30 Animated Movies That Are Not for Children

Richard Linklater has spent his career innovating and doing the unexpected, and his 2001 surrealist drama Waking Life is perhaps the greatest possible example of this.

Coming off the back of a series of comedy-drama films, Linklater abandoned narrative and plunged headlong into animation. Waking Life is a series of deep philosophical conversations and scenarios loosely connected by our protagonist, a nameless young man (Wiley Wiggins) who is all but detached from the everyday world and drifts through reality-adjacent spaces, following a dream logic towards his conclusion, literally floating far out in an endless blue sky.

It's difficult to say which is more striking, the visuals or the conversations. The rotoscoping process for the film involved a plethora of different artists working in different styles, so every scene feels like its own thing, mirroring the existential subjects that interest and tantalise Linklater’s characters. By nature, a non-narrative picture like this has never enjoyed an especially wide audience, but for we adults who can put aside the need for a three-act structure and traditional character development, it is an engulfing viewing experience that is worth multiple watches.

Plus, if you like Linklater’s Before trilogy, there’s an Easter egg in there just for you.