You'll Be Shocked By These Facts About Your Fave Animated Characters

As someone who’s spent countless hours binge-watching cartoons and documentaries about their creation, I find these behind-the-scenes tidbits absolutely fascinating! It’s mind-boggling to think that Squidward, our favorite cephalopod intellectual, almost had eight tentacles instead of six.

He lives in a pineapple under the sea. Absorbent and yellow and porous is he.

But while SpongeBob SquarePants is, in fact, very much a sponge that wears square pants, all is not as it seems in Bikini Bottom.

Stephen Hillenburg, in a 2005 interview with Jean-Michel Cousteau, confessed that when he developed SpongeBob, he used a great deal of artistic freedom. He explained that having the main character remain stationary and resembling a blob wasn’t particularly engaging to watch.

Still, he continued, “I always think of SpongeBob as being a real sponge, he’s just square.” (Also his charming underwater town is inspired by a very real atoll in the Pacific Ocean that the United States used to test nuclear weapons during the Cold War era.)

Though my moniker may imply I’m a cephalopod like a squid, I, in truth, am not. In fact, I am a curious and somewhat grumpy octopus who shares the underwater world with SpongeBob and resides next door to the Krusty Krab.

In the provided video, Hillenburg shared that he found the octopus appealing for its big, rounded head, which he believed suited Squidward’s character as an intellectual. After all, if Squidward considers himself intelligent, it makes sense that his head would be large and distinctive.

According to Hillenburg, it was easier for the animators to depict the character with six legs rather than eight due to simplicity.

Mind blown? We get it.

If you’re interested in discovering some surprising truths about your beloved cartoon characters, we’ve got you covered! After finding out that Hello Kitty isn’t actually a feline and Goofy is not just any dog (even though he is a canine), our curiosity led us on an exciting journey through the vastness of the internet to unravel these mysteries.

“Fans were left scratching their heads following the announcement that Hello Kitty is not actually a cat but a girl from London. This clarification was made by Jill Cook, an executive at Sanrio, who stated that Hello Kitty has parents, a twin sister named Mimmy, and enjoys baking cookies and making friends. Previously, Christine R. Yano, a professor of anthropology, had also confirmed that Hello Kitty is not a feline.”

Wow, did you find that fascinating? You probably didn’t know this trivia: For years, Bill Farmer, the man behind Goofy’s voice, has shared an interesting reason why Goofy can speak while Mickey Mouse’s dog Pluto remains silent.

In the August 2024 episode of Popcorn Podcast with Leigh Livingstone and Tim Iffland, it was revealed that Goofy isn’t actually a dog, but rather he belongs to the canine family. It’s similar to how a wolf isn’t a dog, but they are both part of the canine family, so you could say Goofy is a “canis goofus” or a “man-dog,” short for “mixed-origin goofy.”

However, Pluto, he added, is a “regular dog”—a blood hound as it turns out.

In the animated series “SpongeBob SquarePants,” its creator Stephen Hillenburg once disclosed that Squidward Tentacles is actually an octopus, not a squid. He explained this in a 2005 video unearthed by BuzzFeed. According to Hillenburg, the choice of making Squidward an octopus was due to the fact that they have large, bulbous heads, which aligns with Squidward’s perception of himself as an intellectual and his belief in his own intelligence. However, if you’re questioning how Squidward can be an octopus when he has six legs instead of eight, Hillenburg provided an explanation for that as well: it was simpler for the animators to draw him with fewer tentacles.

Break out your handy dandy notebook and jot this one down.

It turns out that one surprising fact about the character Blue from the show is that he was originally designed as a cat, according to co-creator Angela Santomero in a 2006 special called “Behind the Clues: 10 Years With Blue,” which Mental Floss recently rediscovered. At first, they named him Mr. Orange, but then they changed their minds and decided on Mr. Blue instead.

However, it’s worth noting that prior to this, Nickelodeon had been developing a series centered around a cat character. This pre-existing project prompted the animation team to abandon their initial concept for Blue and instead transform him into a canine character.

It’s quite interesting to know that the creator of Doug Funnie from the beloved series “Doug” originally considered naming him Brian. Jim Jinkins explained in an interview with HuffPost TV back in 2014 that he found Brian too fancy, so he simplified it and started calling him Doug instead. The name Doug, as he put it, perfectly conveyed an average, everyday perspective – exactly what he aimed to express through the character.

This fact is so good it’s scary.

In Monsters, Inc.: An Augmented Reality Book, the name of Boo—the little girl who accidentally ends up in Monstropolis and befriends monsters Mike and Sulley—is revealed to be Mary Gibbs, according to BuzzFeed. And if the name sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the real-life moniker of the actress who provided the voice of Boo.

Need more proof? In the movie, there’s actually a scene where Boo is sorting through some of her drawings and fans can spot the name “Mary” scribbled at the top of one of the pieces of paper.

Regarding names, although Minnie Mouse is frequently known as Mickey Mouse’s girlfriend, it came to light in 1942, as reported by the BBC, that her complete name is Minerva.

2024-08-31 10:17

You’ll Be Shocked By These Facts About Your Fave Animated Characters

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