What happened in this Culture story?

A new wave of adult-focused animated films is redefining the genre, with Laika’s 'Wildwood' earning a rare PG-13 and films like 'Tangles' and 'Ray Gunn' targeting mature audiences through complex themes and dramatic storytelling.

What is a key fact in this story? (1)

**Laika** released 'Wildwood' with a PG-13 rating for 'strong fantasy violence, thematic material, suicide-related content, and language,' marking the studio’s first film not aimed primarily at children.

What is a key fact in this story? (2)

**Travis Knight**, director of 'Wildwood' and CEO of Laika, helmed the 140-minute stop-motion film, tying the record for longest English-language animated feature and building 136 sets and 231 puppets for its production.

Adult Animation Rises With 'Wildwood,' 'Tangles,' 'Ray Gunn' — SkimNews

By Variety · Summarized & edited by Kapil Samant · 2026-10-22

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Laika released 'Wildwood' with a PG-13 rating for 'strong fantasy violence, thematic material, suicide-related content, and language,' marking the studio’s first film not aimed primarily at children.
Travis Knight, director of 'Wildwood' and CEO of Laika, helmed the 140-minute stop-motion film, tying the record for longest English-language animated feature and building 136 sets and 231 puppets for its production.
Brad Bird’s 'Ray Gunn,' described as 'The Maltese Falcon' meets 'Buck Rogers,' follows a noir detective in a retro-futuristic Metropia and will be released by Netflix on December 18 with a PG rating for 'suggestive material.'
Leah Nelson’s 'Tangles,' adapted from Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir about her mother’s Alzheimer’s, premiered at Cannes to a seven-minute ovation and features Abbi Jacobson and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in voice roles.
Daniel Chong’s 'Hoppers,' a Pixar film about a college student who uploads her mind into a robot beaver to save a forest, opened to $46 million and surpassed $500 million globally, despite a robot face removal scene unsettling younger viewers.
Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado’s 'Forgotten Island,' a DreamWorks film about two Filipino friends facing separation and memory loss in a mythical realm, reflects their real-life friendship and cultural roots.
The SCAD Savannah Film Festival’s Pixels and Pencils panel, featuring Knight, Bird, Chong, Crawford, Mercado, and Nelson, has become a predictor of Oscar success, with past participants including recent winners like 'KPop Demon Hunters.'

Why it matters: Animation studios are no longer defaulting to family-friendly content—Laika’s PG-13 'Wildwood' and the adult-targeted 'Tangles' signal a shift in audience expectations, with filmmakers gaining confidence to treat animation as a serious medium for complex, dramatic stories that compete in non-comedy award categories.