Oct 17, 2023

Adult animation in Europe is not doing well. Creators hope to change that.

The differences in the way adult animation is produced in the United States and Europe are diverse and abundant. Cultural, political, and economic circumstances have intertwined to transform the field into the industry it is today.

In the United States, some of the most successful animated series of the past 40 years have been for adult audiences. Shows such as "The Simpsons," "Family Guy," and "Rick and Morty" set an example for American animation production companies, something not often seen in Europe.

Recently, however, a new wave of European animated series creators has entered the field of adult animation. We spoke with several of the creators at the forefront of this trend about the benefits and challenges of producing adult-oriented series.

More than 80 series were pitched at the Cartoon Forum in Toulouse last month. Of those 80, only 11 were aimed at young adults and older. This number is comparable to the entire European adult animation industry, with shows aimed at mature audiences being in the minority. For a few bold creators, however, the lack of adult programming is an opportunity for change.

Julian Sez is an animator who pitched his show Apocalypse Mojito on Cartoon Forum. In this series, two friends take a road trip through a post-apocalyptic Earth destroyed by climate change. The show was initially aimed at children, but developed into something too cut and dried for a younger audience. After changing the show's target audience, it no longer needed to filter its message about the disasters humans have brought upon themselves. That change, he says, has allowed the program to embrace a darker tone more freely.

"I realized I'm a lot less nice than I thought I was. I want to see people I don't like die. Politicians are the ones with the power to ruin everything. Politicians are the ones with the power to screw everything up."

Animation as a tool of political power is also reflected in another Cartoon Forum project, Grandma and Grandpa's Revolutionary Road. Produced by Alexandre Cornu and Shiraz Bazan Moussi, the documentary follows the story of freedom fighters in the Middle East from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Cornu explained why animation is the right medium for the stories he wants to tell, saying I think [animation] is the only way to reconstruct [the story] and share it with people."

Bazan-Mussi considered animation a tool for more surrealistic narrative elements. Since "Grandma and Grandpa" proposes to tell the story of the protagonists' lives, "the choice of animation is a way to distance ourselves from reality. There is a distance between the time frame of the characters and the time frame of their history."

Working in adult animation also gives artists the opportunity to tell more diverse stories. Mark Bodin, producer of Apocalypse Mojito, spoke about the freedom his team found when they changed the series to target an adult audience.

"[Broadcasters] are more careful with children's programming and less careful with adult programming, so maybe it's easier to write," he explained.

"Economically, it doesn't matter as much, because it's a niche show. At the Cartoon Forum, Bodin announced a partnership with France TV to produce Apocalypse Mojito.

Creating a show for adults is technically liberating. Rory Rowan, who co-created the comedy series "Pleasure Beach" with comedian Sean McLaughlin, explained that his show intends to convey the feeling of being "down in a fun place." Traditionally, the show has been animated as a 2D sitcom. However, Rowan's real-time CG approach demonstrates a desire to change the way adult animation is done today. We realized that we didn't necessarily have to fit that mold," he said. It's not the same kind of production as the 2D sitcom animation we're used to. We want it to be very tactile, and we want it to have weight to it."

Adult series often allow artists to create stories that are not told in other media. That takes courage in an industry where jobs are hard to find. Think about "The Simpsons. If you read about how that show aired, you can see what a battle it was, what a huge gamble it was. Even in the writers' room, they were saying there's no way this show is going to work, there's no way people are going to watch it," says Sean McLaughlin of Pleasure Beach. 'But it kicked the door down on the whole cottage industry in the US. I'm hoping that someday something similar will happen in the U.S."

These filmmakers are passionate about adult animation and are committed to telling stories that are diverse in tone and target audience. They are not alone, however, and there is a growing community of like-minded creators in Europe. Nevertheless, some persistent difficulties remain.

For some, the way animation is taught in Europe is problematic. Cezet recalled his experience with Animation Without Borders, a program that trains young animators. They teach them to adapt to the market and to be aware of the demands of broadcasters," he said.

European broadcasters often consider children's programming to be the foundation of the industry, while adult series are not. Bazan-Mussi explains that We have to enrich our programming. It is easier to sell internationally. For France, children's programs are easy to export. The money made from such sales is usually recycled to make more of the same, making it more difficult to create something out of that mold. [Showrunner Noam Luba, who pitched his project "Agents of B.A.D." on Cartoon Forum, agreed. It's a huge market. There are always children, and the audience is renewable. For adults, seasons may be important. Even if they like these things now, they won't like them in 10 years. Maybe it's linked to global trends," he said.

Charlotte Bavasso of the U.K.-based Nexus Studios noted that the U.S. is a great exporter of adult animated programming, just as Europe sells children's programming internationally, which creates the current paradigm.

"The size of the audience they manage in the US is naturally driven by the size of their territory, but they have also managed to attract larger audiences from some shows that did really well," she explained, and had a disproportionately large impact on audience preferences most popular U.S. series, she evaluated. Europe was buying these shows, so viewers were watching 'South Park' and all these things," she added.

Despite the European television industry being dominated by deeply rooted national broadcasters, there is a place for more subversive productions: streamers like Netflix and Disney+ have a global reach, and, like the more populous U.S., more niche shows have a chance to find an audience.

However, working with the big streamers is a challenge for independent filmmakers like Luba. 'From my standpoint as a small independent producer, it's easier to go to a broadcaster,' she said. Communication is easier. Communication is easier. It doesn't have to have a big track record with Netflix, Amazon or Disney."

The consensus is that it is far more complicated to be recognized by international streamers than it is to catch the eye of domestic broadcasters. Nevertheless, for domestic partners, budgetary issues are particularly important. In the case of Luba, we had to emphasize the cost-saving techniques of B.A.D. agents in order to attract the attention of the network commissioners. By using live-action backgrounds and producing shorter episodes, they were able to significantly reduce the cost of the program, making it less risky and more acceptable to potential broadcast partners.

Adult animation is flexible, more flexible than most programs popular in the U.S. today. It can be used not only as a vehicle for great comedy, but also as a call to political action, a message about ecology, or an expression of culture. By creating cartoons for adults, artists can go beyond what audiences are accustomed to seeing. At times, for those obsessed with revenue, it may be a frightening concept. But it can also enrich the artistic output of a studio, a country, or a continent. Fighting for better, more representative distribution of domestically produced series may seem like a big challenge, but a dedicated few are up to the task.