As I'm currently celebrating yet another birthday, I thought this might make for an interesting discussion thread:
1. What cliches are associated with birthdays in cartoons?
2. Are there any cartoon characters explicitly stated as being a specific age (not fan-theory "Batman's *clearly* 40-something becauses it must be xyz months after episode ", or the generic "thirty-something" most adult cartoon characters seem to be at)?
3. Finally: are there any cartoon characters explicitly shown as having aged over the course of a series (or various spinoffs/related series)?
To kick things off:
1. A few cliches I can think of:
- The "surprise birthday party"--- the cast tries to throw a birthday party as a surprise, and treat the main character badly. Said character gets upset at feeling ignored, and goes off to do other stuff/runs away/otherwise made at the others; eventually (after a misadventure), all is resolved. Seen in "the Flintstones" and "Fairly Odd Parents" (the Chip Skylark episode he's introduced in, where Timmy thinks everyone forgot his birthday).
- In action cartoons, a villain or villains showing up during some sort of birthday celebration (though more common for them to crash weddings), or send some sort of malevolent "gift" to the hero. The Powerpuff Girls did this one, IIRC, as did Superman (see: "For the Man Who Has Everything").
- The characters having a birthday on an unusual day (Superman's birthday for some years was stated as being on February 29th, while Homer Simpson's birthday was "the same day as the dog's").
2. The Simpsons stick with stating Bart is 10, Lisa is 8 and Maggie 1, though they've kept altering the ages of Homer and Marge over the years (early episodes stating Marge is 34 and Homer 36, then both of them being 38, then that Thomas Edison episode claiming Homer's 39).
3. If the spinoffs count, would have to assume the elder Flintstone characters would've aged (with Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm going from infants to teenagers to adults with kids of their own).
-B.
1. What cliches are associated with birthdays in cartoons?
2. Are there any cartoon characters explicitly stated as being a specific age (not fan-theory "Batman's *clearly* 40-something becauses it must be xyz months after episode ", or the generic "thirty-something" most adult cartoon characters seem to be at)?
3. Finally: are there any cartoon characters explicitly shown as having aged over the course of a series (or various spinoffs/related series)?
To kick things off:
1. A few cliches I can think of:
- The "surprise birthday party"--- the cast tries to throw a birthday party as a surprise, and treat the main character badly. Said character gets upset at feeling ignored, and goes off to do other stuff/runs away/otherwise made at the others; eventually (after a misadventure), all is resolved. Seen in "the Flintstones" and "Fairly Odd Parents" (the Chip Skylark episode he's introduced in, where Timmy thinks everyone forgot his birthday).
- In action cartoons, a villain or villains showing up during some sort of birthday celebration (though more common for them to crash weddings), or send some sort of malevolent "gift" to the hero. The Powerpuff Girls did this one, IIRC, as did Superman (see: "For the Man Who Has Everything").
- The characters having a birthday on an unusual day (Superman's birthday for some years was stated as being on February 29th, while Homer Simpson's birthday was "the same day as the dog's").
2. The Simpsons stick with stating Bart is 10, Lisa is 8 and Maggie 1, though they've kept altering the ages of Homer and Marge over the years (early episodes stating Marge is 34 and Homer 36, then both of them being 38, then that Thomas Edison episode claiming Homer's 39).
3. If the spinoffs count, would have to assume the elder Flintstone characters would've aged (with Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm going from infants to teenagers to adults with kids of their own).
-B.
