Examples of Genre Mashup on Film:
Film — Animation
- Pixar:
- Brave is a supernatural fantasy/family drama/action-adventure/horror with less outright comedy than Pixar's previous works without being too dark.
- A Bug's Life is an adventure/road movie/comedy/drama/thriller as well as a Seven Samurai adaptation.
- Finding Nemo is a road movie/coming of age/thriller/animal comedy/prison escape/surf movie.
- The Incredibles is an action/adventure/sci-fi/fantasy family dramedy satire with explosions.
- Inside Out is a philosophical and psychological comedy/drama/coming-of-age/slice of life/road movie/buddy movie/adventure/fantasy. Which elements are in play shift whether the film is focused on the human characters or the cast of emotions within their minds.
- Monsters, Inc. is a monster movie/kid flick/invasion movie/sci-fi/family drama/comedy.
- Toy Story is a philosophical comedy/drama/thriller/adventure/prison escape.
- Turning Red is a comedy/family drama/coming-of-age/slice of life/urban fantasy/supernatural fantasy/horror/werebeast/kaiju movie with elements of anime and a musical. Its score combines traditional Chinese instruments, Cantonese chanting, new jack swing, rock, hip-hop and Western orchestral music.
- Up is a comedy/drama/tragedy/jungle adventure/WW2-style pulp adventure/talking dogs/extremely difficult to categorize but highly enjoyable movie.
- WALL•E is comedy, drama, romance, sci-fi, and even silent film during the first half.
- Every film in the Disney Animated Canon or otherwise falls under the “family film” umbrella, but with over 50 movies under their belt, there are a few examples of this:
- Aladdin is a fantasy/musical/comedy/romance/adventure.
- Big Hero 6 a science fiction/superhero/action/adventure/coming-of-age/Robot Buddy/love story, though like the aforementioned Frozen, the emotional crux is the sibling love between Tadashi and Hiro Hamada.
- Frozen (2013) is a Decon-Recon Switch of many Disney staples: a Fairy Tale adaptation/musical/comedy/drama/fantasy/road movie/love story, though in a departure from the studio’s usual romantic love story, the focus is on the bond between sisters Elsa and Anna.
- A Goofy Movie is a road movie/teen film/family drama/buddy comedy. Not part of the Disney canon as it was released under Disney Toons label.
- Lady and the Tramp is a talking animal, musical, and romance film.
- Lilo & Stitch is a science fiction/monster movie/coming-of-age/adventure/family movie. While all these elements configure into the film, the “family” part serves as the Central Theme.
- The Lion King (1994) is a talking animal/political thriller/musical/comedy/drama/coming-of-age/action/adventure movie, as well as a loose adaptation of Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
- Moana is an action/adventure/fantasy/buddy pic/musical/coming-of-age story.
- 101 Dalmatians is a talking animal/comedy/drama/adventure film as a Happily Married pair of Dalmatians set out to rescue their children from a bloodthirsty fashionista.
- The Princess and the Frog is a Jazz Age-period piece/modern fairy tale/talking animal/musical/fantasy/romance with a dash of fantasy-leaning Afrofuturism.
- Tangled is a Fairy Tale adaptation/romantic comedy/fantasy/musical/road movie/drama/Coming of Age Story. Notably, the villain takes a page out of a Psychological Thriller, and acts in a way that disturbingly mirrors many emotionally and mentally Abusive Parents in the real world.
- Zootopia is a talking animal/comedy/buddy cop/conspiracy thriller/political-social satire.
- The music that Daniel Ingram uses for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls blends rock, pop, and EDM, partly to make the art of Equestira Girls distinct from what he and other creators of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic franchise call "core pony". This becomes diegetic in the pep rally song in "Friendship Games", where DJ Pon3 adds a heavy EDM track on top of a marching band's performance after the first chorus.
Film — Live-Action
- Most films by The Coen Brothers, namely:
- Barton Fink is a psychological horror/comedy/buddy film/bildungsroman/mystery with some elements of the supernatural.
- The Big Lebowski is a Stoner Flick masquerading as a Hardboiled Detective Film Noir, while the narrator insists it's The Western, but with a Busby Berkeley Number.
- The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) is existentialist neo noir with Sci-Fi elements.
- No Country for Old Men is a Film Noir thriller in the New Old West seeping with Hitchcockian suspense.
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a musical Road Trip Plot retelling the Odyssey... but it's set during The Great Depression.
- This pretty much describes the Indian Masala film
. Action-comedy-romantic melodrama-musicals. Taken up to eleven by Endhiran and Koi... Mil Gaya note , which are all that plus sci-fi. - Just about anything by Monty Python and Terry Gilliam.
- The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension: Comedy/pulp action/sci-fi.
- The American Astronaut: "surely the best, worst, and only, black-and-white comedy-western-sci-fi rockabilly punk surrealistic musical."
- Angel Heart: A blend of supernatural horror and neo-noir (it was initially advertised as a hybrid of The Exorcist and Chinatown), but also throws some erotic thriller and psychological horror elements in for good measure.
- Army of the Dead: An action-packed heist film... that takes place during a Zombie Apocalypse.
- Back to the Future is a comedy (generally hilarious moments), teen movie (teenage protagonist, characters and a high school setting), a matchmaking Rom-Com (George and Lorraine), a Period Piece (partially placed in the mid-1950's) and an epic, sci-fi Time Travel adventure all in one.
- Back to the Future Part III mixes the Time Travel sci-fi of the first two with an all-out Western and a Love Story between Doc Brown and Clara.
- Being John Malkovich. A comedy drama laden with surrealism which functions as a borderline philosophy course.
- Big Trouble in Little China combines comedy, martial-arts action and Chinese myth along with the apparent full body possesion of Kurt Russell by John Wayne.
- Black Death is a horror-action-period piece drama.
- The Black Room = Ruritanian Romance + Horror Film.
- The Brood, though unabashedly a horror movie, combines aspects of both the 1800s Gothic Novel and the 1970s slasher.
- Brotherhood of the Wolf: Historical Fiction, action (with a kung-fu practicing Native American character), mystery and horror.
- Casablanca: It's both a war movie (without taking place at a battlefield), a romance movie (with two loved ones parting without a Last Kiss), and a film noir thriller.
- Colossal starts out as (and was advertised as) a small town romantic comedy. As it progresses though, it begins to shift into a rather dark drama about alcoholism and abusive relationships before finally turning into something of a psychological thriller. Oh, and there's of course the overall Kaiju aspect of the story spread throughout.
- Cowboys & Aliens: Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Dark City mixes film noir and Sci-Fi and includes mystery, horror and psychological drama elements.
- Death on the Diamond is a very strange mixture of Sports Stories and Mystery Fiction that involves a Serial Killer stalking a major league baseball team and murdering the players.
- Dora and the Lost City of Gold is part Indiana Jones for kids and part high school comedy.
- Edge of Tomorrow is a sci-fi action comedy-drama that takes influences from Groundhog Day, Alien Invasion tropes, the D-Day landings, anime (since it was adapted from a Japanese light novel), and video games.
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: A science fiction romance movie, most of which takes place inside the main character's head.
- It's no wonder Donnie Darko has become such a cult classic. It's a drama/supernatural mystery/preapocalyptic almost-sci-fi/black comedy/almost-teen-romance-coming-of-age-80s-period-piece.
- Everything Everywhere All at Once:
- The film is a Science Fiction story about a potential multiversal war... but underneath the trappings of that it's a Family Drama, where Evelyn tries to manage a struggling business, a failing marriage, and tense relationships with her father and daughter. And there is a strong comedic element, mostly by indulging in complete surrealness.
- The various alternate universe provide extra genre toppings: The action scenes pull on wuxia and kung-fu films, while another is a straight-up homage to the animated comedy Ratatouille.
- Exit (2019) is a comedic action disaster movie with a hero who wants to get the girl.
- Fight Club is a social commentary/philosophical drama/black comedy/surreal-psychological mystery-thriller/crime action film in which the real fighting is only used as way to highlight the message of the film. It has to be seen at least two times to be fully enjoyed.
- The Fly (1986) starts out as a quirky romantic comedy with some sci-fi aspects, before plunging right into horror/tragedy.
- Ghostbusters (1984) you could say is a hilarious yet frightening supernatural horror, sci-fi, urban fantasy, action comedy with dashes of Rom Com and even has elements of a superhero film.
- Gleahan and the Knaves of Industry: The movie hits several genres at once. Either it's a cross between the Indie Darling and Heroic Fantasy, or it's an Adventure Comedy. Take your pick.
- Goal of the Dead is a soccer film. With zombies. (You guessed that, right?)
- Griff the Invisible is a superhero movie/romantic dramedy/fantasy. The premise sounds like the next Kick-Ass, but the superhero parts are brief and only there as a part of Griff's characterization. It's actually about Griff as a person, and his relationship with a girl who's trying to walk through walls.
- Henry's Crime is a Romantic Comedy within a Criminal Procedural.
- Inception turns a Journey to the Center of the Mind into an inverted heist film.
- Jack & Diane: It's probably best described as a lesbian romantic drama/horror movie.
- Kill Bill is a martial arts film, a samurai film, a revenge thriller and a Spaghetti Western. There's even an anime sequence.
- Knights of Badassdom is a Horror/Action/Comedy film, set during a Live Action Roleplaying game, and filled full of nerdbait and Metal music.
- Kontroll is a Hungarian comedy/thriller/drama based around a ticket inspector in the Metro system.
- The Longest Yard (both American versions and the British remake Mean Machine) is both a Sports Story and a Prison picture.
- Lisa The Fox Fairy : is it a thriller? A supernatural horror? A slapstick comedy? A romantic movie? Or maybe all of them?
- Local Hero is a constant mixture of comedy/satire and drama... with unexplained mildly fantastical elements.
- The Matrix is a Martial Arts Movie neatly fused with grandiose Sci-Fi Post-Apocalytpic Cyberpunk making big-time Shout Outs to various philosophical and religious references.
- Midnight in Paris manages to combine fantasy, comedy, romance, drama and science fiction into one package that only Woody Allen could concoct.
- Nudist Colony of the Dead: a horror/sex comedy/musical.
- Once Upon a Time in China starring Jet Li showed the world that Kung Fu cinema is a genre that is more than capable of being artistically poetic, emotionally deep and politically relevant as any European art film.
- The One is a science fiction, shoot-em up action, crime thriller, Martial Arts Movie. Totally not made in the wake of the success of The Matrix.
- Repo! The Genetic Opera: A Gothic Cyberpunk Musical with a little Gorn thrown in for good measure.
- Rimfire = The Western + Film Noir.
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Take Universal Horror, specifically Frankenstein; add (alleged) protagonists and atmosphere straight out of American International Pictures; mix in a (real) protagonist who became, by design, an icon of Queer Media. Oh, and make it The Musical.
- Save the Last Dance: The final dance auditions for the ballet academy blend ballet with jazz and other modern dance styles.
- Scanners is a sci-fi/horror/noir/psych thriller.
- Scream and Scream Again: Horror Film meets Conspiracy Thriller.
- Se7en is a neo-noir crime thriller with the trappings of a horror film.
- Shaun of the Dead was marketed as a zom-rom-com. A romantic comedy... set during the Zombie Apocalypse.
- A Brazilian review of Snatch. stated it was hard to qualify. "Action? Not sure, but has some electrifying scenes. Comedy? If it's not, only God can explain all the laughter in my theater. Drama? Maybe, the comic side switches into scenes that could easily enter a yellow press tabloid."
- Snowpiercer at varying points, is, among other things, science fiction, neo-Western, action-adventure, even RPG video game-esque.
- Star Wars, as a whole, is perhaps the most notable marriage of science fiction and mythic fantasy along with space opera, action-adventure, western and war epic.
- The Stunt Man. Action-Comedy-Romance-Thriller-Drama. The studio had trouble marketing it because it didn't fit into one particular genre.
- The Terminator is a science-fiction movie, an action movie, a thriller, and a Slasher Movie revolving around time travel and a killer robot. The sequels would abandon their slasher elements and become pure sci-fi action flicks.
- Tiger Love: You have a Romeo and Juliet kind of love story with Star-Crossed Lovers in it, you have a Tarzan kind of plot line in it, you have a Revenge story combined with horror in which a tiger shapeshifts into a creepy old woman with claws, fangs, and bathed in eerie green light, and martial arts put into it. Good luck trying to classify this film into a genre!
- Toys. Strong on comedy but with much drama, sometimes family-friendly and sometimes not, having a lot of futuristic technology and a lot of action scenes that are confined purely to the third act. Music is so integral to the film, director Barry Levinson has said it comes as close to a musical as possible without actually being one.
- Vanilla Sky combined romantic drama with a psychological thriller with a sci-fi reveal.
- Wonder Woman 1984: Superhero, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Action Period Piece.
