Theme from Jaws
Setting aside individual complaints about oversexualization, oversimplification, 2Edgy4You, and patronization, I think the major defining difference between cartoons for kids and cartoons for teens and adults is the sliding scale of idealism vs cynicism.
Take kids' cartoons. Take Steven Universe. When I watch a kids' cartoon, I always get the idea that I'm meant to feel hopeful. If it's a good cartoon, that's exactly what happens. Watching Steven Universe makes me feel like talking to people, confronting my problems with compassion and understanding, and overall being a kind person will solve everything. But then in an adult cartoon there's a huge amount of cynicism- an episode of Futurama will generally plant the idea that people are assholes, that trying to talk about your problems just gets you mocked, and kindness will be punished unless it's exploitable.
Don't get me wrong, mind you. I love both of those shows, and I don't think one of them is objectively "better" than the other except in specific categories that they aren't even both trying to be in (except for maybe a fondness for memes, looking at you Sugar woman). And both definitely have moments where they lean into the other- there are plenty of hopeful endings to Futurama, plenty of moments where talking just isn't good enough in SU. This is talking more about the overall presentation of the story, not exceptions.
Both of those attitudes have their place in our fiction. Giving people hope for bad situations, encouraging them to listen to people and talk through conflict, telling them that kindness and joy are the keys to creating a better world, all of those are important. Giving people an escape and offering them, at least for ten minute increments, the chance to exist in a place where kindness is rewarded, those are all wonderful things that the world could always use more of.
But so, too, is it important to give people the catharsis of seeing their cynicism justified. When you're in a bad situation and you just need to turn off for a little while, watching a bunch of trite, overly-colorful characters tell you to be nicer is just going to make you feel worse. Watching people who are also in shitty situations stop being nice and just be assholes (like you want to, but won't) has a release in itself, as does watching someone (fictional) suffer in general, and there's vindication and validation to your cynicism when you see other people go "well shit, good people never win".
One of the reasons there's the divide is that we like to encourage young people to be good, but older people we know it's too late, but I kind of wish there wasn't such a divide. I'm not saying children should be bombarded with cynicism or adults should just watch a lot of colorful hopefulness, but sometimes when kids are going through shit having a cartoon character say "you know, everything is awful and sometimes that's just how it is" instead of "things are bad now, but they'll get better! be joyful and giving and kind! work together and talk about your feelings and everything will be okay!", even if those messages are presented in a very understanding and non-patronizing way. And adults who want a bit of an escape should have that without having to settle for simplified stories that remove a lot of nuance from the world (as much as I love Steven Universe, I do tend to get frustrated by a level of simplification that is understandable given the show is directed at kids).
Invader Zim is a good example of a children's cartoon that presented a hugely cynical view on the world- in some places ridiculously so- and it was very popular with the edgy crowd of teens and preteens who were struggling with a very confusing time in their life that was confusing in part because they were coming to realize that people and the world at large were shit, and they'd been lied to. On the flip-side, Bob's Burgers is a really good adult cartoon that shows a family being loving and supportive of one another, situations that are solved by talking, characters who routinely shut down offensive humor, and a steady undercurrent of hopefulness that even if today wasn't so good, there's always tomorrow and it might be better. This is a hit with adults who are in similar situations as the Belchers in one way or another, and love how real the Belchers feel to them.
(It was while I was typing this post that I remember a long list of cartoons from the nineties that also seemed to have the cynicism > idealism attitude to it, so I'm going to give this some more thought and will probably make another post later that considers the view in the nineties, since apart from IZ, all of the cartoons on this post are fairly recent. Or I won't, because I don't always bother to do things I say I want/am going to do.)
Take kids' cartoons. Take Steven Universe. When I watch a kids' cartoon, I always get the idea that I'm meant to feel hopeful. If it's a good cartoon, that's exactly what happens. Watching Steven Universe makes me feel like talking to people, confronting my problems with compassion and understanding, and overall being a kind person will solve everything. But then in an adult cartoon there's a huge amount of cynicism- an episode of Futurama will generally plant the idea that people are assholes, that trying to talk about your problems just gets you mocked, and kindness will be punished unless it's exploitable.
Don't get me wrong, mind you. I love both of those shows, and I don't think one of them is objectively "better" than the other except in specific categories that they aren't even both trying to be in (except for maybe a fondness for memes, looking at you Sugar woman). And both definitely have moments where they lean into the other- there are plenty of hopeful endings to Futurama, plenty of moments where talking just isn't good enough in SU. This is talking more about the overall presentation of the story, not exceptions.
Both of those attitudes have their place in our fiction. Giving people hope for bad situations, encouraging them to listen to people and talk through conflict, telling them that kindness and joy are the keys to creating a better world, all of those are important. Giving people an escape and offering them, at least for ten minute increments, the chance to exist in a place where kindness is rewarded, those are all wonderful things that the world could always use more of.
But so, too, is it important to give people the catharsis of seeing their cynicism justified. When you're in a bad situation and you just need to turn off for a little while, watching a bunch of trite, overly-colorful characters tell you to be nicer is just going to make you feel worse. Watching people who are also in shitty situations stop being nice and just be assholes (like you want to, but won't) has a release in itself, as does watching someone (fictional) suffer in general, and there's vindication and validation to your cynicism when you see other people go "well shit, good people never win".
One of the reasons there's the divide is that we like to encourage young people to be good, but older people we know it's too late, but I kind of wish there wasn't such a divide. I'm not saying children should be bombarded with cynicism or adults should just watch a lot of colorful hopefulness, but sometimes when kids are going through shit having a cartoon character say "you know, everything is awful and sometimes that's just how it is" instead of "things are bad now, but they'll get better! be joyful and giving and kind! work together and talk about your feelings and everything will be okay!", even if those messages are presented in a very understanding and non-patronizing way. And adults who want a bit of an escape should have that without having to settle for simplified stories that remove a lot of nuance from the world (as much as I love Steven Universe, I do tend to get frustrated by a level of simplification that is understandable given the show is directed at kids).
Invader Zim is a good example of a children's cartoon that presented a hugely cynical view on the world- in some places ridiculously so- and it was very popular with the edgy crowd of teens and preteens who were struggling with a very confusing time in their life that was confusing in part because they were coming to realize that people and the world at large were shit, and they'd been lied to. On the flip-side, Bob's Burgers is a really good adult cartoon that shows a family being loving and supportive of one another, situations that are solved by talking, characters who routinely shut down offensive humor, and a steady undercurrent of hopefulness that even if today wasn't so good, there's always tomorrow and it might be better. This is a hit with adults who are in similar situations as the Belchers in one way or another, and love how real the Belchers feel to them.
(It was while I was typing this post that I remember a long list of cartoons from the nineties that also seemed to have the cynicism > idealism attitude to it, so I'm going to give this some more thought and will probably make another post later that considers the view in the nineties, since apart from IZ, all of the cartoons on this post are fairly recent. Or I won't, because I don't always bother to do things I say I want/am going to do.)