Follow TV Tropes

Following

Breakout Character / Western Animation

Go To

Breakout Character in Western Animation.


  • The Chipettes from Alvin and the Chipmunks. After their first appearance in the '80s cartoon, they have become so popular and get more and more screentime overtime in the series becoming regular characters, which helped them to become Canon Immigrants. Now the Chipettes are integral part of the franchise and appear in all media.
  • Roger Smith from American Dad! originally started out as an alien who lives with the Smith family as well as being forced to stay within the house and didn't have much major importance to the plot. Later in the series, he was more outgoing through the use of disguises and is one of the more prominent characters. Recently, he's the second most prominent character after Stan, and is now one of the most popular characters on the show.
  • Although in Amphibia Anne and Sprig are the show's main characters, Marcy Wu quickly became the most popular and beloved character despite debuting in the middle of Season 2. She's Adorkable, clumsy, and a nerdy Nice Girl, but is also a force to be reckon with in combat. One example of her popularity, compare the view counts between Sasha's Theme Song Takeover, and Marcy's Theme Song Takeover. She also gets her own book, Marcy's Journal, which goes into further detail into her experience in Amphibia.
  • While Animaniacs was always intended to be a series of shorts with many different characters, the incredible popularity of the Pinky and the Brain shorts led to them appearing in significantly more episodes than the other skits. They were also the only ones to spin-off into their own show. Following the reboot, they were among the returning characters alongside the Warners.
  • Archer has Pam, Krieger and Ray.
    • Pam wasn't even in the opening credits on the beginning, but she quickly became a fan favorite from Season 1 to 4, Season 5 however, made her The Scrappy, as she held the Idiot Ball and didn't let go, her addiction on cocaine became an Overused Running Gag in the season and even lost her Big Beautiful Woman attributes for a typical Statuesque Stunner. She came back to being a main character with her old personality by Season 6.
    • Krieger and Ray were side characters with almost very few lines in Season 1, the creator voiced Ray in order to save money on voice acting since he was supposed to be a one-off character, but both became so popular they were added to the main crew.
  • Bob's Burgers: Tina Belcher, the awkward teenage girl who writes erotic fanfiction, likes horses and zombies. Her awkward adorableness as well as her self-confidence in being herself and relatable teenage issues made her become very popular and one of the most focused characters later in the show.
  • William from Code Lyoko started out as a secondary character in Season 2. Unlike most breakout characters, William started out being considered a pointless piece of ship interference. However, he became more popular in Season 3, where he became a recurring character often helping the heroes. He ends up joining the team... Before being brainwashed in the season finale by XANA. In Season 4, he's been Promoted to Opening Titles, became a main character and XANA's unwilling Dragon. His popularity ends up skyrocketing as a result. His absence (barring flashbacks and a small cameo in the first book) in the Code Lyoko Chronicles novels was noticed (even some of his detractors wished he appeared, if only to replace Eva Skinner). Naturally, his fans rejoiced when he came back in the sequel series Code Lyoko: Evolution, this time as a hero.
  • Donald Duck upon his second appearance, (and his first on a Mickey Mouse cartoon) where he effortlessly steals the picture away from everyone. It wasn't long before he became much more prominent on the cartoons than the Mouse himself, before serving as a the centerpiece for an entire comic book universe that is overwhelmingly adored in Europe. Walt Disney is on record as saying that he never quite understood why people became so attached to the character.
    • While Donald is the biggest example, many well-known characters of the Classic Disney Shorts started out as side characters and part of Mickey Mouse's supporting cast before starring in their own series of shorts. Most prominently are Goofy, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, and Pluto, who nowadays are all recognizable characters of their own.
      • Goofy even proved popular enough to get his own TV series, Goof Troop, which then got two movies.
      • Speaking of Goof Troop, Max Goof was originally an Expy of Goofy Jr., Goofy's son from the classic shorts. However, Max became a popular character of its own and made a lot of appearances in the early 2000s like in Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas and its sequel, as well as House of Mouse before vanishing into obscurity after his short life in the limelight.
      • The Donald Duck shorts introduced its own breakout characters, like his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. These three were just occasional supporting characters before becoming popular enough for Donald to officially adopt them in-universe, making them part of Donald's direct family.
      • Chip 'n Dale originally were antagonists for Pluto and later Donald, but soon got their own classic shorts. Kids of the 90's learned to love them from their own animated series, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, which they are still wildly known for nowadays. The fandom of that show especially was big enough to have this show's cast (including the Canon Foreigners) cameo in DuckTales (2017) and getting a live-action adaptation in 2022.
      • Scrooge McDuck already was a breakout character in the Disney Ducks Comic Universe, but he got a second chance to break out thanks to the popularity of the animated series DuckTales, which launched the now famous Disney Afternoon and cemented Scrooge as a big character in both Disney cartoons and comics.
  • Felix the Cat was originally conceived as a One-Shot Character for the film Feline Follies, which was made solely because another animator was tardy with his work for the Paramount Screen Magazine, and Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer agreed to fill in with a cartoon of their own. Felix's debut was so well liked by audiences that it immediately took off as a hit, graduated to his own standalone series and became one of the most iconic and influential cartoon characters of all time.
  • Futurama:
  • Hanna-Barbera:
    • Yogi Bear was not even the starring character of the show he debuted in (that honor going to fellow Hanna-Barbera character Huckleberry Hound), nor even Bill and Joe's first character after they left MGM (Ruff and Reddy say hi). However, Yogi and his shorts completely stole the show, leading to him not only getting his own show, but becoming one of Hanna-Barbera's super-star characters on the same level as Fred Flintstone, Tom and Jerry, and Scooby-Doo.
    • Snagglepuss originated as a recurring antagonist in various Hanna-Barbera shorts, but somewhere along the line he ended up with his own series of shorts (backing up Yogi's own show) with him as a heroic character, and his endearing personality and mannerisms meant that he ended up becoming just as enduring of a cast member as Yogi.
    • Wacky Races villains Dick Dastardly and Muttley became so popular on that show that they got their own, Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines, a season later and are now Hanna-Barbera's go-to antagonists in crossovers. The only female racer, Penelope Pitstop, would get her own show as well, with the Anthill Mob joining her in it.
    • Among the company's many Scooby-Doo clones produced during the late 70s/early 80s, Jabberjaw remains one of the most well-known and popular of them, to the point that he transcended his own origins as the main character of a Scooby clone and routinely makes appearances in other Hanna-Barbera shows and movies (even ones that don't have anything to do with mysteries), even having a supporting role planned for SCOOB! before it was cut for time.
  • Helga G. Pataki in Hey Arnold! started out as a Harmless Villain with a fixation on Arnold before breaking out at some point mid-series. This ultimately led to her character getting a lot more development than Arnold, who became more of a Flat Character. As a result, many may argue that by the end, she was the true protagonist. She even had her own spin-off in the works after the show's end, though it didn't pan out.
  • I Am Weasel started out as a supporting cartoon to help complement Cow and Chicken, in same vein as Dexter's Laboratory's "Justice Friends" and "Dial M for Monkey". The characters of Weasel and Baboon were loved enough that the shorts were eventually spun off into an independent series.
  • The Red Guy was so popular on Cow and Chicken, he started appearing on I Am Weasel starting in the second season.
  • GIR in Invader Zim. He is certainly the favorite among the majority of fans, though his voice actor is annoyed when fans ask him to do something like sing the Doom song due to doing the voice straining his throat. And aside from that, Nickelodeon still makes lots of GIR-themed merchandise, and now they've reached the point where they have to make up new quotes just to put on T-shirts. Remarked on in the script reading for unproduced episode The Trial.
    "Back on Earth, mankind has reconstructed the planet. Everything is in GIR's image."
    Richard Horvitz: Just like Hot Topic!
  • Shego from Kim Possible started out as a flat sidekick to Dr. Drakken. Her portrayal by voice actress Nicole Sullivan had the creators add more depth to the character, and her dynamic with Dr. Drakken became so popular that the duo became the most featured (and fleshed out) villains in the series.
  • Along with Stitch (as mentioned on the Film page), the Lilo & Stitch franchise's first animated series had its own breakout character: Stitch's Distaff Counterpart and Love Interest Angel, which is impressive considering she was in only two episodes, with a cameo in a third episode and only a minor role in the franchise's last film. Her breakout status was first established when a 2004 Disney Channel poll on fans' favorite episodes and experiments of Lilo & Stitch: The Series showed that she was the most popular one. Since then, the anime that came afterwards featured her much more often (to the point that she had the most appearances among experiments in that show apart from Stitch and Reuben), she was made into a costumed character for the Disney Theme Parks (and said costume was later given a redesign to be more inline with the Stitch costume design-wise),note  and she regular appears on lots of merchandise, even in America over seventeen years after the end of Lilo & Stitch: The Series and the peak of the franchise's success there. Disney even made a dedicated character page for her on the Disney Store website, and she's even found in video games including Disney Tsum Tsum, Disney Magic Kingdoms, Disney Heroes: Battle Mode, Disney Emoji Blitz, and Disney Speedstorm (which even brought back her original voice actor to reprise her role). All this have allowed the Lilo & Stitch franchise to defy Disney's tradition of not acknowledging their Sequel Series to their animated films years after they ended.
  • Looney Tunes has had many breakout characters, including:
    • Porky Pig: The original breakout character. He was intended to be a sidekick to the much-forgotten Beans the Cat. Originally appearing in 1935's I Haven't Got a Hat, Porky proved much more popular than Beans, causing him (along with the rest of his co-stars) to be written out within just one year, while Porky remained prominent for decades to come. However, he was eventually upstaged by...
    • Daffy Duck: First appearing in 1937's Porky's Duck Hunt, Daffy was merely one of the many ducks Porky was hunting. However, he would end becoming even more popular than Porky himself, soon starring in a series of his own shorts. But much like Porky, Daffy would end up being upstaged by...
    • Bugs Bunny: Bugs made his debut in 1940's A Wild Hare (though, his prototype (Happy Rabbit) first appeared in 1938's Porky's Hare Hunt). With his Karmic Trickster personality, he quickly became the franchise's most popular character, and remains the face of Looney Tunes today.
    • Foghorn Leghorn: Originally a supporting character to Henery Hawk who debuted in 1946's Walky Talky Hawk, Foghorn proved more popular to the point he became the main star of his shorts, with Henery as the supporting character instead.
    • Marvin the Martian: Though he only appeared in 5 Golden Age-era shorts (starting with 1948's "Haredevil Hare"), Marvin became much more popular after the official run, appearing on much of the merchandising, alongside the main characters.
    • Tasmanian Devil: Like Marvin, Taz only appeared in 5 Golden Age-era shorts (starting with 1954's "Devil May Hare"), but also became much more popular later on through merchandising and even getting his on show in the form of Taz-Mania. It may come to as a surprise to some fans that Marvin and Taz only appeared in 5 of the original shorts.
    • Michigan J. Frog. He appeared in exactly only one cartoon — "One Froggy Evening", yet he endeared himself to audiences so much that they convinced himself he appeared more than once. In the 1990's he eventually became one of the starring characters when he became the mascot for The WB Network.
  • The Loud House has a few examples:
    • Luna Loud started off as just one of Lincoln's sisters. However, she quickly gained a ton of fans, and subsequently became the sister with the most episodes that focus on her, including a special.
    • Ronnie Anne became popular when she has formally introduced in "Save The Date" thanks to emphasizing how she's tough yet also has a good heart while also showing her more lovable behavior. Once she moved to the big city to live with her mother's extended family, she became more popular, and eventually got a whole 5 episode arc in Season 4, and her own show.
  • Metalocalypse: Charles Foster Ofdensen wasn't even in the first episode and remained a relatively minor character for the first few episodes of the show, but slowly became not only a great straight-man foil for the band but became an incredibly popular character in his own right as well as a genuine member of the main cast, leading up to several spotlight moments in Season 2 and culminating in his Heroic Sacrifice at the very end of the S2 finale. He gets better.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Princess Luna, sans her time as Nightmare Moon, was only in the series premiere for only a mention in the opening narration, less than a minute of screentime, and two lines before being absent and unmentioned the rest of the season. She proved very popular with her focus episode "Luna Eclipsed" furthered while it and a two cameos in the season finale were her only appearances in Season 2. From Season 3 onwards she would get almost as much screentime and prominence as Princess Celestia, getting Promotion to Opening Titles in Season 4.
    • Discord first appeared as the Big Bad of the two-parter "Return of Harmony" as essentially a chimeric version of Q, and was so awesome that many fans couldn't help but fall in love with him. Although Taken for Granite at the end of his debut, he was revived in Season 3 to be successfully redeemed (of sorts) by Fluttershy and was promoted to recurring character in Season 4. He's proven popular enough to receive a supporting role in My Little Pony: Pony Life.
    • The Great and Powerful Trixie only had one appearance in Season 1, which made her extremely popular. She would only return in the Season 3 episode "Magic Duel", to further acclaim. Season 6 has her become friends with Starlight Glimmer (who, at this point, has been promoted to full-on main character), which leads to her getting more appearances.
    • Pinkie Pie's older sister Maud appeared in her self-titled episode in Season 4 as an extremely stoic foil to Pinkie's antics who was obsessed with rocks. In a cast full of quirky Genki Girl types, her utter blandness proved a gold mine of Cringe Comedy that contrasted with everypony else. She was immediately adored by fans and seemingly the staff as well, as she got a surprise cameo in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks and has made regular appearances since then in both supporting and protagonist roles.
  • Phineas and Ferb had Perry the Platypus, the title characters' pet, and a secret agent, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz, one of the most pathetic villains ever created. It soon got to the point where Doofenshmirtz's plotlines with Perry pretty much usurped the title characters' plotline. Perry himself even got acquainted with Disney's merchandising, like in Disney Tsum Tsum.
  • Rugrats: By the last few seasons, Angelica Pickles became the most popular character of the franchise. She was the only Rugrats character to make TV Guide's list of Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters in 2002, and she and Susie also got their own short-lived spinoff Preschool Daze.
  • Shaun the Sheep: Timmy the lamb is this trope due to his innocence and cute design. He later received his own spinoff.
  • The Simpsons:
    • The show was originally a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, when they actually became the most popular segment on the show, thus leading to their own spinoff.
    • The main show was originally revolved around Bart Simpson, not Homer. Soon enough, Bart not only became one of the most popular characters on the show, but one of the most popular characters in television history. This led to the show's Golden Age and Bart's own golden age, Bartmania. This would lead the character to appear on many merchandise, including shirts, toys, and anything else you can think of. In fact, Bart was named one of Time's most influential people of the 20th century. Homer would later be the show's main focus, and soon enough the Bumbling Dad would be very famous too. This father and son duo are still part of one of television's funniest families.
    • The show ruthlessly parodied this concept (along with cheap Catchphrases) in the episode "Bart Gets Famous", where Bart accidentally becomes a cast member and breakout star of the Krusty the Clown show. After serving as a last-minute replacement for Sideshow Mel (who gets sick because Bart gave him a sandwich with cheese; Mel is lactose-intolerant), he accidentally destroys the set and says "I didn't do it." That one line makes the entire crowd erupt with laughter, and he quickly gets more roles on the show and tons of merchandise.
  • Sticks the Badger from Sonic Boom. Her Cloud Cuckoolander Conspiracy Theorist personality made her a popular character and she has since crossed over into mainstream Sonic the Hedgehog-related works, such as Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, despite her status as a character from an Alternate Continuity.
  • Timmy in South Park was initially intended as a one-shot character, but proved so popular (spawning a Memetic Mutation, TIMMY!) that he was brought back again and again, and even made it into the opening in the sixth season, after the departure of Kenny. However, after his brief moment in the sun, he quickly receded into the background again.
  • Brak was originally a minor character who showed up every once in a while in Space Ghost Coast to Coast. He proved to be so popular that he replaced Moltar in the Cartoon Planet spinoff, and then eventually got his own show.
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks: T'lyn is a Vulcan ensign who was one of two focal characters during Lower Decks' own Lower-Deck Episode, "wej duJ". While she was originally written as a one-off counterpart of Mariner, being (by Vulcan standards) a risk-taking, snarky woman more in touch with her emotions than the rest of the Sh'vhal's crew, both her and her debut episode proved to be incredibly popular—with her transfer to Starfleet being seen as a hook for joining the Cerritos's crew. While Season 3 was already mostly written by the time "wej duJ" relased, the season finale's denouement saw her arrive on the Cerritos as a provisional science officer. As of Season 4, she's an official main character.
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil:
    • During the first season, Janna was a Recurring Extra who would be lucky to have more than two lines per episode. Her only relevant role in that season was in "Mewberty", but even in that episode she disappeared at the middle of it. Strong fan reactions towards the character turned her quickly into an Ensemble Dark Horse and she became one of Star and Marco's most recurring allies throughout the series. Although it wouldn't be until the final season that she would officially become a main character.
    • Tom Lucitor was introduced as little more than a minor recurring villain during the first two seasons, but his appealing character concept and dynamic with Marco gave him a sizable fanbase and he quickly became one of the most popular characters of the series. He was given a Relationship Upgrade with Star in Season 3 and became the tritagonist of the series from that point onwards.
    • Hekapoo, like the other members of the Magic High Commission, was introduced by A Day in the Limelight episode and then hit by The Worf Effect once Toffee appeared. However, her attractive design and personality quickly made her far more popular than the other members, which lead to her getting more roles on her own in comparison to the rest of the Commission. She's also the only member of the Commission to redeem herself at the end of the series.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
    • The clones of Domino Squad were originally created as one-shot characters for the episode "Rookies". However, due to the episode and the squad proving so popular among fans, Season 3 started with a flashback episode showing their backstory. Fives and Echo, the only surviving members of the squad, became recurring characters with their own subplot from that season onwards, with Fives eventually serving as the main character of the Order 66 arc, and Echo becoming one of the leads in Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
    Dave Filoni: On the crew, ["Rookies"] was one of our favorite episodes. When it aired, it became very clear that the fans also really related to the rookies, they really liked that episode, and we thought: "Wow, we've really got something here."
    • Speaking of the Bad Batch, the quartet of Military Maverick clones were invented for a Season 7 arc that never got made due to The Clone Wars being cancelled after the Disney buyout. When it got revived in 2020 for a 12 episode order, Filoni and crew put together a proposal either the Batch or the Martez Sisters—stars of two separate arcs—would get a post-Order 66 spinoff about them. Once the Batch showed up, they won by a landslide, as fans took to their badassery in slaughtering droids while being absolutely insane about doing so with open arms, combined with their unique personalities and voices compared to the rest of their brothers. Star Wars: The Bad Batch would premier in 2021, while the Martez Sisters (who wound up being far less popular thanks to the rash decisions they made during their Clone Wars arc) would make a guest appearance as a preview of what might have been had they gotten the spot.
  • Total Drama:
  • One of the back-up segments on Underdog was Go Go Gophers. This segment was so popular it became its own show, albeit only consisting of reruns from its days on Underdog.
  • Winnie the Pooh was already fond of ensemble stories, even in the original novels, though the Disney incarnation takes some of its characters a step further:
    • Tigger only appeared in the second instalment of both the books and the Disney shorts, though quickly became popular enough to be pushed into all of Pooh's future works, to the point of being the first of the supporting cast to get his own spin off feature film and the TV series My Friends Tigger & Pooh ascending him to co-lead status.
    • Roo was originally a minor bit player for Kanga and Tigger, and was slowly fazed out of the Disney works during the New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh series. From The Tigger Movie onwards, Roo was given more and more main focus, getting two spin films and taking over some of Pooh's spin off branches like the Learning With Pooh featurettes. Such was the case that the marketed new character, Lumpy, was designed largely to be a foil for Roo more than anything else.
  • Woody Woodpecker: Woody first debuted in the Andy Panda short Knock Knock but ended up becoming so popular that he immediately spawned his own series of shorts, quickly eclipsing the cute little panda in popularity.
  • In a somewhat meta-example, WordGirl originated as one of many shorts and interstitials attached to the second half of Maya & Miguel. The WordGirl shorts wound up popular enough to get their own show, and has since outlasted the largely forgotten Maya & Miguel.
  • Xiaolin Showdown: Raimundo pretty much stole the show from Omi, being the character with the most development, and ended up supplanting him as the main character by the finale.

Top