Line #41 Main/InkblotCartoonStyle


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9	[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/segas_sonic_the_hedgehog_in_cavalcade_to_chaos.jpg]]]]
10	[[caption-width-right:350:Ah, "the classics."]]
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12	->''"Mickey had to be simple. We had to push out seven hundred feet of film every two weeks. His head was a circle with an oblong circle for a snout. The ears were also circles so they could be drawn the same, no matter how he turned his head. His body was like a pear, and he had a long tail. His legs were pipestems, and we stuck them in large shoes to give him the look of a kid wearing his father's shoes. We didn't want him to have mouse hands, because he was supposed to be more human. So we gave him gloves. Five fingers seemed like too much on such a little figure, so we took away one. There was just one less finger to animate. To provide a little detail, we gave him the two-button pants. There was no mouse hair, or any other frills that would slow down animation."''
13	-->-- '''Creator/WaltDisney''' describing the design of WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse
14
15	Inkblot Cartoon Style is the cartoon style most prevalent from MediaNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation. Most historians refer to this as Rubber Hose Animation because characters' arms, legs and pretty much everything else are usually animated as if they were made of rubber tubing and without elbows or knees. In many cartoons in the [[RoaringTwenties very late Twenties]] and early and mid-Thirties, not only does everyone dance to the background music, ''{{everything\|Dances}}'' [[EverythingDances dances to it as well]]. The style sometimes falls into AccidentalNightmareFuel territory because of the its tendency toward {{surrealis\|m}}t humor.
16
17	'''Characteristics of Characters of the Inkblot Cartoon Style:'''
18	* Black or, less commonly, grey bodies
19	* White facial masks or muzzles
20	* Eyes are often PieEyed and {{conjoined\|Eyes}} if it's just their muzzle that is white. Or simply BlackBeadEyes.
21	* Black noses
22	* RubberHoseLimbs
23	* FourFingeredHands
24	* WhiteGloves, which make the hands show up more easily.
25	* White paws, typically both back paws/feet and front paws/hands, if not a human. They have a function very similar to that of WhiteGloves.
26	* The main character is often a CaptainErsatz or an {{Expy}} of a famous Silent Age cartoon character.
27	* The main character is often a CartoonCreature or has an InformedSpecies.
28
29	If this style is used in a cartoon that was made after the 1920s/1930s, it results in {{Retraux}}. It often, but not always, goes hand-in-hand with RubberHoseLimbs, which originated from this style. Often a MockyMouse.
30	----
31	!!Examples from the 1930s and earlier:
32	* In the ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat'' cartoons, the titular Felix, a cartoon cat, has the characteristic ink-black body, white muzzle, and black nose associated with the ink blot style. The cartoons are the TropeMaker for the RubberHoseLimbs technique and has inspired the style of many cartoons after their debut in 1919.
33	%%* The earliest Creator/{{Disney}} characters, such as in ''WesternAnimation/NewmanLaughOGrams'' and ''WesternAnimation/AliceComedies'', were designed in this style. WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, WesternAnimation/MinnieMouse, WesternAnimation/{{Pete}}, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, and WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} (known as Dippy Dawg back then) are this in their earliest appearances, but have evolved from this, most notably by trading in their white muzzles or faces for peach-toned ones, since the mid to late thirties.
34	%%** WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit, Fanny, Homer, and Sadie/Ortensia
35	%%* WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes:
36	%%** WesternAnimation/BoskoTheTalkInkKid & Honey, two InformedSpecies human characters from the earliest cartoons. Even though they [[CartoonCreature look more like dog/cat crosses]] in WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures, they are still drawn in this style.
37	%%** Piggy and Fluffy, Goopy Geer, Foxy and Roxy (blatant {{Captain Ersatz}}es of Mickey and Minnie Mouse), Buddy and Cookie (expies of Bosko and Honey, but obviously human), Wilbur the cat, and Beans the cat are done in this style. Beans, who is made in the mid-thirties, is sometimes drawn with a peach-tone muzzle.
38	%%** Foxy and Roxy have been redesigned to look more original for the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' segment, "Two-Tone Town."
39	%%** Goopy's fur is white in his original cartoons, unlike in his ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' appearance in which he's black-furred.
40	* Many [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]] in the 1930s (which, unlike Looney Tunes, didn't have a regular cast) are drawn with black/gray bodies, PieEyes, black noses and WhiteGloves.
41	* ''WesternAnimation/BettyBoop'' and Bimbo are both quite rubbery with flexible limbs, pie-shaped eyes and FourFingeredHands. Bimbo also wears WhiteGloves.
42	* The ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'' cartoons of TheThirties employ the ink blot style, especially with the characters' BlackBeadEyes and Olive Oyl's flexible RubberHoseLimbs. The earliest Popeye cartoons also have {{FunnyAnimal}}s drawn in a simplified style with the PieEyes / BlackBeadEyes that the humans have.
43	%%* Scrappy was a human boy expy of Mickey as he had the eyes and his girlfriend was his distaff counterpart and he has a dog.
44	%%* Pooch the Pup was Waltter Lantz version of Bimbo.
45
46	!!{{Retraux}} Examples:
47	[[foldercontrol]]
48
49	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
50	* In episode 8 of ''Anime/LittleWitchAcademia2017'', Sucy's memories are drawn in [[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDIxNGJkYTEtY2RkMi00MmQ0LTgyZjItMWRkMzk5MjI4ZGQwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjMxNzQ2NTQ@._V1_.jpg an old-timey cartoon way]], with monochrome characters drawn with simplistic shapes, [[PieEyed pie eyes]], and RubberHoseLimbs. To drive the {{Retraux}} home, they are framed with film reel borders, and are overall a lot less complex than the series' normal art style.
51	* ''Manga/KaijuGirlCaramelise'': When Kuroe and Arata go on a date to Destinyland, the theme park's mascot, Mitchy, is portrayed as a rabbit-like animal with a predominantly black body, white face/muzzle, BlackBeadEyes, WhiteGloves, and vaguely 1930s clothes -- basically Mickey as a rabbit. Rinko commandeers a Mitchy costume [[DatePeepers to spy on their date]].
52	[[/folder]]
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54	[[folder:Card Games]]
55	* "Art/MysticalMedleysAVintageCartoonTarot": All of the characters (and objects too) are {{Cartoon Creature}}s who sport [[RubberHoseLimbs rubber-like limbs]] without knees or elbows. You won't catch any of them without [[WhiteGloves gloves]] or shoes. They are also PieEyed.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Comic Books]]
59	* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' #257's Off Panel strip imagines the ''Sonic'' cast as if they were in old cartoons when Sonic refers to "the classics", most likely due to the old cartoon style's influence on Sonic's design. Everyone has round bodies, RubberHoseLimbs, and PieEyes, and Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles are given black fur. Amy is TheFlapper and Knuckles is a hobo as regards to the 1920s-30s. Plus, everything is black-and-white! The penciller of this strip, Jonathan H. Gray, posted [[https://www.deviantart.com/jongraywb/art/Mr-Needlemouse-in-Cavalcade-to-Chaos-427135143 art of]] more of the Archie ''Sonic'' cast designed in this style.
60	%%* Creator/IsaacBaranoff's FunnyAnimal comics were inspired by this style, particularly ''ComicBook/{{Horndog}}''.
61	* In ''Comicbook/SpiderHam: Aporkalypse Now'', Spider-Ham is [[FisherKingdom transformed into this style]] when he travels back to Earth-616's 1930s, getting BlackBeadEyes, RubberHoseLimbs, and a tendency to [[RhymesOnADime Rhyme On a Dime]]. Spider-Man is somewhat creeped out by this.
62	[[/folder]]
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64	[[folder:Fan Works]]
65	* Inspired by the Inkblot Cartoon Style influence on ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'', [[https://www.deviantart.com/spydaman/art/Classical-Sonic-12002978 these]] [[https://www.deviantart.com/spydaman/art/Classical-Robotnik-12030590 line]] [[https://www.deviantart.com/spydaman/art/60s-to-80s-Sonic-12044881 of]] [[https://www.deviantart.com/spydaman/art/Old-School-Amy-12178850 fan]] [[https://www.deviantart.com/spydaman/art/Knuckles-1960s-to-1980s-12209672 mock]][[https://www.deviantart.com/spydaman/art/A-Tale-of-Two-Tails-12423063 ups]] envision an AlternateHistory in which the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' canon started in the MediaNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation era. Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Eggman first start as cartoon characters with the Inkblot style, with pudgy bodies, pie eyes, and 1920s-esque accessories, though they didn't have more black shapes and pronounced eyes until the 1930s. Even their simple initial names (Sonic having name "Hasty Hedgehog" at first), personalities, and roles within the cartoons fit the Inkblot aesthetic.
66	[[/folder]]
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68	%%[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
69	%%* Spinel from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie'' is drawn this way, [[NonStandardCharacterDesign in contrast with]] the ThinLineAnimation style the rest of the cast sports. The in-universe justification for her design is that she's a literal RubberMan who was [[spoiler:Pink Diamond's court jester, solely created to make her happy by playing games with her and making her laugh with her antics.]]
70	%%[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
73	* The Tulsey Town commercial seen in ''Film/ImThinkingOfEndingThings'' is a {{Retraux}} cartoon akin to the Golden Age of Animation, with a Betty Boop-esque fairy queen singing about Tulsey Town and followed by little children drawn in inkblot style — pie eyes, white-gloved four-fingered hands, and rubber hose limbs.
74	[[/folder]]
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76	[[folder:Music Videos]]
77	%%* The music video for "[[https://youtu.be/KJzWGkgFcTU The Ghost of Stephen Foster]]" by Squirrel Nut Zippers is an inkblot AnimatedMusicVideo starring expies of the Golden Age ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' characters Buddy and Cookie being tormented by ghosts at [[HellHotel the Hotel Paradise]].
78	* The music video for Music/{{Moby}} and the Void Pacific Choir's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VASywEuqFd8 "Are You Lost in the World Like Me?"]] is animated inkblot-style by Steve Cutts of "MAN" fame, including FourFingeredHands, PieEyes, and RubberHoseLimbs, which is an intentionally ironic choice, since the video is actually [[NewMediaAreEvil a critique on modern social media]].
79	* The music video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM7lw0Ovzq0 "The Story of O.J."]] by Music/JayZ has this style and invokes DeliberateValuesDissonance in using racist imagery and caricature depiction of black people from cartoons of that era such as those in the WesternAnimation/CensoredEleven to reinforce the song's racial commentary.
80	%%* The music video for Dr. Steel's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVvlVHdLCx0 "Back and Forth."]] Played for very BlackComedy.
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:Video Games]]
84	* Peacock from ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' watched cartoons from this era when younger, so her character design, [[NonStandardCharacterDesign unlike]] the {{Animesque}} style of the rest of the cast, is inspired from this style. Paying close attention will reveal that what appear to BlackBeadEyes are actually [[EyeScream empty eye sockets]]. Her design also has attributes of the art style like a cartoonish mouth, and RubberHoseLimbs, as well as several vintage trappings, such as top hats, petticoats, and WhiteGloves, evoking the era where inkblot cartoons were in vogue.
85	%%* Platform/GameAndWatch from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''
86	* In the Classic days, ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'''s designs of the FunnyAnimals and Doctor Eggman were influenced by funny animal characters from this era, such as Mickey Mouse, with rounded heads and bodies, WhiteGloves, RubberHoseLimbs, sausage-shaped muzzles, black noses, ConjoinedEyes of hedgehogs, and the InformedSpecies style. The Modern designs still have some influence, yet have a more anime-oriented style.
87	* The indie title ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}''. Its visuals and overall art style are a homage to old cartoons by Fleischer Studios and its contemporaries, and features characters drawn with wide eyes and mouths, round features, simple outfits, and white gloves. In motion, they all have RubberHoseLimbs and uses BriffitsAndSqueans. Several characters visually evoke characters from that era, such as Werner Werman looking very similar to Mortimer Mouse; some reference animation figures from that era, like [[Creator/DisneysNineOldMen Kahl being named for Milt Kahl]]. The animation was even all hand-drawn on cels!
88	%%* The original VideoGame/PacMan design was clearly inspired by this style, the more evident part being his fittingly Pac-Man shaped PieEyes.
89	%%* ''Fleish & Cherry in VideoGame/CrazyHotel'' takes place at a hotel in a cartoon universe version of TheThirties.
90	%%* Timeless River in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' is a throwback to the old black and while Mickey Mouse cartoons, style and all. Like other worlds, Sora, Donald and Goofy's appearance change to suit the world, with Donald and Goofy reverting to versions of their earliest designs. Though Goofy is the only one who can actually be described as being in the Inkblot style. Sora's look is more akin to a Tezuka styled anime character, and Donald debuted as the Inkblot style was on the way out.
91	%%* A few ''VideoGame/GameAndWatch'' characters, such as the player character in ''Egg'' (who was actually Mickey Mouse in another version of the same game), are drawn this way.
92	* ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'' is a First Person puzzle horror game about a demonic machine turning people into these types of characters. The titular Bendy is based on ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse'' and ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat''. The animation is done in black and sepia tones as if the entire environment had been hand-drawn.
93	* [[spoiler:[[BigBad Pizzahead]]]] from ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'' appears to have come from a 30's era cartoon, which greatly contrasts with the rest of the game and character design mimicking 90's cartoons with hyper expressive {{Wild Take}}s and demented plot.
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder:Web Animation]]
97	%%* Creator/HarveyRothman:
98	%%** [[https://youtu.be/Keqp4IFXdNQ "Sans and Papyrus Go for a Wander"]] features a black-and-white animation of [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} Sans and Papyrus]] in this style.
99	%%** [[https://youtu.be/NYtaZr-z97Y "Merry Saint Nickmas"]] features a smiling, PieEyed wolf playing a piano. Harvey mentions in the description that the video was "inspired by early [[Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer Fleischer]] cartoons."
100	* In ''WebAnimation/TheGrosseryGang'' webseries, a flashback to Stinky's youth (hinted to be in the 1930s, as he's an elder in the current day) is given a redesign meant to evoke the inkblot style; the color scheme turns black and white, the pinpoint pupils of the original characters are replaced with PieEyes, and all characters are given inexplicable WhiteGloves.
101	%%* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': The "1936" cartoons are parodies of old-timey cartoons, and usually revolve around The Homestar Runner and his friends Marzipan and Fat Dudley trying to make a living during TheGreatDepression while running afoul of a DastardlyWhiplash version of Strong Bad and his lackeys Strong Man and The Sneak.
102	* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': While undergoing a ''nasty'' MushroomSamba during ''[[Recap/HelluvaBossS1E6TruthSeekers Truth Seekers]]'', Blitzo sees a vision of [[WeUsedToBeFriends Fizzarolli]] drawn as a PieEyed inkblot cartoon. Notably, of all the people Blitzo has visions of, Fizzarolli is the only one drawn in this style, perhaps hinting that their friendship imploded a long time before Blitzo's relations with Striker, Verosika, Moxxie and Stolas unfolded.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	%%[[folder:Web Comics]]
106	%%* Many of the FunnyAnimal characters in ''Webcomic/ThirtyTwoKickUp'' evoke this style.
107	%%* Anthro artist Creator/AgoutiRex's works, such as ''The Fantastical Bestiary'', ''Webcomic/{{Witchprickers}}'', ''Webcomic/MurryPurryFreshAndFurry'', and ''Webcomic/{{Guttersnipe}}'', are ''perceived'' to be this, but Agouti denies this.
108	%%* In 2012 cartoonists Anthony Hunter created a comic called ''Webcomic/SilentSillies'' that features a cast of animals that captures the same look and feel of the older cartoons.
109	%%* ''Webcomic/RappyTheRiverOtter'' is based after inkblot cartoon styles.
110	%%* ''Webcomic/TheCartoonChroniclesOfConroyCat'' has Doggy D. Dachshund, described as a JadedWashout from the Silent Age.
111	%%[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Western Animation]]
114	%%* ''WesternAnimation/AaahhRealMonsters'': One of the Shroink's flashbacks in "Old Monster" is done in "rubber hose" style.
115	* The first segment of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' [[Recap/FuturamaS6E26Reincarnation Season 6 finale]] "Colorama" is animated as an old cartoon from the 1920s and 1930s, specifically revealed in marketing to be those done by Fleischer Studios. The entire thing is in monochrome, and the characters are redesigned to have RubberHoseLimbs, pie eyes, rounder features, and white Mickey Mouse-style gloves. Jazz music from the 1920s was also licensed for use in this segment.
116	* Toot from ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' is a CaptainErsatz of famed inkblot character WesternAnimation/BettyBoop. She is DeliberatelyMonochrome in a colorful world of {{Genre Refugee}}s, has a large head and big dot eyes, and dresses like someone from the early 20th century.
117	* The Warner siblings from ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' are an obvious parody hitting all the aforementioned marks: they're ill-defined {{Cartoon Creature}}s likened to "puppy dogs" with their paws, ears, and tails, WhiteGloves, black bodies, beady eyes (with a notable shine), and (small) muzzles. In-universe, their design isn't a {{Retraux}}: they were actually ''created'' during MediaNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, but were too screwy to be contained and were hidden away until the '90s, at which point, their designs ''would'' look humorously old-fashioned.
118	%%* ''WesternAnimation/TheCupheadShow'': Naturally, Cuphead and Mugman are this, although they are shown to be wearing black jumpers rather than black being their natural skin color.
119	%%* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': In "Ed 'n' Seek", Ed somehow hides inside a television during a game of hide and seek, and appears on [[ShowWithinAShow a cartoon called "The Glippo Show"]] drawn in inkblot style.
120	%%* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
121	%%** In the episode "Bart's Comet", the CouchGag is the family [[http://images.wikia.com/simpsons/images/e/e8/CouchGagS6E14.jpg drawn in this style.]]
122	%%** The first ever episode of ShowWithinAShow ''Itchy And Scratchy'' is in this style, being a parody of ''WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie''.
123	%%** The Season 27 episode "Fland Canyon" has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qcY2ERwmaU couch gag]] made by guest Disney animator Eric Goldberg, and the opening segment of it with Maggie is drawn in this style as a reference to early WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse shorts.
124	%%* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' parodies this in the episode "Hill Billy".
125	%%* In a CutawayGag on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Peter was waxing nostalgic about him and Brian in the "old days"; they were [[ArtShift drawn in this style]] for the flashback.
126	%%* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In "The Good Ol' Days", Timmy's Grandpappy Turner comes in to baby-sit him. After bonding with him over their mutual love of old-fashioned cartoons (and old-fashioned cartoon violence), Timmy is inspired to make a wish that causes the whole world to look like this art style for his grandpa.
127	%%* Dennis the Duck from ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'', who is basically an avian version of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
128	%%* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' featured a scene drawn this way, with Spongebob singing "I'm Ready to go to Work!" during the entire scene.
129	%%* A number of the drawings in ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'' are drawn in this style. They've been shown in "Mellow Drama Falls" and "The Label Police" as well as the music video segments "There You Are" and "Time to Go Home".
130	%%* Cat and Dog's shared dream in the ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'' episode "It's a Wonderful Half-Life" is done in this style.
131	%%* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': In "Weirdmageddon", when passing through one of [[BigBad Bill Cipher]]'s "weirdness bubbles," Gideon and Ghost Eyes temporary turn into this. They scream [[SilentMovie silently]], followed by an intertitle that says "AAAAAAAAAUGH!"
132	[[/folder]]

Context Main / InkblotCartoonStyle