Composed of 700 drawings and a running time of about two minutes, French caricaturist Émile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie(1908) is widely heralded by historians as the first animated cartoon. A prime example of the short-lived Incoherent Movement, the short feature presents a stream of consciousness, a stick figure rapidly morphing and reassembling in a seemingly irrational manner. Arguably replete with violent and sexual imagery, the cartoon predates the hegemony of the ‘House of Mouse’ when it comes to animation and foreshadows the boundaries of ‘wholesome fun for the kids’ that animated cartoons have eventually come to decimate.

Early animations meant for older audiences tended towards the risqué variety more than anything else, Betty Boop, a caricature of the Jazz Age flapper being one of the oldest examples. While Betty Boop became a cultural icon of the 1930s, most other such endeavours failed to garner critical or commercial acclaim. In fact, it wouldn’t be until Jessica Rabbit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit(1988) fame that she’d find a worthy successor to her cult following. The 1980’s brought forth a slew of animation teeming with mature content, with Matt Groening’s The Simpsons leading the charge.  The series which depicts the foibles of Homer Simpson, a representation of the American working class and his eccentric family met unprecedented success and single-handedly carved a new niche within the animation industry.

The content of such forays evolved with the turn of the century. Initially relying on gags solely dependent on innuendo and violence to keep audiences hooked, animated cartoons slowly began to address and dwell upon issues of a more serious nature. MTV’s Daria, meant for the misanthropic pubescent, explored the ‘fish out of water’ syndrome with a lot of vigour. South Park provides a commentary on issues ranging from abortion to terrorism within profanity-laced tirades. Matricidal Stewie from Family Guy, wickedly competent Leela from Futurama and perpetually-grappling-with-existential-nihilism Rick from Rick and Morty are all fully fleshed out characters who have left their two dimensional animated lives behind to tackle moral dilemmas.

Netflix’s offering Bojack Horseman serves as a culmination of this development. The show features humanoid animals and centers around the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. The titular character is a horse well into his middle age, who in his heyday starred in a popular television sitcom and is now embroiled within an attempt to make a comeback. While it may seem gimmicky at first and filled with gags, the show, as it progresses, explores the idea of self-loathing and the pursuit for fulfilment with painstaking attention. Bojack acts in deplorable ways, abandoning worthwhile goals to go on degenerate benders, treating people in his life with utter disregard, all the while using his pursuit of ever-elusive happiness to justify his decisions. There is no redemption offered to him as he continues to drive his life into the ground alienating everyone around him, whilst his self-awareness affords him no solace.

The dark themes the show explores are interspersed with moments of great hilarity and the detailed animation is flawless. Issues such as gender identity and dementia are poised against a careful backdrop of humour and yet never trivialized. The hopelessness of hoping for a better world is conveyed not with sardonic nihilism but with a subtle nod to human failings. The series is a display of the poignancy of animation at its finest.