Adult animation is moving beyond the kids’ aisle
Animation has long been treated by Hollywood as family entertainment, but 2026 is offering a stronger challenge to that assumption. Two ambitious films, Ray Gunn and Wildwood, use animation to explore mature ideas, darker fantasy and striking visual worlds without abandoning broad audience appeal.
One unexpected link between both productions is Tom Waits. The Grammy-winning folk singer, known for his unmistakable raspy voice, provides important supporting performances in each film.
Tom Waits finds two very different roles
In Brad Bird’s noir science-fiction mash-up Ray Gunn, Waits voices Eyera, pronounced “Ira”, an alien companion who plays a significant part in the story.
His other 2026 role appears in Laika’s stop-motion fantasy Wildwood. Waits plays Maksim, a hungry, walking coyote who leads an army of wild dogs in service of the film’s villainous plan. That plot involves the murder of children, although the film remains aimed at a wider audience than its grim premise might suggest.
Stories made for adults, even when children can watch
Neither film is automatically unsuitable for younger viewers. However, both are clearly designed with adults in mind, which remains unusual in mainstream American animation more than two decades after Hayao Miyazaki’s first Oscar win for Spirited Away.
Ray Gunn touches on sex, blackmail and racism through a futuristic society divided between humans and aliens under a “separate but equal” system. Its PG rating keeps the material restrained: the film includes a charged kiss and an aliens-only hospital, but does not become explicit.
Wildwood is more confronting. Grief and trauma sit at the centre of its story, while its PG-13 rating allows genuine menace and violence. One major battle includes an antagonist decapitating a human opponent, giving the set-piece a scale reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings. Younger children may find the film difficult.
That creative confidence is part of what makes these films notable. Their appeal is not based only on technical spectacle; they use animation to present complicated themes, unsettling moments and detailed fantasy settings that would be difficult to achieve in live action.
Fantasy is also growing up
The shift is not limited to animated films. Wicker is a sex comedy with a fantastical premise, following Olivia Colman’s lonely fisherwoman as she falls for a magical man made from wicker by a local basket weaver. The film has received strong reviews.
Meanwhile, horror films built around public-domain versions of Pinocchio have developed into a popular dark-fantasy franchise rather than remaining a one-off novelty. Pinocchio Unstrung arrived earlier in 2026.
Greta Gerwig is also scheduled to reveal her big-budget adaptation of Narnia in 2027. The success of Barbie demonstrated that she can approach familiar intellectual property with thoughtfulness and humour while still reaching a broad audience.
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What comes next for animation?
The 2027 animation line-up appears less crowded with projects as distinctive as Wildwood and Ray Gunn. Two notable exceptions are Gatto, Pixar’s next original film with a hand-painted look, and Beyond the Spider-Verse, which will aim to complete its trilogy while continuing the series’ filmmaking experiments.
That quieter outlook is understandable. Both Wildwood and Ray Gunn were developed for more than a decade, making them unusually long-term projects and clear labours of love for their creators.
The hope is that their reception encourages studios to invest more confidently in animation for adults, whether the subject is science fiction, fairy tales, horror or fantasy. Casting Tom Waits in a memorable supporting role would be a welcome bonus.
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