99 Fun Facts About Cartoon

Which marine-science educator created SpongeBob SquarePants?

Stephen Hillenburg taught marine science before animation; his inspiration was The Intertidal Zone, an educational comic he drew in the 1980s while teaching.

Which Hanna-Barbera series, running on ABC from 1960 to 1966, was the first animated sitcom in US prime time?

The Flintstones was such a hit that it set off a brief fad for evening cartoons, with Top Cat and The Jetsons following it onto ABC's schedule within two years.

In the Scooby-Doo franchise, what breed is the talking dog who travels with four teenage sleuths?

Great Dane: designer Iwao Takamoto asked a breeder what made a prize-winner, then drew Scooby-Doo as the opposite, with bowed legs and a back that is anything but straight.

What is the name of the brightly painted van driven by the teenage sleuths in Scooby-Doo?

The Mystery Machine suits a show built to a network brief: executive Fred Silverman wanted a cross between the old radio serial I Love a Mystery and a teen sitcom.

The Simpsons began as animated shorts around the ad breaks of which variety programme?

The Simpsons debuted as shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show on 19 April 1987, after producer James L. Brooks asked cartoonist Matt Groening to pitch animated bumpers for the programme.

What is the name of The Simpsons' fictional hometown, one of the most common US place names?

Springfield was borrowed from a real town near Matt Groening's childhood home, and he liked that the name was so common that viewers everywhere would assume it was theirs.

Which 1928 animated short is considered the official debut of Mickey Mouse?

Steamboat Willie was built as a fully synchronised sound cartoon after its producer saw The Jazz Singer; the earlier Mickey films Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho had failed to find a distributor.

Which Hollywood studio produced the original Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts, beginning in 1940?

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's cartoon unit released the first short, Puss Gets the Boot, in 1940; William Hanna and Joseph Barbera made the series there for nearly two decades before founding their own studio.

Which voice actor originated the voice of Bugs Bunny?

Mel Blanc first voiced the rabbit as a manic 1938 prototype and later reused its laugh for Woody Woodpecker, whose debut was written by the man who had directed that early rabbit.

Betty Boop, first drawn by animator Grim Natwick, debuted in 1930 at the cartoon studio run by which producer?

Max Fleischer's studio introduced her in Dizzy Dishes, where Grim Natwick drew her as a dog; by 1932 the floppy ears had turned into her hoop earrings.

Bugs Bunny's definitive personality first appeared in which Oscar-nominated 1940 short?

A Wild Hare rebuilt the studio's rabbit: the 1938 prototype was a loud, zany heckler, while this one coolly munches a carrot as he greets the man hunting him.

Which Looney Tunes character stutters the closing line 'That's all, folks!'?

Porky Pig got the stutter from his first voice actor, Joe Dougherty, who really had one; he could not control it, sessions ran for hours, and the studio replaced him in 1937.

Which Looney Tunes bird, often taken for a girl, is in fact male?

Tweety is male, despite the long lashes: he was a pink, featherless chick in his first three cartoons until censors insisted he be given feathers.

Wile E. Coyote mail-orders his rockets, anvils and traps from which company?

Acme is Greek for the highest point, and in the 1920s real firms took the name to sit at the front of alphabetical phone books; the cartoons use it ironically for gear that always fails.

Which Looney Tunes star appeared in three Oscar-winning shorts, outscoring Bugs Bunny's single win?

Sylvester's three winners came in 1947, 1955 and 1957; the first ended Tom and Jerry's run of four straight Oscars and gave Warner's cartoon studio its first.

Which Looney Tunes villain, drawn without a mouth, first menaced Bugs Bunny in 1948's Haredevil Hare?

Marvin the Martian wears the helmet and skirt of Mars, the god his planet is named after; Chuck Jones thought the outfit would look funny on an ant-like creature.

Foghorn Leghorn is what kind of animal?

A rooster, and a Leghorn at that: his surname is a real breed of chicken, named after the Italian port of Livorno, which was long known in English as Leghorn.

Which Looney Tunes star did Cartoon Network shelve in 1999 as an ethnic stereotype, then restore in 2002 after fans campaigned?

Speedy Gonzales, 'the fastest mouse in all Mexico', found a defender in the League of United Latin American Citizens, which called him a cultural icon as fans lobbied for his return.

Which speech quirk is Elmer Fudd famous for?

He replaces R and L with W, so rabbits become 'wabbits'; in a 1957 opera spoof he even sings 'Kill the wabbit' to the tune of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.

Which 1919 cartoon character became silent-era animation's first major star?

Felix the Cat debuted in 1919's Feline Follies and ruled the silent screen, but his studio was slow to embrace sound and Mickey Mouse's talkies quickly eclipsed him.

Which producer's studio created Woody Woodpecker, released through Universal from 1940?

Walter Lantz's studio launched Woody in 1940's Knock Knock; a decade later Lantz's wife, Grace Stafford, slipped an unnamed tape into the auditions for the bird's voice, and he picked it without knowing.

Which Hanna-Barbera character debuted in 1958 as a supporting act before landing his own show?

Yogi Bear outgrew his slot and got his own show in 1961; baseball's Yogi Berra sued over the name, then dropped the case after the studio insisted any resemblance was a coincidence.

Which Hanna-Barbera dog fronted the first cartoon series to win an Emmy, in 1960?

Huckleberry Hound's show took the award for children's programming; the blue hound's drawl was second-hand, since Daws Butler had already used it for a wolf in the Droopy cartoons.

Who is Fred Flintstone's daughter?

Pebbles was born to Fred and Wilma in a 1963 episode; soon afterwards the Rubbles found Bamm-Bamm left on their doorstep and adopted him, and in later spin-offs the two grow up and marry.

George Jetson's family lives in the Skypad Apartments in which futuristic town?

Orbit City stands on tall adjustable columns high above the ground; its swooping look copies Googie, the space-age style of 1950s Californian coffee shops and motels.

Hanna-Barbera's Top Cat parodied which live-action sitcom about a scheming army sergeant?

The Phil Silvers Show's fast-talking Sgt. Bilko was the model for Top Cat; the cartoon flopped in prime time, lasting one season, then found its audience through years of Saturday-morning reruns.

Which Charles Schulz dog inspired Snoopy and shares his desert-dwelling brother's name?

Spike was the family dog, and he gave the teenage Schulz an early break: in 1937 Ripley's Believe It or Not! published his drawing of the pet in its newspaper feature.

Which food does Garfield love above all others?

Lasagna has been his favourite since birth: Jim Davis has Garfield born in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant, where he ate so much that the owner had to sell him to a pet shop.

Popeye first appeared in 1929 in a comic strip called what?

Thimble Theatre, E. C. Segar's strip, was in its tenth year when Popeye walked in on 17 January 1929; the sailor quickly took over as its star.

What is Donald Duck's middle name?

Fauntleroy is spelled out on his call-up papers in 1942's Donald Gets Drafted; it is thought to nod to Little Lord Fauntleroy, since boys' 'Fauntleroy' outfits often meant a sailor suit and hat like his.

Goofy debuted in 1932 under what earlier name?

Dippy Dawg was just a face in the crowd in 1932's Mickey's Revue, but his braying laugh made such an impression that the studio kept bringing him back until he became Goofy.

What is Bart Simpson's full first name?

Bartholomew JoJo Simpson is the full name; Matt Groening named the rest of the family after his own relatives, but for the son he chose 'Bart' because it is an anagram of 'brat'.

Which instrument does Lisa Simpson play?

Lisa Simpson plays the baritone saxophone; in the opening credits she is thrown out of band practice for improvising a solo on it.

At which restaurant does SpongeBob work as a fry cook?

The Krusty Krab is drawn in the shape of a lobster trap, and its fry cook has a real-life echo: the show's creator spent summers after high school as a fry cook and lobster boiler.

Where does Patrick Star live in Bikini Bottom?

Under a rock is often read as a pun on the idiom for being oblivious, which suits a starfish his creator described as probably the dumbest guy in town.

Despite his name, Squidward Tentacles is actually what kind of sea creature?

An octopus he is, though usually drawn with six limbs because that was simpler to animate; the name stuck because, as his voice actor put it, 'Octoward' just didn't work.

Winnie-the-Pooh was named partly after a real bear that A. A. Milne and his son saw where?

Winnie was a black bear at London Zoo, brought from Canada by a Winnipeg soldier; Christopher Robin's teddy came from Harrods, and the first Pooh story ran in the Evening News on Christmas Eve 1925.

Which character first appeared in the second Winnie-the-Pooh book, 'The House at Pooh Corner' (1928)?

Tigger bounced in with 1928's The House at Pooh Corner; like Piglet and Eeyore he was one of Christopher Robin's real stuffed toys, which crossed the Atlantic and now sit in the New York Public Library.

What are Casper the Friendly Ghost's three wicked uncles known as collectively?

The Ghostly Trio, first named Fatso, Fusso and Lazo, are the scare-loving foils to a hero who began life as an unpublished children's story before Paramount's cartoon studio put him on screen.

Which member of the Scooby-Doo gang is forever losing a pair of glasses?

Velma's short sight is a running gag, her glasses flying off mid-chase; the gang was modelled on the teens of the sitcom Dobie Gillis, with Velma based on its brainy Zelda.

Scrappy-Doo, added to the Scooby-Doo franchise in 1979, is Scooby's what?

Scrappy-Doo is Scooby's nephew, introduced in 1979 to rescue the show's sinking ratings; Lennie Weinrib voiced him first, then Don Messick, who also voiced Scooby.

Who is Perry the Platypus's nemesis in Phineas and Ferb?

Dr. Doofenshmirtz is voiced by series co-creator Dan Povenmire; his foe was made a platypus because so little is commonly known about the animal that the writers could make things up.

In Dexter's Laboratory, which sibling keeps ruining the boy genius's experiments?

His sister Dee Dee came first: the show's creator drew a tall, skinny dancing girl for a student film, then invented a short, blocky scientist brother as her exact opposite.

Peppa Pig, first broadcast in 2004, comes from which country?

The UK's Peppa Pig crossed the Atlantic so thoroughly that American parents have reported their toddlers picking up British accents and phrases from the show.

Pikachu's tail is shaped like what?

Pikachu's tail is a lightning bolt, fitting an Electric-type; many fans swear its tip is black, a false memory common enough to be a stock example of the 'Mandela effect'.

What is the name of Charlie Brown's little sister in Peanuts?

Sally was born off-panel in May 1959, when Charlie Brown rushed out to hand round chocolate cigars; she did not actually appear in the strip until that August.

Daffy Duck was created by which two animators for Leon Schlesinger Productions?

Tex Avery and Bob Clampett unveiled him in 1937's Porky's Duck Hunt, Avery directing and Clampett animating; Clampett recalled audiences leaving theatres talking about 'this daffy duck'.

In the 1963 film that spawned the cartoon character, what is 'The Pink Panther'?

In the 1963 film the Pink Panther is a flawed diamond whose flaw, held to the light, resembles a leaping panther; the animated cat was created for the opening credits.

Which Homer Simpson exclamation entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2001?

D'oh! was scripted only as a grunt; Dan Castellaneta borrowed the drawn-out groan of Laurel and Hardy foil James Finlayson, and Matt Groening asked him to shorten it.

What is Shaggy's real first name in Scooby-Doo?

Norville Rogers was voiced by radio DJ Casey Kasem, a committed vegan who quit in a dispute over a Burger King commercial and returned in 2002 only once Shaggy was made a vegetarian.

Which Looney Tunes catchphrase began as everyday slang in its writer's native Texas?

'What's up, Doc?' struck its writer as nothing special, just a common greeting at his Dallas high school, yet it became the rabbit's signature line.

What is the name of SpongeBob SquarePants's pet snail?

Gary only meows like a cat, yet he is the brains of the household, often solving problems SpongeBob cannot; Tom Kenny, SpongeBob's own voice, supplies the meows.

Which short brought Tom and Jerry their first Academy Award, for 1943?

The Yankee Doodle Mouse is a wartime spoof in which Jerry pelts Tom with egg 'hen-grenades' and signs off with a mock communiqué, 'Send more cats!'; it won the first of the pair's seven Oscars.

Who voiced Mickey Mouse in his earliest sound cartoons?

Walt Disney voiced Mickey himself from 1928 until 1947, when running the studio left him no time for recording sessions and he handed the part to sound-effects man Jimmy MacDonald.

What is the name of Popeye the Sailor's longtime girlfriend?

Olive Oyl was in the strip for nine years before Popeye, engaged to a layabout called Ham Gravy; within about a year of the sailor's 1929 arrival, Ham had been written out.

Which actor provides the voice for the ogre Shrek in the popular animated film series?

Chris Farley had recorded most of the part before his death; DreamWorks re-cast Mike Myers in 1998, and he insisted on a full script rewrite so no trace of Farley's version remained.

Which studio produced the groundbreaking 1995 film "Toy Story"?

Pixar Animation Studios nearly lost the film in 1993, when a story reel showed Disney executives a Woody so nasty that Tom Hanks called the character a jerk; production stopped until the script was rebuilt.

Which bow-wearing cartoon character debuted in 1928 in the same short as her sweetheart?

Minnie Mouse shared Mickey's 1928 debut but waited far longer for recognition: her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame came in 2018, forty years after his.

Which 1964 Hanna-Barbera series follows a boy adventurer with bodyguard Race Bannon and bulldog Bandit?

Jonny Quest began as a job to adapt radio hero Jack Armstrong; its comic-book designer instead built a new boy adventurer, drawing on Terry and the Pirates and, at Joe Barbera's urging, the Bond film Dr. No.

Super Friends was based on which DC superhero team?

Justice League heroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman led the show; its invented sidekicks, two teenagers and a dog, were later swapped for the super-powered Wonder Twins.

Schoolhouse Rock! began because an ad executive's son could memorise which band's lyrics but not his times tables?

The Rolling Stones: ad executive David McCall saw his son sing their lyrics yet fail at multiplication, so he hired jazz pianist Bob Dorough to set the tables to music.

Scooby-Doo was named after which singer's 'doo-be-doo-be-doo' scat?

Frank Sinatra's ad-lib at the end of Strangers in the Night caught network executive Fred Silverman's ear on a red-eye flight, so he renamed the dog and made him the star.

Which studio, also behind the Masters of the Universe cartoons, animated Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids?

Filmation kept nearly all its animation work in the United States while rivals sent theirs overseas, a point of pride that left it with higher costs.

The Smurfs cartoon that ran on NBC from 1981 to 1989 was based on comics by which Belgian artist?

Peyo said the word 'schtroumpf' popped out at dinner when he blanked on the word for salt and asked a friend to pass 'the schtroumpf'; the joke stuck, and Dutch turned it into 'smurf'.

Toddler versions of Kermit and friends first appeared in a dream sequence in which 1984 film?

The Muppets Take Manhattan showed the gang as toddlers in a brief fantasy sequence, and about two months later the babies had their own Saturday-morning cartoon, Muppet Babies.

Garfield and Friends (1988-94) paired the cat with which other Jim Davis comic strip?

U.S. Acres, Jim Davis's farmyard strip about a pig and his barnyard friends, stopped running in 1989, so its cartoon segments on Garfield and Friends outlived the strip itself by five years.

The Bugs Bunny Show opened with Bugs and which co-star singing its theme song, 'This Is It'?

Daffy Duck shares the opening number with Bugs; a Saturday-morning fixture for decades, the show had begun in 1960 as an evening series on ABC.

Which composer wrote the Pink Panther's slinky jazz theme?

Henry Mancini wrote it for the 1963 film, whose cartoon title sequence was animated in time to the tune; the pink cat was then spun off into shorts of his own, and the first won an Oscar.

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which turtle wears a purple mask and fights with a bo staff?

Donatello's purple is a television invention: the 1987 cartoon introduced the colour-coded masks, the catchphrases and the love of pizza to a comic that had begun as a superhero parody.

Which 1990 programming block, later dominated by Power Rangers, made its network's Saturday mornings a hit?

Fox Kids launched in September 1990 and needed no help from its biggest hit: early in 1993 X-Men made Fox the top-rated network with children on Saturday mornings, months before Power Rangers arrived.

Rocky and Bullwinkle hail from which fictional Minnesota town?

Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, is the pair's hometown, said to be modelled on the real International Falls, one of the coldest spots in the lower 48.

Rocky and Bullwinkle's bumbling spies Boris and Natasha serve which fictional country?

Pottsylvania is the sinister make-believe nation run by Fearless Leader; its top agent, Boris Badenov, takes his accent and temper from the Hollywood character actor Akim Tamiroff.

In Animaniacs, the Warner siblings were locked away for decades inside which studio landmark?

The water tower on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank is the real structure; in the show the 1930s Warner siblings were locked inside it for being too zany until 1993.

What is the name of Yakko and Wakko's sister in Animaniacs?

Dot, who insists her full name is Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca the Third, is the youngest Warner sibling; Tress MacNeille voices her.

Rugrats was the second of Nickelodeon's original three 1991 cartoon series; which was first?

Doug went out first on 11 August 1991, ahead of Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show; creator Jim Jinkins had first pitched his alter ego as a children's book that every publisher turned down.

The 2003 third Rugrats film was a crossover with which other Klasky Csupo series?

The Wild Thornberrys crossover let the Pickles family dog speak, voiced by Bruce Willis, because Eliza Thornberry can talk to animals; cinemas also handed out scratch-and-sniff cards.

Craig McCracken's festival short that became The Powerpuff Girls had what title?

Whoopass Stew! was Craig McCracken's CalArts student film; its heroines were the Whoopass Girls until he joined Hanna-Barbera and renamed them for the What a Cartoon! showcase.

The Ren & Stimpy Show ran fake commercials for which nonexistent toy?

Log was the best known of the show's fake ads, which stood in for real commercial breaks and spoofed the old habit of building a cartoon around its sponsor's product.

Adventure Time's Land of Ooo was ravaged a thousand years earlier by what conflict?

The Mushroom War was a nuclear war a thousand years before the series, which is why a kids' fantasy show quietly sits atop a post-apocalyptic Earth.

Before Cartoon Network picked it up, the Adventure Time pilot aired in 2007 on which channel?

Nicktoons aired the Frederator-produced short; after it went viral Nickelodeon passed on a series, and Cartoon Network commissioned Adventure Time, which premiered in April 2010.

In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang and Appa spent a century frozen in an iceberg near where?

The iceberg sat in the waters near the South Pole, where Southern Water Tribe siblings Katara and Sokka found Aang a hundred years after he fled his duties.

Which tea-loving uncle accompanies the exiled Prince Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender?

Iroh was voiced by the veteran actor Mako until his death in 2006; the series dedicated the episode 'The Tales of Ba Sing Se' to him, and Greg Baldwin took over the role.

The town of Gravity Falls, home of the Mystery Shack, is set in which US state?

Gravity Falls is in Oregon; twins Dipper and Mabel are shipped there from Piedmont, California, creator Alex Hirsch's own hometown.

Gravity Falls villain Bill Cipher, a top-hatted dream demon, takes what form?

Bill Cipher is a one-eyed yellow triangle echoing the Eye of Providence; in 2016 Alex Hirsch hid a real statue of him in the woods and sent fans on a worldwide 'Cipher Hunt' to find it.

South Park grew out of two animated shorts by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, from 1992 and 1995, both titled what?

The 1995 The Spirit of Christmas became one of the first viral internet videos, which is what got the series made.

Harley Quinn, created for Batman: The Animated Series, has what real name?

Harleen Quinzel, an Arkham psychiatrist, was meant for a single 1992 episode, 'Joker's Favor'; the name nods to the Harlequin of commedia dell'arte, whose costume she borrows.

Which Star Wars actor voiced the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series?

Mark Hamill got the part second-hand: Tim Curry was cast first and recorded several episodes before the producers replaced him.

Courage the Cowardly Dog lives with Muriel and Eustace on a farm outside which Kansas town?

Nowhere, Kansas, is the town; despite the name it is a magnet for aliens, zombies and monsters, most of them drawn to the Bagge farmhouse.

Courage the Cowardly Dog's pilot lost the 1996 animated-short Oscar to a film starring which duo?

Wallace and Gromit won with A Close Shave, beating 'The Chicken from Outer Space'; the same film introduced Shaun the Sheep, who went on to a series of his own.

In Hey Arnold!, which classmate bullies Arnold while secretly being in love with him?

Helga Pataki hides her crush behind insults; creator Craig Bartlett built the show's city, Hillwood, from the Seattle of his childhood with touches of Portland and Brooklyn.

Craig Bartlett created Arnold in clay shorts while animating for which 1980s live-action children's show?

Pee-wee's Playhouse hired Bartlett to animate its clay 'Penny' cartoons in 1987; his own Arnold shorts followed, and the third aired on Sesame Street before Nickelodeon came calling.

The Brain's voice in Pinky and the Brain mainly imitates which Hollywood legend?

Orson Welles is the model: voice actor Maurice LaMarche kept his voice warm in sessions by parroting Welles's bad-tempered outtakes from a frozen-peas advert, and the rant ended up in a cartoon.

Wile E. Coyote was inspired by a scrawny, ever-hungry coyote described by which American author?

Mark Twain's Roughing It calls the coyote 'a living, breathing allegory of Want'; animator Chuck Jones said he found his character in that chapter, a creature forever chasing a meal.

Which Terrytoons superhero, first pitched as a housefly called Super Fly, debuted in 1942?

Mighty Mouse began as story man Izzy Klein's Superman spoof about a fly; studio boss Paul Terry swapped the insect for a mouse, who debuted as Super Mouse before being renamed.

Which 1960s cartoon superhero speaks only in rhyming verse?

Underdog was built to sell: ad men on the General Mills account created him and his studio's other cartoons to push breakfast cereal, and character actor Wally Cox gave him his voice.

Speed Racer was adapted from a 1960s Japanese anime originally titled what?

Mach GoGoGo sprang from two Western hits: creator Tatsuo Yoshida borrowed the racing driver Elvis Presley played in Viva Las Vegas and the gadget-packed cars of the James Bond films.

In Speed Racer, the masked Racer X is secretly Speed's older brother; what is his first name?

Rex Racer left the family after wrecking a racing car his father had built, then came back to the track behind a mask as Racer X.

Which manga artist created Astro Boy, known in Japan as Mighty Atom?

Osamu Tezuka, the 'god of manga', began Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom) in 1952; his 1963 TV adaptation was the first popular Japanese animated series and set the template for anime.

In Bluey, what is Bandit Heeler's profession?

Bandit is an archaeologist, a job borrowed from creator Joe Brumm's older brother Adam, a real archaeologist; Chilli, by contrast, works part-time in airport security.