CARTOON MOVIE KIDS SERIES
However animated films have yet to see the same growth of adult-oriented material that animated TV series have, and as such are much more affected by the ghetto, especially with purely 3D CGI Western animation. Thus 2D is regarded as "dead" by the Western animation industry whereas 3D can serve as a compromise between animation and live action. Although this applies chiefly to films made out of 3D computer graphics as traditional 2D animation is still not taken seriously. Yes, there are pure kiddieville films made, but if you want to make big money in that field, you must appeal to adults at some level. To a lesser extent, the same goes with animated feature films. On the other hand, the Internet-based ghetto tends to reach the other way thanks to animation's growing reputation as a medium for all demographics, many forum users sometimes express surprise that a well-written show was made purely for kids or try to play up the Multiple Demographic Appeal to separate it from "other" kids' shows, thanks to the ghetto stereotype of "for kids = bad writing."
Similarly, anime aimed at adults was limited to science fiction conventions and college campuses, but now has a worldwide following. Before Internet access became widespread, animated short films (which in general have mature themes) were only available in universities that catered towards that specific field, but the Internet helped many artists publish those projects for a mainstream audience.
The Internet also helped weaken the ghetto. Similarly, many people assume that All Anime Is Naughty Tentacles. These days, the ghetto is not as strong as it used to be, due to the successes of Japanese anime as well as American Animated Shock Comedy shows as South Park, Family Guy, Rick and Morty and others like The Simpsons, Bojack Horseman and Futurama, though some of these shows' reliance on Vulgar Humor has led to a new misconception that all animation made for adults is an Animated Shock Comedy.
The age ghetto paints older demographics as unprofitable. Anything considered safe for children can potentially be licensed out for merchandise, which is nearly guaranteed to sell, making many shows 30-minute commercials, FCC regulations permitting. Once television animation became associated with children, the producers of animated shows began writing down to their presumed audience, which made animation outside the age ghetto less profitable than animation inside it. There are many sociological theories as to how and why this trope originated, but one of the most common theories is that it's a by-product of the rise of animation on television in the '50s and '60s with many adults uninterested in the low quality of many of these, and thus only kids being able to tolerate it, as well as television at the time being marketed as a way of keeping kids quiet and the rise of parental groups arguing for more government regulation on the content of these programs. Animation has the reputation of being a frivolous medium suitable primarily for children, under the age of 12.