach City. There is a lot about this show that I could talk about, but today I want to focus on the themes of body image insecurities and sexuality presented in the show.
Mix-ups, mayhem, and a gay wedding, literally! The gems are ageless, genderless alien warriors who project the light around them into female humanoid forms using the magical gemstones at the core of their being. They can shape this light to take on many different forms differing in everything from body types to having extra body parts such as third eyes or four arms. Using this character design Steven universe explores the effects of negative body image. Though the show We get to experience the journey of how the character Amethyst learns to love herself in the form that she is most comfortable in.
On the note of love, the character Garnet is the literal and metaphorical embodiment of love between two characters, Ruby and Sapphire. Back on Home-world relationships between different gems is incredible taboo and can even result in shattering (gem version of death). When Ruby and Sapphire fell in love however they decided they never wanted to be apart. They escaped to Earth where they were free to spend the rest of their lives together in the form of Garnet. Eventually, even getting married.
The big theme of this show is love in the form of not only loving yourself but also loving others. Steven Universe covers mature topics such as body image and sexuality yet no one character is every solely defined by them. The adult audience can appreciate the complex character development and relatability. While on the other hand kids can appreciate the space themed art style and original music.
Both of these shows discuss more mature themes and show how cartoons are branching out into different audiences. Be sure to check these two out, they are great shows to watch!