Younger versions of cartoon characters

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Since the 1980s, there have been many famous and well-known animated characters (Scooby-Doo, Bugs Bunny, etc.) appearing in animated television series as either children or younger teenagers.

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[edit] Premise

This trend, often referred to as the "babyfication" of shows, was kicked off by the 1984 series Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, which was based on a sequence in the (live-action) film The Muppets Take Manhattan. An earlier example of younger versions of existing cartoon characters, however, would be Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd from the 1944 cartoon The Old Grey Hare, which features Bugs and Elmer as babies (as well as very old characters).

Examples from comic books are Superboy, who was introduced in 1944's More Fun Comics #101 as the teenage version of Superman; Superboy would eventually be seen in an animated series in the 1960s. There was also Little Archie, which featured the childhood adventures of Archie Comics character Archie Andrews.

A common trait of many of these spinoffs is their habit of breaking whatever semblance of continuity (however minimal or nonexistent it may be) the previous versions of the characters established; for example, the original Flintstones series stated that Fred and Barney first met Wilma and Betty as adults while working at a resort, an assertion backed up by several later episodes/spinoffs (as well as the second live-action Flintstones movie, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas). However, The Flintstone Kids shows them all as having known each other as ten-year-olds. Other differences between the two series include the 1980s-equivalent technology (video games, personal computers, etc.) seen in Kids vs. the 1960s-equivalent technology seen in the original series, as well as there being greater racial diversity in Bedrock in Kids (though other Flintstones spinoffs featuring the characters as adults have also shown a presence of minorities in Bedrock). For these reasons, some animation fans consider most of these "younger version" shows either as apocryphal or as having caused all the series with those characters to have "jumped the shark."

[edit] Television

Television series featuring younger versions of animation characters include:

  • The Flintstone Kids (Hanna-Barbera, 1986): featuring the original cast of The Flintstones (Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty) as ten-year olds. In addition, the show also has backup segments:
    • Flintstone Funnies, a segment in which the characters (similar to Muppet Babies) engage in various imagination-derived "adventures."
    • Captain Caveman... and Son!, featuring Captain Caveman (from Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels), and his son, Cavey Jr.
  • Gadget Boy & Heather (DiC Entertainment, 1995): featuring Inspector Gadget as his younger self, Gadget Boy. There were significant character replacements in this series; the most important ones are:
    • Gadget's niece, Penny, was replaced with his nanny/partner, Heather.
    • The dog Brain was replaced with a shape-shifting robot dog called "G-9."
    • Finally, the original series' villain Dr. Claw was replaced with Spydra, a pink Spider-Man-esque foe.
  • Garfield and Friends briefly parodied the idea in the short "The Automated Animated Adventure", where a cartoon producer fiddles around with Garfield's appearance, at one point turning him into a baby and saying that it's part of "the newest trend in cartoon shows".
  • Ultraman Kids (Tsuburaya Productions): a kid version of the famous Japanese superhero Ultraman (who was created by Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects genius behind some of the classic Godzilla and Mothra movies). The Ultraman Kids originated in merchandising in the early 1980s, and had their own theatrical featurette in 1984. In 1986, the kids starred in a show that taught various morals. In 1992, the child versions of the Ultraman characters appeared in a second TV series that was slightly more action-oriented.

[edit] Comics

Comic books and strips featuring younger versions of animation characters include:

  • Little Archie: featured the adventures of the Archie comics gang as elementary school students.
  • Superboy: featured the adventures of Superman as a teenage superhero defending his home town of Smallville from various threats. Other characters seen in this series include the teenage version of Lana Lang, who made some appearances in the adult Superman stories as well. The series ran from 1944 through 1986, when the traditional version of Superboy was retired. A newer version of Superboy exists in the current Superman comics, but this version is merely a younger clone of Superman.
  • Petey: The Adventures of Peter Parker Long Before He Became Spider-Man, a Fred Hembeck backup feature in Marvel Tales featuring humorous stories of Peter Parker, Flash Thompson, and Betty Brant as children, with Aunt May Parker and Uncle Benjamin Parker. A typical example featured Petey sent by Aunt May to the pharmacy to buy Uncle Ben's medicine and told he can keep the change. not realizing the cost of medicine, he buys sodas for Flash and Betty, only to discover the change from the medicine is a quarter.
  • Little Endless: Child versions of the Endless from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics, originally appearing in the story "A Parliament of Rooks]", illustrated by Jill Thompson, and subsequently in Thompson's graphic novel The Little Endless Storybook
  • X-Babies: Several X-Men stories parodied the concept by having younger versions of the cast created by Mojo.

[edit] Concept albums

There has been one concept album with an accompanying music video DVD on the subject of younger versions of cartoon characters.

[edit] See also

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