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When we were kids, the cartoon characters in the shows we’d watch were absolutely flawless. We’d laugh, enjoy their hilarious antics, and get swept up in the brilliance of their storylines. But as we got older, it became a bit harder to see past the weirdness of some cartoon and anime character designs.
Some are so bad that no amount of good storytelling can hide that fact. That’s why we’re here to ruin your childhood just a little bit more with this list of abominable character designs from movies, shows, and anime.
More info: Reddit
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#1
Cats - Live Action Movie
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98points
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Luke Branwen Luke Branwen Community Member Follow
I'm amused by the theories that covid was a divine punishment for this.
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#2
Spiderus From Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends
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92points
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and_a_touch_of_the_’tism and_a_touch_of_the_’tism Community Member Follow
KILL IT KILL IT NOW QUICKLY KILL IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
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#3
Tika - Barbie Movie
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77points
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cat cat Community Member
the false eyelashes lol
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Bored Panda has curated this list of terrible, weird, and creepy character designs that people have come across. Although a character’s design isn’t the only thing that makes the show good, it can add a lot to the overall storyline. One of the important parts of designing a good cartoon character is understanding their anatomy. Designers need to first know the rules of human anatomy before they break them. Many animators don’t understand or choose to ignore anatomy rules and then end up with the oddest characters. According to Pixune, “researching a body shape’s anatomical structure, whether a human, animal, invented creature, or machine, is essential to creating a unique character.”
#4
Globglogabgalab - Strawinsky And The Mysterious House
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74points
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Brian Jones Brian Jones Community Member Follow
His name is the sound you make when you have a seizure
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#5
Becky - T.u.f.f. Puppy
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71points
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New Everywhere New Everywhere Community Member Follow
It keeps alternating between looking like a nose and a hole aaaaahhh
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#6
Jay Jay The Jet Plane
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67points
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Red PANda (she/they) Red PANda (she/they) Community Member Follow
This feels like what my childhood nightmares were like
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When it comes to misunderstanding realistic or anatomically correct character design, one of the weirdest offenders of this was Paramount Picture’s Sonic the Hedgehog. When the production company released the first trailer for their live-action movie, there was public outcry over how creepy and unsettling the character looked. Many unhappy fans found his teeth to be too detailed and his eyes not conjoined enough. To Paramount’s credit, they took all the fan feedback into consideration and pushed back the film’s release date by a year. By listening to what people had to say and making Sonic look more cartoon-like, they were able to find the most pleasing character design for their film.
#7
Tales In Mushroom Village
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61points
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Hippopotamuses Hippopotamuses Community Member Follow
Shrooms! There is no other explanation.
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#8
Sonic The Hedgehog
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59points
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Nikki Martinez Nikki Martinez Community Member Follow
This needs to be reposted but with the "original" teeth
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#9
Kid - Foodfight
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Ducki (She/Her) 明明 Ducki (She/Her) 明明 Community Member Follow
This is like those $hit skibidi toilet animation
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Another interesting thing to keep in mind about good character design is having identifiable silhouettes. This means that each character’s body shape should be distinctive enough to be recognized by an audience without any other details. According to Walt Disney, “when designing characters, artists often use a silhouette to test whether the character’s basic design ‘reads’ to the audience. From the silhouette we are able to see a distinctive and recognizable design without details and understand what the figure is saying with its overall form.” ADVERTIsem*nT
#10
The Problem Solverz
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Ducki (She/Her) 明明 Ducki (She/Her) 明明 Community Member Follow
This is what i got in those make a character with google slides things you do in elementary school.
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#11
Peppa's Guinea Pigs
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55points
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PhaseWitFact PhaseWitFact Community Member Follow
Every character on Peppa Pig should be pictured here. That show has lazy sloppy illustrators pretending that they're edgy.
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#12
Fanboy & Chum Chum
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53points
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Jenna Kay Jenna Kay Community Member Follow
Just their style of animation in general is not my fave ... but to each their own!
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Some designers also make the mistake of overdesigning their characters by adding way too many details or accessories that make absolutely no sense. It can be an eyesore for viewers and even leave them feeling confused. Animators especially do this when their designs look too similar, and people need to tell the characters apart. An important thing to keep in mind is that overdesigned characters can create a cluttered mess. With too many colors, body features, and intricate details, the character will look unnatural. Designers should use other distinguishing factors for their animation and give their protagonists a cleaner look.
#13
Peppa The Pig
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53points
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Jessica Rabbit Jessica Rabbit Community Member Follow
All I see are short d*cks and balls for heads...
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#14
Billy From Monster By Mistake
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51points
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Almost sunny Almost sunny Community Member
He should be afraid of who's standing behind him!
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#15
Joshua And The Promised Land
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51points
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Red PANda (she/they) Red PANda (she/they) Community Member Follow
Everything about this movie is just a bit cursed ngl
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Another movie that was guilty of creating unsettling characters was The Polar Express. The characters in this movie were supposed to look human and life-like, but instead, they had uncanny valley characteristics. Many people found issues with the eyes of the animated characters, which seemed crossed and unfocused. The film team was also one of the first to use motion capture suits and computer rendering technology on such a big scale. This might explain why the movie’s characters looked so weird while moving and speaking.
#16
Kamichama Karin
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49points
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Red PANda (she/they) Red PANda (she/they) Community Member Follow
Where did their noses go???
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#17
Gakuen Handsome
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49points
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Jenna Kay Jenna Kay Community Member Follow
Oh the men of the stabby chins!!
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#18
Buttercup From The Power Puff Girls
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49points
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myvloggun [[ he/him ]] myvloggun [[ he/him ]] Community Member Follow
ON this episode of the writers barely disguised fetish!
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Cartoons aren’t meant to look realistic or be perfect, but designers should definitely not just throw a bunch of things together to create a character. It’s safe to say that many of the characters in this list are nightmare fuel for that exact reason. That’s why this post received 23k upvotes and 3.8k comments with many of the most jarring examples of character design ever seen. Let us know which of these animations shocked you the most.
#19
Bigby Wolf - Unstable Fables
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47points
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Hippopotamuses Hippopotamuses Community Member Follow
The mouth is beyond creepy.
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#20
xxxHolic
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46points
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Red PANda (she/they) Red PANda (she/they) Community Member Follow
Their legs are twice as long as the rest of their bodies 😂
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#21
Teen Girl Wolf - Unstable Fables
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40points
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Hippopotamuses Hippopotamuses Community Member Follow
The mouth. Why?
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#22
Squirrel Daredevil Dan - Foodfight
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37points
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David David Community Member Follow
Kind of looks like he has his head out the window while driving fast down the freeway.
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#23
Howie And Poodle - Almost Naked Animals
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33points
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Ducki (She/Her) 明明 Ducki (She/Her) 明明 Community Member Follow
the breasts tho
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#24
The Joker
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32points
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Zedrapazia Zedrapazia Community Member
This one here looks like a Sims character
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#25
Jonny - The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest
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Hippopotamuses Hippopotamuses Community Member Follow
Did he just look in a mirror?
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#26
Sid Phillips - Toy Story
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Red PANda (she/they) Red PANda (she/they) Community Member Follow
Okay but to be fair people were just learning how to animate and model stuff like that when that movie came out. The design did always kinda scare me as a kid though ngl
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#27
Groucha - Téléchat
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29points
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Luke Branwen Luke Branwen Community Member Follow
This looks like that kind of weird $hit you find on the dark side of Youtube.
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#28
Bozz And Doody - Cubeez
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27points
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Judes Dominoes Judes Dominoes Community Member Follow
How lazy was this animation?
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#29
Maury The Hormone Monster - Big Mouth
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22points
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3 possums in a coat 3 possums in a coat Community Member Follow
Is nobody going to talk abt the nose..
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#30
Purple Monarch - Miraculous
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21points
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ImATotalTina ImATotalTina Community Member Follow
Everything about this show is just awful.No offense to the fans out there 🐞
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#31
Kindergarteners From Leo
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20points
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Red PANda (she/they) Red PANda (she/they) Community Member Follow
I don’t think it’s that bad of a design. It’s just unrealistic cuz it’s a cartoony style, and they look pretty funny
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#32
Alpha And Omega
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19points
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Hippopotamuses Hippopotamuses Community Member Follow
At last. Dog-like canids.
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#33
Barb - Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
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19points
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Nikki Martinez Nikki Martinez Community Member Follow
Shut up. I love Barb.
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#34
Ginger - As Told By Ginger
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18points
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Malik Malik Community Member Follow
THE MOUTH
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#35
Królestwo Zielonej Polany. Powrót
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17points
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Rachel Pelz Rachel Pelz Community Member Follow
Are those red ants?
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#36
Muscle Man - Regular Show
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-2points
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Jenna Kay Jenna Kay Community Member Follow
Muscle man is the one you take issue with?!
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#37
Mr. Rzykruski - Frankenweenie
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-13points
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Ms. Mack Ms. Mack Community Member Follow
Great caricature of Vincent Price, an actor known for horror movie roles in the forties and fifties.
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#38
Beavis and Butt-Head
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-15points
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ArodTheHorrible ArodTheHorrible Community Member Follow
You better back right off of this one
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#39
Johnny Test
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-42points
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myvloggun [[ he/him ]] myvloggun [[ he/him ]] Community Member Follow
hey! this one doesnt belong. sure, it had its issues, but it was a solid show
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Red PANda (she/they) Red PANda (she/they) Community Member Follow
More than half of these are just cartoony art styles with unrealistic proportions or exaggerated features to appear funny or ugly on purpose, not genuinely bad character design…
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Ken Beattie Ken Beattie Community Member Follow
Yep, and a bunch of the rest are early CGI which suffered from technical limitations of the time. How many polygons can we use to create this character? Three. Three thousand? No, THREE!
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myvloggun [[ he/him ]] myvloggun [[ he/him ]] Community Member Follow
half of these are just characters being styalized and people not liking it, that's all
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The Original Bruno The Original Bruno Community Member Follow
Uhhh. that's pretty much what took "worst design" to mean. Did you think we meant poor load-bearing strength or something?
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Becca not Becky Becca not Becky Community Member Follow
The early 3D/computer animation that didnt age well is forgivable, IMO. As for others, I'm all for creativity but do some cartoons have to be downright hideous?
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Red PANda (she/they) Red PANda (she/they) Community Member Follow
More than half of these are just cartoony art styles with unrealistic proportions or exaggerated features to appear funny or ugly on purpose, not genuinely bad character design…
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27points
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Ken Beattie Ken Beattie Community Member Follow
Yep, and a bunch of the rest are early CGI which suffered from technical limitations of the time. How many polygons can we use to create this character? Three. Three thousand? No, THREE!
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myvloggun [[ he/him ]] myvloggun [[ he/him ]] Community Member Follow
half of these are just characters being styalized and people not liking it, that's all
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The Original Bruno The Original Bruno Community Member Follow
Uhhh. that's pretty much what took "worst design" to mean. Did you think we meant poor load-bearing strength or something?
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Becca not Becky Becca not Becky Community Member Follow
The early 3D/computer animation that didnt age well is forgivable, IMO. As for others, I'm all for creativity but do some cartoons have to be downright hideous?
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