Composite Character / Western Animation

Composite Character in Western Animation.

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Shows/franchises witht their own pages:

• DC Animated Universe
• Marvel Universe
• Young Justice (2010)

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Individual examples:

#-I

• Some of the minor puppy characters in 101 Dalmatians: The Series have elements of multiple characters from both the animated film and live-action film:
  • Two-Tone's general character came from the live-action movie, however her girlier personality in the series (as she was depicted as more tomboyish in tie-in media for the live-action movie) comes from Jewel, also from the live-action movie but not in the series (though she's mentioned in a few episodes).
  • Dipstick also came from the live-action movie, however his flea problem was a trait carried over from Fidget, who appears in the live-action movie but not in the series.
  • Wizzer originated from the live-action movie as well, however his color scheme (spotted ears and a red collar) gives him more of a resemblance to Freckles, who only appeared in the animated movie.
• An odd In-Universe/meta version of this trope can be seen in Adventure Time, in regards to Fionna. At first she seems like nothing more than a gender flipped version of Finn, but a later episode suggests that her voice and various personality quirks were also sub-consciously taken from Ice King's girlfriend, Betty.
• Ben 10 (2016):
  • Kevin becomes a composite of the Kevin from the original series and Albedo from Alien Force, fittingly both Evil Counterparts to Ben. Here, Kevin has his own counterpart to Ben's Omnitrix called the Antitrix, which turns him into stronger and darker-looking versions of Ben's alien forms similar to Albedo's Ultimatrix in Omniverse. Unlike Albedo, Kevin's aliens are already stronger by default, whereas Albedo's needed their respective Super Modes to be stronger.
  • Rath, the tiger alien with Wolverine Claws, acquires Wildmutt's ability to track down scents and occasionally utilizes quadrupedal movement.
  • The movie Ben 10 vs. The Universe gives Vilgax a new backstory taken from elements of Myaxx and Albedo as Azmuth's former assistant. He remains a powerful warlord seeking the Omnitrix, but went rogue from Azmuth in a similar manner to Albedo, while being the same species, though opposite gender, as Myaxx, an assistant of Azmuth who briefly left him but rejoined him later on.
• Castlevania:
  • Since the events of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence are altered in this continuity with Dracula explicitly existing before he waged war with Leon Belmont rather than being his former friend Mathias Cronqvist who became a Fallen Hero, his wife Elisabetha is merged with his second wife Lisa (Alucard’s mother) here and there’s no mention of him being married prior. Given the events of Lament of Innocence were introduced retroactively (after Lisa was introduced) and Lisa is an apparently a reincarnation of Elisabetha anyway, it’s a sensible change.
  • Trevor is obviously based on his original NES version (with modern touches to his design taken from Castlevania: Curse of Darkness) but he also multiplies similarities to other Belmonts such as Simon, Richer, Christopher and Julius in terms of personality, skill and weaponary. Notably the chain whip Morning Star Trevor uses was actually first wielded by Christopher originally. This version of Trevor also adopts Grant’s throwing knives speciality in his absence.
  • The show’s version of Death is based on The Grim Reaper Recurring Boss of the games but due to his Adaptational Badass into Final Boss and overarching role of using Dracula to usher in the apocalypse he’s really got more in common with Greater-Scope Villain Chaos the Eldritch Abomination God of Evil introduced in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow who was always there behind the scenes.
• Castlevania: Nocturne:
  • Nocturne's version of Tera, rather than being based on her Rondo of Blood or Dracula X Chronicles appearance, instead uses a large portion of Annette's character design from Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, and additionally has magic abilities similar to Sypha Belnades. She also ends up fulfilling Annette's classic role by being forcibly turned into a lesser vampire by Erzsebet, albeit as a Heroic Sacrifice here to spare Maria a Fate Worse than Death.
  • Erzsbet while primarily based on her Bloodlines version takes many elements from both Dracula and Carmilla, having the Dark Messiah avatar of a God of Evil elements of the former and the powerful Lesbian Vampire who relishes young maidens’ blood of the latter. Her design is also a big Shout-Out to Vampire Hunter D’s Carmilla.
  • Drolta has the name and role of Bathory's minion in the Bloodlines instruction manual, an original Hotter and Sexier character design (with references to being a former Egyptian priestess possibly being a nod to Astartes from Portrait of Ruin), wears a horned tiara identical to that of the Succubus from Lament of Innocence, and has a One-Winged Angel form which resembles the Succubus from Symphony of the Night, right down to being able to extend the tips of her wings into spear-like tendrils. And just like the Symphony of the Night Succubus, she meets her end by Alucard's sword.
• Dexter's Laboratory:
  • Major Glory is a fusion of Superman and Captain America, having Superman's powers with Captain America's Nationality theme.
  • In the episode "Mock 5", an Affectionate Parody of Speed Racer, had Dee Dee playing the roles of both Spritle and Racer X.
• Dilbert revived LOUD HOWARD, a character who'd proved quite popular with readers of the strip but who the author thought was too flat to make much use of. To make him more interesting, the show merged him with Nervous Ted and had him shout constantly about trivial worries.
• The 1990s Discworld animated series replaces the unnamed Mended Drum barman in Wyrd Sisters with Hibiscus Dunelm, the new proprietor in Soul Music. Soul Music also gives Adrian "Big Mad Drongo" Turnipseed all the lines belonging to the other two students at the High Energy Magic Building, Skazz and Tez the Terrible.
• DuckTales (2017):
  • New character Lena is an Expy of Minima DeSpell from the 80s comics, being Magica DeSpell's niece who befriends Webby. However, her backstory of actually being Magica's shadow who was granted sentience after being separated from her host comes from a one-shot character from an episode of the original 1987 DuckTales cartoon.
  • As revealed in the Grand Finale, Webby is also April, of April, May and June, although in this continuity they are Opposite Sex Clones of Scrooge, rather than Daisy's neices.
• Terri Cloth is one of the five main Garbage Pail Kids in the Garbage Pail Kids Cartoon, but she is actually a combination of two trading card characters: Terri Cloth/Dee Faced (her head being completely devoid of facial features) and Ugly Hans/Jan Hand (her face being on her hand).
• In the original G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero animated series, the General Flagg that appears in the original "MASS Device" mini-series has the same name and role as the General Flagg from the comics, but his character design resembles that of General Austin, General Flagg's adviser from the comics.
• G.I. Joe: Renegades:
  • Vinnie Hauser has the first name of most incarnations of Lt. Falcon, but is the brother of Duke like Falcon's animated counterpart.
  • Heavy Duty is an American soldier and Roadbock's cousin like his original incarnation, but his real name is that of his film counterpart's, Hershel Dalton (as opposed to Lamont A. Morris).
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021):
  • Ork-0 is modeled after the wizard Sidekick Orko, but is also a Robot Buddy "created" by Man-At-Arms, giving him the same origin as Roboto.
  • Kronis eventually becomes Trap Jaw with the Power of Havoc, while serving Skeletor as an Evil Genius in place of Tri-Klops.
  • Three other characters are composites of the original Man-At-Arms as Duncan got an Age Lift. Cringer is the Team Dad, Kronis was formerly the Man-At-Arms for Eternos, and Man-E-Faces is Teela's adoptive father figure.
• Hit-Monkey combines Lady Bullseye with her predecessor, the original Bullseye, giving her the latter's Sadistic personality and status as The Dreaded.
• In Ivanhoe (Burbank Animation), De Bracy does not appear (although he is mentioned), and Front-de-Bouef is the one who is infatuated with Rowena.
• Ivanhoe: The King's Knight features...
  • Prince John combined with Athelstane, as Rowena's fiancé via an arranged marriage while she loves Ivanhoe and he her.
  • Philip de Malvoisin combined with Waldemar Fitzurse, as Prince John's advisor.
  • Reginald Front-de-Boeuf combined with Maurice de Bracy, as one of Prince John's knights who is in love with Rowena.

J-R

• Johnny Test has Hank Anchorman in every season following the first; he looked much different in the first season before his design was changed to a human version of the one-off robot anchorman from "Sonic Johnny".
• Looney Tunes:
  • Elements of Friz Freleng's discarded Little Blabbermouse character (namely, his Motor Mouth tendencies) were absorbed into Chuck Jones' Sniffles in the latter's post-1941 cartoons, right around the time Jones grew the beard.
  • The Looney Tunes Show's take on Daffy Duck splits the difference between his prior crazed prankster and greedy gloryhound personas. Thus, he's a blithely self-absorbed and erratic schemer who uses Insane Troll Logic to justify everything he does wrong.
• The enemy robots in Mega Man: Fully Charged take cues from robots from the orginal series whenever possible. For example, Wood Man appears to be a combination of his classic counterpart, as well as having ninja tricks like Shadow Man and a solider's mentality like Commando Man.
• In the Moominvalley episode "Snufkin and the Park-Keeper", the kindhearted and well-meaning Hemulen policewoman appears to be based on the kindhearted cousin of the officious (and male) Hemulan jailer in Moomnsummer Madness. The Park-Keeper himself serves a more active role in the investigation, essentially taking the novel jailer's place.
• On the animated version of Mortadelo y Filemón, they had the Agente Bestiájez fulfilling the roles of many one-off characters in the comics, probably so they could reuse his design and voice actor.
• A few of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic ponies are Composite Characters with other ponies, due to loss of trademark on the G1 ponies that were meant to be used. Surprise became Pinkie Pie, Firefly got turned into Rainbow Dash, Glory became Rarity, Twilight became Twilight Twinkle (though her name was changed to "Twilight Sparkle"), and Posey became Fluttershy.
  • Pinkie Pie is the best example of this. G1 Surprise was a fun-loving prankster who used that quality to confuse her enemies when it was time to get dangerous. However, G3 Pinkie Pie was a party planner. FIM Pinkie has Surprise's madcapness and then some but she's the foremost party planner in Ponyville. A lot of FIM characters are a G1 character's personality with a G3 character's name, but the FIM Pinkie Pie is really a fusion of Pinkie Pie and Surprise instead of just being Surprise in Pinkie Pie's colors. (Compare to Rainbow Dash, whose G3 incarnation was more like Rarity in personality, none of it carrying over to FIM RD aside from her color scheme. Her personality was inspired by the personality Lauren Faust gave her childhood g1 Firefly toy.)
  • Surprise was originally a Pegasus, and Posey an Earth pony, but the races were switched for their G4 counterparts.
  • In the case of Applejack, Hasbro actually kept her trademark and thus just updated her G1 design to the G4 style, but she did inherent human character Megan's cowgirl aesthetic and Team Mom status, as well as Truly's Southern accent and fondness for Hats. Applejack's older brother is a composite of some of the G1 Big Brother Ponies and gained G3 Applejack's color scheme.
• In the 1973 Russian animated version of The Nutcracker, which combines aspects of Tchaikovsky's ballet and the original story, the Nutcracker Prince is a composite of the original Nutcracker/Drosselmeyer's nephew and Princess Pirlipat. In the original story, the Mouse Queen casts a spell on Princess Pirlipat and turns her ugly; Drosselmeyer's nephew breaks the spell, but due to a mishap in the process, he turns into a nutcracker. In most productions of the ballet, this whole backstory is cut, and the Nutcracker's human form is simply a Prince Charming. The Russian animated version splits the difference: the Nutcracker was originally a prince, but transformed into a nutcracker by the Mouse Queen in much the same way she enchants Pirlipat in the original.
• In the animated miniseries of Robert A. Heinlein's Red Planet, Jim Marlowe's friend Frank Sutton is Adapted Out, with his role in the original book instead filled by Jim's sister Phyllis.

S-Z

• In the final episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo "Ransom of Scooby Chief", which mostly focuses on Scrappy and his friends (Velma, Daphne and Fred are only seen at beginning and end, Shaggy and Scooby spend most of the episode kidnapped), the three of them show combined traits of the typical gang:
  • Scrappy of himself and Fred, taking the role of The Leader and initially being the one to initiate the rescue operation.
  • Duke of Velma and Scooby, showing signs of being The Smart Guy and holding Scrappy back when he gets too hotheaded (Which Scooby usually does)
  • Annie of Shaggy and Daphne, being the one girl and relying on Duke and Scrappy to figure things out, and being rather cautious when it comes to the kidnappers.
  • The cast of The New Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show featured Daphne as a regular but not Fred or Velma, so Daphne became a composite of all three characters, taking on Fred's role of the leader of the group and Velma's role as the smart one who analyzes the clues, while still occupying her old role as Damsel in Distress.
• Season five of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power introduces Melog, who is a shapeshifting creature like its 80s counterpart. However, it also fulfills Clawdeen's role as Catra's pet lion. N.D. Stevenson wanted to bring in Clawdeen originally, but placed Melog in that role because Clawdeen is too similar to Lion in Steven Universe.
  • In She-Ra: Princess of Power, Flutterina was her own character, as was Swen. In the reboot, they are merely disguises used by the shapeshifting Double Trouble.
• The Simpsons:
  • While Itchy of The Itchy & Scratchy Show is mostly known as a parody of Jerry Mouse, he also has more than a few elements of Mickey Mouse (his in-universe first pairing with Scratchy was a parody of Steamboat Willie and Roger Meyers Sr. is played as a parody of Walt Disney) and Herman (as he is known to brutally torture Scratchy, usually for no discernable reason, and stretches Designated Hero to the point of parody).
  • Parodied in the episode "I Am Furious (Yellow)", when Bart claims his comic character "Angry Dad" is not based purely on Homer, but is a composite of his dad, Lisa's dad, and Maggie's dad.
• The Smurfs (1981):
  • Greedy Smurf is a composite of both Baker Smurf and Chef Smurf and the original comic book version of Greedy.
  • Painter Smurf in the cartoon show combined elements of the comic book version and Sculptor Smurf. He still is that way in the live-action movie series.
  • Brainy combines himself with King Smurf from the original comic book story to become the title villain in the cartoon show episode of the same name.
• King Koopa from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and its two followups combined franchise villain Bowser with Wart from the second game. His first name is still Bowser and he has his basic appearance and personality, but his color scheme and the fact the he wears a crown comes from Wart.^note This became his design in Super Mario World. He also has the 8 bits, who worked for Wart in the games, as his henchmen, though he later got the Koopalings when their games were adapted.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): In the original comic book, Splinter was the pet rat of ninja master Hamato Yoshi, who gained anthropomorphic qualities after exposure to the mutagen. Here, Splinter is Hamato Yoshi himself, who gained rat-like qualities due to the mutagen.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): In the first cartoon, the Shredder was teamed up with an exiled, brain-like alien megalomaniac who got around in a robotic body. In this series, the Shredder IS an exiled, brain-like alien megalomaniac operating a robotic body. Although Word of God is that the show runners tried to keep the two dissimilar, Turtles Forever went one step further and gave the 2003 Shredder a body with the same Make My Monster Grow function Krang's android body once displayed. (Shredder even said that Krang's technology and the Utroms worked well together.)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012):
    • Splinter and Hamato Yoshi are the same person once again. He's also the guy who originally bought the turtles before they were exposed to the Ooze, taking the role of Chet, the little boy who bought them in their original origin story from the comics. Sadly, this Splinter shares ultimately with another element of Yoshi: his canonical fate of being murdered by the Shredder.
    • The show reintroduces Krang, but as a species of aliens called "The Kraang", who wear human disguises and operate covertly, combining the character with the alien species of the Utroms. As of the fourth season, they have partially gone back on this, showing that the Krang are a Hive Mind faction that have all but taken over the Utrom race.
    • April O'Neil has some similarities with the fifth turtle Venus de Milo from Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, mainly in that both characters are teenagers, have psychic powers, wear ponytails, and wield the tessen as their weapon. This is most notable because many fans saw Venus as a Replacement Scrappy for April.
    • The Shredder, like his film counterpart, takes his brother Nagi's part in the Love Triangle between him, Yoshi, and Tang Shen, but his part in killing her and being raised alongside Hamato Yoshi is taken from Yukio Mashimi, the stand-in for Nagi in the 4Kids adaptation.
  • Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sees sees Lou Jitsu revealed as Splinter—and much like in the 1987 and 2012 cartoons, he's a mutated and still-living Hamato Yoshi, instead of Yoshi being dead and Splinter being his mutated pet rat.
• Thomas & Friends:
  • This was a shrewd method of giving the lead character more roles in early episodes adapted from The Railway Series novels. Whenever the original novels utilized a generic or unadapted engine, Thomas would be used in its place. For example, he is the engine that tries to push Henry out of the tunnel in "The Sad Story of Henry", or the rude engine that fetches James' trucks in "Troublesome Trucks", both of which were unnamed background characters in the original books.
  • The Fat Controller also took the role of the controller of the Skarloey Railway when it came time to adapt those books. Later on Mr. Percival was created to take the role of the Thin Controller from the original books.
  • In "Percy Takes the Plunge", the unknown tank engines from outside the railway are replaced by Bill and Ben. Likewise, in "Thomas and the Special Letter", Jinty is replaced with Oliver.
• In the Nelvana adaptation of the Tintin book, The Red Sea Sharks, Sheik Bab-El-Ehr's part as the rebels' leader is absorbed into Mull Pasha's (Bab-El-Ehr himself had no screen time anyway in the book).
• Tiny Toon Adventures had Little Sneezer, a cross between Chuck Jones's Sniffles and Friz Freleng's Little Blabbermouse. Somewhat Zig-Zagged in that Sniffles himself became more reminiscent of Little Blabbermouse once Chuck Jones grew out of his Disneyesque phase.
• During the 1940s and 1950s, MGM's animation studio used two bulldogs named Spike: the famous one seen in Tom and Jerry, and the one Tex Avery made up for his own shorts. Avery's Spike is mostly gone from most modern media involving the characters due to the One-Steve Limit, and when he does appear, he goes by the name of Butch in order to distinguish them. However, for The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, the Tom and Jerry Spike takes the role of both, acting as an adversary for the cat and mouse and as a character Droopy would interact with (and occasionally be pit against).
• In The Transformers, Laserbeak takes Buzzsaw's role as the Decepticons' main spy (as use of the latter was often discouraged), which also resulted in his original Interrogator function being absent.
• Transformers: Animated:
  • While based on the original Optimus Prime, Animated's version of Prime takes after Optimus Primal in that he's a rookie hero and low-ranking member of the good guys, has a blue face with a retractable faceplate, and a mouth similar to how Primal's looked in Beast Machines.
  • Megatron is a combination of his original cartoon incarnation and his larger and more vicious live-action movie incarnation, but with a little dash of his Beast Wars namesake added in.
  • Blackarachnia is a combination of her Beast Wars namesake and Elita One from The Transformers, with her design featuring elements of all of Blackarachnia's appearances in the Beast era.
  • To go along with Blackarachnia being a fusion of her namesake and Elita-One, Sentinel Prime has the color scheme, age and role as the second guy in Optimus's Two Guys and a Girl trio from Dion from "War Dawn", whilst having the name and position of Sentinel Prime from The Transformers (Marvel).
  • The Japanese dub actually did this to everyone by making them all the same characters as the ones in the live action movies. Especially Bulkhead, who was actually even renamed "Ironhide". However, that's a very informed trait that doesn't show up in the series itself. In fact, comedic elements were added to that particular character that make "Ironhide" even less like Movie Ironhide than Bulkhead was.
  • Inverted (or something; we're not quite sure what) with Skywarp and Cyclonus. In The Transformers: The Movie, Cyclonus may or may not be an upgraded Skywarp (blame error-prone animation for a confusing Transformation Sequence.) The Animated version, however? Skywarp is one of several clones of Starscream, each with one trait of the original taken up to eleven. Skywarp represents his cowardice. As for Cyclonus, he's a brief cameo, but All There in the Manual tells us that his "internal chronometer" is way off, he is seeking someone named Galvatron (that's Megatron's upgraded form in G1 and several other series), and he has some circuitry in common with Starscream, particularly his (now disabled) self-preservation instinct. This hints without saying that Cyclonus is from the future and used to be Skywarp.
• Transformers: Prime:
  • Airachnid at first appears to be an Expy of Blackarachnia. However, personality-wise, she appears to be more a combination of Lockdown and Tarantulas, with just a little bit of the Predator thrown in.
  • Arcee looks and acts more like Chromia than her G1 counterpart, who was pink, Team Mom and The Heart rather than being blue, an Action Girl and Lady of War.
  • Shockwave combines the logic-driven mad scientist characterization of his G1 incarnation with the hulking death machine appearance of his Movie counterpart.
  • As with Transformers: Animated, Megatron has taken cues from both his G1 self (his voice actor albeit deeper, the buckethead, his lower legs resemble a pistol's handgrip) and film incarnations (sharp angles on his shoulders, two-toed feet, a demonic face with shark-like teeth, and alt-mode).
  • The Prime Scraplets are a composite of two Transformer-eating species from the Marvel Comic: The Scraplets (name, small size, that those almost eaten look like having a disease) and the Mechaniballs (general shape, not as small as actual Scraplets, and a more direct, physical approach to eat rather than the Scraplets' "infection and multiplication" one).
  • While a case of All There in the Manual between Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and Transformers: Exiles, the Nemesis is a reformatted Trypticon.
• When Nickelodeon re-introduced America to Winx Club in 2011, they crammed the first two seasons into four, one-hour specials. The season two special, "The Shadow Phoenix," merged Lord Darkar with Professor Avalon by making the latter a disguise. In the original full season, the Avalon the Winx met was an imposter working for Darkar. The change caused a Plot Hole in the third season, since the real Avalon had arrived at Alfea by then.
• In W.I.T.C.H. comics Nerissa's Dragon Shagon and bestial Kor were random man and his dog turned into her servants. In the cartoon this fate is given to Will's boyfriend Matt and his pet dormouse.
• The Peloto from the Zipi y Zape 2003 animated series was a mixture of the Professional Butt-Kisser Peloto from the comics with Sapientín's Insufferable Genius traits.

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