Unless you were living off the grid over the summer, you’ve likely heard about KPop Demon Hunters. The animated musical from Sony, sold to Netflix during the COVID-19 pandemic, broke new ground for the studio. It has since become the most-watched Netflix film of all time while its songs topped music charts around the world, eclipsing artists such as Chappell Roan and Alex Warren.
Its success also reignited the use of the quote “animation is cinema,” coined by director Guillermo Del Toro in 2023 while accepting the best animated feature film Oscar for his stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio. This quote sparked a wide movement online after it was first said. Viewers, artists, and even animation studios campaigned for animation to be given the respect it deserved as a form of art meant for everyone, not just kids. Seeing the sheer amount of love across audiences for KPop Demon Hunters, it seems hard not to argue that this goal has been achieved. But has it really?
Animation is an art form rich with history, dating all the way back to the early 20th century. While in its infancy, animation was viewed as an experimental medium primarily for adults. Animated shorts would often be played in theaters before films or used for political and wartime propaganda. However, as the animation industry grew in size, it gained a reputation as a form of entertainment accessible to all ages, which is where the argument of animation being “for kids” originated.
While I disagree that animation is only for kids, I understand why others would believe it. If you look at the most popular animated media of the last two generations, the majority is aimed at a child demographic. Shows like Bluey and Avatar: The Last Airbender and films like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish or even KPop Demon Hunters, while high in quality and capable of discussing mature themes, were created first and foremost for younger audiences. There are exceptions to this, such as 2021’s Arcane, an animated series aimed at adults, but that’s the thing: they’re exceptions.
Animation for adults tends to carry a certain stigma, mostly regarded as vulgar and tasteless by audiences. When the trailer for Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky’s longtime passion project, Fixed (a film about a dog wanting to have as much sex as possible before being, well, fixed), was released online, people were quick to lambast it as such. Many questioned how a movie like it could be made by the same studio that created “masterpieces” like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and KPop Demon Hunters.
Averse reactions to adult-oriented animation are nothing new. Even in the transgressive 1970s, the animated films of counterculture artist Ralph Bakshi were considered so controversial that they were boycotted and banned from being shown in theaters. Regardless, this begs an important question: if animation is supposed to be a medium for everyone, on par with live action, why is there such conditional approval for what stories it’s allowed to tell?
If animation is truly going to be respected as an art form, double standards and preconceived notions about what an animated film “should” look like need to be challenged. Art isn’t inherently more or less valuable based on who it’s aimed at, and we need to stop acting like it is. Every form of storytelling has its place, and artists deserve to be given space to tell the stories they want, how they want.