Gentle Giant / Western Animation

Much like his pet kitty, he's a big warm ball of fuzz and joy.

Examples of Gentle Giant from Western animation.

---

• Genie's Kindness from the Aladdin: The Series episode "The Seven Faces of Genie" is a hulking giant who towers over the city Aladdin and the Sultan are staying at, but true to his moniker is very kind, gentle, friendly, and sensitive.
• The Amazing World of Gumball:
  • The show has Hector Jötunheim, who is a massive ape-like giant, who although seems menacing, is actually very gentle. Because of this, he is often seen as boring to his classmates. In "The Colossus", it is shown why he lives a "boring" life, which is because, as a giant, he can be very destructive when excited. There are some exceptions however, like in The Curse, where he accidentally steps on Gumball and squashes him to be stuck under his foot like chewing gum.
  • There is also the Chimera, who is a massive monster made out of toy parts who befriends Anais. In the episode he appeared in, he was shown to have been thought of as a criminal due to breaking into houses to look for a new friend after his creator died.
• In American Dragon: Jake Long, giants are peaceful despite their huge size.

• Arcane: Vander is a clearly large and muscular fellow and he's quite high up in the current power structure of the Lanes, but he clearly prefers to keep Zaun peaceful and look after the four kids in his care now - though he's still liable to openly throw his weight around to obtain that. Vander may have hanged up his gauntlets but he's not above implying he'd wear them again.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Sky Bison in general seem rather friendly towards humans, as wild ones are seen allowing humans to get close and wander through their herds. Just don't get close to their babies, though.

• Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Proto, voiced by Adam West, qualifies. Batman initially believed that he was too clumsy and thus dangerous to be on active patrol when he built him, but he's an exuberant, warm-hearted robot and a Friend to All Living Things who wants nothing better than to help his creator fight crime. When saving a kitten, he proves capable of great restraint and caution, which Batman uses to put him back on duty by getting him to treat civilians like kittens.
  Batman: You can be gentle.
  Proto: Have to be. Kittens are not just cute, but also delicate and defenseless.
• Bee and Puppycat has Moully from the cooking planet. He's a giant cat, yet he is one of the nicest, most warm-hearted characters in the show. His Bad Boss says he's, "Crazy", but Moully is very much the opposite.

• Lofty from Bob the Builder, despite being the tallest machine, is kindhearted and friendly, but has a fear of heights, mice, loud noises, and formerly Spud the Scarecrow. He is also timid, shy and nervous and often needs extra encouragement to acknowledge the amazing things he can do, but always rises to the occasion and holds up his end of the job.
• Booster in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is The Big Guy of his team, but also an Ascended Fanboy with a tendency to be clumsy.
• Gor from Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys. He really hates to fight, and often does so only if his friends are in danger. His pacifistic nature causes him to try and talk to the villains, but it rarely works (except in one Aesop episode); and there have been occasions where his own friends goaded him into transforming into Gormungus, a hulk-like creature, to win battles or save a crew member, usually Spydor. He actually managed to talk several gladiators (at least one on screen) out of their job in the episode where he received his Gormungus mutation — up until then, pushing his Berserk Button resulted in something more like an Unstoppable Rage.

• Pfff from The Crumpets, who is sleepy and rarely angry, is incredibly tall out of his 141 siblings.
• Fishlegs Ingerman in Dragons: Riders of Berk is the biggest and chubbiest of the teen characters, but he's also by far the most tender and kindhearted, especially towards his dragon Meatlug. Nevertheless a lot of the characters in the setting are kindhearted big vikings, but the tallest of all is also the most innocent and gentle: Bucket.
• In both iterations of DuckTales, as well as Darkwing Duck, Launchpad McQuack is the strongest member of the regular casts and towers over most of them, but he'd never hurt a fly.
• Dinosaur Train: Laura the Giganotosaurus is one of the largest land carnivores ever, but she's very polite to the kids and spends her free time drawing birds.
• Ed from Ed, Edd n Eddy is the friendliest kid in Peach Creek by far. He has an obsession with chickens, but seems to love all animals. He also tends to carry his friends around. In some episodes, Ed is seen defending his younger sister, Sarah. Double D even lampshades this in one episode.
  Double D: "He wouldn't hurt a fly! They're actually attracted to him!"
• Eek! The Cat is dwarfed by his towering girlfriend Annabelle, who's a sweethearted Southern belle whom he loves to pieces.
• Bo Hweemuth from The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants stands at twice that of the average child his age, and had enough rumors surronding him for an entire horror movie franchise, but as it turns out, he's actually a kind, soft-hearted, and lonely sculptor who deeply longs for friends.
• Paul Bunyan from the Rankin Bass "Festival Of Family Classics" adaption of the tall tale. Paul is actually portrayed as a nicer guy than in the original myth, which is saying something. Completely averted with Panhandle Pete, the villain of the story, the giant boss of a sawmill who is not only an enormous Jerkass, an abusive Bad Boss, and a dirty cheater, he is also clearcutting the forests for no reason.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
  • Eduardo was created by a little girl who lived in a bad neighborhood and needed an imaginary friend who was scary-looking enough to frighten off thugs and bullies, but gentle enough to help her throw tea parties for her baby brother. Later, she realized her subconscious had a secondary purpose in inventing Eduardo's personality: he's such a coward that she eventually had to find her own inner courage and step up to protect him. (She was later shown to have grown up to be a police officer.)
  • Wilt. He's a lot skinnier than Eduardo but at 10 feet tall, he towers over him and everyone else. And yet, he is also easily one of the nicest characters in the entire show.
• Gargoyles:
  • Goliath looks like a hulking, fanged, clawed, glowing-eyed monster, is big even by gargoyle standards, and is a Badass in battle. He's also a Warrior Poet who reads Dostoyevsky and doesn't like killing people, whose greatest wish is peace between gargoyles and humans.
  • Even more so, his friend and companion Broadway. He's as gentle as he's huge, unless he's VERY pissed off.
• Roadblock from G.I. Joe: Renegades, while looking like a stereotypical Scary Black Man, is actually one of the most laid-back and easy-going members of the team. He's more than willing to use his size to intimidate an enemy though.
• PJ from Goof Troop is what you get when the 'Giant' is 11-years-old and yet to hit his growth spurt — a Gentle Giant In Training. He's not too bright, overdominated, insecure — and can bench-press 150 lbs., punch out bullies, and does most of his dad's manual labour. He seems pretty unaware of how strong he really is. He becomes a straight example in the movies, which even helps land him a girlfriend in the sequel.
• The Great Grape Ape is a 40-foot-tall purple gorilla with the demeanor of a child. Unfortunately, almost everyone is afraid of him.
• Jeff the Spider from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. He's incredibly sweet and friendly for a human-sized Giant Spider. Unfortunately for him, the violently arachnophobic Billy doesn't really get this.

• Muscle Mutt of The Houndcats. A huge, muscular Old English sheepdog: also the quietest, most affable of the otherwise frenetic and explosive crime-fighting team. And able to bend steel with his bare paws.
• The Hooded Fang from Jacob Two-Two is a wrestler with a disguise and attitude that make him incredibly intimidating and big enough to pick up Jacob with one hand. Out of the ring he's a soft-spoken guy named Gary.
• Beezy on Jimmy Two-Shoes is usually this. He's a lot bigger and a lot less evil than the rest of the Heinous family, though the reason he's so gentle is that he's probably too lazy to be aggressive.

• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: Most of the Mega-Mutes are actually rather non-aggressive, with the monkey only attacking the burrow due to mind control. The tortoise didn't have a problem with people riding it and the dogs are as playful as ordinary dogs, although their immense size and power makes them a threat to any playmates they have. Even the most dangerous Mega-Mutes, Mega-Bunnies, are only such due to protective instincts: it will only go after someone if they smell like one of its young, tearing up the environment in order to "bring it back home".
• Naga from the The Legend of Korra is a Big Friendly Dog who gives people she likes big, sloppy kisses.
• Looney Tunes: Hugo the Abominable Snowman wasn't exactly "gentle", but he meant well.
• The Ferocious Beast of Maggie and the Ferocious Beast is the size of a bus and the exact opposite of his name.
• Magilla Gorilla is one of the nicest gorillas you'd ever meet. And he's great with kids.
• Java the caveman from Martin Mystery is a hulking neanderthal who gets along great with the main characters and is a steadfast ally.
• The Megas XLR episode "Department of Megas Violations" has the villain's Giant Mooks turn out to be significantly more peaceful and civilized than the show's main character, and were forced to fight by the alien bounty hunter who was the main villain of the episode. When the main control collar on their leader is broken, they proceed to help Megas up, apologise for the carnage, grab the villain so she can stand trial, and leave, with classical music playing.
• Nathan Explosion of Metalocalypse isn't quite a textbook example, but he is a lot more warm-hearted and amiable than his intimidating appearance and reputation would have one believe.

• Miraculous Ladybug:
  • Ivan towers over ALL his classmates and his love interest Mylène, and has a generally intimidating look on him. But at heart, he's extremely friendly towards his classmates and loves Mylène more than anything.
  • Marinette's dad Tom Dupain also towers over most of his family, but is a baker and loves his wife and daughter.
• Thunder and Edweena from My Friend Rabbit, with huge hearts and Thunder being the largest male and Edweena being the largest female.
• Sandy from Monkie Kid is an extremely friendly but physically imposing demon who drinks tea and loves cats. Just don't hurt his friends...
• Winsor Gorilla from My Gym Partner's a Monkey, who's pretty smart by the school's standards and quite soft-spoken. Ingrid Giraffe counts too, given how shy and sweet she is despite being so tall that her head's almost always off-screen.
• Muzzy from Muzzy in Gondoland is an enormous, hairy alien with a very friendly personality. He is also a bit of a Genius Bruiser, as he's very skillful with computers and other technology.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Big Macintosh is "very gentle", according to his blind-bag toy, and his younger sister Apple Bloom claims at one point that his quiet nature is due to the fact that he's shy. He's shown to be fairly soft-spoken and level-headed on the show, but at a few other points is shown performing feats of immense strength, such as shrugging off a huge dog-pile of other ponies in "Lesson Zero" (sending several of them flying over the horizon), lifting up a cupboard with one single foreleg in "Pinkie Apple Pie", or towing a full house in "Hearts and Hooves Day"... while skipping. Also, he apparently likes dolls.
  • As she is larger than most of the other ponies in the show, Princess Celestia also counts, being the Big Good of the series.
  • Pretty much any big creature in the show that Fluttershy interacts with. Granted, this is because of her natural connection to animals and most of them wouldn't hesitate to cause trouble without her influence, but hardly any seemingly dangerous giant creature stays angry for long when Fluttershy's around.
  • The giant river serpent from the second episode turns out to be quite a nice (if prissy) guy.
  • Bulk Biceps may be a big, muscular guy, but he is friendly with both the Cutie Mark Crusaders in "Flight To The Finish" and Fluttershy in "Rainbow Falls".
  • Despite his name, Trouble Shoes, from "Appleloosa's Most Wanted", who very well may be the largest pony in all of Equestria, dwarfing even Big Mac◊, is very kind and even helps the Cutie Mark Crusaders back to town after they get lost in a rainstorm and take refuge in his home. He even seems to willingly live alone, lest his his inherent clumsiness and size cause anypony harm. Too bad said clumsiness gets him mistaken as a Rodeo-destroying outlaw.
• Clyde from Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures is the biggest of the Ghost Gang, but is also the nicest one.
• Pocoyo: Elly the elephant, who sometimes scares new characters with her boisterous size and finicky personality, is actually extremely kind.
• The "big, shaggy, and kind of slobbery" Niblet from the 2010 version of Pound Puppies. Not the brightest dog you'll ever meet. Or the bravest. But friendly he has down pat.
• Season 2 of Primal (2019) gives us the giant Kamau; he's unfortunately Forced into Evil, but when left to his own devices is a very quiet and contemplative man and a devoted father to his little daughter.

• Mikey from Recess is much larger than the other kids — yet loves poetry and wouldn't hurt a fly. And has a singing voice exactly like Robert Goulet. In one episode, though, a rumour starts that Mikey has pushed a boy into the girls' bathroom, which everyone believed. A rumour he started himself, mind. He was tired of people pushing him around, and the story took on a life of its own...
• The title character of Rekkit Rabbit, a big white magical rabbit who doesn't always get it right when it comes to using magic, but nonetheless is friendly to everyone and highly protective of Jay and his family.
• Played in a horrifyingly dark way in Robot Chicken when a giant robot is struck by lightning and develops emotions. He just wants to hug the puppies, whom he accidentally crushes with his horrifying strength, and when the cops open fire he "wants to play too" and guns them down with a gau-8. It ends with the robot sleeping in the fetal position, soaked in blood, and the scientist being gunned down by the police.
• The Ren & Stimpy Show had an episode where Stimpy played the part of a friendly giant in a fairy tale pastiche.
• The titular characters of Seven Little Monsters are seven monsters who are considerably huge and just as personable and good-natured.
• Shirley in Shaun the Sheep is by far the biggest sheep of the flock, yet probably one of the more gentle and inofensive ones.
• In The Smurfs (1981) episode "Gargamel's Giant", the villain's Evil Plan is to mold a giant out of clay and then use alchemy to turn it into a real giant that will become his servant, which he'll use against the Smurfs. However, he has a problem: one ingredient he needs is choke cherries, which don't grow in that part of the world. After realizing this, Gargamel decides to try using smurfberries, figuring that since the Smurfs used them for everything, why shouldn't they work? At first, they do work, and while the giant, whom he names Dufus, is a little dimwitted, he is more than willing to do what Gargamel tells him at first. Eventually, however, Dufus turns out to be a Minion with an F in Evil, who is far too friendly to hurt anyone, due to the fact that Gargamel used smurfberries to create him.
• Knuckles in Sonic Boom. He's big, tall, and muscular, possesses incredible strength, loves punching things...but is also probably one of the friendliest characters on the show. Despite his tough appearance, he has a soft spot for nature, and is incredibly loyal to his friends.

• Junko from Storm Hawks is a textbook example, as he's a Class 2 Big Guy who towers over most humans, but is considered a wussy weakling by his own kind. Despite this,he's more than capable of beating the crap out of any human (including The Brute Snipe) with his bare hands when pushed too far.
• Super Noobs:
  • Memnock is a tall alien who has many intimidating features such as fangs and claws but has a tender heart towards children such as the Noobs and he showed these traits in "I Know You Noob" as he tried to reason carefully with several little girls who were blackmailing the Noobs. He also turns out to have several traits of a Camp Straight as he loves cooking and made the infamous tiara jokes towards the Noobs. He also loves to eat candy, likes puppies whether real or stuffed, and likes to do childish activities
  • Zenblock, who is Memnock's comrade, recruiting partner, and roommate, may not seem to fit in this due to being a non romantic Tsundere and a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, combined with his intimidating Austrian accent, hot temper, manly personality, and having biological features similar to Memnock but Zenblock does have the capabilities of being gentle as he does care about the Noobs and saving the world and is just as childish as Memnock. He also likes eating candy and loves puppies whether real of plush. He also loves plush animals and sleeps with a teddy bear at night,

• Teen Titans: Galfore, Starfire's k'norfka (guardian), a huge, hulking, intimidating guy, who's actually quite friendly and approachable — so long as you don't do anything that might be interpreted as a threat against Starfire. (Oddly enough, this is one of the few things that Beast Boy learns very quickly.)

• The Elephant Tribe from Thundercats. The majority of the time, they're peaceful and very forgetful monks, spending their days meditating and the like. But, they're still Elephants. As the Lizards and Grune found out when they finally joined the fight.
  Ssslithe: The elephants... the elephants never fight!
  Anet: Only rarely. But when we do, we fight to win!

• Total Drama
  • DJ from the first season. He's the largest and most muscular of the males but wouldn't hurt a fly. Owen is probably the heaviest character overall, and likewise sweet.
  • Rodney from the Pahkitew Island season. He's an extremely muscular farm boy who is very shy and falls in love with several girl contestants.
  • Jasmine is one of the tallest contestants in the series and her size can scare other contestants but she has a tender heart towards animals, take the role of leader for her team, and managed to gain a love interest.
• Transformers:
  • Omega Supreme in Transformers: Generation 1. Jetfire (or Skyfire), a pacifist and scientist with a stature that dwarfs Optimus Prime, also qualifies.
  • Rhinox from Beast Wars, also a Genius Bruiser and both a tech-head and a spiritual guru. Push him just that one inch too far, though, and you'll find out just how tough he really is.
  • Bulkhead in Transformers: Animated. He causes a lot of collateral damage despite his best efforts, though, mostly do to clumsiness, and it makes him kinda self-conscious.
  • His counterpart in Transformers: Prime definitely fits this trope. At least around Miko, he tries very hard at being a good big brother. In combat, on the other hand, he remains the only Transformer in the entire franchise(outside of video games) to have beaten another transformer to death onscreen.
  • Most Autobot protagonists tend to use Gentle Giant mannerisms when dealing with humans. Decepticons... not so much. Except in the Shattered Glass universe, where, naturally, it's reversed.
• The Unstoppable Yellow Yeti: Gustav is a hulking, yellow-furred yeti, but also a jovial, fun-loving, and kindhearted Friend to All Children.
• Cindarr from Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, always eager to Pet the Dog and in general gives the vibe of playing for the wrong team. It seems he persists to be a Darkling Lord only because of his oath to Darkstorm.

• Clay from Xiaolin Showdown, who's as sweet as a piece of ol' Aunt Nelly's homemade cherry pie. Seriously, he once refused to fight a villain, instead defeating her by giving her a big hug. The guy is a teddy bear. When faced with the Challenge of catching a bird to win the Shen Gong Wu of the episode, he fills his hat full of seeds. He won.
• In X-Men: Evolution, The Blob is this towards Jean through most of his introductory episode, as she is the only person who bothers to show him any kindness, while most laughed at him and used him for their own entertainment, despite the fact that he could easily crush them in the palm of his hand. When a tantrum he's thrown over being made fun of in the school cafeteria causes a building to collapse, he tries to protect her by shielding her with his own body, but she still gets struck in the head and knocked out, at which point he gently picks her up and takes her to an abandoned building, where he ties her up "to keep her safe", and promises to take care of her, setting up a candle-lit dinner for her and bringing her flowers and an old-fashioned gramophone to play soothing music for her, at which point Xavier's other students, most notably Cyclops (in angry protective boyfriend mode) blasts their way in to rescue her. The Blob ends up as a villain of the show, joining the Brotherhood, but every once in a while you still see a gentler, warmer side shine through, if only for a moment — specially in how he treats Todd "Toad" Tolansky, the local Butt-Monkey, as a younger brother.

---