5 Interesting Facts About Cartoon Characters

From the origins of The Beast to "Minionese", learn some fun trivia about your favorite cartoon characters

We all remember our favorite cartoon character growing up. Whether it’s wacky Donald Duck, or the lovable Scooby-Doo, since cartoons first graced our screens almost 100 years ago, they’ve had the power to make us smile, laugh, and cry. In fact, some of them have become so familiar, they even feel like old friends.

But even the most common household names hide some surprising secrets. Like the fact that one furry monster was so difficult to animate, Pixar had to invent a whole new program just to do the job. Or that a certain Pokémon is not as innocent as he might look...

Find out more in this video:

1. Off The Radar

Mickey Mouse is probably the most famous cartoon character ever to have existed. The Walt Disney icon first appeared on screen back in 1928 in a cartoon called Steamboat Willie, and became a huge hit with the public. He made regular appearances throughout the 1930s with his very own series of short films, until the Second World War broke out in 1939. In the UK, the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) made the decision to stop all broadcasting for fear that the wavelengths could be a signal to enemy bombers. Mickey’s Gala Premier, the 58th short film in the Mickey Mouse series, was the very last thing to be aired before TV was effectively put on hold for the duration of the war. But guess what? It was also the first thing they aired when TV was switched back on again in 1946!

2. An Unusual Combination

It’s no secret that illustrators have to get pretty creative when it comes to designing their characters. Animator Glen Keane is known for bringing some of the most memorable cartoon characters to life, such as Ariel from The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. But his real challenge came when he was given the task of animating the beast for the Disney version of the popular fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. He wasn’t sure what the wild and terrifying character should look like, but got his inspiration when he saw a buffalo’s head in a taxidermy shop. From there he began to draw the character by taking parts of six different animals. The beast has the mane of a lion, the tusks of a wild boar, the brow of a gorilla, the head and beard of a buffalo, the legs and tail of a wolf, and the body of a bear.

3. A Hairy Situation

It really is astounding just how much animation has progressed in such a short space of time. Creatives are constantly pushing boundaries and coming up with new ways to make their characters appear more and more life-like. This was certainly the case with the character of Sulley for the 2001 film Monsters Inc., a giant, blue, furry monster covered in over 2.3 million hairs. In order to make each one move in a realistic way, it would take Pixar animators up to 12 hours to render and model every frame. In the end, the team created a whole new state-of-the-art animation software tool especially for the job, called “Fizt”.

4. The Pokémon Shock

We have Japan to thank for so many wonderful animated series and cartoons, especially the popular “anime” style. In 1997, Japan began to broadcast a new anime series called Pokémon, based on the popular video game series that saw fictional creatures battle it out in a quest to become the best. It soon became a worldwide phenomenon, and the show’s star Pokémon, a lovable mouse-like creature named Pikachu, became a household name. He may, however, not be as innocent as he looks. After the show’s 38th episode aired, 700 Japanese children were mysteriously admitted to hospital. It appeared that the repetitive visual effects resulting from Pikachu’s thunderbolt attack may have caused photosensitive epileptic seizures in a significant number of viewers.

5. Learning the Lingo

They’re small, yellow, and their favorite food is bananas. We’re obviously talking about minions, the adorable but crazy creatures from Despicable Me. They are perhaps most famous for their mysterious language, called Minionese, which is a mixture of several different languages including English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. Examples include “para tu” (for you) and "gelato” (ice cream).

If you’d like to learn the fundamental principles to create unique and extravagant cartoon characters, check out the online course Introduction to the Creation of Cartoon Style Characters by illustrator and designer Ed Vill.

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- Caricature Drawing with Infinite Painter, a course by Albeniz Rodriguez
- Character Design for Animation with Photoshop, a course by Caio Martins
- Character Design Tutorial: How to Draw Facial Expressions
- How to Create a Charismatic Character