"Who's a cute widdle Interface Screw?"
A good way to enhance the cuteness of a video and/or picture of an animal is to have the animal get close to the camera, and put its face right up to or around said camera, often sniffing the camera and/or sniffing around it.
The animal's face is likely to be much closer to the camera than the rest of its body, which makes the animal's head look bigger in comparison to the body than it actually is. A wide angle lens is usually used to enhance this effect.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- An early Tama & Friends OVA does this
with the title character's eyes filling up the screen.
- A more literal example happens in an episode of the TV series. Emi (the owner of Tama's secret crush Momo) is using a new video camera purchased by her parents. When she and Takeshi (Tama's owner) use it to film the antics of all the animals at the Third Street park, Tama and Momo approach the camera lens. At first Emi warns them not to get too close, but decides their faces look cute up close anyway.
- In the first Pokemon XY opening Volt!, Pikachu sniffs the camera, then kisses it.
- The super kawaii video to promo the third season of Future Card Buddyfight, and the cute dragon named Bal Dragon presses his face on the camera.
- The Mokonas do this in ×××HOLiC and Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- to wake up Watanuki and Shaoran respectively.
Films — Animation
- The black cat from Coraline greets the heroine this way after waking her up.
- The introduction of Puss in Boots in Shrek 2 features him trying his hardest to appear cute by doing massive Puppy-Dog Eyes and drooping his ears slightly.
Live-Action TV
- Happens in a lot of The BBC's Spy wildlife documentaries when the animal subjects start to get curious about the disguised cameras that are filming them. For instance, in one Polar Bears: Spy on the Ice episode, one of the cameras was disguised as a snowball, and the cubs kept approaching it and playing with it.
- Zoboomafoo: In the opening sequence.
Video Games
- The Nintendog assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. summons a giant puppy to jump in front of the game's camera (and obscure the action on the battlefield).
- Weavile in Pokkén Tournament grabs the camera and smiles into it at random before a match starts.
- The Inadvisably Big Dog from Sunless Skies is a Big Friendly Dog who's huge enough to accidentally breaks things wherever it goes and has a personality is described with phrases like "innocently happy" and "a riot of joy." Its picture on the Officer screen is dominated by its nose as it happily presses its face right into the camera.
- Occasionally while camping in Pokémon Sword and Shield you will enter the camping screen to find one of your Pokemon is literally right up in your face. It's kind of unnerving with some of them.
Web Comics
- In El Goonish Shive, Jeremy does it during a photoshoot with Grace, Tedd, and Ellen.
Web Videos
- On Eat Your Kimchi, the Scottish Fold kitten Dr. Meemersworth stalks and attacks a camera on a string.
- In one of the Pokemon animation shorts "Master of Flight", Rowlet was shooting feathers in each bull's eye; until he hit the cameraman. Which is so kawaii in the end, until Rowlet looks at the camera.
Western Animation
- Puppy Dog Pals: There's two kawaii videos to promote the show, "Breaking the Fourth Wall" and "Barking."
- South Park had a Show Within a Show called "Animals Close-Up With a Wide-Angle Lens," and its spinoff "Animals Close-Up With a Wide-Angle Lens Wearing Hats."
- On Ruby Gloom, Doom Kitty does it in this skit.
- In My Gym Partner's a Monkey, a slightly unstable nature documentary director is revealed to have made a film like this with her pet kitten, who naturally destroys the camera.
- In a fourth season episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, Mariner and Ransom visit a menagerie where they see an adorable creature called a moopsy, who approaches the camera and vocalizes its name. It also happens to be incredibly dangerous and will drink your bones.
Real Life
- Birthday and holiday cards
- Handbags in some shops in the UK.
- Artlist Collection's "The Dog" and "The Cat" collectibles are all about focusing on kitties' and puppies' faces using a fish-eye lens.
- Dogs and cats with the right combination of friendliness and fearlessness are just as prone to do this right in someone's face. It's every bit as adorable as it sounds.
- Guinea pigs are particularly prone to this as many a video has proven. Their little lower lips are especially adorable.
