The Physique of some Animated Children

To coin a statement i once read in a book regarding drawing "The more muscular you make a child look, the less child-like they will appear".

Over the years, i've watched many tv shows and in a few, i've noticed that a number of the children look a little too muscular and/or developed to fit their age groups

Examples:

Johnny Quest

Dorno (Herculoids)

Ben (the Original Ben 10)

Carlos, Tim and Arnold (The Magic School Bus)

Jake Long (American Dragon: Jake Long)

Beast Boy (Teen Titans)

Aang (A:TLA)

Raimundo (Xiaolin Showdown)

All of these characters looked a little too muscular for children in the age group of 9-12

And it's not just the boys either, at times, the girls look a little too "mature" for their portrayed age

Examples:

Sabrina Spellman (the animated version)

Kimiko (Xiaolin Showdown)

Emily (Little Bear)

Rose (American Dragon)

Wily Kit (Thundercats)

Wanda, Keesha, Phoebe and Dorothy Ann (Magic School Bus)

Terra (Teen Titans)

Gwen (the original Ben 10)

Just an observation

edited 5th Aug '13 6:40:51 PM by srebak

Umm... you do know that they never release her age, and besides that, it was a preschool show with an F'ING TALKIN' BEAR who has more talking animal friends! If her physique is the only thing that you caught akward, then you must have eyes for the normaly out-of-place.

Um, yeah, well, since Aang was supposed to have been trained intensively, Beast Boy had to keep himself in shape as a superhero, and Dorno lived in a wild environment where people had to constantly struggle for their lives... it makes full sense they would start developing muscular definition early on.

One example of kids not needing muscular or older physiques to be strong is Young Tarzan. During his adventure in Tarzan2, it was obvious he was alot stronger than any average boy his age. He lives and trains with apes, yes, but not once did he have to "Work out" or gain a muscule. Then again, it could just be a case of Excecutive Meddling to keep him scrawny.

Basically, any action show (Xiaonlin Showdown, Ben 10, ect.) is justified in having muscular kids because they are constantly fighting, or if a martial artist training.

Oddly enough, from what I remember I thought Gwen and Ben looked their age (shorter, rounder heads, no secondary characteristics developing).

Keep in mind that Rose was 13. They're going to have boobs by that age.

I'm a little creeped out by the addition of the girls from The Magic School Bus in the list for some reason.

Think back to the episode "Mussel Beach", the MSB girls all had particularly thick legs and unusually hourglass figures

A lot of these characters I have issue with, as a lot look their age or around that (remember, for girls puberty starts earlier and some develop sooner than others). It seems like some confusion may stem from the fact that in Western Animation, we're used to highly stylized characters that show the age difference by height and head roundness to a ridiculous degree.

The Magic School Bus girls are also presumably in at least fourth grade and more probably in fifth grade or possibly even sixth grade. That puts them between 10 and 13 years old Girls at those ages are not the blobby unmuscular shapes of younger children, they're beginning to develop both hips and breasts, and if they're at all athletic (as these girls are) they're going to show muscle tone in both their arms and the legs.

edited 6th Aug '13 8:37:55 AM by Madrugada

It't been said already, but Aang needed to bulk up a great deal - he was expected to go up against one of the most powerful Firebenders in the world, a 30-to-40-something year old man who is built like a brick shithouse. Do you think it'd be realistic for this kinda scrawny, lanky kid to just pull the Avatar State out and cream Ozai? No, he had to train up his bending which is strenuous on mind and body - especially body, considering his best method of attack is Earthbending, as Airbending has to be fairly close-quarters unless you're a master bender, Waterbending needs a consistent stream of water which can be evaporated by the heat of Firebending, and Firebending is known inside and out by the enemy. And in the oft chance of the Avatar State failing, which it kinda did, he needed to be strong enough to at least defend himself from being beaten to death by a grown man.

The creators didn't bulk him up to sexualize him. They bulked him up because he needed to look strong enough to fight Ozai, to show that this kid has trained his ass off to fight one of the strongest Firebenders in the world in their strongest forms due to Sozin's Comet.

Aang noticeably develops over the course of the series. He's much skinner in Season 1 than in Season 3. And that's reasonable, because not only is he training like hell, he's undergoing puberty. His voice also begins changing over the course of the series. (They did good, casting a kid who was the same age as Aang so his voice would start to break realistically.)

IIRC, Beast Boy's age on the Teen Titan tv show is never said. (It is in the comics, but needless to say the two are very different).

Plus, ya know, he's not exactly human.

Beast Boy is a mutate, which means he's a human whose undergone a physical mutation of some kind. And before try to use that to prove your point, the only physical mutation BB has gone through is a change in skin, hair and eye coloring and the ability to alter his form to mimic those of the animal kingdom. None of that should effect his human physique.

And ear shape, teeth shape...

I have a feeling that puberty would be a rather...unusual time for Beast Boy.

Because then, he'll become a beast who turns into boys.

the girls actually arent too far off nowadays.

The ability violently violate every laws of physics by altering his mass on a whim... The ability to alter several internal organ systems (Respiration, nervous, glandular, etc) to match new forms. Yes. He's completely human on the inside too. Oh and he's also capable of turning into creatures who are at a different maturity level than him.

Also, pointing to several outward physiological differences (And at least one internal one) and then saying "it therefore follows that Beast Boy is identical to a human in every other aspect" is a Logical Fallacy.

edited 7th Aug '13 6:31:30 AM by CobraPrime

Okay, let's just turn away from Beast boy and get back to the people i was really thinking about when i made this thread.

Johnny Quest is supposed to be a child between the age of 10-11, yet he has the physique of a teenaged athlete.

Dorno of the Herculoids is supposedly between the age of 9-11, yet he's just as shredded as Zandor himself.

The shows are mostly aimed at children. I doubt most of them would think outside the box like that.

Plus, when your life evolves around dangerous globetrotting adventures, you're probably going to have to get rip or get "ripped".

Between the ages of 6 and 18 can be incredibly fickle, not everyone develops the same way and some can gain a more mature body at a young age. I've seen some 10 year old athletes who are incredibly lean and muscular, maybe not a Heroic Build with washboard abs but it is obvious they are in good physical shape. My nephew is 7 and he hasn't had any "baby fat" since he was 4.