Cartoon Characters » Cute Cartoon Characters

Linus Van Pelt

Aldric Chang — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:48:26 +0000

Linus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later. He was first referenced two months earlier, on July 14. Linus spoke his first words in 1954, the same year he was shown with his security blanket.

Though young, Linus is unusually smart, and he acts as the strip’s philosopher and theologian, often quoting the Gospels. He also invented his own quasi-religious being, The Great Pumpkin who (like Santa Claus) mysteriously appears every year, bringing presents. The Great Pumpkin, however, appears on Halloween and only at the most sincere pumpkin patch, which Linus invariably believes is his own. Linus is the only one who believes in the Great Pumpkin. Though he occasionally convinces other characters the Great Pumpkin is real, they always lose faith, while Linus keeps his.

Piglet (Winnie-the-Pooh)

Aldric Chang — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:44:37 +0000

Piglet is a fictional character from A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books. Piglet is a baby pig who is the best friend of Winnie-the-Pooh. Despite the fact that he is a “Very Small Animal” with a generally timid disposition, he often conquers his fears and seems to want to be brave.

Like most of the Pooh characters, Piglet was based on one of Christopher Robin Milne’s stuffed animals. In the original color versions of Ernest H. Shepard’s illustrations in the Winnie-the-Pooh books, Piglet has pale pink skin and a green jumper. He is the second shortest of the animals, with only Roo being slightly smaller (although they are close enough in size that Kanga cannot tell the difference when Piglet jumps in her pouch instead of Roo). His voice is described as “squeaky”.

Pluto

Aldric Chang — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:31:17 +0000

Pluto (formerly known as Pluto the Pup) is an animated cartoon character made famous in a series of Disney short cartoons. He has most frequently appeared as Mickey Mouse’s pet dog. He also had an independent starring role in a number of Disney shorts in the 1940s and 1950s. Pluto is unusual for a Disney character in that he is not anthropomorphized beyond showing an unusually broad range of facial expressions or use of his front paws at key points; he is actually represented as a normal dog (unlike Goofy who is an anthropomorphic dog).

Smurfs

Aldric Chang — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:45:53 +0000

The storylines tend to be simple tales of bold adventure. The cast has a simple structure as well: almost all the characters look essentially alike — mostly male, very short (just “three apples tall”[4]), with blue skin, white trousers with a hole for their short tails, white hat in the style of a Phrygian cap, and sometimes some additional accessory that identifies a personality (For instance, Handy Smurf wears overalls instead of the standard trousers, a brimmed hat, and a pencil above his ear). Smurfs can walk and run, but often move by skipping on both feet. They love to eat Sarsaparilla (a species of smilax) leaves, whose berries the smurfs naturally call smurfberries (the smurfberries appear only in the cartoon; in the original comics, the Smurfs only eat the leaves from the smilax). The male Smurfs almost never appear without their hats, which leaves a mystery amongst the fans as to whether they have hair. The animated series canon state that they may be bald: one episode of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon has Greedy Smurf removing his chef’s hat to give Papa Smurf a pie he had concealed under it, revealing a bald head. Another episode, St. Smurf and the Dragon, shows Hefty Smurf’s hat rising up off his bald head briefly as he and others slide to a stop. Both Papa Smurf and Grandpa Smurf have full beards and hair visibly coming from under their hats above the earline. In The Smurfs and the Magic Flute, a Smurf took off his hat briefly for a polite gesture.

In the comics, the last page of the first album Les Schtroumpfs noirs (The Black Smurfs) shows Papa Smurf’s hat blown off by an explosion, revealing his completely bald head (which may simply be due to old age). In Le Schtroumpfeur de Bijoux (The Jewel Smurfer), Jokey Smurf gets very angry and defensive when a human tells him he should take off his hat.

The Smurfs fulfill simple archetypes of everyday people: Lazy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, and so on. All smurfs with the exception of Papa, Baby, Nanny and Grandpa are said to be 100 years old. There were originally 99 smurfs, but this number increases as new Smurf characters appear, such as the smurflings and Nanny. Smurfette is not one of the original smurfs because she was created by Gargamel, the evil wizard.

The Smurfs’ community generally takes the form of a cooperative, sharing and kind environment based on the principle that each Smurf has something he or she is good at, and thus contributes it to Smurf society as he or she can. In return, each Smurf appears to be given their necessities of life, from housing and clothes to food. Some have argued that the foundation of Smurf society resembles the basic principles of Communism, although Peyo’s son, Thierry Culliford, has stated in an interview that his father “wasn’t interested in politics at all”.[5]

Snap, Crackle and Pop

Aldric Chang — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:35:45 +0000

The three gnome characters were originally designed by illustrator Vernon Grant and made their debut in 1933. The names of the gnomes are derived from a Rice Krispies radio ad. The ad said “Listen to the fairy song of health, the merry chorus sung by Kellogg’s Rice Krispies as they merrily snap, crackle, and pop in a bowl of milk. If you’ve never heard food talking, now is your chance.” Inspired by this ad, Grant drew three gnomes and named them Snap, Crackle, and Pop. He brought the characters to Kellogg’s, who bought them on the spot. In the United States and Canada, opinion varies concerning Crackle’s occupation, but Snap is always portrayed as a baker and Pop as a marching band leader.

Snap is the oldest and the leader of the group. He solves the problems his two brothers create and wears a baker’s hat.

Crackle is the good-hearted, fun middle child. He gets stuck keeping order between his brothers’ personalities and wears a red-and-white-striped stocking cap.

Pop is the mischievous, clumsy younger child. He plays jokes, doesn’t take things seriously and wears a band leader’s hat.

There was a fourth gnome character who was named Pow who was supposed to represent the explosive nutritional value of Rice Krispies but who was later discontinued.

Tom Terrific

Aldric Chang — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:05:53 +0000

Tom Terrific was an early animated series on American television, presented as part of the Captain Kangaroo children’s television show.

Created by Gene Deitch under the Terrytoons studio (which was a subsidiary of CBS, the network that broadcast Captain Kangaroo), Tom Terrific ran in a series of five-minute cartoons created specifically for the Captain Kangaroo show from 1957-1959, and was rerun on Kangaroo for years thereafter. For several years after 1962, Tom Terrific would be broadcast every other week, alternating with Lariat Sam, another Terrytoons creation.

All the voices were done by Lionel Wilson.

Drawn in a simple, even clumsy, style, it featured a gee-whiz boy hero, Tom Terrific, who lived in a treehouse and could transform himself into anything he wanted thanks to his magic “thinking cap” funnel hat, which also enhanced his intelligence. He had a comic lazybones of a sidekick, Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, and an arch-foe named Crabby Appleton, whose motto was “Rotten to the core!” Other foes included Mr. Instant, the Instant Thing King; Captain Kidney Bean; Sweet Tooth Sam, the Candy Bandit; and Isotope Feaney.

Winne the Pooh

Aldric Chang — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:53:15 +0000

Winnie-the-Pooh, commonly shortened to Pooh Bear and once referred to as Edward Bear, is a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne. The character first appeared in book form in Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Milne also included several poems about Winnie-the-Pooh in the children’s poetry books When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six. All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard.

The hyphens in the character’s name were later dropped when The Walt Disney Company adapted the Pooh stories into a series of Winnie the Pooh featurettes that became one of the company’s most successful franchises worldwide.

The Pooh stories have been translated into many languages, notably including Alexander Lenard’s Latin translation, Winnie ille Pu, which was first published in 1958, and, in 1960, became the first foreign-language book to be featured on the New York Times Bestseller List, and is the only book in Latin ever to have been featured therein.