How Cartoon Characters Have Changed Over Time

People change as they get older. It's inevitable. Surprisingly, the same can be true for some animated characters. New styles or technologies may arise, different artists or voice actors come along, and, over time, these changes can evolve a character into something almost completely unrecognizable, compared to their humble beginnings.

If you look at drawings of Homer from back in the mid-to-late eighties, you can see that he looked a bit more like an actual person than he does now. His hair was somewhat more realistic, though he was still devastatingly bald, with only a few measly strands on top, and his beard was a bit darker. He wore a suit and a tie, which is something we rarely ever see him wear in the modern incarnation, and his voice was a bit different, as well.

According to Dan Castellaneta, the man who has been voicing Homer for over 30 years, he sounds different in the Tracey Ullman-era shorts than he does in the series because he was originally trying to make him sound like Walter Matthau. This was in keeping with the idea that Homer was something of a stereotypical sitcom dad, which, if you've ever seen the show after season three, you know is just not an accurate description.

Even if you never watched a single episode of Arthur, you may be familiar with the character via the many memes he stars in, including the popular Arthur's Fist meme. If that means nothing to you, here's what's up with Arthur: the titular character of the PBS children's show is an anthropomorphic aardvark, though you wouldn't really know it, to look at him in animated form. He looks more like a tall teddy bear with glasses than an aardvark. Where's his nose?

The show's creator, Marc Brown, actually introduced Arthur in a book called Arthur's Nose, which is where we found the image on the left. Arthur lost his massive, species-appropriate schnoz when he jumped from the pages of a book and onto our television screens. According to Brown, it wasn't anything he planned. He drew the character so many times over 35 years, he just sort of evolved on paper and "he got more lovable" as time went on. That's certainly true: that nose would be enough to frighten any child away from television, and right outside to get some sun, and nobody wants that.

None of the kids from South Park have ever been animated particularly well, but when co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone first started out, the boys looked rough. We first saw Cartman in his animated debut, The Spirit of Christmas, which Parker and Stone created while attending the University of Colorado. If you watch the video, you might notice that while Cartman looks pretty similar to his modern depiction, but he's called Kenny and is the first child to die, followed by the first, "Oh my god! He killed Kenny!" When they finally got a greenlight from Comedy Central to do something a bit more permanent, the characters all got a bit of a makeover.

When they first got started, the animation was done using a process called cutout animation. They literally cut the characters out of sheets of construction paper and glued them together. This is a form of stop-motion animation, and pretty much involves moving sheets of paper about and taking pictures that are later strung together. Even though the modern animation for South Park is done via computers, they have retained the style, so everything still looks kind of like it was made with construction paper — only much more refined and streamlined.

To be fair, Mickey Mouse hasn't gone through too many changes over the years. He still sports the same pants and shoes he wore in his first animated short, Steamboat Willie, all the way back in 1928. His eyes are a little different, and he wears white gloves now, but overall, the character hasn't changed much. What has changed is the style in which he is animated. Back in the 1920s, Steamboat Willie was the technological pinnacle of animation for its day. Not only was it brilliantly animated, it was also the first Disney cartoon to feature synchronized sound, which was a big deal back then.

These days, Mickey is usually rendered by computer, rather than animators slaving away over a drafting table. Because he was one of the first characters ever animated in the traditional sense who made it big and is still being drawn, Mickey represents a unique look into the way animation style has changed over the years. Gone are the flat, monotone images, which have been replaced with three-dimensional representations showing a bit more character and emotion, but still showing the same lovable little mouse we all enjoy forking over thousands of dollars to see make our kids smile ... or cry. Sometimes, those characters in the park can be a bit scary.

Yogi Bear is another classic cartoon character who recently received a CGI makeover, and the results are ... well, they aren't bad, but they aren't that great, either. In cases like Yogi's, you really want to see a cartoon bear, and not something that sort of looks like a real bear. The result is cute and creepy at the same time. Not a good mix for Yogi.

You can see from the image above that the animators remained true to the concept. He's still a bear standing on his hind legs, wearing a collar with a tie, and a hat. There isn't much they could have done to change his appearance, really, short of giving him some CGI khakis.

Here's what might be the creepiest recreation of a beloved animated classic, ever: Papa Smurf. Hollywood, of course, just won't leave our warm and fuzzy nostalgia alone, and gave a CGI makeover to the beloved Smurfs. Are they still little, blue people who wear white hats and shorts? Sure. But do they look how they used to, which is like cute little blue people who had adorable personalities and were fun to watch? Nope!

The modern CGI Smurf, not just poor Papa, is a nightmare come to life. Imagine you are walking through the woods and you find their little village. Instead of the boldly-colored little blue people, you find what amounts to smiling blue monsters who would likely trip you up like Gulliver and slit your throat. Just look at him. Hopefully, Hollywood will leave the poor Snorks alone.