Animation, is it only for children?

I believe that it is not the genre of the movie that attracts audience, but rather the plot, the character and the story. We go to movies or rent a DVD because we want to be entertained, we want to laugh or be thrilled and most importantly we want our whole mind to be taken by what we are watching. So it is not an animated character or a human actor that attract us, but it is what they say, how they say it and what their story is.

I, as a young adult, laughed when I watched Ice Age as much as I did when I watched any other comedy with live actors. I cried when Mufasa in the Lion King died as much as I did when Satine died in Moulin Rouge. Children laugh because of how characters move in an animated movie, because of the sounds they make and the expressions on their face. But adults understand the jokes better. I, and most people I believe, understand better the jokes in Tom and Jerry now than we did when we were children. Adults understand the jokes in animated movies whereas children are amused by the funny characters.

The following website explains that animated movies such as Up, How to Train Your Dragon, WALL-E from Pixar and DreamWorks have proven that animation has a lot to offer viewers of all ages. And a woman, Julia Alekseyeva also wrote in this article that as an audience, we are also finally beginning to accept the fact that something like animation—often associated with kids—isn’t a genre, but a medium.

Successful animators are behind this change in audience’s view of animated movies. They seem to be driven by the belief that animated movies are not solely for the entertainment of children, but also adults. For instance, John Lasseter and Brad Bird, two old classmates, believe that animation could amount to more than the children's fare it had become. They have tailored their animated movies to the preferences of adults and children, to entertain both and win them as faithful spectators.

However, some stubborn viewers still believe that animation is just for children despite the strides it has made in recent years. This prejudice can only be overcome when those people decide to step into a movie theatre to watch an animated movie with an open mind willing to be amused.