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Earth
Milo
The main character; is a young boy who was bored with his life before discovering the tollbooth.
- Kid Hero: Only about ten, but still manages to save the princesses.
- Only Sane Man: He often reacts to the insanity around with bewilderment or an Aside Glance, with only a few characters such as Tock able to talk to him on a rational level.
Dictionopolis
The Humbug
An arrogant, anthropomorphic bug.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In the book, he's very irritable and pompous. In the 1970 movie, he's much more genuinely courteous to Milo and his lack of knowledge comes less from willful ignorance and being more Super Gullible and naive.
- Edible Theme Naming: Humbugs are a type of candy.
- Funny Animal: Is stated to be an insect, but he walks on two legs, wears clothes, and- aside from his antenna looks more like a blue-skinned humanoid with a nose that is seemingly fused with his upper jaw.
- Hidden Depths: Despite being a fool, he does have some intellectual traits such as being able to count to a high number of trillions and fractions, (though he fails to realize that there are even higher numbers in even that) and through this, it's implied rather being naturally idiotic he has latent potential for being much more knowledgeable but would rather not apply himself- thus setting himself for failure due to learning more and whenever he finds something outside of his limited knowledge, he's downfounded each time.
- Meaningful Name: His name comes from the fact that he's boastful and that he's a bug.
- Mr. Vice Guy: While his intentions are noble and he wouldn't actively hurt someone, he's very self-centered, is more foolish than he actually believes, and tends to brag.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Humbug.
- Super Gullible: In the 1970 version, he tends to be this, especially in the Trivium portion of the Mountain of Ignorance journey where he accepts the menial task much easier than the others.
King Azaz the Unabridged
The King of Dictionopolis, who has a rivalry with his brother the Mathemagician, due to perceiving words as superior to numbers.
- Hypocrite: As pointed out by Milo, he and the Mathemagician have sworn to never agree with each other... even though that in itself is technically agreeing (albeit to disagree).
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Has a petty rivalry with his brother, but he also invites the heroes to dinner despite them having been jailed and tells them to be optimistic.
- Sibling Rivalry: Resents his brother due to them arguing over whether words or numbers are more important.
Azaz's Cabinet
Four men who work for Azaz: the Duke of Definition, the Minister of Meaning, the Earl of Essence, and the Undersecretary of Understanding.
- Ambiguously Related: They look very similar, which means they may be brothers or cousins, but it's unknown.
- Character Tics: The Earl's favourite thing to do is to act out idioms.
- Hurricane of Euphemisms: Their main shtick is that the Duke will say something, the Minister will say a synonym for it, the Earl will say another synonym, and the Undersecretary will say a fourth.
The Spelling Bee
A bee who spells, and who hates the humbug.
- Animals Not to Scale: About the size of a soccer ball.
- Artistic License – Biology: In the movie, he stings the Humbug but survives, though to be fair, he seems to do his stinging with his nose.
- Jerkass to One: Is usually very friendly and understanding, but is snappy towards the Humbug and in the movie he even stings him.
- Punny Name: A spelling bee is usually a spelling contest, but he is an actual bee.
- Talking Animal: Can talk, but apart from his size, isn't anthropomorphic.
- Verbal Tic: Likes to spell words.
- Virtuous Bees: While he is crabby towards the Humbug, he's mainly very nice and tells Milo not to be afraid of him.
Faintly Macabre
An old woman who calls herself the "Not-so-Wicked Which", because her former job was to determine which words to use. However, she was fired and imprisoned after becoming "miserly" and allowing fewer and fewer words to be used.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In the book, she was imprisoned because she started hoarding words for herself. In the movie, it was because without Rhyme or Reason people stopped caring which words they used.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Has a gloomy name and wears black, but she's nice to the protagonists and even has "Not-So-Wicked" in her title.
- Darkness Von Gothick Name: Her surname is Macabre.
- Granny Classic: Downplayed. She has some stereotypical "old lady" traits like offering sweets and telling a long story of her youth, but her backstory is quite different from that of a stereotypical grandma.
- Non-Indicative Name: While her name means "vaguely suggestive of death", she herself isn't actually like that.
- Took a Level in Kindness: In her youth, she was greedy and eventually didn't allow anyone to speak. Now, she's a kind old lady who offers food to a lost child and his friend.
Officer Short Shrift
A cop, judge, and juror who accuses people of being guilty at the drop of the hat.
- Catchphrase: Tells everyone, "You're guilty!" in the book or "I've never seen anyone so guilty!" in the movie.
- Insane Troll Logic: Accuses people of forgetting his birthday when they don't know him, of being guilty because they were holding the word "guilty", etc.
- Meaningful Name: The "short" in his name makes sense because he isn't very tall. 'Short shrift' is also slang for rapid and unsympathetic dismissal.
- The Napoleon: Very short and quick to assume someone is guilty.
Digitopolis
The Mathemagician
The King of Digitopolis and King Azaz's estranged brother; a wizard who specialises in numbers.
- Benevolent Mage Ruler: As his name implies, the Mathemagician is a figurative and literal math wizard, and while he does need his brother and the moderating influence of the princesses to be at his best, he is at least a decent and well-intentioned master over Digitopolis.
- Good with Numbers: His whole shtick is that he loves numbers and math, being the ruler of a math-related city and sharing knowledge about numbers.
- Hypocrite: As pointed out by Milo, he and Azaz have sworn to never agree with each other... even though that in itself is technically agreeing (albeit to disagree).
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Much like Azaz, he has a bitter, petty rivalry with his brother but is hospitable to the heroes.
- Punny Name: His name is a portmanteau of "mathematician" and "magician".
- Sibling Rivalry: Is at odds with his brother due to them arguing over whether words or numbers are better.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Mathemagician.
The Dodechahedron
A creature with 12 faces (one for smiling, one for eating, etc).
- A Dog Named "Dog": Is named the Dodechahedron because that's what his shape is. In fact, he doesn't even understand names, believing that everyone should just be called by their species because if numbers had names, arithmetic wouldn't work.
- Good with Numbers: Likes calculating numbers and believes the world should work in terms of math.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Dodechahedron.
The Half Child
A boy who Milo meets on a stairwell, who is 0.58 of a whole boy, because his family is the "average" family— a mother, a father, and 2.58 children.
- Good with Numbers: Likes to calculate statistics.
- No Name Given: While most sources refer to him as "the half child" because that's the title of the chapter he appears in, he doesn't have a name, or even a title.
Forest of Sight
Alec Bings
A boy belonging to a family where the kids float in the air and grow down instead of up. All members of his family have sight-related superpowers; his is to see through objects.
- Flight: Being a Bings child, he's always floating above the ground at the height he will be when he's grown up.
- Power Incontinence: Has X-ray vision but can't turn it off, causing him to bump into things.
Chroma the Great
A man whose job is to bring colour into the world by conducting an "orchestra" that plays colour instead of music.
- Meaningful Name: His name comes from "chrome", which means "colour".
The Giant/Midget/Fat Man/Thin Man
A man of average height and girth, who claims to be the "shortest giant", "tallest midget", "thinnest fat man" and "fattest thin man" in the world.
- Fat and Proud: While he isn't fat, he enjoys pretending to be the "thinnest fat man" and "fattest thin man".
- No Name Given: His actual name is never revealed.
- Spell My Name with a "The": Has four titles, that all have "The" in them.
Mountains of Ignorance
The Terrible Trivium
A demon resembling a man with no face, who makes people do trivial things.
- Alliterative Name: The Terrible Trivium.
- Badass Boast: Gives a rather unusual one about embodying triviality in both the book and the 1970 film, but with different emphasis at the end.Film: Quite correct. The Terrible Trivium. Demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs. Ogre of wasted effort. And friend to lazy and foolish people everywhere.Book: I am the Terrible Trivium. Demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs. Ogre of wasted effort. And monster of habit.
- The Blank: Has no face. The 1970 adaptation has this trait, but also gives him indications of eyebrows to show off his true malicious intent and allow for some emotion.
- The Bore: Makes people do boring things like moving a pile of sand one grain at a time. But unlike the Senses Taker, he he takes malicious glee in his nature.
- Boring, but Practical: The Terrible Trivium is one of the most effective demons to waylay the heroes simply by virtue of not immediately revealing himself to be a demon and asking the heroes to start engaging in some pointless, mind-numbing tasks for him until they're hooked.
- Faux Affably Evil: He initially greets and treats the heroes with politeness, but it gradually becomes clear that he's forcing them to do menial tasks to distract them from their goal and he's truly evil beneath his suave demeanor.
- Manipulative Bastard: While the other Demons use physical or verbal threats, the Trivium convinces the heroes into doing menial tasks as two are very susceptible to the suggestions. He nearly succeeds before Tock exposes his true nature and frightens him away.
- Meaningful Name: Gets his name from his enjoyment of having people do trivial things.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Has "terrible" in his name.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Terrible Trivium.
The Senses Taker
A male, humanlike demon who makes people fill out forms, aiming to take their senses, but he can't take a person's sense of humor.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: In the 1970 adaptation, he has green skin to compliment his yellow eyes, which gives a visual indication that he's not actually a human.
- The Bore: Makes people fill out long, boring forms about needlessly complicated yet pointless information for the sake of delaying them from their tasks.
- Character Tics: Blows his nose, polishes his glasses, and straightens his tie a lot.
- Intangible Theft: Takes people's senses.
- Our Demons Are Different: A human-like demon dressed like a bookkeeper who steals senses to distract them from their goals.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Senses Taker.
- Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: In the 1970 adaptation. A visual indicator of his inhuman nature and how he hides his intent of delaying the heroes by giving them needlessly complicated documents of convoluted information as a distraction.
The Demon of Insincerity
A small demon who tells lies about his appearance.
- Colour-Coded Emotions: In the 1970 movie. He starts as a fiery orange but as he loses confidence, he gradually turns into a melancholy blue as his insecurities are revealed.
- Evil Sounds Deep: He initially sounds normal as part of his deception but reveals his true nature through his raspier, deeper voice. However, when Milo and his companions aren't intimidated after learning about his true nature, his tone becomes meekier and mellow.
- Manipulative Bastard: Not to the extent of the Trivium, but he manages to convince the heroes into his trap by adopting a normal voice before revealing his truly raspier voice. However, his small size and lack of physical power mean he can't capitalize on his intentions.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: This demon is just as insincere as his name suggests, with his lies meant to dissuade those who are easily persuaded by his lies, but he can't back it up physically.
- Small Name, Big Ego: The essential aspect of his character, he talks himself to be a bigger threat than he is, but is, in truth, small and harmless. Unlike most examples, he's willing to admit this, but but that doesn't stop him from attempting to harass the heroes with his fellow demons anyway.
- Smug Snake: He acts confident when he has others trapped and unaware of his true nature, but has nothing to fall back on when he's exposed for the helpless creature he is. He only acts confident again when he has the entire Demon legion to back him up.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Demon of Insincerity.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In the movie, he disappears the moment the Terrible Trivium is defeated, presumably he fuses with the other demons into the final one.
The Gelatinous Giant
A... well... gelatinous giant who eats humans but who is easily put off his food by ideas.
- Alliterative Name: The Gelatinous Giant.
- Death by Adaptation: In the book, he's merely frightened off. In the movie, the possibility of an idea frightens him enough that he melts to death.
- Driven to Suicide: In the film, he's so frightened by the concept of ideas that he causes himself to slowly melt away.
- Dying Vocal Change: His already deep voice distorts even deeper as he melts himself to death.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Has an appropriately deep voice, which somehow gets even deeper as he dies.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: In the film, he kills himself via melting alive rather than admit to an idea and his voice gets gradually distorted into an deeper tone as he dies.
- I'm Melting!: In the movie, he dies by melting.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: Is a giant who eats humans and can melt in the movie adaptation due to the implications he's made of gelatin.
- Sapient Eat Sapient: Eats humans, but it's not cannibalism since he himself isn't a human, but a demon.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Gelatinous Giant.
- Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: Refuses to eat if he's scared.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Afraid of ideas.
The Everpresent Wordsnatcher
A bird who wants to be a demon, but can only be a nuisance. His main shtick is to deliberately misinterpret what people say.
- Adapted Out: He doesn't appear in the 1970 film adaptation of the story.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Outright admits to wanting to be a demon.
- Fun with Homophones: Will interpret "sense" as "cents" and do other such misinterpretations.
- The Gadfly: Likes to annoy everyone by misinterpreting what they say.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Everpresent Wordsnatcher.
The Threadbare Excuse
A raggedy demon who likes to tell lies.
- Humanoid Abomination: In the film adaptation, he is presented as a yellow, skeletally gaunt demon with a long lower jaw and a head crest with his torso/limbs being disproportionately thinner than his arms.
- Jerkass Woobie: In-Universe, he's a demon but he's so beat-up looking that Milo feels sorry for him.
- Playing Sick: One of his lies is "I was sick".
- Punny Name: A pun on threadbare excuses, and he himself wears threadbare clothes.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Threadbare Excuse.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In the movie, it disappears the moment the Terrible Trivium is defeated, presumably it fused with the other demons into the final one.
The Overbearing Know-it-All
A demon who is mostly mouth.
- Insufferable Genius: He looks down on everyone who knows less than he does.
- Spell My Name with a "The": Like most demons, he has a "the" in his name.
- Smug Snake: His entire being is about being snide about others being wrong about everything while holding himself to a higher degree.
The Gross Exaggeration
A demon with exaggerated features.
- Meaningful Name: Gets his name from looking grotesque and having exaggerated features.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Gross Exaggeration.
The Demons of Compromise
A trio of demons. Two of them always argue, while the third compromises.
- Golden Mean Fallacy: They're physical embodiments of the logical fallacy whereby one assumes that the middle position between two views is correct simply because it's in the middle.
- Oxymoronic Being: One of them is tall and thin, while the second is short and fat; the third, in an embodiment of the logical fallacy they embody, is somehow exactly like the other two.
- No Name Given: The individuals aren't named.
The Horrible Hopping Hindsight
A demon with eyes on its butt that is only seen in the movie.
- Alliterative Name: The Horrible Hopping Hindsight.
- Ambiguous Gender: Is only briefly seen, so we don't know its gender.
- Breath Weapon: Breathes fire whenever it makes a sound, which hints at its demonic nature.
- Canon Foreigner: Never appeared in the book.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: Has eyes on its rear end due to its face also being on its rear.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Has "horrible" in its name.
- Nightmare Face: His bloodshot pink eyes are perpetually bulged and elongated out of the sockets, which give the demon an unnerving appearance.
- Playing with Fire: He can breathe fire.
- Punny Name: Has eyes on its butt, which is a pun on the word "hindsight".
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Horrible Hopping Hindsight.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It disappeared the moment the Terrible Trivium is defeated, presumably it fused with the other demons into the final one.
The Hideous Two-Faced Hypocrite
Another demon only seen in the movie.
- Ambiguous Gender: Like the Horrible Hopping Hindsight, its gender is unclear.
- Canon Foreigner: Never appears in the books.
- Informed Flaw: Is said to be a hypocrite but is never seen doing anything hypocritical.
- Nightmare Face: Has a constant snarling face with wide eyes with tiny pupils.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Resembles a two headed, wingless dragon.
- Punny Name: Literally has two faces.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Two-Faced Hypocrite.
The Gorgons of Hate And Malice
A pair of demons that embody malice and hate.
- Informed Flaw: Other than looking malicious and hateful, they never do anything particularly malicious or hateful.
- Our Demons Are Different: They resemble snails, but have reptilian heads- the green one having a serpentine head and the purple one having a vaguely beaked turtle head.
- Speedy Snail: In spite of their size and snail appearances, the two are able to move at fast speeds.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In the movie, they disappear the moment the Terrible Trivium is defeated, presumably they fused with the other demons into the final one.
The Final Demon
The fusion of the remaining demons. Only seen in the movie.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Heavily implied to be the personification of all the evils in the world.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Much larger than any of the individual demons, being the size of a dragon.
- Canon Foreigner: Never appears in the books.
- Fusion Dance: An amalgamation of the remaining demons, creating a large purplish-blue draconic beast.
- Knight of Cerebus: Its appearance marks the darkest point in the already threatening Mountains of Ignorance, temporally killing Tock, and its entire appearance doesn't have any comedy to balance it out.
- Made of Evil: Made from all of the remaining Demons of Ignorance, who already personify negative aspects of humanity, making it comprised of every evil imaginable.
- No Name Given: Unlike the other demons, it doesn't have a name.
Other Places
Tock
A literal watchdog; i.e. a dog with a watch built into his body. He likes being productive and hates it when people waste time.
- Berserk Button: He hardly ever gets angry, but he will loudly tell off anyone who wastes time, and the phrase "killing time" also makes him angry.
- Heroic Dog: Is a dog who helps save the princesses.
- Non-Indicative Name: When he was born, his parents expected him to make a "tock" noise like his older brother, but he ticked, thus his name doesn't match his sound.
- Only Sane Man: While Milo is pretty sensible, he's just a kid, and everyone else is very zany, so he's often the only one to be using logic.
- Talking Animal: Is mainly a normal dog but can speak.
- Visual Pun: He's a literal watchdog.
Rhyme and Reason
Two princesses, more formally known as the Princess of Sweet Rhyme and the Princess of Pure Reason, who are twins and the adoptive sisters of King Azaz and the Mathemagician. The main conflict of the story involves ending their banishment so that the logic can be returned to the area.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: How the movie depicts them. Rather than being two women who have traits of reason and rhyme, they are heavily implied to be the concepts of Rhyme and Reason in the form of colored silhouettes that happen to look like princesses.
- Closer to Earth: They're two of the few female characters in the book, and are the embodiment of reason.
- Damsel in Distress: Downplayed; they're princesses who need rescuing, but rather than being in immediate danger, they were banished and imprisoned.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Around the time of their banishment, numerous illogical things happened around the area (such as the city of Reality turning invisible when ignored and the Soundkeeper locking up all sounds), but it's unclear if they happened because of the princesses' absence.
- Meaningful Name: Their names come from the expression "rhyme and reason", and Reason is just as logical as her name suggests.
- Non-Indicative Name: Aside from the allusion to the saying "rhyme and reason" as in logic, Rhyme doesn't have much to do with rhyming.
- Prefers Going Barefoot: The illustrations of the book depict them barefoot. However, this is somehow subverted, as one of the illustrations depicts them wearing shoes.
- The Faceless: Their faces are not shown in the movie. Though it’s implying their natures as personifications of rhyme and reason rather than a deliberate obscurity of their faces.
- Theme Twin Naming: Their names are both abstract concepts beginning with "R".
Lethargarians
Lazy, blob-like creatures who live in the Doldrums.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the book, they were just a bunch of boring Lazy Bums whose offer Milo happens to initially agree with with no apparent hidden motive on the part of the Lethargarians. In the movie, they actively want to make Milo stop doing anything including breathing and make a deliberate attempt to prevent from escaping.
- Chameleon Camouflage: They're initially hard for Milo to spot, as each one exactly matches the color of whatever surface it happens to be lying around on. It's not clear if they change color or just pick matching backgrounds to be lazy against, although the latter would probably seem too much like work for them to bother doing.
- Dirty Coward: In the movie, the minute Tock is heard, the Lethargians immediately scurry away in panic and only attack in a literal wave of their numbers to get outnumber the watchdog.
- Faux Affably Evil: As the above indicates, in the movie, their lazy demeanors to seemingly help Milo from worrying too much about everything are shown to be a facade as they're shown to be sinister and very intent on keeping Milo from doing anything.
- Hive Mind: The movie heavily implies this, with members able to separate and blend back together with the same general personality.
- Hypocrite: In the movie, they outlaw laughing and smiling except on alternate Thursdays, yet the moment Milo stops paying attention, the Lethargarians start to snicker and smile on an implied not alternate Thursday.
- Overall, for beings that advocate laziness and not thinking, they can be very animated when they desire to be and try their hardest to make others lazy.
- Lazy Bum: Spend most of their time procrastinating and sleeping.
- Sleepyhead: They spend most of their time napping.
- Starter Villain: While not directly connected to the Demons of Ignorance, they're the first obstacle that Milo must face in the world he faces. The film makes it more apparent by making them far more malicious in intent at hindering the boy.
Canby
A man whose "thing" is being "as X as can be".
- Ditzy Genius: Is simultaneously as smart and as stupid as can be, so he can speak several languages, but can't tie his shoes.
- Punny Name: His name is a pun on the phrase "can be".
- Sizeshifter: He is sometimes as tall as can be and sometimes as short.
Cacophonous A. Dischord
A doctor who enjoys being loud.
- Meaningful Name: The A in his name stands for As-Loud-As-Possible and his first name is Cacophonous, which fit with his love of loud noises.
- No Indoor Voice: He likes to talk really loudly.
The Awful Dynne
Dr. Dischord's sidekick, a cross between a jinn and a din.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being made of smoke and having "awful" in his name, he's harmless.
- Mad Libs Catchphrase: He likes to say, "No [noun-beginning-with-N] is good [noun-beginning-with-N]".
- No Indoor Voice: Like Dr. Dischord, he enjoys talking loudly.
- Nonstandard Character Design: in the movie, the Dynne is animated in the style of a paint scribble with a face plastered on, which contrasts with the usual smooth style of characters of the story.
- The Pollyanna: He is an orphan, his grandfather is dead, and he grew up on the streets, but he doesn't seem to mind.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Awful Dynne.
The Sound Keeper
A woman who sorts the pleasant from the unpleasant sounds, but who has lately begun labelling all sounds as unpleasant.
- Everyone Calls Her "Barkeep": Is only known by her job.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Likes to "listen" to silence.
The Whether Man
A man who likes to predict whether there will be weather.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Loves saying things three times.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": "Whether man" is his job, not his name, which is unknown.
