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Someone mind explaining how a robot — modeled after a mermaid, of all creatures — could have hips of this caliber?
Fat bottomed girls
You make the rockin' world go round — Queen, "Fat Bottomed Girls"
The character designer for a cartoon is drawing a grown woman. For whatever reason, he wants her to look more *ahem* "mature" than the average female in his series to make her look sexy or to visually suggest that she is an adult. But the cartoonist won't be giving this character big breasts (thankfully or sadly, depending on your point of view, or sometimes both). Often he can't because his cartoon is in the Animation Age Ghetto, where big breasts can't get past Network Standards and Practices. Or there can be other reasons: maybe the designer doesn't want to look like he objectifies women; maybe he wants to make it immediately clear that this character is mature mentally as well as physically.
The next solution? Narrow her waist and enlarge her hips. A lot.
This animated woman will usually have an average bustline (though hourglasses are not unheard of), but a very narrow waist and very large hips. She may seem to have Gag Hips instead of Gag Boobs, especially if there aren't many other characters like her. Extra points if she only looks that way if she's wearing skintight clothes, such as tight jeans or a catsuit.
This can get disconcerting if the cartoon in question had run for some time without any characters like this, but abruptly adds one woman with Hartman Hips to the cast.
In non-animated form, this goes back at least to the type of comic postcard described in George Orwell 's essay "The Art of Donald McGill". Orwell thought the ludicrously curvy females ubiquitous in these postcards were "caricatures of the Englishman's secret ideal, not portraits of it."
Named after writer/animator Butch Hartman, whose cartoons often make use of this trope, because Steven Silver designs many of the characters for his shows.
The logical progression of this is add big buttocks to these large hip carriers, leading fans to exclaim " Baby Got Back!" If this is done in a cartoon aimed primarily at a young audience, it may be a form of Parent Service.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- C.C. from Code Geass is a curious variation. Though her ass is used for fanservice, she doesn't actually have disproportionately narrow hips... most of the time. The size of her ass varies depending on the animation and how much focus its given.
- They do it to Cosmo in the finale of Sonic X (plus Most Common Superpower though the dub edits that a bit).
- Kikyo from Inu Yasha has a shapely butt which is only prominent when she's naked (her rebirth and her evil, naked clone in the 4th movie).
- Shenhua from Black Lagoon might be an example. This troper isn't sure if she has big hips and thighs or if it's an optical illusion caused by the way her dress is cut.
- Minamo Aoi and Holon in Real Drive.
- The GN Archer
 ◊ from Gundam 00 has, along with a ponytail and monoboob, thunderthighs to make it appear more feminine. Yeah.
- According to Ai Haibara, Ran Mouri has them.
Comics
- Empowered is quite well developed in this area, much to her embarrassment — and her lover's delight (her bust is on the normal side of large at a C-cup). Ninjette's hips/backside are less pronounced, but given that they are the only things keeping her from looking like a boy they attract notice as well. (Her short-shorts ensure that they get the "proper" attention.)
- Most of the women cartoonist R. Crumb draws are of rather Amazonian proportions in general, but the hips, thighs, and rear get particular emphasis.
- And we musn't forget Rob Liefeld, although this is probably due more to his sad lack of anatomical knowledge than any purposeful attempt to make the character look mature. Oh, and they usually have ginormous boobs, too.
Films
- Tinkerbell from Walt Disney's Peter Pan, to her dismay.
- Megara from Disney's Hercules was actually designed to be shaped like a Greek vase.
- Helen Parr from The Incredibles, mostly for a Fridge Logic joke: while a mother of three who's been retired for 15-20 years (give or take), and had much more svelte thighs in the prologue, she can assume any shape she wants. Passing a reflective metal surface, she happens to get a glance of her rear end and sighs unhappily, implying some level of weight gain in this area... but she was a boat not long before this scene.
- It's like tensing a muscle, though. She could just slim her hips, but she'd have to pay attention to holding them in. Try sucking in your gut and holding in for more than a few minutes.
- Are you basing this explanation on your vast experience with shapeshifting superpowers?
- She did seem exhausted after being a boat, even though all she had to do was hold the shape while Dash provided the propulsion.
- Or, this being The Incredibles, it could be a scene used to emphasize that supers, just like other people, have body image issues of their own — something they don't like about themselves.
- Jesus, and here I just assumed that it was a joke about middle-aged mothers losing their figure, just like all the other middle-aged mother jokes in the movie. Because something that simple would just be too easy.
- Chel from The Road to El Dorado, almost to the point of parody. Her waist was, tops, twenty inches and her breasts were rather large, considering. Waltz on down below the waist and her hips are at least as wide as her shoulders. If This Troper didn't know it was made before the lovely Kim Kardashian hit the radar, he's swear Chel was meant to be a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of her.
- Chel was a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Dorothy Lamour, best known for playing most of the love interests in the "Road to..." movies, starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, of which the entire movie is a parody.
- In The Film Of The Book, Coraline's mother has a very small bust but very wide hips, thus still giving the Other Mother a spider-like shape even before she starts looking freaky.
- The protagonist's mom in The Ant Bully has an absurd case of these.
- Parodied in the So Bad Its Horrible film Death to Supermodels: one of the aforementioned models is a black woman who uses steroid injections to give herself a huge ass and Hartman Hips. At one point, they explode.
- Sita
- All the females drawn by Chris Sanders. You thought Nani of Lilo and Stitch had it going on....
- Crysta from Ferngully
- Sam Sparks (left in that image) from Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is an undeniable example. Most of the background female characters also qualify, but Sam's got the thinnest waist and biggest hips by far.
Literature
- In the Isaac Asimov short story "Women's Intuition", one of the prototypes of the robot Jane has a wasp-waist and wider hips. Someone criticises this design as "structurally unsound" and it's scrapped. The final prototype is instead given a beautiful contralto voice and a certain je-ne-sais-quoi (possibly the way her arms fall) to make her feminine.
- Can't be a coincidence: Bliss from Foundation and Earth is described by the protagonist as "bottom heavy" (while defending his complete lack of attraction to her...yeah, right) and herself wishes out loud that she could stand to lose some weight "right here." And smacks her ass. Anybody got a picture of this man's wife?
Music Videos
- The pink-haired, bikini-clad woman in this Japanese music video has an extremely thin waist and massive hips which are wider than her shoulders. Until she gets a Balloon Belly from drinking beer, that is.
Video Games
- Videogame example in the Soul Series. Their breasts may be a bit above average, but their hips are outrageous. I mean every female fighter.
- Safiya of Mask of the Betrayer, especially in that first shot of her approaching the player. From the front, with her very covering Red Wizard robe, her breasts are barely visible, but a couple of strategically-placed black patches on the thighs of the robe really give the impression of massive hips.
- Splash Woman from Mega Man 9, as pictured above. Despite being a mermaid, who, as you should know, has a fish tail instead of feet or hips.
- Which reminds me of other Mega Man female characters like Aile and Ashe in Mega Man ZX Advent (really wide hips, even more pronounced in animated cutscenes).
- Chun Li of Street Fighter is the definitive character of this trope in fighting games, and is famous for having thighs like redwoods and the hips to go with them. Several other characters have this in Street Fighter as well, notably Elena, who also uses mostly kicks, being a Capoeira practitioner.
- In Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King, Chime is like this.
- Female Selkies in general seem to be like this, with fantastic busts to boot. It's clear what Chime got from her mother.
- Midna, the Exposition Fairy guide in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, in her cursed form. This picture◊ in particular emphasizes her prominent rear.
- Shiki (or rather, Eri) in The World Ends with You.
- Pretty much every female save for Rhyme. Especially the Sunshine Burger girls.
- Prier in La Pucelle: Tactics has both Hartman Hips and Boobs Of Steel. Rraowr!
- All of Yoshiharu "Ryoji" Nomura's works are like that. Prier is just he most noticeable, because she's essentially wearing a high rise loincloth the entire game.
- ... And Murderous Thighs, don't forget them!
- Milla Vodello of Psychonauts. And how.◊
- In fact, it's less accentuated in the concept art — in the final 3d model◊ she has almost no chest (It's barely perceptible, and then only from the side) and an almost excessively tiny waist.
- Female humans, draenei, and dwarves in World of Warcraft.
- As do Sylvanas and Alexstrasza's new character models.
- On Gaia Online, the hallmark of artist o_8's female creations is "LOOK AT DEM THIGHS/HIPS/DAT ASS".
- Halloween 2009 villain Sentinel wasn't designed by o_8, but should have had a "wide load" sticker on those bumpers anyway.
- zOMG!'s Water Spouts and their stronger Sea Spout relatives, including the positively bootylicious Queen Lorelei.
- o_8 also designed the vampires for zOMG!'s Halloween 2009 event.
- Morgan Le Flay from Tales of Monkey Island DEFINIETLY has these going on.
- Mass Effect has this, interestingly enough, in the person of Tali, the resident quarian. It may be a large part (along with being a Wrench Wench) of why she is (for some) part of a Fan Preferred Couple including her and Shepard - in spite of being physically incapable of coming out of her environmental suit.
- Not true, Tali can and does come out of her environment suit during the second game, for a little playtime with Shepard. She does have to take alot of antibiotics, herbal supplements, and other things so she avoids getting sick, though she does anyway. And it was totally worth it.
Web Comics
Western Animation
- The trope namer, Butch Hartman, is actually a misnomer. It's actually Stephen Silver's art style and character designs (see The Fairly Oddparents, Danny Phantom, and Kim Possible).
- In The Fairly Oddparents, more than a few women who aren't overweight or fairy-like use this trope, but the most obvious examples would be Britney Brittany, Timmy's mom, the Tooth Fairy and Adult Vicky (shown twice). Note that appearances change somewhat as time goes on.
- In Danny Phantom, you have Maddie Fenton, Valerie Gray (in costume) and Desiree (who, in contrast with most characters in this trope, has the Most Common Super Power as well, especially in her second appearance).
- Dexter's mom in Dexter's Laboratory. In fact, when DeeDee gets turned into a duplicate of Mom in one episode, she feels her hips with awe, instead of some other area.
- Heck, there's a whole fanbase for Dexter's mom.
- A lot less, but let's not forget Agent Honeydew.
- The girls from Winx Club are the perfect example. To get the figure the girls have there, you have to miss some ribs.
- On that note, they also all have long thin legs, and big eyes, making big breasts the only thing they really miss.
- The DCAU runs into this on a regular basis.
- Superman The Animated Series has the villainous Livewire. She sports a skintight leotard/catsuit, as she's supposed to exude sex appeal (after all, the Diniverse isn't just for kids) but Livewire curiously isn't so well endowed as some of the other women on the show. She even has an extra large V-neck which apparently should sport cleavage, but doesn't (even less than when she was normal). To compensate, the animators gave her a gigantic pelvis and thick legs. Apparently, Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, experimenting with their new art style, wanted to toe the line rather than bring in superhero appearances all at once. They eventually went all the way in Justice League.
- Batman The Animated Series, given its more realistic art, does not use this trope, and we love it more for its lack of exaggeration (not just in that, but in everything). When the show was retooled (with some budget cuts) into The New Batman Adventures, with a new animation style very similar to (but not exactly like) the animation on Superman: The Animated Series, they fell for this occasionally.
- What do you mean they don't use this trope? Harley Quinn, anyone?
- Don't forget about the first designs of Catwoman and Poison Ivy
- Batman Beyond, with an improvement of The New Batman Adventures' animation style, didn't.
- Most of the time. Sometimes (like with Max, for example), they do.
- Wilma and Betty on The Flintstones.
- Tommy's mom in Robotboy.
- Peg in Goof Troop. I don't think it was the intention of the Disney animators to make her so bootylicious.
- Wuya in Xiaolin Showdown, in human form.
- Eris, from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
- All the female contestants on Total Drama Island, though hey also tend to have fairly... prominent breasts, as well.
- On the animated Teen Titans show, we're given no exact ages for the characters, but one would think Raven is the older girl between her and Starfire considering her very obviously developed bust size and wider, womanly hips... ironically in the comics, Starfire is, to put it bluntly, stacked like Jenga, with Raven being the far more slender of the two.
- Ty Lee in Avatar: The Last Airbender, and to a lesser extent, Princess Yue.
- Drew Saturday in The Secret Saturdays.
- The ladies of Wakfu, especially Amalia, who's fourteen years old.
- Donna, Strickland Propane's secretary from King of the Hill.
- Aeon Flux has a very thin waistline, but she's upstaged in one episode by a woman who has a removable vertebrae, enabling her to twist her already-thin waist by 180' degrees.
- Bliss of The Goode Family has Hartman Hips, Hartman Pelvis, Hartman Booty....
- Princess Jasmine.
- Big Brain, the first female robot built by Grizzle on Adventures in Care-a-Lot, has these, despite not having any legs.
- Rose Explosion in Metalocalypse, but not in a particularly attractive way. In fact, it's a little worrying how large her hips are- they're practically as wide as her shoulders, while the rest of her is normally proportioned.
Real Life
- Real Life example: Rose McGowan.
- Dior's New Look, the bar suit in particular, is famous for its wasp waist and flared hips◊.
- Many hip-hop video models, but especially Bria Myles.◊
- Shakira. Her hips don't lie.
- Truth In Television: Women have wider hips for the purpose of giving birth and are more likely to gain weight in that in that area before anywhere else. Generally in real life, a post-pubescent woman will have hips wider than her shoulders. There are exceptions depending on body type, but the fact that this is not considered the norm in animation makes this Reality Is Unrealistic.
- Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Audrey Tautou
- Rosario Dawson
- Jennifer Lopez, who has even secured her legendary ass in millions.
- Corset enthusiasts, particularly those who practice tightlacing, will invoke this trope deliberately, like so.◊ This shape (and method) was particularly popular in the 1700s and 1800s, though there was a risk of permanent disfigurement and injury from improper corsetting.
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