Adult animation is a term used to describe animation that is targeted at adults. Animated films and television shows may be considered adult for a number of reasons. Some productions are noted for experimental storytelling and animation techniques, or sophisticated storytelling. Others may be noted for a use of risqué themes, portrayal of violence, or sexuality (sometimes pornographic) in a manner that is unsuitable for younger viewers. Many adult animations contain multiple aspects defining the work as adult.

Before the enforcement of the Hays Code, some cartoon shorts contained humor that was aimed at adult audience members rather than children. Following the introduction of the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system, independent animation producers attempted to establish an alternative to mainstream animation. The most successful animated features produced in the United States primarily for adult audiences were directed by Ralph Bakshi, including Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic and Coonskin. Initially, few animation studios in the United States attempted to produce animation for adult audiences, but later examples of animation produced for adults would gain mainstream attention and success.

Scott Pilgrim is a series of graphic stories by Bryan Lee O'Malley. It consists of six digest size black-and-white volumes, released between August 2004 and July 2010, by Portland-based independent comic book publisher Oni Press. It was later republished by Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins. The series is about 23-year-old Canadian Scott Pilgrim, a slacker and part-time musician who lives in Toronto and plays bass guitar in the band Sex Bob-Omb. He falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona Flowers, but must defeat her seven evil exes in order to date her.

A film adaptation of the series titled Scott Pilgrim vs. the World starring actor Michael Cera in the title role was released in August 2010. A videogame of the same name developed by Ubisoft for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade was released the same month.

Creator Bryan Lee O'Malley was inspired to create the series and eponymous character of Scott Pilgrim after listening to Canadian band Plumtree's 1998 single "Scott Pilgrim", a song then-Plumtree singer Carla Gillis describes as "positive, but...also bitter sweet." In particular, O'Malley was inspired by the lyric "I’ve liked you for a thousand years,".

David Firth (born 23 January 1983) is an English animator, video artist, amateur filmmaker, and musician. As a cartoonist Firth's work is largely distributed via the Internet (most notably the popular Adobe Flash animation website Newgrounds, as well as his own personal sites). Several of his various works in cartoon Flash animation, as well as his multiple music videos and works of video art have garnered large followings, and include some of the most acclaimed video series online.

Notable animation sequences from Firth include Salad Fingers, as well as the comedic Burnt Face Man series. A number of Firth's works have been featured on the BBC in the UK, and the BBC has hired Firth on several occasions to work on TV programs and commercials. He also created a flash-series called "Jerry Jackson", which can both be viewed on Newgrounds and his own site, in which a cartoon character ironically pretends to be "a professional animator", even though the animation is intentionally poorly crafted. Jerry Jackson was also based on the people that would write badly written hate comments on his videos, as he would read them, he imagined that they spoke like Jerry Jackson. Firth also created Men from Up the Stairs.