Ricky Gervais making Alley Cats, a cartoon about a bunch of foul-mouthed feral cats, sounds like exactly the kind of idea that might have struggled to find a home a few decades ago. Netflix's new sitcom about stray cats arguing, swearing and pondering the meaning of life feels like a very specific kind of weird, a UK eccentricity even, but that’s where adult animation is right now.
Alley Cats takes Gervais’ familiar mix of sharp humour, social observation and a fascination with life’s more awkward moments and drops it into the world of a group of feral cartoon cats trying to survive on the streets. Top Cat meets It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia comes to mind. It’s a strange setup, but animation has always been good at making strange ideas feel completely normal. It's why Alley Cats is another sign of how adult animation has become one of the most flexible spaces for creators, where comedians, writers and artists can take ideas that might sound ridiculous on paper and turn them into something audiences will happily spend hours watching.
The last decade has seen animation move well beyond the old idea that cartoons are either children’s entertainment or a place for simple comedy. BoJack Horseman took a cartoon about a washed-up actor who happens to be a horse and turned it into one of television’s most thoughtful explorations of fame, regret and self-destruction. Arcane proved animation could deliver blockbuster-level visuals and emotional storytelling on the scale of the biggest fantasy productions. The anthology series Love, Death & Robots showed how animation can pivot between styles, contexts, and meanings with ease.
Animation loves strange ideas
Alley Cats sits in a different space, closer to the adult animated sitcom tradition, but that’s part of the appeal. Animated films like Zootopia 2 don’t need to justify why characters are talking animals or, in this case, why a group of cats can carry the same comedy baggage as a dysfunctional family, a group of office workers or a bunch of mates in a pub. We just laugh along, accept the world being offered, and the creative possibilities open up. That freedom to build worlds and characters without rules is a huge part of the attraction of adult animation, and animation in general.
Streaming has played a big role in that shift too. Platforms like Netflix, Crunchyroll and even Disney+ have helped create space for animated shows aimed squarely at adults, allowing projects with unusual premises to sit alongside more traditional dramas and comedies, perhaps even better them – Star Trek: Below Decks is the best franchise series in years. Whether Alley Cats becomes the next big animated hit remains to be seen, but the fact that a Ricky Gervais comedy about feral cats can exist in the same conversation as some of the most ambitious animated shows of recent years says a lot about where the medium has ended up.
The strangest ideas have always belonged in animation, from the best cartoon films of the 60s like Yellow Submarine all the way up to the best anime; the difference now is that we're much more willing to seek them out and embrace them.
Alley Cats is streaming on Netflix from 7 August 2026 (UK).
