After months of waiting for the second half of Invincible Season 2 to drop, fans of Prime Video's series finally got to see the first of the last four episodes of the 2024 TV schedule... for now, at least. The animated series has already been renewed for a third season, although no announcement has been made about when to expect it. Still, the release of the second half of Season 2 had me flashing back to a conversation with showrunner/executive producer/writer Simon Racioppa and his take on why animation isn't just for kids. And of all movies, Pixar's Up came up!
Now, anybody who has checked out an Invincible episode – or even watched one of the trailers – already knows that this particular show isn't exactly aimed at the same audience as Rugrats or Scooby-Doo, and plenty of animated series aimed toward adults made our list of the best animated TV shows of all time. Still, I for one still encounter people who think that animated projects are for kids and won't necessarily give the medium a shot.
So, when I spoke with Simon Racioppa about Invincible at SCAD TVfest in Atlanta, I asked what he would say to somebody who thinks animation is just for kids:
I mean, don't let your kids watch our show! [laughs] Kids should not see our show. They should definitely not. Open your mind, I guess? Everybody watches Pixar, so Pixar movies are also for adults. If you didn't cry at Up, you've got a broken heart, or you're not a person. So just try watching other stuff, and if it's not for you, that's fine. Not every show is for everybody. Watch something else. Watch the stuff you like and don't watch the stuff you don't like.
Considering that Invincible has a slew of content warnings for Amazon Prime Video subscribers including (but not limited to) violence, foul language, and sexual content, I doubt anybody would argue with the showrunner's point about this particular animated show not being for kids! Racioppa did suggest that skeptics "open your mind" to the medium to at least try it, and cited Up as an example of a movie aimed at kids but with plenty of adult appeal.
There's a reason why those first ten minutes still pack an emotional punch to plenty of adults, and one Pixar exec even opened up about how kids react to Up vs. how adults react. Up and Invincible may be at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to target audiences, but both are great examples of animation. After Racioppa brought up Up, I noted that we're still probably not going to get an Up/Invincible crossover. The showrunner laughed and said:
That would be amazing. Talk to Pixar, and if Pixar is good with it, we'll make it happen... That would be great. It's like the sweetness of Up, just adding blood and violence and gore onto that... It would be very original. Cross-promotion would be like, 'Up in the sky with Invincible!'
I for one would be up for that, but Invincible fans should probably hold out hope for a slightly more feasible crossover, like Spider-Man making his way to Mark Grayson's world. As of March 14, Invincible is back with new episodes on Prime Video. The first of Season 2's back four is available now, with the final three releasing weekly on Thursdays through April. If you haven't checked the spring premiere out yet, take a look at the trailer for Season 2, Part 2!
Invincible has already been renewed for Season 3, so you can watch the back half of Season 2 without worrying about Amazon giving the show the axe. For now, you can find every episode released so far streaming with a Prime Video subscription. If Simon Racioppa shouting out Up has put you in the mood to revisit that film, you can find it streaming with a Disney+ subscription!
