History Main / CartoonishCompanions

* Creator/LeijiMatsumoto: Tetsuro from ''Manga/GalaxyExpress999'' and Toshiro from ''Anime/CaptainHarlock'' are broad-mouthed, beady-eyed, plump, and half the height of their otherwise tall, slender, and fine-featured comrades.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': Larry takes the mischievous GreatGazoo relationship between Bat-Mite and Batman and brings it to the world of animation as Robin's cartoonish imp -- taking this trope UpToEleven, since it isn't in a realistic style to start with, and Larry ''still'' manages to look more cartoony than anyone else. Even Beast Boy.

* ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'': Many of the characters, including Slick, Semyor, Lil' E, Squig, and Criminy are of somewhat... diminutive stature, but most of the other characters have normal proportions, proportions which even these characters gain when they enter the Reality Zone (Excpet Squig, of course)

* ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'': Many of the characters, including Slick, Semyor, Lil' E, Squig, and Criminy are if somewhat... diminutive stature, but most of the other characters have normal proportions, proportions which even these characters gain when they enter the Reality Zone (Excpet Squig, of course)

* ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}''. The three Bone cousins are blobby cartoon characters who obey cartoon logic (like Fone Bone's head assuming the shape of a pie when Phoney shoves it into his mouth). Everybody else is drawn in a more realistic, though stylized, fashion. This is due to the influence of classic comic strips like ''ComicStrip/{{Pogo}}'' and ''ComicStrip/LilAbner'' on Creator/JeffSmith.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'': Belle and Gaston are realistically designed, while the other villagers are slightly more cartoony, emphasizing the former two characters' atractiveness. However, Gaston's lackey Lefou takes the cake; he can only reach to Gaston's waist, has huge googley eyes, a pink bulbous nose, and buck teeth that would look more reasonable on WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}.

* In the Fleischer's ''WesternAnimation/GulliversTravels'' (1939), Gulliver is drawn hyperrealistically through rotoscoping, the Prince & Princess are drawn fairly realistically from models, and the rest are drawn in cartoony styles.

* ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'': the recurring cast and major characters for the game are normal enough, but the random [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] (The ones with the primary purpose of giving puzzles) tend to be much more strangely shaped for the benefit of CastOfSnowflakes. Justifed in Curious Village by [[spoiler:being robots, with the few that aren't odd shaped being based on existing humans]], it doesn't explain the kid sized "explorer" you encounter a few times [[spoiler:as he explicitly is human]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': Larry takes the mischievous GreatGazoo relationship between Bat-Mite and Batman and brings it to the world of animation as Robin's cartoonish imp- taking this trope UpToEleven, since it isn't in a realistic style to start with, and Larry ''still'' manages to look more cartoony than anyone else. Even Beast Boy.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* If the Duchess of Abrantès is to be trusted, General Antoine Lavalette was a real-life example: while Napoleon's other aides-de-camp tended to be taller, more athletic and indeed, better-looking than average, he kind of stood out for being short [[note]]An official description issued after his spectacular evasion in 1815 stated that he stood at 1m48[[/note]], with a "promising" belly, a pea-sized nose, huge round cheeks and hair so scarce that each strand had a name.
[[/folder]]

* While there are no animated people for real, folks whose body proportions deviate far enough from the norm (through no fault of their own) start to move into UncannyValley.

But here comes their good pal Charlie, and something's off about him. He's not quite a {{Gonk}}, but his looks are totally at odds with the style in which Alice and Bob are drawn- he's anywhere from just a single head shorter than the "normal" characters, to a mere one head tall. His face is drawn in a more comical style, with some features exaggerated beyond the norm, with a GagNose or [[BeadyEyedLoser beady eyes]] where other characters have petite noses and wide eyes. Although he stands out at first, there are other characters here and there who match his design standards, so he's not an example of NonStandardCharacterDesign, especially since Alice and Bob don't seem to see anything unusual about his appearance. In [[{{Pun}} short]], Charlie is a Cartoonish Companion.

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'': Belle and Gaston are realistically designed, while the other villagers are slightly more cartoony, emphasizing the former two characters' atractiveness. However, Gaston's lackey Lefou takes the cake; he can only reach to Gaston's waist, has huge googley eyes, a pink bulbous nose, and buck teeth that would look more reasonable on WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}.

* In ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', Snow White, the Prince, the Queen, and the Huntsman are drawn in a serious, "realistic" style, and have five fingers. The dwarfs--well, they are dwarfs, but they hardly come up past Snow White's knees, and are drawn in a more comical, cartoony style with FourFingeredHands.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real life ]]

* Musashi, the first [[Manga/GetterRobo Getter 3 pilot]] was [[{{Gonk}} gonkier]] and shorter than the other pilots, looking pretty out-of-place, although later adaptations tend to draw him less cartoony and more stout. Benkei's just a little less shorter and stouter than Ryoma and Hayato, and Gai towers over all the others.

* ''Franchise/ProfessorLayton'': the recurring cast and major characters for the game are normal enough, but the random [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] (The ones with the primary purpose of giving puzzles) tend to be much more strangely shaped for the benefit of CastOfSnowflakes. Justifed in Curious Village by [[spoiler:being robots, with the few that aren't odd shaped being based on existing humans]], it doesn't explain the kid sized "explorer" you encounter a few times [[spoiler:as he explicitly is human]].

* ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'': Belle and Gaston are realistically designed, while the other villagers are slightly more cartoony, emphasizing the former two characters' atractiveness. However, Gaston's lackey Lefou takes the cake; he can only reach to Gaston's waist, has huge googley eyes, a pink bulbous nose, and buck teeth that would look more reasonable on {{Goofy}}.

* ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}''. The three Bone cousins are blobby cartoon characters who obey cartoon logic (like Fone Bone's head assuming the shape of a pie when Phoney shoves it into his mouth). Everybody else is drawn in a more realistic, though stylized, fashion. This is due to the influence of classic comic strips like ''ComicStrip/{{Pogo}}'' and ''ComicStrip/LilAbner'' on Jeff Smith.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* In Tetsuya Hasegawa's ''Napoleon'' manga, in stark contrast with the HeroicBuild everyone else sports (including real-life lightweights such as Talleyrand or Masséna), Berthier is depicted as extremely short (admittedly, the real Berthier was short as well, but certainly not two heads shorter than Napoleon) and his facial expressions are even more exaggerated than those of other characters.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:Film]]

[[AC:Video Games]]

[[AC:Webcomics]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]

[[AC:Real life]]
* While there are no animated people for real, folks whose body proportions deviate far enough from the norm (through no fault of their own) start to move into UncannyValley.
* If the Duchess of Abrantès is to be trusted, General Antoine Lavalette was a real-life example: while Napoleon's other aides-de-camp tended to be taller, more athletic and indeed, better-looking than average, he kind of stood out for being short [[note]]An official description issued after his spectacular evasion in 1815 stated that he stood at 1m48[[/note]], with a "promising" belly, a pea-sized nose, huge round cheeks and hair so scarce that each strand had a name.

** Even Benkei Musashibo, the CompositeCharacter from ''New Getter Robo'', which is quite a feat since '''everyone''' in that series (Benkei included) looks halfway between BadAss and AxCrazy at all times.

* ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}''. The three Bone cousins are blobby cartoon characters who obey cartoon logic (like Fone Bone's head assuming the shape of a pie when Phoney shoves it into his mouth). Everybody else is drawn in a more realistic, though stylized, fashion. This is due to the influence of classic comic strips like ''ComicStrip/{{Pogo}}'' and ''LilAbner'' on Jeff Smith.

* If the Duchess of Abrantès is to be trusted, General Antoine Lavalette was a real-life example: while Napoleon's other aides-de-camp tended to be taller and more athletic than the average, he kind of stood out for being short [[note]]An official description issued after his spectacular evasion in 1815 stated that he stood at 1m48[[/note]], with a "promising" belly, a pea-sized nose, huge round cheeks and hair so scarce that each strand had a name.

* If the Duchess of Abrantès is to be trusted, General Antoine Lavalette was a real-life version: while Napoleon's other aides-de-camp tended to be taller and more athletic than the average, he kind of stood out for being short [[note]]An official description issued after his spectacular evasion in 1815 stated that he stood at 1m48[[/note]], with a "promising" belly, a pea-sized nose, huge round cheeks and hair so scarce that each strand had a name.

* Of the MetalMen, Gold and Platinum are the closest to humans in terms of design. {{Justified|Trope}} in that they are all robots.

* ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'': Many of the characters, including Slick, Semyor, Lil' E, Squig, and Criminy are if somewhat... diminutative stature, but most of the other characters have normal porportions, porportions which even these characters gain when they enter the Reality Zone (Excpet Squig, of course)

* ''Franchise/ProfessorLayton'': the recurring cast and major characters for the game are normal enough, but the random [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] (The ones with the primary purpose of giving puzzles) tend to be much more strangely shaped for the benefit of CastOfSnowflakes. Justifed in Curious Village by [[spoiler:being robots, with the few that aren't odd shaped being based on existing humans]], it doesn't explain the kid sized "explorer" you encounter a few times [[spoiler:as he explicitly is human]]

* In ''EvenAMonkeyCanDrawManga'', it is "recommended" ([[FauxToGuide all of the "rules" in the work are actually cliches that the authors think shouldn't be done]]) that the shonen hero's comic sidekick be one of these.

* Chitan of ''KatteNiKaizo'' is a perfect/totally straight example of this.

* ''{{Bone}}''. The three Bone cousins are blobby cartoon characters who obey cartoon logic (like Fone Bone's head assuming the shape of a pie when Phoney shoves it into his mouth). Everybody else is drawn in a more realistic, though stylized, fashion. This is due to the influence of classic comic strips like ''ComicStrip/{{Pogo}}'' and ''LilAbner'' on Jeff Smith.

* GreenLantern: [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Green Lantern Alan Scott's frequent companion Doiby Dickles was so much shorter than the ordinarily proportioned villains that he had to jump up to properly place his fists when getting into a brawl.

* ''OhEdoRocket'': Roughly half the main cast stands less than half the height of the remaining cast.
* OsamuTezuka: Leaving aside how he [[AuthorAvatar drew himself]], Tezuka's [[ReusedCharacterDesign star system]] is littered with characters of this sort, especially Professor Ochanomizu and Shunsaku Ban.

* Creator/LeijiMatsumoto: Tetsuro from ''GalaxyExpress999'' and Toshiro from ''SpacePirateCaptainHarlock'' are broad-mouthed, beady-eyed, plump, and half the height of their otherwise tall, slender, and fine-featured comrades.