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Did you hear that the upcoming Seth Rogen-scripted animated movie Sausage Party is rated R? I’m not sure how you could have avoided it. If you missed the TV spots and the highly sexualized posters, there was always the red-band trailer that managed to cobble every instance of the word ‘fuck’ within a ten-mile radius.
It’s honestly a fun idea, taking the animation trend of anthropomorphizing animals/toys/feelings and grafting that onto a story that seems to be combining a doomsday cult with savage horror themes, voiced by seemingly the entire cast of This Is the End.
As for the R-rated animation thing, it’s definitely rare, but certainly not unheard of. While the grand majority of animated feature films have been at least partially directed at kids, exceptions have dotted the film landscape since at least the 1970s. Here are ten that you can stream right now.
'Batman: The Killing Joke' (2016)
The notorious 1988 comic book written by Alan Moore (Watchmen) has been controversial for its reliance on violence against women . That it’s coming out as a movie in animated form while the DC live-action movies have been getting a critical drubbing for their grim, awful violence is not the greatest timing.
'South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut' (1999)
The South Park movie bested all expectations that it would be a vulgar, tasteless pile of junk by instead being a vulgar, tasteless, flawlessly executed movie musical. The infamously foul-mouthed TV series got un-muzzled for the theatrical version, and Trey Parker and Matt Stone didn’t skimp on the payoffs. And they even managed to get an Oscar nomination for it.
[You can stream South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut on Netflix.]
'Heavy Metal' (1981)
The embodiment of a rock band’s airbrushed van made into a feature film, Heavy Metal was co-produced by Ivan Reitman as an anthology of shorts adapted from Heavy Metal magazine. The film goes heavy on violence, sex, and nudity, and features the music of Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, and Sammy Hagar.
'Waltz with Bashir' (2008)
Director Ari Folman’s groundbreaking hybrid documentary/animated memory play depicting the 1982 Lebanon War was a critical sensation in 2008, topping many critics’ top 10 lists and earning an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It’s a testament to the fact that R-rated animation doesn’t simply have to crank up the vulgarity. It can bear the weight of weightier subjects and exciting filmmaking.
'Waking Life' (2001)
Richard Linklater’s most divisive film was this philosophical, talky, head-trip of a movie made with rotoscoping animation techniques that essentially painted on top of filmed scenes. So actors like Adam Goldberg, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, even Linklater himself appear in the film, which is nominally about a guy (Dazed and Confused‘s Wiley Wiggins) who can’t tell if he’s dreaming or not, but which is ultimately an excuse for a whole lot of existential noodling that you may or may not have patience for. (It’s brilliant.)
'Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters' (2007)
Remember how Aqua Teen Hunger Force was a thing for a minute there? After South Park proved that feature-length animation could work for cartoons that weren’t exactly for kids, Aqua Teen took the Adult Swim stab at it. The results weren’t quite so prosperous, but certainly fans of the show got their money’s worth.
[You can stream Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters on Amazon Video.]
'The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat' (1974)
The original Fritz the Cat was legendarily infamous for being the first X-rated animated movie. Essentially a ’70s exploitation film about an animated cat, it featured sex, drugs, and all manner of bad behavior. Odds are good you’ve been to a bar that’s played it with the sound off in a bid to seem edgy. Nine Lives is the sequel that managed to crawl its way to an R-rating, making it the rare R-rated animated film to be less risqué than expected.
[You can stream The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat on Prime Video.]
'A Scanner Darkly' (2006)
Another Richard Linklater movie using the rotoscoping technique, this one starred Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder in an adaptation of a Phillip K. Dick story. Despite all those fantastic ingredients, the film was barely a blip on the radar. It’s almost certainly due a critical and popular reevaluation.
'Akira' (1988)
Regarded as one of the best and most important animated films of all time, Akira was the feature adaptation of the popular Japanese manga of the same name. It’s likely responsible for a lot of anime’s crossover success in America in the 1990s and beyond (it was supposedly a major influence on The Matrix). While the violence is significant, the film was never seen as exploitative.
'Pink Floyd: The Wall' (1982)
The feature-length music video for Pink Floyd’s album turned the band’s story of English dystopia into a hybrid live-action/animated fantasia that was simultaneously gorgeous, dark, and sinister. Come for the music. Stay for the fascist hammers and vaginal flowers.
