ESG: Pandemic's Savior Sunk

Adult animation was supposed to help steady streamers

Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty: adult animation’s shining star.

By The Entertainment Strategy Guy

Early on in the pandemic, a narrative surfaced. As productions stopped around the world due to Covid-19 restrictions, one industry rose above the fray…

ANIMATION!

Specifically, animation intended for adults. (I really want to write “adult animation”, but don’t want folks to giggle, imagining pornographic animation. So just don’t, as I use that phrase throughout the rest of this article. Deal?) 

Animators can, it turns out, animate from home, though this required sending workers home with their high-end computers and sometimes getting them faster internet services. Even voice talent can record at home, usually in a closet with padding. And writers can do their 45 minutes of writing per day at home as usual (my unscientific estimate of anyone’s actual writing time, including my own, between procrastination and anxiety).

Hollywood needed a savior and adult animation would provide it. Just imagine…an endless world of Simpsons and Family Guys ready to rescue streaming.

As so often happens, out came the trade industry think pieces, including my favorite, a sponsored “article” I saw repeatedly on Variety:

And we saw the results in 2021. From Chicago Party Aunt to Q-Force to Fairfax to The Harper House to Adventure Beast, animation was everywhere!

Oh wait, do you not recognize a few of those titles? Or maybe any of them?’