Perfect Blue
Perfect Blue follows an actress whose career change becomes entangled with stalking, violence, sexual exploitation, and a terrifying breakdown between reality and fantasy. Its R rating reflects material that makes it emphatically unsuitable for younger children.
Akira
Akira may look like an elaborate futuristic cartoon, but its story involves political unrest, government experimentation, body horror, violence, and apocalyptic destruction. The film’s mature subject matter and disturbing imagery put it firmly beyond typical children’s animation.
Anomalisa
Anomalisa uses stop-motion puppets to tell an intensely adult story about loneliness, alienation, relationships, and sexuality. It includes graphic sexual content, drinking, smoking, and strong language, making its seemingly harmless animation style particularly deceptive.
The Plague Dogs
The Plague Dogs follows two dogs escaping an experimental laboratory, with the story confronting animal experimentation, suffering, death, and humanity’s treatment of animals. It was explicitly conceived as adult animation rather than children’s entertainment.
Fritz the Cat
Fritz the Cat was never intended as children’s entertainment. Ralph Bakshi’s adaptation of Robert Crumb’s comics is packed with sexuality, drugs, racism, political satire, and profanity, becoming the first animated feature released in the United States with an X rating.
When the Wind Blows
When the Wind Blows follows an elderly British couple attempting to survive a nuclear attack while clinging to their ordinary routines. Its deceptively gentle presentation gives way to a devastating story about nuclear war and its aftermath.
