"The uglier you make it, the more they'll cry at the end." — Character designer working on King Kong
"Wow! He's funny lookin' cute!" — Chris Kratt on a baby Aardvark
There's Generic Cuteness, the Ridiculously Cute Critter, and the Moe. And then there's these guys. Creatures who are, to put it kindly, less cute than other creatures.
OK, they look strange. Maybe they're deformed. They can even look monstrous.
However, they are also endearing, kind, and sweet. Maybe they retain a few Ridiculously Cute Critter traits, like big eyes or little awkward legs. Maybe they're The Woobie. Maybe it is simply that their lovely personality overrides any disgust at their physical appearance. Maybe they are stylized and don't look too realistic.
In short, even though they should not be cute by any sense of the word they are anyway. Indeed, many times these characters are so ugly, they're just adorable.
There are some who argue that this trope has much to do with parental instinct. Consider: very young human babies aren't conventionally cute at all; that takes a few months. They come into the world as discolored wrinkly blobs that scream like the world is ending whenever anything upsets them. And yet, all these traits seem to say, "Gotta love me!"
"Busukawaii" is a name in Japanese for fans of these characters.
Not to be confused with Grotesque Cute, which is generally when evil things are done by (or to) conventionally cute things.
Compare The Grotesque, Gonk, Cute Monster Girl, Freaky Is Cool, and the nicer versions of Fluffy the Terrible. But see also What Measure Is a Non-Cute? and Beauty Equals Goodness as those tropes will probably and unfortunately, directly affect these characters. See Grotesque Gallery for when character designers try for this kind of appeal and fail. Badly.
NOTE: Since there are so many Truth in Television examples of Ugly-Cute, we're going to focus on fictional characters only on this page (we already know Pugs are a Real Life example). Also, when adding examples, avoid things and people who are Hollywood Homely. They must be visibly ugly for the trope to be in effect.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
Rock Lee and Guy-sensei from Naruto (aka Thickbrows and Superbrows) and Naruto.
Kisame's sword Samehada, especially when it's cuddling up to Killerbee.
In the Fullmetal Alchemist manga/Brotherhood canon, Envy's true form, when stripped of all the many grotesque human souls that make up his body, is a creepy little slug-like creature with multiple legs and large eyes... and yet you just want to pick him up and snuggle him. (Note: It is highly advised that you do not snuggle him, or else he'll commandeer your body.)
Gluttony's even cute when his ribs open like a zipper to reveal a giant mouth.
Also the canon Sloth. He's huge. He's lumpy, fanged, and freakishly dangerous. He hosts blank eyes and a vapid expression. But something about his unmotivated, drag-your-feet mannerisms and simple speech ("Mendokusai...") make him look like a perfect candidate for a plushie. His big muscles just make him look huggable. His asymmetrical design brings to mind tears like a cheetah's face. He says, "Buh?" and the readers squeal, "So cuuute!" He gets spartan-kicked off a tall building into the snow after trying to kill our heroes...the fans let out an, "Awww!"
Not really important, but he didn't try and kill anyone- he was wandering around aimlessly because he got lost while digging the country-wide transmutation circle.
Quite a few characters from One Piece would qualify, especially Usopp, Brook, and Bearsy.
Oars Jr., despite his meteoric apparition, would qualify just in the same way as King Kong - A giant, red, gargantuan (he is at least three times bigger than your average giant!), demon-looking pirate with a soft heart (A typical run-of-the-mill Gentle Giant). He is shot, hit with a giant shockwave, had his leg severed and his heart was impaled by shadows while trying to save his friend who made him a hat that protected him from the rain.
And Marine officer T-Bone, who looks like a zombie despite being alive and well. But he's so compassionate and earnest in his desire to help people that he has the undying loyalty of his subordinates (even if they're a little creeped out by his appearance) and it's hard not to feel bad when the Straw Hats have to plow through him on their way to Enies Lobby.
For a female example, we have Kokoro's granddaughter Chimney.
Rico/Loli and all versions of Exedore/Exsedol from the Macross and Robotech universes, but especially the latter's first form.
Pen-Pen from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Seriously, it's not the prettiest penguin you've ever seen (he's got clawed wings, dear God!) but what counts is how endearing he can be, especially when you know why Misato bothers to keep him despite his flaws (like being a glutton, good-for-nothing bird).
Guilmon would fit here too. In reality he would look far more terrifying then cute, but his childlike demeanor, antics, and voice just make him so adorable.
Renamon applies as well. The species is described in canon several times that they are tough and intimidating in appearance (especially their glaring eyes) that other digimon become nervous or threatened by their presence despite the renamon not intentionally trying to scare others off. This doesn't stop people, be it in the canon or in the fanbase, to still consider the race (especially female ones like Rika's Renamon) to be beautiful, elegant, cute, or (depending on who you ask) sexy.
Ryuk in Death Note. His disposition towards personal amusement, his apple addiction and his associated withdrawal reactions, and his permagrin are all endearing.
Even better, L. The manga's artist, Takeshi Obata, said he was supposed to look ugly. And L has legions of fangirls.
Rem is also actually quite lovely in an odd way.
Gelus looks like an abandoned rag doll. Awwww!
What's even more awesome is that in the originl designs, Gelus was supposed to be an extremely beautiful Shinigami. Ohba, however, decided that making him The Grotesque would be better because Gelus is such a pathetic figure and the audience would relate to him better. He was right!
The snail youkai from Karas that accompanies Nue is a bit ugly, but also utterly adorable.
President Aria from ARIA. That is supposed to be a cat?
Several instances in Dennou Coil. Just look at Densuke, Oyaji, or even Satchi.
Children portrayed in Tekkon Kinkreet, especially White. The art style makes it hard for anything to be stereotypically cute, but White still manages to be downright adorable at times.
In Wild Fangs, Gido is a sentient furball who looks like a rather unfashionable scarf. It's cute.
Weirdly enough, Charlotte's cake dragon from Puella Magi Madoka Magica looks cute when it's not showing off its sharp teeth.
Art
Patricia Piccinini, end stop.
Sheela-na-Gigs. Don't Google them at work. They're generally skinny, ET-like, female figures who often have a look on their face like they're a bit worried about getting caught doing, er, what they're doing, but they think it's so funny they're gonna do it anyway.
Chanchitos, little terra-cotta good luck pigs from Chile. They only have three legs, and their faces tend to be rather asymmetrical in the most bizarrely adorable ways.
Comic Books
Nightcrawler's demonic appearance doesn't exactly falls under the classic definition of "beautiful", yet he's one of the most appreciated Estrogen Brigade Bait among the X-Men.
Shuma-Gorath, a Captain Ersatz of Cthulhu and one of Doctor Strange's minor foes (Minor as in he doesn't appear very often. He is, however, literally an evil god), is a huge, one-eyed squid thing that somehow manages to look huggably cute. His Marvel vs. Capcom design shrinks him down to human size and makes him look positively shy.
Many fangirls consider the "fascinatingly ugly" Walter Kovacs, AKA Rorschach, the cutest character in Watchmen. This may be more in North America's fandom versus Europe, as the ginger haired appearance carries a more negative connotation across the pond compared to in Canada and America where the awkward appearance is often considered to be rather sweet and endearing.
The Loathsome, a story from EC Comics, is about a girl who was born mutated by atomic radiation, so much so that the doctor tells her mother she was stillborn and ships her off to an orphanage where she's abused because of her appearance. But when she's finally shown◊ near the end of the comic, she's not nearly as hideous as she was made out to be. Alex Ross used her as the basis for Maggie in Marvels.
Sola with her enormousNonmammal Mammaries (though since the Red Martians, indistinguishable from humans except for skin color, are also oviparous, both species may be monotremes as opposed to true non-mammals) in that same work could qualify as well, though she may be more in the Cute Monster Girl category.
The gay demons in Jack Chick's comic, The Birds and the Bees.
Lockjaw, the giant pug-like pet dog of Marvel's Inhumans. Although the size of a hippo, he's as cute as the dog seen atop this page. It's also sort of weird, since at one point it was suggested he actually is an Inhuman who simply got hit with the ugly stick very hard by Terrigenesis. This was retconned later... re-creating the plothole as to just where the Inhumans got him anyway (Terrigenesis does not affect animals).
Pooch the Lowbeast from Hack/Slash. He's superficially hideous with his protruding jaws and cloven hooves, but his loyalty to his masters and his desire to be petted and loved like any ordinary dog make him adorable.
It's only obvious that between JTHM and Invader Zim that Jhonen Vasquez is a master at this trope.
In the Animal Man reboot, Animal Man's daughter Maxine manifests the power to animate dead animals. The sight of her playing with a half rotted skeletal kitty is oddly adorable.
Stumpy/ Despite being dry to the bones, down three limbs and HE IS A ZOMBIE, he manages to be somewhat adorable. In the fic, you could still remember your own life before becoming a zombie. Stumpy here manages to make out a cute "bonk" after holding Scout's bat.
“I am so sorry, Stumpy,” [Medic] said. Stumpy was still confused. He wasn’t sure what those words meant, exactly, but “sorry” sounded familiar. It meant…something feeling bad. And the Meaty Thing in the White Coat looked…what was that word? Sad? Like how Stumpy felt when he didn’t get meat. He didn’t have much time to ponder this, however, before there was a loud noise and then...
Film
Michael Berryman◊, who has hydrochotic-extodermaldysplasia (a rare condition which prevents him from having any nails, sweat glands or hair), is definitely never going to qualify for being Hollywood Homely, but he seems to have this trope going for him. Even in movies where he plays a bad guy, that baby face of his really might make you want to give him a hug. Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that more often than not, he's also The Woobie in whatever part he's playing.
Slimer from Ghostbusters, even in his initial appearance in the film. The producers ran with it in everything spun-off from the film.
In the spinoff series The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, it appears he got hit with the adorably ugly stick a bit harder than normal and became more and more conventionally cute... and annoying.
For some, Chestbursters. Then again, everything is cute as a baby.
King Kong was specifically designed around this (see page quote).
Pushed even further in Peter Jackson's version, where he's positively cuddly.
Sure, he's a horrible ancient monster with razor sharp fangs and horns, but those floppy ears make Baragon◊ simply adorable.
Well, he has been described as being like a giant puppy quite a few times on the internet.
King Seesar◊ who is an ugly/cute Shisa (A lion-dog creature from Okinawa folklore).
Oddly enough, Godzilla himself during the later Showa films..mostly due to being more kid-friendly around the time.
Also, the design of the suit is constantly changing; in the late 1960s and 1970s, Godzilla was overall much cuddlier than he was when he first showed up. Compare Godzilla from 1954 to him 20 years later◊.
After the reaction of its keeper, the Rancor in Star Wars.
Check out the Wookieepedia pages for the Rancor and Wampa. Both have artwork depicting a mother of the species cuddling her cubs. You cannot possibly look at the baby Wampas and Rancors without going AWWWWWW!!!!
YODA.
Also R2D2. Cutest sentient fire hydrant ever.
Darth Vader without his mask at the end of Return of the Jedi. Even though he's old and scarred, you still want to give the old guy a hug.
Wikus: (trying to get him to hide from danger) Do you want to play hide and seek? Christopher's son: (looking as delighted as a bug face can) Yes! Yes!
The second Transformers film had the Twins, so f'ugly that they came right around the scale and ended up at cute again. Then again, there's the fact that they're basically a pair of walking, talking Unfortunate Implications...
The Crites from the Critters series they look like little wide eyed porcupines with fangs, but they have those quills and fangs for a reason and you really wouldn't want one for a pet.
Cloverfield. Consider the backstory that "Clover" is less an evil force of mindless destruction and more like a lost puppy looking for its mama. D'awwww...
Hell, many fans find Jack Skellington and Sally sexy.
The psycho-killer penis in Russ Meyer-homage, Pervert!
Pretty much all stages of Dren in Splice, although the earlier ones more so than the largely humanoid-looking "adult" stage. Even Fred and Ginger qualify, to some.
The characters from Rango utilize this to stand out from all the cute-cute Pixar style animations flooding the theaters.
In The Man Who Fell to Earth, Tragic Hero Thomas Jerome Newton (David Bowie) is Moe on the outside via a disguise, and this on the inside. One blog commenter described the true form (which is also hairless, earless, fingernail-less, etc.) as "Voldemort with a nose", and in the film it horrifies his human mistress to the point of Bring My Brown Pants. Granted it's a sudden reveal so shock factors into her reaction, but his eyes have just the faintest sheen of pain in them. Gentle-hearted YouTube commenters have compared him and his family (seen in flashbacks), in their white bodysuits, to teddy bears instead.
The Stitchpunks in 9, who're basically little ragdolls made out of things like sacking, canvas, and (in the case of two of them) garden gloves. Most of whomdie horribly.
Where the Wild Things Are - the titular Wild Things are so exaggerated and silly, you just want to hug them all. Generally speaking, Maurice Sendak practically runs off this.
Interestingly, adults seem to be put off by the Wild Things' appearance more than children. This was a major talking point when the film was released; just what side of the "It is for kids"/"It's not for kids" divide does it fall?
Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, especially in the Disney adaptation. In the book, he's a misanthropic asshole.
Gollum from Lord of the Rings may not have a good personality, but he's just so pitiful.
Subjective Trope, but many Redwall fans think the villainous "vermin", who are supposed to be ugly and creepy, are cuter than the good "woodlanders".
It's hard not to agree with them at times: compare a hare◊ (good) and a ferret◊ (vermin). There have been some alternative arguments as to how Jacques draws the distinction between good animals and bad animals, the most popular being that it's based on the literal definition of vermin. But that doesn't explain anything since nearly all the good animals are also vermin. So no one really knows except Jacques himself.
It generally seems to be based on contemporary urban British perspectives of the animals, which explains the relative ambiguity of wildcats and foxes (although the popularity of ferrets and rats as pets in recent years dates the series slightly). To people in a rural environment, of course, they would all be vermin, except the hare, who would be lunch.
People say he makes the cute animals good. This is a blatant lie. EVERYTHING in Mossflower is cute.
Dobby and, in general, the House Elves from Harry Potter. Even Kreacher gets better.
Alan Rickman's portrayal of the character likely contributed to Snape's woobification. In the books, the character only becomes sympathetic after he dies.
The Thestrals - well, for those who can see them, anyway.
The Other, the sentient operating system of Otherland, steals system resources to create a private world for itself, populating it with grotesque mockeries of fairy tale creatures that are nevertheless treated like its children. This is not out of malice, but because it genuinely doesn't understand the context.
He always was to some, due to his extreme woobieness.
The eponymous Eldritch Abominations of Where the Deep Ones Are and The Littlest Shoggoth.
This isn't uncommon in Lovecraft Lite in general. It helps that much of the horror fandom doesn't share Lovecraft's apparent aversion to sea life.
Lovecraft's own Zoogs, by virtue of being small, furry, and tentacle-faced.
Aunt Beast in A Wrinkle in Time. She's part of the "really, really strange looking - but still sweet and lovable" side of this trope. In Wayne D. Barlowe's portrait of Aunt Beast, she's downright lovely - in a very alien way.
Practically any artist's representation of an Ixchel is likely to fit this trope.
All the characters in Tim Burton's The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy: And Other Stories.
The more A Song of Ice and Fire harps on just how ugly Brienne of Tarth is, the more you just want to...hug her. That she's one of the most good-hearted characters in the series just makes her that much more adorable.
The books also have Tyrion Lannister, who is also one of the more likable characters in the series (although more morally ambiguous than Brienne), and even less conventionally attractive.
Also Shireen Baratheon: a child which combine the worst traits a girl can inherits from her parents with a childhood disease which disfigured her. She's a quiet, sad little girl that never smiles.
There's also Pia, a serving maid from Harrenhal, who was pretty until she made the mistake of being within arm's reach of Gregor Clegane, who broke her nose and most of her teeth.
Death himself, for that matter. He's your stereotypical cowled-skeleton-with-a-blade Grim Reaper, and plenty badass when he needs to be, but he's a gently compassionate being who loves cats, makes endearingly misguided efforts to understand humanity, and rides a Pale Horse named Binky.
Vettul, in the Doctor WhoEighth Doctor Adventures novel Vanishing Point, is a twenty-year-old ingenue who's at least 6'6" and has one leg twice as thick as the other, obviously crooked eyes, and an otherwise plain face. She also acts like she has No Social Skills, in a completely endearing manner, and manages to have Incorruptible Pure Pureness without being cloying. She quite fancies Fitz (and calls him "very beautiful", at which he "[stands] there speechless, blushing crimson", being only average-ish in the looks department), and he her:
She looked like a painting of someone beautiful that had gone subtly wrong somehow; as if the artist had been wearing the wrong prescription glasses or something. That said, there was definitely something to her...
She lives with a group of other people who have various (worse) deformities, and would therefore be persecuted in the dystopia where they live, and their caretaker, Ettianne:
A little man with a bent, frightened face peeped out from behind a table, and Ettianne went over to soothe him.
Pretty much the entire crew of the Ferkel in Rod Allbright Alien Adventures. None of them (save perhaps Plink, and Edgar if you want to count him) are conventionally cute. All are teribly, terribly endearing, particularly Snout.
Smasher from the novel by the same name by DickKing-Smith.
The baby Adiposians from Doctor Who. Basically a pound of roughly humanoid animated fat. Possibly the cutest thing the show has ever featured.
They become less cute when you remember that that pound of humanoid animated fat killed people when they came into existence.
Only a few of them, 99% just detach from a human and walk away one by one. The main characters even comment that it's not that bad a weight loss program, all things considered.
Also from Doctor Who there's the Ood. Due to their benevolence and the fact they are all Woobies, once you get past the fact they've got mince meat where their mouths should be, they are very sweet.
Also Dalek Caan. Don't tell me you've never thought it!
The tiny old Doctor that the Master kept in a birdcage from the S3 finale. He was so tiny and sad! And kind of looked like Tweety Bird, between the birdcage and the huge head. Also, there's something very endearing about the Doctor's personality in that minuscule body.
The Gangers are incomplete, unstable copies of human beings, all with a smooth, featureless Nightmare Face with visible veins that looks like they are melting. They also managed to look vulnerable and sweet, especially the positively dainty Ganger of Jennifer.
The youngest Slitheen in the _Sarah Jane Adventures: Revenge of the Slitheen_ - "Daddy, I want to hunt!"
Nimrod, the baby mammal-like-reptile-sea-creature-thing from NBC's short-lived series Surface. Come on, who wouldn't want to love a creature that, when full grown, can swallow a small boat whole, burrow through miles of rock, sunbathe in a magma chamber, secrete a substance that lets it regenerate injuries, and generate bolts of lightning?
Alot of the Muppets not deliberately designed to be "traditionally cute" could count, actually; especially some of the Grouches (just don't tell them that).
The Pak'Ma'Ra of Babylon 5. It's those sleepy, bovine eyes.
The Vork from the Farscape episode "Beware of Dog".
Start Trek: The Next Generation had cute alien critters from time to time. A bug-like species in the episode "The Most Toys" and a thing that Worf's son Alexander becomes fond of in "New Ground".
Alf was most likely designed with these intentions.
Music
Radiohead's "Modified Bear" logo. Their Weeping Minotaur, too.
The Gorillaz artstyle has distinct tones of this. 2D is far too Uncanny Valley to be classically cute, but he has an undeniable charm.
That thing from Animal Collective's Peacebone video. Sure it was horrifying-looking, but there was also something disturbingly charming about seeing it go out for a romantic picnic and frolic through a field.
Voltaire uses this in his song 'Zombie Prostitute' with the line "She was a rotten kind of cute for a zombie prostitute".
Tabletop Games
Eyeball beholderkin from Dungeons & Dragons. They have huge central eyes, magic-beam-shooting eyestalks, and fanged mouths like their larger, more dangerous relatives — and are about the size of large grapefruit.
Also imps and quasits from the same game.
While we're at it, most baby dragons don't look very much better than their adult forms, but are still able to pull this off. Especially blue dragons, for some reason.
Blue dragon wyrmlings◊ have huge eyes, faces that look like they've run face-first into a brick wall, big ears (which no other chromatic dragon has) and nubby horns. They're like spiky blue pugs the size of golden retrievers.
Pseudodragons◊. Also described as having 'the personality of a common housecat'. D'awww, I want one!
Though often hated by most, Flumphs embody this trait. Think of a pancake crossed with an octopus floating around and you've got the idea.
Goblins and Kobolds. Two races of three-foot-tall people whose apparent racial destiny is to be killed by first-level PCs - you have to feel for them a little. Pathfinder goblins are particularly adorably ugly, since their huge heads give them an almost Chibified look.
Warhammer 40,000 has a race of Orks who are so exaggerated and silly, some find them oddly adorable. Everyone else finds them Crazy Awesome.
The Orks' pet Squigs solidly fall into this category, as do Gretchin on occasion.
Chaos has Nurglings; rotund little goblinoid daemons who can often be seen clinging to their larger kin. Possibly the most adorable pustulent hellspawn you will ever meet.
Popular fan character Cultist-chan definitely qualifies as well. She'll cahptoor your heart.
Mutant Dolls. Basically ragdolls with huge eyes, horns, fangs, floppy, lopsided bodies, and and odd, vacant stares - and you just wanna hug 'em?
The legendary "Robert The Doll" would fit in this trope. Sure, he's a haunted doll rumored to curse you if you don't ask him permission before taking his picture, but he is kinda cute http://www.robertthedoll.org/
This aesthetic is pretty much why that frog doll... thing... (here, just look at it) is a popular icon. Commonly associated with the phrase "GET OUT", probably because it looks kind of mean.
The Worrible. Weird, bulgy-eyed, drooling, round, yet somehow adorable little...thing.
This is pretty much the explanation for the success of Troll dolls.
The My Pet Monster toy line (and associated media) from the 1980s was a deliberate attempt to invoke this trope, especially with the "My Monster Pet" toys, which were more dog-like. The 2001 Toymax version retooled the Monster making him more conventionally cute, but still falling into this trope.
Video Games
The minions of Overlord were created specifically to evoke this trope. They look like goblins or the gremlins, but act like Ax Crazy little children, loyal to a fault to their overlord and eager to earn his praise. Watching them run back to give you some of the loot they found is adorable. Or watching them grab an item (such as a pumpkin or a dead rat) and use it as equipment (in this case, a hat).
Even more so in Overlord II when they sing and say adorable stuff to their mounts.
The Arachnotrons (and possibly the Spiderdemons) from Doom. Also, related to the beholder example: the Pain Elementals and Cacodemons. (The latter actually has had two fanmade plush dolls made, one of them being the official mascot of the DoomWiki.)
Baby Metroids, both the plot-significant one in Super Metroid and the bitty little things in Prime 2 and 3.
Many of the mushroom people in Mushroom Men, especially the hero, Pax. Sure, he's got beady little eyes, a raggedy-looking "lost boy" style tunic, and his mushroom cap breaks away to reveal his brain... But just watch the intro, where poor little Pax is wandering all by himself in the big scary human world, glowing eyes looking out innocently.
The creatures of Jade Cocoon 2 quickly grow on you.
Kouri in Brass Restoration finds the Ill-pin stuffed... characters adorable. They are based on viruses. Ryo, the main character, just doesn't see it.
A lot of Pokémon are this. One that comes to mind is Gible. Seriously, just look at it!◊
Especially Snubull◊ and Granbull◊, two bulldog-based Pokémon that are said to be popular with women. In the anime, one even started acting like a Clingy Jealous Girl with Meowth (or was just obsessed with biting his tail).
Some of the Pokémon in the Ruby Rom Hack, Pokémon Quartz, fall under this as well, surprisingly.
Hey, don't forget Feebas◊. The shabby little fish Pokémon has a secret: if you feed it many, many Dry-flavoured (blue) Pokéblocks and level it up, it turns into something that is Beautiful All Along, the much-coveted Milotic.
Scraggy◊ also counts, since it's a lizard who wears its shed skin as pants. And it's ridiculously lovable.
Can't forget Muk. He's a giant pile of toxic waste, but comes across as a fairly lovable blob.
How dare all of you forget all the baby Bug-type Pokémon. I mean most of them are based on squirming larvae that in real life you'd hit with a broom thinking that Beelzebub the 5th prince of Hell was here to feed on your soul. But Game Freak managed to make them cute.
Joltik◊ - it doesn't help that it's based on the jumping spider.
Stunfisk◊, in all of its derpiness, could also qualify, as well as Magikarp◊.
Most characters from Yume Nikki are really creepy when you first see them, but when you get used to them, some of 'em are kind of... adorable. Like Uboa. Happiest-looking Eldritch Abomination-like thing ever.
And Masada seems to be a strange sort of Estrogen Brigade Bait, judging by parts of the fandom, and is also often seen as a Woobie.
If you search on deviantART, it's easy enough to find quite a few pictures of fan-made Uboa plushies. Yes, that's right, people like to cuddle with Uboa.
Little Monoko, aka the cutest freak of nature you've ever seen.
The Mr. Saturns in EarthBound and Mother 3 are comical big-nosed creatures with massive eyebrows and a single hair on their head, tied up with a red bow, and yet, their Wingdinglish and the "Boing"s, "Zoom"s and "Ding"s littered in their speech are both endearing.
It helps that despite being one of the most dangerous common enemies, Big Daddies are also the only ones that don't actively attack you on sight.
The Little Sisters count too. Their eyes might be a solid, sickly, glowing yellow, but they're still Eyes Of Cute.
The baby forms of most aliens you can make in Spore tend to be like this. Sometimes the adult forms can be, too.
One of the non-combat pets available in World of Warcraft is a baby version of a Beholder-like demon. It's a floating head with one huge eye and small stubby tentacles. It also drools a lot and randomly falls asleep. It's at the same time very ugly and absolutely adorable.
Behold, Gory, the Abomination. A giant golem made of rotted flesh and organs with bone and metal sticking out of him and an stomach that hangs open and exposes his innards...who only wants to be a farmer and tells you so with an innocent, childlike enthusiasm.
Many of the Zerg creatures from the original StarCraft fit this trope. The little Zerglings are quite cute on the screen, and way they pounce on the Terrans like kittens at a ball of yarn only makes them cuter. All of the wild creatures also apply, being horribly proportioned beasts that look cute in spite of it.
Remember the Ragnasaur found on Char? Big forlorn orange eyes, irritated groan whenever you poke it...
The creators of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus will soon be giving us The Last Guardian. The hyena-gryphon creature in this game is meant to be unbalanced and strange-looking. Who, after watching that trailer, didn't think the creature was the most adorable giant beastie ever?
Same with the Colossi from Shadow of the Colossus. Some of them are hard to kill just because they look so cute and pathetic.
The grunts from Halo. After awhile you just feel sorry for them, while admiring their pluck, and smiling at their little dog-like huffs and growls.
Another Halo example are the Engineers. They are essentially floating gas bladders with a small head and tenticles, but they coo like small whales and shiver and recoil in fear from danger. They aren't the most attractive creatures but they are the only passive enemies in the series and eventually you will start to feel bad for killing them.
The alien spawn from The Sims 2 tend to turn out this way. Some players might disagree (and there are hacks out there to have the aliens be more conventionally cute) but the bug-eyed, no nosed green babies are adorable.
In Monster Hunter, there's a small Wyvern called the Yian Kut-Ku. It has an oversized head, disproportionate ears, and is generally very much non cute◊. However, perhaps due to its clumsy running and falling down, his cheerful screechings and his beak feeling similar to a smiling face when open, there are few players who haven't ended up feeling some kind of odd fondness for the guy, and he's a prime target of fanart.
Similarly, the monster Khezu may look like a cross between an oversized maggot and male genitalia, but that doesn't stop fanartists to draw adorable little chibi versions of it. It doesn't help that some of the cutest female armor sets in the game are made of Khezu material.
Sonic Adventure has Chaos, who is fought in multiple forms over the course of the game. A few of the forms can count as examples of this trope, but the best example is probably Chaos 6.
Froggy!
Some breeds of the Chao are also like this.
Another example from Sonic may be the alien slugs in Shadow the Hedgehog. Antennae, a single eye, a goopy slug body. Some fans insist they're adorable; others find them disgusting.
Eggman himself.
In Fallout 3, the bartender of Moriarty's Saloon, Gob.
Many Final Fantasy monsters may qualify, but the Tonberry most of all; he may be one of the most dangerous random encounters around, but a diminutive fish-lizard-thing with a lantern somehow winds up being cute enough to sell plush toys.
The Ground Urchins and Raptor Elks from Brütal Legend. Also the Metal Beasts - giant Aztec panther Nibblers.
The headcrabs in Half-Life. Illustrated with Lamarr◊, the pet headcrab of Doctor Kleiner, who while de-beaked and harmless, will non-the-less try and swallow your skull. Valve even made a limited run of plushie headcrabs for fans.
The title character of The Maw. It's an Extreme OmnivoreMiracle-Gro Monster with rows of sharp teeth and one eye. As it grows bigger it's happy chuckling become sinister-sounding laughter. Despite it all it's a cowardly creature who follows the alien player character Frank around like a little puppy and is always happy to eat, and the hug between Frank and Maw's massive eyeball at the end is utterly d'awww-inducing. Think of A Boy and His Blob if The Blob was an Eldritch Abomination.
In the original game, a few of the dungeon bosses qualify for this trope, such as Aquamentus (the unicorn dragon...thing). Regular enemies such as Moblins and Octoroks also fit the bill, though YMMV of course.
In A Link to the Past, many of the transformed people dwelling in the Dark World are this in their cursed forms.
In Twilight Princess there's Midna, the world's cutest imp, as well as Yeto and Yeta.
Despite being the embodiment of evil, The Imprisoned from Skyward Sword came off as this to a lot of people since it ended up looking like a Sesame Street character.
Megalo from Fossil Fighters. It was deliberately designed to look like people thought dinosaurs used to look, so it's big, lumpy, gray, and dopey-faced. But it's that derpy expression that makes it so incredibly endearing.
The Ettins and Grendels from the Creatures series. The main Creatures, the Norns, are supposed to be cute. But the Ettins have lumpy, monkey-like bodies and strange red eyes, while the Grendels are nasty little reptilian critters with diseases and angry expressions. But when they display the same sort of helplessness as the Norns, well, it's hard not to love them.
Grorns too, with some of the adorable features of norns and the not so adorable features of grendels, are generally adorable anyway.
Urz, a tame varren (a.k.a. "fishdog") in Mass Effect 2. Unlike most of his species, Urz will allow you to pet him, and if you feed him some pyjack meat, he will happily follow you around Tuchanka, bounding like a puppy.
Thane manages to look like a rotting fish with the voice of a rusty lawn mower and still being a highly attractive man.
Elcor.
Silent Hill has the Larval Stalkers in the first game, which have no face and are almost entirely invisible. Harry will still aim his gun at them or hold his Pipe at them, and Silent Hill is one of the few games to still follow the "if it moves, kill it" rule. Naturally you just aim and empty a clip into whatever you're aiming at, but the radio still gives off static. I stopped in my tracks simply to watch the little child-like manifestation bumble around and fall over a few times, before finally disappearing.
Dena seems to think so. (3:36 minutes in). Look at 'em go!
The little robot in Machinarium is made of rusty scrap metal and grunts to communicate, but is still absolutely adorable. The fact that he is a Woobie definitely aids the cute factor.
Nugs in Dragon Age: Origins look like the subterranean hybrid of rabbits and pigs. Although they're a tasty delicacy to the dwarves, some people apparently domesticate them; in fact, you can acquire a nug for Leliana, which she will name Schmooples. They are actually kind of cute, though their constant squeaking is a bit annoying to the point that Oghren will threaten to eat Schmooples.
Banelings. Bloated little monstrosities, with the entire back two-thirds of their body devoted to a bunch of pulsating sacs of acidic pus. Before the speed upgrade is evolved, they get around via an ungainly waddle; after the speed upgrade, they tuck themselves into balls and roll around. Their fate is to run or roll into a mass of infantry and explode. They're adorable.
Many of the characters in Psychonauts, mostly due to the art style.
City of Heroes: The demons that can be summoned in the Demon Summoning power set have no skin, various skulls for faces, and are wreathed in fire (or ice). And yet, there is something undeniably cute about them. The demonlings especially, whose Idle Animation is to sit there wagging their tails.
So many of the infected in Left 4 Dead fall under this category. The hunter falls under this especially when drawn in chibi style. The boomer looks like a chubby kid with bloated puss sacks and looks like he wants a cookie, the smoker even with his facial deformities, the tank with his humungous body and tiny head, and especially the witch whos basically a zombified Cute Monster Girl. Valve knows the creatures they made are cute. They even made plushies!
In some lights, Left 4 Dead 2's charger and jockey, especially because one looks like deformed hillbilly farmer and the other looks like a retarded midget on crack.
Minecraft's Creepers. Deformed pig model that's green and aptly-named, but is absolutely adorable.
Y'know, when it's not trying to kill your or destroy the creations you've invested hours on.
Within the Monster Rancher universe, the patron saint of this trope is probably the Color Pandora. It is a strange, vaguely caterpillar-esque monster with freaky human faces◊ on its separated body segments... that makes high, squeaky noises and does cute acrobatic tricks. In-universe, it's hailed as a shining example of how to cooperate. Out-of-universe, its Ugly Cuteness gives it a surprising number of fans.
League of Legends features Kog'maw, a little critter from the Void that spews acidic goo at things. Koggy is adorable in his little mutated way, and if official plushies ever hit the merch store Kog'maw is probably close to the top of the list.
Twitch as well. There's something oddly adorable about the derpy-eyed, crossbow-wielding, plague rat. Might be due to the resemblance to Scratt.
The art style Sam & Max produces a lot of these characters. The Soda Poppers are an example Gone Horribly Wrong, but fortunately the game lends opportunities to abuse them every time they appear.
Post-transformation Emil from Nier is a character whose design straddles a surprisingly fine line between being considered vaguely cute and being considered downright horrifying (and for some people succeeds at being both simultaneously). Add in his sunny disposition and penchant for being a bit of a childish romantic and you now have a surprisingly adorable pseudo-mascot... with a grin that will still make people deeply uncomfortable.
Some of the Blotlings from Epic Mickey, particularly the Spatters◊ who get a neat little costume depending on what area you're in, and the slightly chubby Spladooshes, who (as long as stay a safe distance or have befriended them) are perfectly content to sit there and sleep.
The Mars People in Metal Slug. Especially in 6, where they salute the player. Awww...
Webcomics
Several examples in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!. Molly's pet Snookums is a space monster Bob calls a "tentacle bunny". Molly herself is a pretty weird-looking creature. Roofus the Robot would not be especially cute if not for his innocent personality; well, okay, the construction-worker cap built into his head is kind of cute. And Voluptua, even in her alien butterfly form, still manages to be very attractive.
This is a common theme in Digger, as well as Ursula Vernon's other work. Currently she's on a kick of making adorable phalloi — which are Greek fertility symbols that are basically penises with wings and feet.
Zimmy of Gunnerkrigg Court. She has very nearly More Teeth than the Osmond Family, greyish skin, hair like a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl, inexplicable black stuff that usually covers her eyes (which are bright red under all that), and is strange, mean, and prickly and enjoys chasing rats — but there's a certain charm to her appearance and she has her nice moments, and is therefore rather adorable.
Plus, her relationship with Gamma is very, very sweet. I couldn't help but go "awww" when Zimmy and Annie arrived where Gamma was in Zimmy's dark, terrifying hallucination (which seems to come right off a Silent Hill game), and Gamma was sleeping peacefully on top of a giant pile of cute, brightly colored stuffed toys, representing just how much she means to Zimmy.
Tchick the Beholder in Planescape Survival Guide. He's a giant floating eyeball who has extra eyes on stalks around his bulbous body. And all the other beholders won't even let him play their beholder games!
Squidge the bogeyman in Tales of the Questor is somewhat reminiscent of Gollum and Stitch, both mentioned elsewhere on this page.
Some of the lusii may count too. Tinkerbull is arguably under this category, though he's more just plain adorable. Aurthour, the weird-looking centaur-cow-man lusus of Equius, fits better. He's definitely not cute by normal standards, but his mannerisms help him to achieve a similar effect.
Kanaya's lusus definitely falls under this. It's basically a truly gigantic winged bug with a skull for a face. But she's such a caring guardian to Kanaya! Look at her as a kernelspritecomforting Kanaya◊. And Kanaya mentions reading stories to her on 12th Perigee's Eve. Aww.
And the imps. Easy to kill, but how can you hate them?
Bort from Dominic Deegan, who seems to be one of the few characters that the Hatedom itself accepts.
Choo Choo Bear from Something Positive has to fall under this trope. A hairless cat, over thirty years old, whose cancer treatments in his younger days reduced his bones to a gelatinous substance that let him contort into various shapes and travel through sewage pipes. He's a bit of a freak, but he's so damn cute that he gets forgiven for just about anything he does, up to and including suspected murder.
It's yet another horrible death trap of fun in the Axe Crazy building Castle Heterodyne, but the Nyar spider is just so cute (it even eats its victim with a little knife and fork.)
Due to the art style, many normally horrific monsters can turn out this way in Order of the Stick. For example, Tsukiko apparently sleeps with a plushie version of Xykon, and the instant that comic appeared all the fans wanted one. For context, Xykon is an undead Magnificent Bastard / Complete Monster whom even the Joker might find creepy. He's also an adorably drawn stick figure skeleton with expressive glowing eye-sockets, a cheerful-looking skeletal grin, and a little golden crown floating just above his head. In plushie form, too cute for words.
Chelsea Grinn of Chimneyspeak is a ravishing young woman... who's covered with scars and is utterly psychotic... and still is adorable in her own way.
Pretty much all of the hellhounds in Wurr. Underfed, deformed doggies never looked so cute.
The title character of Selkie is an orthodontic nightmare with Hellish Pupils and a bluish skin tone more commonly associated with walking corpses. She describes herself as "a pretty one", and the fans are inclined to agree. (The tipping points seem to be that a): she has normal human hair, and b): apart from the fangs, her smile is the same as that of any other Heartwarming Orphan.)
Also, the Marrow and Gasjack both seem like some bastard hybrid of a Pokémon with obscure spellcasting Heartless... In fact, all the ones that aren't High Octane Nightmare Fuel probably fit into this trope, or alternatively some kinda weird modern art piece...
The Cheat from Homestar Runner, and his old-timey cousin, The Sneak.
Maybe it's just the art style — the Cheat's baffling physiology probably would make for a pretty horrific-looking creature in a more realistic style — but I don't even see how The Cheat counts as ugly.
The bug-eyed lumpy-headed kid from episode four of Salad Fingers was strangely endearing.
Many of the characters fall under this category... possibly including the title character himself!
Whatever those things in the Starfish Aliens page picture are.
The baby dracoliches from Dragon Fable. So adorable that Zorbak's attempt to turn them into an evil army and take over the world failed because the people of Amityvale adopted them as pets. Awwww.
Some of the mutant, "prehistoric", Halloween-themed, and "evil" versions of the Neopets, although Your Mileage May Vary.
In Charlie The Unicorn, there is a strange... sea-goat-seal...thing. Charlie even lampshades this. "I can't tell if you're creepy or adorable."
In Protectors of the Plot Continuum, when a canon character's name is misspelled in badfic, a 'mini' creature appears: a small version of a monster from that canon. For Lord of the Rings, Mini-Balrogs, and for Harry Potter, there are Mini-Aragogs, etc. These are cute, but also just as ugly as their larger counterparts.
A Youtube user by the name Tsimfuckis, who suffered from Progeria, was an example of this. See for yourself.
Nibbler from Futurama has 3 eyes (one of which is on a stalk), fangs, walks like a monkey, only has one nostril, adorably devours whole creatures several times his size, and poops starship fuel. Leela still goes "Awwwww" when she first meets him. The animators were deliberately working with this trope. It becomes all the funnier when he starts speaking with the voice of Frank Welker (although he had provided the noises Nibbler made up until that point anyway).
Also, Amy's pet buggalo, Betsy. Buggalo are giant beetles with cowskin-colored shells that can be milked like cows.
A more recent example: Mr. Peppy. Anybody who says they didn't want to hug him after watching him hatch is a filthy, filthy liar.
Seeing as WALL•E is a rusty, dirty, trash compactor, he certainly qualifies.
And his adorable little disease-harboring pet, a cockroach.
Pixar is good with this trope. See also the more esoteric looking characters in Toy Story and A Bug's Life.
Toad, in Wolverine And The X-Men. From the second episode onward, they just gave up on making his giant eyes seem creepy at all by changing his serpentine pupils into round ones.
Lexington, Broadway, and Bronx, just to name three characters in Gargoyles.
Glen Keane absolutely had this in mind when designing Beast.
Stitch. Sometimes very cute. Sometimes very not cute, especially when he's in one of his Killer Rabbit moods.
All of the experiments apply. You could also count Jumba and Pleakley, too. And Lilo's doll, Scrump. Let's just face it: Chris Sanders loves Ugly Cute.
Some fans of Corpse Bride consider the title character, Emily, to be rather cute for a rotting corpse in a tattered wedding dress whose eye occasionally falls out.
In the first movie, A Sitch in Time, we see the duo's first mission, right before which Ron purchased Rufus from the pet store. As he introduces the little guy to Kim, Rufus is a baby; a tiny, wrinkly, shrivelled little thing that still manages to be utterly adorable.
Don't forget Ron's one time mutated cockroach friend, Roachie. We've all seen cockroaches, so I don't even need to explain where the ugly comes in. However, Roachie still manages to be cute, like a "hard shelled puppy".
Tootie, Vicky's sister and Timmy's admirer on The Fairly OddParents, can be considered an animated version of the aforementioned Ugly Betty.
Mr. Crocker. Despite being abnormally thin (to the point where his ribs are clearly visible), having a hunchback, crooked teeth, being bald (his hair is actually a wig which pops off at times when he spazzes), and having his ears on his neck, Crocker has a surprising number of fangirls who find him cute/attractive.
Humorously lampshaded in one episode where Timmy's Dad thinks that Mr. Crocker is gorgeous...even though Crocker is clearly supposed to be ugly.
The Anti-Fairies....especially Anti-Wanda with all her crooked teeth and Anti-Cosmo and his Cute Little Fangs.
Silkie, Starfire's pet in Teen Titans fame. A burping mutant worm the size of a cat should not be that cute.
And Monster!Starfire from the episode Transformation.
Gorgonzola from Chowder. And that's just to name one character.
Squibby, from the series The Future Is Wild may well be the model for unconventional cuteness. "He" is the series' resident Non-Human Sidekick and is essentially a land-dwelling Mimic Octopus (who in turn, is a great model for Real Life unconventional cuteness; there's something adorable about a chunk of coral staring anxiously at you) with the personality of Curious George.
Some of the character designs in Dreamworks' Monsters vs. Aliens, like the giant bug monster, Insectosaurus.
Slyder, the dragon minion of Barbie & The Diamond Castle's villain has obviously been designed so that he looks evil, but not so scary that little girls would turn off the movie. This includes mismatched buck teeth and a rounded horn on his head, not to mention that he seems to be made of Cartoon Sound Effects.
Iris, from the Ruby Gloom series is a cyclops but still darn cute.
A good chunk of the characters apply— the bag-eyed banshee, the Emo Teenskeleton, the two-headed Frankenstien's monster. It's a part of the show's whole Dark is Not Evil aesthetic.
Played with in one scene, where the lopsided and deformed Horror walks past a bottle of liquid in Dr Jekyll's laboratory, and is seen through the liquid as a beautiful young man.
Eduardo's not Ugly Cute, he's just cute. He's a big, furry, snugle-thing who is more sensitive and downright shy than most children, he's almost a Ridiculously Cute Critter if not for his size. He's like a giant teedy bear. Actually Eduardo probably is what a Carebear would look like if you fed it steroids till it was John Cena sized. And if you think about it, he makes sense: imagine you're a small, weak, introverted girl probably hitting puberty for the first time (like his creator)...what is your ideal best friend-defender-boyfriend? A giant, cuddly, protective man-monster with pro wrestler-like biceps and a sweethearted streak who likes hugs and tea parties.
The Businessmen from Adventure Time. They're blue and have unsightly freeze burns, but come on, they're essentially zombie businesspeople! Their leader is voiced by Brian Posehn. And friendly, too. ("Looking for help, your business? We love work for you.") Just don't fire them.
Moe Szyslak from The Simpsons. Just watch the episode where he is Maggie's babysitter. Awww!
Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb. He admits on the show that he's ugly, what with his extremely crooked teeth, hunched back and large nose. That doesn't stop fans from thinking he's adorable, or even hot.
Another one from the same show, the Super Computer from "Ask A Stupid Question". It's huge for one thing (to the point where most screenshots show it looming over the gang), speaks in a Creepy Monotone, and is overall really strange-looking. And yet, Isabella seems to think "He's cute!"
Lessee, alot of characters from Earthworm Jim qualify. Well, there's Jim, bug-eyed and goofy, Peter Puppy (cute in normal form, ugly in monster), Princess Whats-Her-Name (ugly on her home planet, cute on Earth) Professor Monkey-For-A-Head who has a monkey grafted upside-down to his forehead with whom he constantly argues, Psy-Crow with his lack of pupils and his eye-blindeningly yellow space suit, Bob the Killer Goldfish and Number Four, and can't forget Evil the Cat and Henchrat.
Doug Tennappel must like this trope... a lot.
Runt from Animaniacs is pretty much the canine mascot of this trope. Don't believe me? Watch ths.
Breach from Generator Rex. She might be a four-armed hunchback but she is still cute. Being a Jerkass Woobie doesn't hurt, either.
Twipsy. He may look like Picasso's rejected sketch but he's so darn cute.
YMMV with man-birds, but just look at◊ one of their babies!
Stimpy. Ren is debatable, but he too has his moments.
The Big-Nosed Thug at the Snuggly Duckling in Tangled, who reveals himself to be a hopeless romantic in the number "I've Got A Dream".
The squids in Squidbillies.
In an episode of King of the Hill Kahn describes Bill this way when getting used to the idea of him dating his mother, "You know he's not so bad, he's like one of those little dogs that are so ugly they're almost cute".
Fly Baxter in the 80s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon is surprisingly cute for a mutant manfly. He's pretty short, has big eyes, a pretty normal mouth, and wears a silly looking vest. Stockman's action figure, however gave him greater height, more prominent segmented eyes, mandibles, and a torn labcoat.
It also helps how completely and disturbinglyMoe this guy is. He's an AdorkableJerkass Woobie. Strange, considering he is (or was) an insane middle-aged man.
Neighbors From Hell has the Hellmans, Satan and his little monkey-demon pet thingy.
