The Top 50 Cartoon Characters - They Aren't Your Favourite, They're Just Drawn That Way

I can't BELIEVE I forgot Darkwing Duck! That's embarrassing. I love that he's a single dad trying his best (he may not always try his best at crime fighting, but that's another matter).

Zef said:

Should I dig into the specifics of what happened withJim Cummings?

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I mean are the reasons you wouldn't want to self care or something? Anyway, it's not a long read if you can take some very unpleasant allegations

“I can cross "Stab Hitler to death" off my list of cool crap I thought I'd never get to do. Hey, Hank. Killed Hitler.”

Source Material: The Venture Bros.

Voice Actor: Patrick Warburton

Brock Samson is a former OSI agent and bodyguard who works on the Venture Compound. His primary assignment is to protect former boy adventurer Doctor Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture and his two naïve sons Hank and Dean. He is a master of armed and unarmed combat, though his personal favourite weapons are his knife and his bare hands. Brock was a former football star who left in disgrace after killing one of his team mates by accident. He decided to join the army and soon gained the attention of OSI, who recognized his skill with violence. He quickly became a top agent and developed a reputation as one of the most amazing and feared badasses on the planet.


Brock Samson is a master of killing and murder, something he takes pride in. But while he doesn’t hesitate to murder should he feel it appropriate; he does have his own personal code and does have people he loves. While he sort of likes Dr. Venture, his relationship with Hank and Dean is that of a loving guardian, even if their childish behaviour sometimes cramps his style. He often gives them advice, some good, some bad, and a lot about how to kill. He also has a complicated relationship with a fellow spy, Molotov Cocktease, who is as likely to be an enemy as an ally (and a fuck buddy).


Patrick Warburton’s smooth cadence has been well used in cartoons but I can’t think of a more perfect union of voice and character than Elaine’s weirdest boyfriend and Brock Samson. But it’s also in the writing. In the Venture Bros, most characters are some form of monster and some form of failure. And to an extent, that includes the show’s “coolest” character, the guy who is Wolverine, James Bond and John Wick rolled into one. He’s still amazing but his job is babysitting a pathetic “super scientist” and his kids. The Venture Bros is also about what we do with failure and like many of the characters, there is beauty in it. And that beauty is Brock’s affection towards the boys, where he is a better father than their actual father. It always a blast to see the character be a complete badass or undercut it in a funny scene but I think the character is complete when we see what and who he cares about, whether it be the Boys, Molotov or his greatest love…



Issun

He's a godawful person, and yet he's the most consistently funny character on a show full of hilarious personalities. Sometimes our dark side can be hilarious.

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JBear

Brock is very fun, whether he's being machismo incarnate and fucking up/fucking a room full of people, or being an exasperated bodyguard and reluctant uncle.

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Plaintiffs:



Defense:

“Look, do any of us really want to get between these two men?”

It was 2002 and I'd been given the opportunity to travel to Paris, France with my high school French class. I was visiting the Virgin Megastore along the Champs-Élysées and I saw a little kiosk with CDs decorated with Chihiro's face. I didn't recognize the character, but I recognized that it was some anime thing I'd never heard of, so I picked up the sample headphones and listened to a few tracks from Joe Hisaishi's wonderful score. I found the music to be so instantly transporting that I nearly bought the CD right then and there even though I didn't have much money and I had no idea what it went with.

Later I'd see the movie and it became probably my most rewatched Ghibli movie for a long time.

I don't remember if I saw Spirited Away before or after I saw Princess Mononoke, but those two films and Totoro, which I saw in childhood, formulated my introductions to the Ghibli canon. I remember experiencing this sort of cultural awakening as more and more people in the US became aware of the Ghibli films. For a while they hovered in that middle space between "beloved fandom object" and "mainstream recognition," and in some ways I think they're still there. Like, nearly everyone has seen an MCU movie, but if you meet someone who likes Ghibli stuff, you can usually gain some insight into their personality and interests. Also you can find Spirited Away merch at Barnes & Noble now which I think is great.

Brocks another one I’m kicking myself for neglecting.

What a fool this Octo be

Issun said:

I loved Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers and Tale Spin, but as soon as DW entered the lineup it was the height of the Disney Afternoon for me. Johnny covered most of it. That two-part premiere is still some of the best stuff Disney's put in an animated series, and a lot of it is seeing that, though Drake/Darkwing fancies himself a devil-may-care crimefighter, he still cares deeply for those closest to him.

Shame Jim Cummings turned out to be a shitheel.

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I was one of the other votes for Darkwing, and pretty much have the same thoughts as Issun. The whole block of shows was my jam for many years but most of the rest are such ensemble pieces that Darkwing was the one to stand out enough to make the list as a character.


Chihiro is another fantastic Ghibli character who didn't end up on my list (and just like the last Ghibli, that first video embed is blocked in the US again).

Venture Bros. is one of those things I've long meant to catch up on. I saw a number of episodes back when it first aired, probably all from its first or second season. I see VB as an important milestone for Adult Swim, being one of its first original cartoons that featured pleasing art direction and animation (for all the merits of stuff like Space Ghost and Aqua Team, they weren't meant to be pretty).

Yeah, Patrick Warburton is a huge part of why Brock works as well as he does. I do stand by my statement that he's not a good person, but the fact that he's also Rusty's conscience to some degree is part of what makes the show's dynamic so great, and it wasn't the same when he went off to do his own thing.

“This world is made of love and peace!”

Source Material:Trigun

Voice Actor: Masaya Onosaka (Japanese), Johnny Yong Bosch (English)

Vash the Stampede is a wanderer on the desert-like planet of No Man’s Land. Vash is a wanted man with a $$60,000,000,000 price tag on his head for his acts of mass destruction. As the name implies, Vash brings chaos in his wake but miraculously, often the chaos he brings comes with little to no death. In fact, despite his classification as a menace, his body count appears to be zero. In fact, Vash mostly wanders the planet hoping to avoid trouble and maybe have a good time, only to get caught up in whatever crisis that happens to be at hand. Vash believes in love and peace and though he’s an extremely skilled gunman, he hates having to use violence.


Due to Vash’s unintended destructive path, he finds himself followed by two insurance agents who are tasked with trying to keep him out of trouble; Meril Stryfe and Milly Thompson, who are themselves proficient in projectile weaponry. He also has a friendship with the wandering priest Nicholas Wolfwood. Vash’s speed and precision are both beyond human, allowing him to make seeming impossible shots and dodge bullets. He is also stalked by a series of terrifyingly strong assassins called the Gung Ho Guns.


When I first started getting into anime, Trigun made a big impact on me. Some of the early shows fell to the wayside (boy, I can’t imagine watching Sorcerer Hunters again) but even though I haven’t seen Trigun in forever, I remained a big fan of this character. I certainly read superhero stories where the hero doesn’t kill but I was really invested in the story of a strong but gentle soul trying to retain his values against impossible odds. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of characters in the same mold since (including finding ones that predate him) but it really hit me at just the right time.

JBear

I don't think Trigun holds up very well these days, but I think it's main character does. It's still a very fun idea: a unbeatably skilled gunfighter who refuses to harm another living thing and dances through life trying not to be killed as an entire civilization relentlessly pursues him for the gigantic bounty on his head, and has the scars to prove it. A child at heart, I think he and my #1 would have been very good friends, and have more than a little in common.

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Wisteria Hysteria

A really fun character. Whose blasé, goofy demeanor, and staunch passifisim, hints at a deep and traumatized past. Vash is a paradox. He is incredibly deft and skilled with a gun, but he refuses to kill. And that dichotomy puts him in increasingly desperate situations where he's forced to test his ethics and mettle. Watching that is good fun. And watching him scurry about like a whacky human cockroach is also good fun. Vash makes his show.

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BTW, a similar but also different tone, if you liked Trigun, watch Blood Blockade Battlefront, a series from the same creator but with a darker sense of humour.

Plaintiffs:



Apparently, this popular Japanese comedy character was one of the influences on the character

Defense:

“I mean, Tora-san is a tramp, so he’s probably going to run out of legal funds before he can even file a complaint.”

I only voted for one anime character, but if I had voted for two, the other would have been Vash

Yeah this one hit at exactly the right time for me, too. I saw it in high school. Lots of story elements from this show stuck with me and molded the types of tropes I like to see in anime and other media - a strong hero who doesn't fit the typical macho stereotypes, bio-engineered superweapons, secret powers that aren't revealed until late in the show, series of villains with unique special powers. I would happily rewatch this show now and I think it's aged a lot better than other stuff that resonated with me at 16.

Vash was on my long list, and on a different day could easily have been on my short one. Agreed with everyone else saying that him and his show were head and shoulders above most of his contemporaries.

“Ah, phooey!”

Source Material:Silly Symphony, numerous Disney short films

Voice Actor: Clarence Nash (1934–1985), Tony Anselmo (1985–present), Daniel Ross (Mickey Mouse: Mixed-Up Adventures)

Donald Duck is a duck. He is often shown living with his nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, and has a girlfriend, Daisy Duck. He is friends with Mickey Mouse and Goofy No Last Name Provided. Though he is usually on good terms with Mickey, it is not uncommon for him to have a mostly one-sided rivalry, largely because Donald tends to get jealous of the attention Mickey receives. Donald is often the victim of pestering by his nephews, as well as other individuals, including the chipmunks Chip n Dale. He is most often seen in his blue sailor suit and from time to time is shown to work as a sailor (sometimes in a military capacity) but most of his stories are set on land.


Donald has an upbeat attitude towards most things… at least at first. Often when he begins an activity, he’s carefree but Donald is also known for his fiery temper and is often set off when things start to go against him. He is also quite a prankster and it isn’t uncommon for him to play tricks on his nephews and friends. But while Donald can dish it, he can’t take it and once the tables are turned, he often gets hopping mad. Which often leads to further mistakes and humiliation. But his temper isn’t without merit and is sometimes able to subdue more intimidating opponents by sheer force of will. Donald is also known for his unique quack-like speaking voice, which often makes him difficult to understand.


Disney has a number of beloved characters in its library but to me Donald was the one with the strongest and clearest personality. It’s also clear that for their faults as a company, they sure know how to maintain the fidelity of it’s character, basically having limited the character to two major voice actors in his 87 year existence, which is no mean feat. There are lots of great characters who get good voice actors but sometimes it’s like “the actor is good but… it sounds off.” Donald maintained the voice, personality and attitude through most of his existence. One could complain that this means there isn’t much room for evolution but there’s something to be said for not fixing something that ain’t broke, a character who is kind of simple yet perfectly defined. And he does speak to that part of us that is angry at modern life or perhaps a little too sensitive about our humiliations.


Plaintiffs:



Defense:

“If I get either of them on the stand, I can just tell the jury these people said whatever is convenient. They aren’t going to be able to parse it.”

“Hi, I'm Mabel! I'm twelve and own a pig! Wanna get married?”

Source Material: Gravity Falls

Voice Actor: Kristen Schaal

Mabel Pines is a 13 year old girl spending the Summer in the small town of Gravity Falls with her twin brother Dipper. Mabel is an extroverted and ebullient kid who loves boys, stickers, pop music and hanging out with her favourite people. She is staying with her Grunkle Stan in his business the Mystery Shack and often hangs out with maintenance man Soos and counter girl Wendy Corduroy. She also has a pet pig named Waddles, which she won at county fair. She helps her brother solve mysteries in Gravity Falls, which is in fact a magnet for weirdness and the supernatural.


Unlike, her brother, who is concerned with unearthing all the secrets of Gravity Falls, Mabel is much more concerned with love and fun project. Though she is happy to help her brother, whom she loves, often their differing priorities will cause a rift, though at the end of the day, they have each other’s backs. If anything, Mabel is more likely to find the weirdness of Gravity Falls as an opportunity to make her life better or help others (though people don’t always appreciate her particular help. Though she’s often hyperactive and silly, she’s actually quite clever, though her wisdom is often more akin to savviness and emotional intelligence as opposed to her brother who values facts and figures. Dipper often is paralyzed with choices, label has a carpe diem attitude, seeking every chance at fun and love.


Gravity Falls has no shortage of great characters, from the badass Wendy, the sweet but dim Soos, the terrifying Bill Cipher and the awkward but brave Dipper. But while she still has a lot to learn, Mabel is someone who is living her best life. She sees how awesome the world is and wants to share it with the people she loves as best she can, though sometimes a little more aggressively than is advisable. She is also a perfect counterpoint to her brother, which is why despite the fact that they may get in each other’s way, they make an amazing team of “Mystery Twins”. Mabel also has doubts from time to time but is able to grow as a woman, whether it’s learning to say no to L’il Gideon’s manipulative advances or understanding that you don’t need anyone else to quantify how much of a great woman you are.



JBear

Mabel is fun. Another force of chaos, and a walking punchline, but she's human underneath that, and fun to follow.

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Dracula

She’s just here for a good time, even if that means accidentally opening a portal to hell.

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Plaintiffs:

Ariel Hirsch

Defense:

“She said she has a sweater that just says ‘not guilty’ and I don’t think it would hurt.”

Not much else to say. Mabel is my absolute favorite part of Gravity Falls, and that's saying something considering how many great characters there are. She's magically ridiculous.

Well since we've talked about both Homestar and Gravity Falls now, one of my favorite things about GF is how Matt Chapman did some voices in it.


Gosh it's about time to rewatch this show...

“Once I take care of the humans, I will begin my war against... the bees?”

Source Material: Invader Zim

Voice Actor: Richard Steven Horvitz

Zim is an alien invader of the Irken empire, hiding out on Earth in an attempt to conquer it. He is disguised as a human boy by day, attending school and trying not to be noticed. This is hard because Zim is incredibly conspicuous, particularly his manner of speech which involves a lot of loud proclamations. Zim is assisted by Gir, a poorly constructed robot who is loyal except for the fact that he’s scatterbrained and would rather just have fun. He is opposed by Dib, an Earthling who is the only one who suspects Zim is an alien and is determined to defeat him. Well, also Gaz, Dib’s sullen sister knows but she’s pretty indifferent to Zim’s plans of world conquest, save if they get in her way.


Zim has the ruthless heart of an invader but he is quite incompetent. In an empire where merit is purely based on height, Zim’s size makes him one of the lowest ranked invaders, moreso due to him sabotaging Operation Impending Doom by rampaging BEFORE leaving his homeworld. Zim was given the assignment to Earth without even the knowledge that the planet existed, simply to keep him busy in order to stop him from ruining their imperial ambitions. Though he assumes superiority over all things, he is constantly defeated by Dib AND his own incompetence despite access to vast resources of advanced technology.


A lot of the characters chosen have surprising depth and nuance. Zim… well, there’s certainly insecurity bubbling there but for the most part the show isn’t interested in making him lovable but rather using him to enact Jhonen Vasquez’s idiosyncratic brand of humour. The show shares finding humour in the darkness, a nightmarish and sinister parody of our own world and Zim is representative of his love of the morbid and twisted, a completely villainous protagonist who is fun to watch because at the end of the day, he’s absurd, pathetic and going to lose and heck, even the people he wants to conquer aren’t much better.


Plaintiffs:


Defense:

“I mean, the conqueror of Earth gets to make the law so let’s see how that plays out.”

“I don’t think there are bad people. I think good people do bad stuff sometimes, and that’s bad. But if you just do it once, it’s a mistake. And that’s not bad. I think.”

Source Material: Adventure Time

Voice Actor: Olivia Olsen

Marceline the Vampire Queen is a half-human/half-demon and possibly the last vampire in existence in the post-post-apocalyptic Land of OOO. Marceline lives in a house in a cave and likes to write and perform music. She is friends with adventurers Finn and Jake and had an on and off again relationship with Princess Bubblegum, which she recently rekindled. Marceline loves pranks and teasing the people she loves and often respects those who are willing to hold her own against her. Though often she tries to appear to be a rambunctious and sometimes prickly free spirit, she is also plagued with depression, which she often tries to work through in her music. Despite popular belief, vampires don’t need to drink blood and Marceline tends to subsist on the colour red.


Marceline was grew up during the Great Mushroom War, an event which caused the apocalypse, and after losing her mother was taken into the care of Simon Petrakov. The two had a father/daughter relationship until Simon was turned into the deranged Ice King by an enchanted crown and Marceline was forced at a young age to survive on her own. She became a vampire while working as a vampire hunter and has a wide variety of vampiric powers. Marceline is a very emotional being and though it’s clear she likes to mess with people for fun, she often acts rashly if the tables are turned unexpectedly or if the situation gets out of control.


Adventure Time began as a funny adventure series but it didn’t take it long to go from “adventure of the week” to a meditation on life and philosophy and taking its characters to bold new places. Marceline began as a friend of Finn who would cause some mischief but was usually a good person. She really evolved into one of the show’s most beautifully realized characters with a life full of tragedy and an arc to finally mature some after a thousand years by the end of the Stakes mini-series. She also gets some of the most emotionally raw moments, and that says a lot coming from this show, as she gets heartbreaking musical numbers and remaining the kind of cool friend you wish you had growing up, even if they would get you into trouble. She’s wise but also a bit immature, a dangerous delinquent who is deeply caring and someone who works hard to figure herself out.

Dracula

Maybe the best TV cartoon of all the ages, Adventure Time is bursting at the seams with nuanced characters, such that I could have filled this whole list with them. Marceline has a dark and heart-wrenching backstory, but despite her Vampire Queen status, she’s (usually) not an antagonist. Instead she’s a combination of warm, funny, and badass, and often the emotional side of the couple she forms with Princess Bubblegum.

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Plaintiffs:

Carmilla



Defense:

“Her music wasn’t nearly similar. But I need to admit, Carmilla is pretty good with a hambone solo.”

Zim showing up gives me hope...

Chihiro is a wonderful example of how to write a young child undergoing tremendous growth over the course of a film. Just another case study from Miyazaki on how children can really be such powerful protagonists when written, animated and acted well.

Vash is one of the rare characters who are far more than they appear to be at the start of a show and the show actually spends time on why that is effectively. When you meet him, he just comes off as a problematic mess of a character who tries to run away from his life's chaos, but by the end of the show he's transformed into a completely compelling lead you want to root for. Just superb work all the way around.

I'm not a great fan of Invader Zim. The lolrandom humor still gives me a big ol' to this day. The first time you hear Richard Steven Horvitz scream a line that should have been spoken quietly, it's funny, but the hundredth time, I'm ready to change the channel to CSPAN and see if anything interesting's on. The show's brand of weirdo loner exceptionalism also turned me off, even when I was the exactly right age and brand of loner weirdo. Maybe there's more to it than that, but I've never had much desire to revisit the show.

Meanwhile, JU already summed up everything I love about Marceline. In many ways I feel like she's a parallel to Zim - both are weirdo loners with tremendous inherited power, both tap into the goth aesthetic, both have a fiery emotional side. But the treatment of the character and their relationship with their weird world are written in totally different ways. One appeals to me, one does not.

Zim is a dipshit who thinks he's a genius. The only reason he isn't being dissected at Area 51 after one episode is that everyone on Earth is also a dipshit. It's a joke they hammer over and over but it's a good joke.

“Ru-Roh.”

Source Material: Various Scooby-Doo series

Voice Actor:

Don Messick, Frank Welker, Hadley Kay, Scott Innes, Neil Fanning (to name a few)

Scooby-Doo is a dog who lives in Coolsville with his owner Norville “Shaggy” Rogers. Together, the two make a duo within a larger group, Mystery, Inc., a team of teen detectives. They include the clever Velma, intrepid Fred and stylish Daphne. Though they do solve mysteries in their hometown, they can often be found traveling the country in their van, the Mystery Machine. Scooby-Doo also has a large extended family including his spunky nephew Scrappy-Doo, his deputy brother Yabba-Doo and his dimwitted cousin Scooby-Dum. Scooby helps solve mysteries that begin with what appears to be a paranormal menace that usually turns out to be a criminal in disguise, though he has faced true supernatural menaces before, such as when he and Shaggy tried to capture 13 ghosts they unwittingly unleashed upon the world.


Like his owner Scooby-Doo is often cowardly, hesitant to get into the various scary situations they get into. Still, it is not uncommon for Scooby to step up and save the day and can even be coaxed into bravery with a “Scooby snack”, a dog biscuit he particularly loves. He and Shaggy are also notorious gluttons, taking advantage of any situation to eat. As a duo, Scooby and Shaggy are usually likely to encounter the monster and flee in terror. However, despite their fear, when backed into a room, it is not uncommon for them to improvise a scene where the “monster” forgets himself and gets caught up in whatever guise Scooby and Shaggy are putting on.


Scooby-Doo is a lovable dog and while I don’t have a lot of respect for the majority of Hanna Barbera’s output, I definitely get the appeal of this scared pooch. The image of a giant coward is always endearing and hey, I get gluttony. It is weird how much traction the specificity of its formula gets but it makes for some fun scenes, to be sure. He also probably has the most personality out of the crew. Scooby-Doo is also interesting in that it basically was created as a replacement for the superhero shows that were going off the air due to complaints of violence and basically created a template for the next decade of cartoons.


Plaintiffs:


Defense:

“These are clearly different characters, as Scooby thwarts people trying to get land or treasure while most of Marmaduke’s cases are about VHS piracy. Like all of them. It’s a series that managed to be far ahead, then far behind it’s time.

Even as a kid I found Scooby-Doo to be way too formulaic to appeal to me. That being said, we did have the Scooby-Doo meets Batman & Robin special on tape, and we wore that tape out. But I give the show credit for creating the mystery-solvin' teens sub-genre, because without it I wouldn't have been able to read one of my favorite books, Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids.

I've also always heard good things about some of the later Scooby stuff, particularly Mystery Inc.

If I could have used my votes to give Scooby negative points I would have

Scooby ain’t the Scooby Doo character I voted for; and my stance on Lovable Dogs is well established

Also, Mystery Inc is honestly in the top most tier of Warner Brothers cartoons

Scrappy got robbed.

Scooby's okay.

Octopus Prime said:

Scooby ain’t the Scooby Doo character I voted for; and my stance on Lovable Dogs is well established

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At last, another Scrappy fan!