The most popular explanation for why cartoon characters only have four fingers is all about the animation process, as drawing only four fingers instead of five is a lot easier and thus saves the animators and the studio time and money. this was especially important when cartoons were hand drawn, but even now with technology on their side. Cartoon characters wear gloves for practical reasons. in the early days of animation, black hands couldn't be seen against black bodies in black and white films. white gloves solved this issue.
Have you ever watched your favourite animated tv show and wondered “why do cartoons have 4 fingers?”. there are three key reasons: it’s quicker to draw. it’s easier to draw. it’s cheaper to animate. it’s just more efficient to draw one fewer finger when animating cartoon characters. it still looks relatively natural to the viewer. 0. one strange quirk about animation is that cartoon characters more often than not only have four fingers. mickey mouse, homer simpson, spongebob squarepants, looney tunes, the flintstones, tom. Stripping humanoid cartoons of their fifth digit basically comes down to three things, says channelfrederator. first of all, it’s cheaper, because hands happen to be one of the most difficult. Bugs bunny wears them. so does woody woodpecker, tom (though not jerry), and betty boop’s anthropomorphic doggie pal, bimbo. as vox’s estelle caswell points out above, the choice to glove mickey and his early 20th century cartoon brethren was born of practicality.
Stripping humanoid cartoons of their fifth digit basically comes down to three things, says channelfrederator. first of all, it’s cheaper, because hands happen to be one of the most difficult. Bugs bunny wears them. so does woody woodpecker, tom (though not jerry), and betty boop’s anthropomorphic doggie pal, bimbo. as vox’s estelle caswell points out above, the choice to glove mickey and his early 20th century cartoon brethren was born of practicality. In both japanese made anime and western animation brought to japan, every cartoon character has five fingers, even those with only four digits in their western counterparts, thanks to a language derived cultural aversion to the number four. similar to the number 13 in western culture, four is considered unlucky. You don’t have to worry about details like fingernails and knuckles when you’re drawing good old gloves. animators will take easy where they can get it. hence, the sea of gloved hands in cartoons.
In both japanese made anime and western animation brought to japan, every cartoon character has five fingers, even those with only four digits in their western counterparts, thanks to a language derived cultural aversion to the number four. similar to the number 13 in western culture, four is considered unlucky. You don’t have to worry about details like fingernails and knuckles when you’re drawing good old gloves. animators will take easy where they can get it. hence, the sea of gloved hands in cartoons.
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