Koalas are so widdle and cute. I mean, just look at that fuzzy-wuzzy thing. It looks exactly like a teddy bear! Don't you just want to smother it?
This is how koalas are seen by most people. Their big heads, big eyes, stubby little bodies, and fuzziness makes them so cute, you could even experience a Cuteness Overload. They're known to be lazy, which makes it even more adorable when they are shown sleeping. Perhaps because of this, a handful of fictional koalas subvert this trope, appearing cute and cuddly at first sight but revealing a mean, grouchy personality.
Finally, for some information, despite looking cute, koalas are still wild animals. Though not particularly dangerous, if they feel threatened by a human, they can chase them up to a long distance and then bite and scratch them with the help of long sharp front teeth and sharp claws. They also are known to carry diseases, especially chlamydia. Even if koalas look cute, you're better off giving them their space and just admiring them from a distance.
The perception of koalas as cute is specifically a modern western idea. To the indigenous peoples of Australia, koalas have a much more varied role in their oral traditions, from fertility figures (Bidjara) to something more in line with their actual behaviour as lazy and aggressive (Tharawal).
Sub-Trope of Animal Stereotype and Ridiculously Cute Critter. Compare Cute Kitten, Precious Puppy, and Bunnies for Cuteness for other cute animals. Contrast Drop Bears, which are killer koalas that are often subject to tall tales. See also Laid-Back Koala for another koala stereotype, and Boxing Kangaroo, Kangaroos Represent Australia, Puzzling Platypus, and Volatile Tasmanian Devil for other stereotypes applying to Australian wildlife in general.
This is not a list of all koalas in fiction. This refers to koalas that are specifically portrayed as cute or otherwise that play with the idea of them being cute.
Examples:
- Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow is about an English girl who immigrates to Australia with her family. She's already a Friend to All Living Things and grows to adore koalas. One of the anime's posters even depicts her holding one
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- The Noozles: Two of the protagonists are Blinky and Pinky (Printy in the original Japanese version), who are a couple of adorable anthropomorphic koalas from another dimension.
- Played with in Heaven's Design Team when God asks for a creature that seems cute but isn't. Pluto, the resident Nightmare Fetishist, winds up creating the Koala which looks cute but behaves unpleasantly.
- Subverted with Pretty Boy from Back to the Outback. He is a zoo koala who is universally beloved by the public due to his cuteness, but he is a pretty big jerk once you get to know him.
- The Dot and the Kangaroo sequel "Dot Goes to Hollywood" has Gumley, a baby koala that Dot goes to great lengths to save when he is stricken with a terminal eye disease, and is rather cute with or without his glasses.
- The Wild: Nigel is known to be "cute and cuddly" by the public, though he doesn't like being known by this. He is really grouchy, though, despite this, he's pretty good friends with most of the main cast.
- Jamie from Dear Dumb Diary absolutely loves koalas because they're so cute. It's a Running Gag throughout the series that she'll find a way to bring up koalas in practically any situation, especially when trying to aesthetically improve a situation or set some kind of standard for cuteness.
- Spellsinger: In Paths of the Perambulator, averted by Colin. Jon Tom looks at him and immediately notices that despite his inherent cuteness, he's well-armed and carries himself like someone who knows how to fight. Jon Tom makes a point of not underestimating him after that.
- Songdrops: In "Paula the Koala", the eponymous koala is described as "cute", "sweet", and having "a great big heart".
- The Animal Crossing series features koalas as one of the original species of villager. By default, all of them have the potential to fit the criteria with the series' cuddly art style, their potentially lovable personalities and the possibility of befriending any of them, but among the most conventionally Moe of them in design would likely be Melba◊, Ozzie◊, Lyman◊, Faith◊, and Huggy◊note .
- Pokémon Sun and Moon introduces Komala, a small, cute koala Pokémon that is always asleep and walks around on the log it's attached to.
- Many of the friendly NPCs in the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger series are cutesy-looking koalas with Black Bead Eyes. The third game averts it with the Drop Bears, though, which are large, muscular koalas that drop on Ty from trees with monstrous roars and pound on his head until he shakes them off.
- Yo-kai Watch 3 has Koalanyan, who is part of the Charming tribe and his medallium entry points out his cute, large nose. He can transport people between the real and cartoon worlds by a boop on his nose, can shoot a large rainbow-colored laser from it, and can do a dance with others around him following along when his ears are pulled.
- The Zork universe has the minx, which is described as "an irresistibly cuddly animal which shares all the most ingratiating characteristics of kittens, koala bears, and piglets."
- Schlock Mercenary: Parodied with the Tausennigan Ob'enn, a race of koala people whose society is based on racism that runs so fundamentally deep that they're constantly trying to subjugate all other intelligent life in the galaxy. The fact that practically everyone considers them cute and cuddly only makes them more eager to do so.
Ennesby: The Tausennigan Ob'enn warlords look like cuddly teddy-bears?
Petey: Yes, they do. And they'd cheerfully exterminate your entire race for making that observation!
Ennesby: I guess that explains their rich military history, then.
- The Virtual YouTuber Yuuka Bear is a koala/human hybrid. Both her model design and her personality reflect The Cutie, particularly her interaction with her fanbase.
- Subverted in the Adventure Time episode "Incendium". The Flame King says that his absolute favorite thing in the world is a koala bear, but the one that Jake (disguised as Finn) produces with his stretch powers looks utterly deformed.
Flame King: (beat) I don't like koalas anymore...
- Reginald the koala from American Dad!. In his first appearance, he even had a theme song and a montage dedicated to his cuteness. The fact that he's a secret agent who works for the CIA probably makes him even more adorable.
- The Kwicky Koala Show features the titular marsupial being depicted as innocent, albeit using his surprising speed (setting him from other Koalas) to escape Wilfred Wolf.
- Mofli The Last Koala is a Spanish animated series about a koala who is the Last of His Kind and the best friend of a little girl named Corina who protects him from Evil Poachers.
- Subverted with Nom Nom from We Bare Bears. He is a multi-billionaire anthropomorphic koala memestar who had acquired internet fame via a set of popular videos online. He plays a cute and innocent facade, however, he is egotistical, angry, selfish, manipulative, and a sore loser. He is even the main antagonist for the first two seasons of the show.
