Consider the simpler times of Saturday morning cartoons – have you ever observed anything out of the ordinary about the characters? Ever noticed something odd about the characters’ faces, or, more accurately, the lack of them?
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- Mystery Unveiled: Why Cartoon Characters’ Faces Were Hidden From Us
- Here’s the reason why we never saw their faces
Mystery Unveiled: Why Cartoon Characters’ Faces Were Hidden From Us
YouTube Screenshot
No matter how many times you’ve seen Tom and Jerry, Cow and Chicken, or The Powerpuff Girls, there are some characters I guarantee you won’t recognise because we were never given the opportunity to see them.
Let us begin with Tom and Jerry. The cheeky pair was always running around the house wreaking havoc, much to Mammy Two Shoes’ chagrin.
The figure would frequently chastise Tom for his misbehaviour, but we only ever saw the bottom of her legs while she did so.
Then there’s Cow and Chicken. There isn’t enough time in the world to ponder why the two animals were siblings living in a house rather than on a farm, so let’s skip ahead to their parents, who were, even more perplexingly, humans.
We never saw their faces, but we did see two pairs of legs, one in a spotted skirt and the other in green trousers. It definitely wouldn’t have surprised anyone to hear that their top halves were a cow and a chicken, but we’ll never know for sure.
The Powerpuff Girls round out the list. Ms Bellum, the Mayor’s secretary and deputy, was one person we never got a close look at in this cartoon, despite the fact that the main characters were lovely little girls themselves.
Ms Bellum was seen for the most part, but her long red hair always obscured her face, making her an enigma to spectators.
So, the true question is, why did we never see their faces? There are a few possibilities.
Here’s the reason why we never saw their faces
YouTube Screengrab
Many cartoons were frequently shown from the perspective of an animal or a child. That is, if they looked straight ahead, they would only see the lower half of an adult, not their face.
Consider how much time cats spend twirling around your legs – Tom didn’t need to see what Mammy Two Shoes’ face looked like; he only needed to know when she was storming into the room so he could try to get out of whatever mess he was in.
Another reason for keeping the characters’ faces out of frame is that they didn’t always make frequent appearances, therefore there was rarely a need for the cartoonists to construct full looks for them, only to be used once or twice.
Finally, if every figure is represented in full, children may struggle to keep track of them all.
By obscuring certain faces, the attention remained on the show’s stars and allowed for more straightforward storytelling – it also meant that the writers could easily adjust the script for the grown-ups if necessary, without having to reanimate the entire thing.
Some of these characters’ faces did receive a brief moment in the spotlight in one or two episodes – and I’m talking a couple of seconds if they were lucky – so if you were a die-hard fan, you might recognise them.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn