Western Adult Animations?

I know you’re deliberately avoiding Japanese anime, but frankly, there really aren’t a lot left to choose from. Animation is an expensive medium to produce and its appeal to adult audiences in the Western world is sadly limited. Most of them never reach above cult status.

That said, here are some classics that you might enjoy, other than the two you mentioned (“Fritz the Cat” and “Heavy Metal”):

Ralph Bakashi is the king of adult animated films. He directed others that are worth a look:

Heavy Traffic (1973)

Wizards (1977)

Lord of the Rings (1978) - An ambitious project with mixed results, but it was the best LOTR adaptation until Peter Jackson’s trilogy.

Hey Good Lookin’ (1982)

Fire & Ice (1982) - Characters designed by Frank Frazetta. Need I say more?

Cool World (1992) - Stars a very young Brad Pitt!

Others I recommend:

Fantastic Planet (1973) - A psychedelic, supremely odd and beautiful French film. Totally worth seeing.

Watership Down (1978) - Based on the young adult novel, this is still a rather violent film, relatively speaking.

Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982) - This is only partially animated, but those sequences are fantastic.

Rock & Rule (1983) - A musical sci-fi fantasy, though like a kid brother of Heavy Metal, not as extreme. Still fun, as the soundtrack is also great.

Time Masters (1982) and Gandahar (1988) - Two fantasy epics, from the same director as Fantastic Planet.

Mondo Plympton (1999) - A collection of animated short films by Bill Plympton. They are all superb.

The Triplets of Belleville (2003) is a fantastic movie, with an unforgettable soundtrack. A must-see, in my opinion.

Wave Twisters (2001) - A feature-length animated version of DJ QBert’s album of the same name. It’s totally bonkers and packed with a bazillion pop culture references.

A Scanner Darkly (2006) might not count, as it is rotoscoped animation of live actors, but it’s a dark sci-fi animated film, as you requested.

Æon Flux - Not a film, but it was a brilliant animated series on MTV modeled somewhat after Japanese animation, but Peter Chung’s direction is far more stylish and surreal, IMHO.

The Maxx - Another MTV series that was well done and worth a look.

Hope this list helps. Good luck!

I've written a response in the comments but no one checks the comments I'm pretty sure. So yeah, thanks a million! It's very disappointing that the animation medium isn't exploited in the West to explore mature themes or depict stunning visuals past your idyllic Disney paradise. Western style animation for the most part appeals better to me than anime, especially when it comes to the humanoid characters. I'd kill to watch a animation based on the 6 days war or something.