Brawny braniacs in Western Animation.
- Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: Kevin Levin, although his friends and enemies see him (mostly) as a Dumb Muscle. In his true form, he's already a tall, muscular young man; whenever he absorbs a material (usually, metal or rocks), he creates a shell that makes him strong enough to lift up a truck and tear metallic walls apart. He is an expert in alien technology, having upgraded and weaponized his car (and remounted it) uncountable times. In Ultimate Aggregor, he made such a detailed analysis of how Aggregor escaped from the plumbers that impressed even the legendary Max Tennyson.
- In the 2006 revival of Biker Mice from Mars, one of the main villains is Cataclysm, a Catatonian soldier who is huge and burly and also serves as the Dragon-in-Chief to his incompetent younger brother Hannibal T. Hairball.
- Jack Bennet and his adoptive son JD, codenamed Bionic-1 and IQ respectively, from Bionic Six.
- Castlevania (2017): Striga, a member of Carmilla's Council of Sisters, is a tall, burly, physically powerful and imposing woman who serves as the Council's military general. Far from being a brute like Godbrand from Dracula's war council, however, she is very prudent and cautious, often serving as a voice of reason for Carmilla and offering critique on her ambitious plans, and finding ways to help those plans come to fruition, even in the face of insurmountable odds.
- Duke Phillips from The Critic is a media executive with an evil streak who, we are regularly reminded by the statue out front, somehow formed a broadcasting company from a restaurant, and is depicted with exaggerated, cartoonish physical prowess that starts looking like "physically active middle-aged man", and goes up to things like revealing he broke into Jay's apartment by walking through the wall.
- Rare case in Jack Fenton from Danny Phantom in that he doubles both as a Dumb Muscle (because he's a Bumbling Dad) and Genius Ditz; his ghost invention works. One episode has also stated he held straight 'B-'s throughout his school years.
- Taurus Bulba is a huge bull who likes to pick up and manhandle both his own henchmen and Darkwing Duck, but who is at the same time a Diabolical Mastermind so clever he's not only running his operations from inside prison but also has a flying base constructed inside it just waiting to take off at his convenience.
- In the Dexter's Laboratory movie Ego Trip, Adult Dexter is a hulking muscleman with Manly Facial Hair who can reduce Mandark's robots to spare parts, and he hasn't lost any of his smarts.
- DuckTales (2017): Webby Vanderquack. She is extremely smart, has a vast knowledge of multiple subjects and is a capable fighter.
- Eddy from Ed, Edd n Eddy is a skilled manipulator and has a wide knowledge of pop culture. He’s also strong enough to tear a stump out of the ground.
- Marsala in Exo Squad is this and a Gentle Giant: he is both physically intimidating, like most Neosapiens, and a surprisingly insightful orator and tactician. This also applies to Phaeton and, perhaps, Shiva, the two Neosapien villains who rose out of nowhere and conquered most of the Solar system through cunning strategic planning.
- Freakazoid! villain Cave Guy is one of the series' stronger and smarter villains, being a large and powerful neanderthal with the mind (and accent) of a New England yuppie ("I subscribe to The New Yorker!"). Fans have compared his voice to that of Thurston Howell III.
- Gargoyles:
- Thailog is smarter than Xanatos and stronger than Goliath.
- Goliath himself is no slouch at this either. Yeah, he's a hulking Proud Warrior Race Guy, but while he doesn't have Xanatos and Thailog's brand of cunning, he's very well-read, perceptive, and cultured.
- The aged Hudson. When facing a physically younger and better-armed opponent, Goliath remarks that Hudson can't fight her. Hudson corrects him by saying he can, he just can't win. By drawing out the fight, Hudson ensures reinforcement comes to his aid.
- Harley Quinn (2019): King Shark is a skilled hacker, engineer and social media expert who could easily bite your head off with his powerful shark jaws. Notably, he prefers to be used for his hacking expertise instead of just being seen as a Threatening Shark.
- Helga G. Pataki from Hey Arnold! is already fairly known among her classmates as a formidable bully. She's also a talented writer/poet, and quite intelligent for her age. An unusual case in that she's just a bully who happens to be a genius, as opposed to antagonistic Genius Bruisers from more action-oriented media.
- Sherman Cortez is half of the team's strategic, tactical, and tech support on Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5. He uses his math skills to perfectly time his escape from a Death Trap corridor. The time each trap has before activating is faster than any human being should be able to react, let alone do calculations. Sherman is just that awesome.
- In Invincible the Mauler Twins are huge, muscular, super strong, and fairly invulnerable, in addition to being scientific geniuses who can create, among other things, a working cloning machine.
- In Jackie Chan Adventures:
- Farmer MacDonald's gargantuan sons Buford and Cletus. Cletus graduated from Stanford Phi Beta Kappa, and Buford is a renowned nuclear physicist. Jackie's read his books on the subject.
- Ratso of the Dark Hand is sometimes very perceptive for Dumb Muscle. Oh, and he used to study theoretical physics before becoming a thug.
- Tohru, despite being built like a sumo wrestler and easily capable of tearing a building apart with his bare hands, has been proven to be quite intelligent and is Uncle's apprentice in magic, and has solved many of the problems that have faced the team with simple common sense.
- In Justice League, the Ultra Humanite is a criminal genius who has transplanted his brain inside an albino gorilla, further transforming this new body to gain enormous strength. He's still a genius, and in fact, was persuaded to turn against the Injustice League because he felt his talents were being wasted working for Luthor.
- This show's version of Superman also counts, as he was revealed to have created robotic Supermen in the Justice Lords arc, suggesting he may have Super-Intelligence in addition to being a Flying Brick.
- Kaeloo: Mr. Cat. He owns many weapons and is highly aggressive, and several episodes (for example, "Let's Play Scaredy Cat") show that he is a skilled fighter. He is also a Gadgeteer Genius who made his own cloning machine and in another episode, he fixed a broken time machine.
- Occasional Kim Possible villain Motor Ed is a large, muscular, mullet-haired mechanical genius who even outsmarted Wade at one point. As Wade put it, "He's not as dumb as the hair-cut would lead you to think."
- Zaheer from The Legend of Korra is a powerful and seasoned fighter who looks the part, but also a poetic and spiritually knowledgable man who knows a good deal about the avatar and the world. Made more obvious by the fact that he's voiced by Real Life genius bruiser Henry Rollins.
- Amon/Noatak, as well. Really good public speaker, social leader, and master strategist; expert chi-blocker, prodigy waterbender and psychic bloodbender.
- Kuvira, too. Manipulative, charismatic, incredibly intelligent, and has all the skills to back it up.
- Looney Tunes: Downplayed in the case of Toro from Bully for Bugs. While genius is a stretch, he is still one of the most cunning foes Bugs has ever faced and gets a few good shots in of his own, in addition to being a Lightning Bruiser.
- Muzzy from Muzzy in Gondoland. While being a Gentle Giant, he uses advanced alien technology and is very skillful with computers.
- Subverted in My Adventures with Superman with the Mad Scientist Dr. Ivo. He was a Gadgeteer Genius, but his Parasite Powered Armor started to consume his mind due to Evil Is Not a Toy and his strategy against Superman basically boiled down to Attack! Attack! Attack!. Soon he's little more than a rampaging beast and after he's forced to join the Suicide Squad, Waller outright says that his mind is rapidly deteriorating to the point they soon won't be able to even use his smarts anymore.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Big Macintosh. Easily one of the strongest ponies in the series, he proves his intelligence on more than one occasion — Applejack gets frustrated with his "fancy mathematics" in Applebuck Season, and he knows the therapeutic pressure points for Granny Smith's muscle spasms. To top it off, when "discorded", he became incredibly stupid, acting more like a dog than a pony. Notice that for the Mane Six (with Rainbow Dash filling this trope), the same effect reversed their core personality trait, a.k.a. their very Element.
- King Sombra and Lord Tirek are villainous examples. Sombra may come across as a simple Generic Doomsday Villain and Mighty Glacier... but he turns out to be more Crazy-Prepared than any other villain in the series. Likewise, Tirek may be The Brute most of the time... but he turns out to be surprisingly nifty at Manipulative Bastardry and/or Xanatos Speed Chess whenever simple force doesn't work.
- Buford from Phineas and Ferb, though it's not obvious and comes across as Hidden Depths. He's definitely The Big Guy, and is also the resident bully (though he was just saving his goldfish,) but he's also fluent in French and has quoted Voltaire.
- Popeye occasionally gets in on the act, using spinach to enhance his brain power as well as his muscles when necessary.
- Megabyte from ReBoot is urbane, intelligent, and the one of the strongest regular character on the show. This makes the rare occasions he goes bestial even more frightening.
- Exile from Road Rovers also qualifies. He's one of the largest and most muscular members of the team and has super strength, but he also serves as the team's mechanic. Several episodes has him fixing (or breaking) some very complex vehicles or electronics.
- The Yeti Ti-Yet in Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends. He's The Big Guy and very strong, but he was also the leader of his people, and is capable of repairing and flying starships.
- In the Christmas Special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, there's Yukon Cornelius, a badass Prospector who's always coming up with smart ideas. He gets himself and his two friends away from the Bumble by taking advantage of the Bumble's one weakness ("The Bumble sinks!" he laughs) and he later get the good idea to draw the beast away from Rudolph's parents by telling Hermes to imitate a pig, knowing that it prefers pork to deer meat. He's got the Bruiser part down to a T (Boisterous Bruiser, in fact) able to out-wrestle and tame the Bumble after Hermes de-fangs it.
- On top of being a very competent and skilled warrior, Samurai Jack is also a clever strategist, often figuring out ways to defeat his opponents when it's not entirely clear if he can.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Catra, though you can't tell at the first sight. She is short and slender, but is also strong enough to fight She-Ra herself in hand-to-hand combat and dismantle Hordak’s cannon with a kick. She is also a good strategist and has a sharp eye for the enemies’ weak points.
- Horde Prime is taller and brawnier than his clones, who are already big for the Etherian standards. He’s also a manipulative demon that frequently anticipates his enemies’ moves.
- During a flashback during an episode of The Simpsons, a big brawny soldier who is called Ox (short for "Oxford" as it turns out, not a reference to a farm animal) effectively explains the concept of a "tontine" (the funny part was that he spoked like a dumb muscle before he turned out be educated on difficult English):Ox: Duh, essentially, we all enter into a contract whereby the last surviving participant becomes the sole possessor of all them purty pictures.
- In Spider-Man: The Animated Series this applies to Dr. Connor and his "Lizard" form during the Secret Wars three-part episode, where he retains the mind of Gentleman and a Scholar while in the Lizard's super-strong form.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: SpongeBob's friend Sandy Cheeks is not only very strong and athletic but a genius inventor and scientist as well.
- Played for Laughs in Star Trek: Lower Decks, after Ransom defeats a giant Gelrakian in gladiatorial combat.Ransom: I thought you only said "Vindor."
Vindor: It's so the other guys think I'm strong and dumb. But I'm not! I love to read! - Garnet of Steven Universe is not only by far the strongest of the Crystal Gems, but she's also the savviest and always knows what to do next thanks to her Seer powers. Lampshaded by Steven in "Keeping it Together":Steven: Oh. Oh! You're brains and brawn! The whole package!
- Octus from Sym-Bionic Titan. His brain is like an encyclopedia, although standard attacks (kicking, punching) don't phase him and he's shown to be able to put up a fight.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): Leatherhead is a hulking thug with a redneck speech pattern, but he also shows a good amount of cunning and ingenuity. This is best shown in his second appearance, where he escapes from the Rat King's dungeon and then fashions a working bazooka out of some discarded scrap iron and chemicals.
- Leatherhead from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) is a bespectacled scientist and fearsome warrior.
- Teen Titans (2003)
- Robin, of course, has had many of Batman's skills rub off onto him and it gives him an elite deductive mind as well as superb melee combat skills (particularly with a staff). That said he tends to let his brilliance overwhelm him at times and he loses focus on what's really important when he's fixated on a task.
- Cyborg is both the team's second physically strongest member (surpassed only by Starfire) and the resident technology expert, qualified to build, modify, or repair anything you can think of. Having a computer built into your head helps.
- Season 5's The Dragon is Monsieur Mallah, who is a tactically clever, Gadgeteer Genius talking gorilla.
- Slade, who has more than enough combat skill and strength to take on the team 5-to-1 and keep up, and more than enough brainpower to stay on top in terms of gambits throughout the entire show. He rarely needs to directly intervene, but whenever a lot of violence is required, he's happy to do it himself.
- Panthro in ThunderCats (1985) and Thunder Cats 2011 is another example.
- Transformers:
- Transformers: Generation 1: Predaking is described as being unique among the combiners in that his component minds are able to successfully merge into a complete persona, making the gestalt himself an animalistic version of this. He's still almost always portrayed as stupid as the others.
- Beast Wars:
- Rhinox. He's not only this big burly dude that turns into a rhino, he's also the Maximals' tech expert, very wise and aware of his surroundings, a competent leader when forced into the position, and fully capable of manipulating and out-manoeuvring the entire Predacon force. These smarts carried over after his eventual Face–Heel Turn after his spark took over Tankor.
- Megatron is another example, being a huge, physically imposing Chessmaster.
- Rampage is a hulking, sadistic, cannibalistic monster who is also an expert in psychological warfare.
- Transformers: Animated:
- Bulkhead is a cross between this and Genius Ditz, seemingly being Dumb Muscle but actually being one of the smartest Space Bridge technicians on Cybertron.
- Strika is another example. Besides being a huge tank, she's also a brilliant tactician.
- Megatron is a Magnificent Bastard as well as Large and in Charge. He's also almost as strong as Lugnut.
- Transformers: Prime:
- Shockwave is the creator of cortical psychic patch, managed to reverse engineer the space bridge, and has the technical know-how to create clones from fossilized remains. He's also pretty beefy for a robot, has an Arm Cannon in place of his left arm, transforms into an alien tank, able to survive getting crushed by falling chunks of rock, practically unaffected by any attacks thrown at him, and may have even survived a space bridge collapsing on him. His only weakness is his eye and getting a direct laser blast to it barely stuns him. His creation Predaking also shows signs of this. Even Shockwave was surprised when Predaking transformed into robot mode, revealing that he is sentient. When he speaks, he turns out to be rather eloquent and well-spoken.
- Megatron has slightly more brawn and slightly less brains than some other incarnations but is still a very savvy strategist capable of being a frighteningly effective Manipulative Bastard when his madness or arrogance don't get the better of him.
- For a heroic example, Optimus Prime is his usual devastating self in battle, but used to be a skilled historical records clerk and proves to be a dab hand at cryptography too.
- Boulder, from Transformers: Rescue Bots, while a rescue worker rather than a fighter, is the muscle of the team, the one called on when, for example, a school bus needs to be pulled up from the hole that just opened up in the ground. However, he's also shown to have a surprising amount of brains; his human partner is Graham, the team's engineer, and Boulder is easily able to understand him. They've even started studying together, as Boulder finds subjects such as hydraulic conductivity fascinating.
- The Venture Brothers:
- Though he starts off more akin to Dumb Muscle, Brock Samson develops into this. This is especially apparent by the end of the third season, where he plays The Monarch and the OSI against each other in order to proverbially kill two birds with one stone.
- On the villainous side, Amoral Attorney Monstroso is about 10 feet tall, capable of surviving a beatdown from 21 and Brock, and he's the Guild's undisputed master of the double cross. Capable of screwing over practically anyone with some well placed paperwork.
- Hunk from Voltron: Legendary Defender is the physically largest member of the team, and also shares the role of Gadgeteer Genius with Pidge.
- Ivy, from Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? is well read and loves the arts. She has also kicked through bolted doors, tackled henchmen with flying kicks, and tosses henchmen who have tried to restrain her with hooks, nets, or lassos.
- Mr badger from The Wind in the Willows is bigger than all the other characters (in fact he could pass for a bear). His feats of strength include lifting Toad up with one arm and breaking the bell off a hammer striker (he is also fiece enough to scare off the weasle gang even when outnumbered). And as for smarts he knows Latin very well.
- Xiaolin Showdown: Raimundo, who is a brash, cocky, snarky street smart teen, is also a tactical genius when he wants to be. He pulled off a successful Batman Gambit with Master Monk Guan, and roundly thrashes a hyper-intelligent T. rex at a game of chess (with an in-depth understanding of chess strategy, no less). In addition, his street smarts afford him a certain level of experience that was the team's only saving grace on one occasion.
