History Main / BigEyesLittleEyes

A well-known technique in filmmaking and animation when designing a creature is to vary the size of the creature's eyes. If you want your creature to appear [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter cute]], give it eyes that are excessively large for its body. If you want your creature to appear [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever huge]], give it relatively tiny eyes. If you want it to be [[CuteGiant both huge and cute]], [[WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon pay close attention.]]

* Toothless from ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' [[CuteGiant manages to pull off both]]. His pupils contract and dilate based on his mood. It makes him [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter ridiculously adorable]].

* Big Dog from WesternAnimation/TwoStupidDogs has beady little eyes under his bangs.

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* Big Dog from WesternAnimation/TwoStupidDogs has beady little eyes under his BlindingBangs.

** The actual proportionally largest eyes in the animal kingdom belong to the ''Vampyroteuthis infernalis'' (which means "vampire squid from Hell"), their diameter is about 2.5 cm(1 inch), the ''Vampyroteusthis'' only reaches a maximum lenght of 30cm (1 ft) including the tentacles (the body only reaches 15 cm) and [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Vampyroteuthis_infernalis.jpg/640px-Vampyroteuthis_infernalis.jpg looks like this]]

* Subversion: The largest eyes in the world belong to the [[EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods giant squid]], which is probably among the more frightening animals in the world. This owes partly the fact that the sharp eyes of Cephalopods evolved in a complete different way to tetrapod's, just like the wings of birds and insects.

* The original ''Franchise/{{Gamera}}''. Subsequent movies in the series reworked the [[PeopleInRubberSuits rubber suit]] to give him bigger eyes, and the sense of scale is lost.

!!Examples of huge critters with little eyes:

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* Big Dog from WesternAnimation/TwoStupidDogs has beady little eyes under his BlindingBangs.
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* The Muppets in ''Series/SesameStreet'' generally have big googly eyes, to appeal to children.

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* The [[http://www.starwars.com/databank/creature/sandoaquamonster/?id=bts Sando Aqua Monster]] from ''Franchise/StarWars Episode I: Film/ThePhantomMenace''.

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* Truth in Television again: elephants, whales, big dinosaurs

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* The original ''{{Gamera}}''. Subsequent movies in the series reworked the [[PeopleInRubberSuits rubber suit]] to give him bigger eyes, and the sense of scale is lost.

* Lewis Carrol, known for inventing many ideas used in cartoons and modern fiction, may have been the Trope maker in his 1800s book Alice in Wonderland in which Alice shrinks and literally encounters a puppy with large eyes.

* The Jinxlets from ''StarslipCrisis''

* Kirara from ''{{Inuyasha}}'', both in her [[http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2961/51619503.jpg small]] and [[http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/9007/normalkirara536.jpg large]] [[{{Sizeshifter}} form]].

A well-known technique in filmmaking and animation when designing a creature is to vary the size of the creature's eyes. If you want your creature to appear [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter cute]], give it eyes that are excessively large for its body. If you want your creature to appear [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever huge]], give it relatively tiny eyes. If you want it to be [[CuteGiant both huge and cute]], [[Film/HowToTrainYourDragon pay close attention.]]

* Toothless from ''Film/HowToTrainYourDragon'' [[CuteGiant manages to pull off both]]. His pupils contract and dilate based on his mood. It makes him [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter ridiculously adorable]].

* Big Dog from TwoStupidDogs has beady little eyes under his BlindingBangs.

* The [[http://www.starwars.com/databank/creature/sandoaquamonster/?id=bts Sando Aqua Monster]] from ''StarWars Episode I: The Phantom Menace''.

* As the TropeCodifier for [[{{kaiju}} giant Japanese monster films]], it makes sense that {{Godzilla}} would have these.

Alternately, it could just be that big eyes are much more expressive than little eyes, which leads to GoodEyesEvilEyes when used for people in animation. PuppyDogEyes are a subtrope.

* TruthInTelevision: kittens, puppies, babies.

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* The Jinxlets from ''StarslipCrisis''

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* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Often when Pokemon evolve into their next forms, their eyes usually become smaller or less pronounced as an indication of maturity. Examples: Bulbasaur to Ivysaur to Venasaur, Vulpix to Ninetales, Sunkern to Sunflora, etc. However, there are exceptions where Pokemon have larger eyes than their pre-evolved forms (Torchic and Blaziken come to mind). And Zubat has no eyes at all.