History Main / MiniatureSeniorCitizens

* Mikey's elderly great-grandmother in ''Series/TheUnbreakableKimmySchmidt'' is so small, she's a ''puppet''

*** Finally, a {{Filler}} episode in the first season gives us Kin Ono, the diminutive mother of [[BrotherChuck Dr. Tôfû Ono]]. Unlike these others, she's only a "normal" old person, about 60 or so, but she seems to have been fairly tiny even when she was a young girl.

%%* WesternAnimation/MrMagoo

%%* Master Makarov of the eponymous mage guild ''Manga/FairyTail''. Ironically, one of his more used magic abilities, Titan, [[SizeShifter lets him turn into a giant]]. A flashback in the anime show he was short even in his youth and another in the manga showed he was short by the time he was about forty, but neither was as short as he was in the present.

* Whitey Duvall from ''WesternAnimation/EightCrazyNights''.

* In ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'', the elderly characters such as Betty and Esme are half as tall as the adults, only reaching up to their waists.

* Rei's grandfather in the first ''Anime/SailorMoon'' is highly diminutive, standing to only about the girls' waist. [[YouDontLookLikeYou This is barely recognizable]] compared to [[Manga/SailorMoon the manga]], where he's the same height as any adult, his age just indicated by his mustache and white hair.

* [[WickedWitch Shibiretta]] from ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5GoGo'' and [[WickedWitch Majorina]] from ''Anime/SmilePrettyCure'' are evil old ladies who are less than half the size of her younger fellow villains. The latter can eventually transform into a younger, taller, more attractive form of herself.

* In the sitcom ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati'', newsman Les Nessman frequently voices concern over his (never seen) aged mother's chronic shrinking.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'':

%%** Yukari Godai from ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku''.

** Onoki, the current Tsuchikage is an old man so tiny that he's only about 1.5 times as tall as his [[NiceHat Kage head piece]] is long. It turns out that Onoki was always tiny, though.

** Their respective sprites, however, are just as large as the sprites for the other characters. For Relm this is accomplished through a NiceHat, but Strago makes up for lack of height with an abundance of Mohawk.

%%* The Turaga from Toys/{{Bionicle}}

*** As well as Cologne and Happôsai, ''Ranma ½'' has other Miniature Senior Citizens as well. The manga has Happôsai's old partner/rival Lukkosai, who has managed to get himself a [[DualAgeModes Jusenkyô Spring of Drowned Child curse]]. The anime has Happôsai's old friend Chingensai, who basically looks like Happôsai with a massive head of brown hair that, coupled with his thick beard/moustache, covers his whole head, and a trio of unnamed others who show up in an early seventh season episode.

* Rei's grandfather from ''Anime/SailorMoon'' is highly diminutive, standing to only about the girls' waist. This is only in the anime (he's shown to be quite dapper in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]]).

* ''Webcomic/LetsSpeakEnglish'' is about the adventures of an American teaching English at a Japanese primary school. To Mary's surprise, [=OAPs=] in Japan really ''do'' look like this.

* ''ComicBook/MsMarvelVol4'': Harold, a WWII veteran living in a retirement home, is about half the height of the teenaged main characters.

* Geriatrix in ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' is even shorter than Asterix himself, and about half the height of his [[UglyGuyHotWife hot wife]].
* Inverted in Swedish children's comic ''ComicBook/{{Bamse}}''. Title character Bamse is a family man (OK, anthropomorphic bear) with four children. Three of them are half his height, very reasonable since they are supposed to be around eight years old, and the fourth is a toddler. Bamse's parents are one head taller than him, and his grandmother is again one head taller, meaning that Bamse just about reaches granny's waist, and Bamse's toddler daughter is shorter than granny's foot is long!
** This is interestingly true for more or less every single family in the series. Despite Bamse's friends Ola, Mickelina and Annika being well into their twenties, they are about a head shorter than their parents.
* ''ComicBook/DouweDabbert'' - a very old and very short man. It should be noted that he stands out among other characters from the comic - most other old people are depicted as having normal length.
%%* Ma Dalton in ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke''.
* The ''ComicBook/{{Noob}}'' comics generally have the size of gaming avatars proportional to the avatar's level, sometimes adjusted for the player's actual talent. The only elder among the players is implied to be on the higher end of the scale (and confirmed to be there in AllThereInTheManual), yet is drawn as much shorter than younger players of similar level; the only other characters with similar proportions are the avatars of players just getting started and the two less talented players among the protagonists.
* Sonia Hobbs, the title character in the newspaper strip ''Momma'', who seems to have very little in the way of legs or torso. Just about all parental figures in the strip are drawn like this.
* In the German comic ''ComicBook/{{Werner}}'': The unnamed old lady who provides Werner and his buddies the opportunity to brew their own beer; Werner's grandma from the movie %% This entry was added automatically by FELH2. In case the wording doesn't make sense, rewrite it as you like, remove this comment and tell this troper.

Since this tends not to be noted as anything peculiar by younger characters, it's also an instance of CartoonishCompanions. If the elderly character is a parent, see SmallParentHugeChild. See also PintSizedKid and TeensAreShort for when people on the opposite end of the age spectrum have their size difference exaggerated.

In real life, there is basis for shrinking in scientific lore. Some people develop hunchbacks due to severe arthritis, a lifetime of malnutrition, or other medical problems. Except in cases of severe osteoporosis, however, most healthy people will only lose a couple of inches from their tallest height over their lifetime. Note, however, that each generation has been, on average, taller than the last throughout the 20th century even in the West thanks to heartier diets rich in protein that their peasant ancestors could not enjoy, while Japan in particular (and Asia in general) is currently going through an accelerated version of this phenomenon since the end of World War II. Also, from a point of view of today's Japanese, people who were children during [=WW2=] would also have been hit hard by malnutrition, food rationing and the outright starvation of 1944-45; malnutrition as children inevitably stunts growth. Place the undernourished child of 1944, now no younger than their middle seventies, against more fortunate post-war Japanese generations - i.e. the first wave of Generation X, who were born and grew up during the start of Japan's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_economic_miracle post-WWII economic miracle]] - and you will inevitably see a huge height difference. Taller people tend to have shorter lifespans, which accounts for elder characters in general being shorter, but not individual height loss.

Since this tends not to be noted as anything peculiar by younger characters, it's also an instance of CartoonishCompanions. See also PintSizedKid and TeensAreShort for when people on the opposite end of the age spectrum have their size difference exaggerated.