Examples of sidekick, scene-stealers.

T

tpdawkins

New member
It never fails. There seems to be no short supply of characters that can take away the thunder of the main protangonist/antagonist even when they're just the second banana. Look to Aladdin, here we actually have not one, not two, not three or even four but five second banana characters that charm and delight more then their human companions:

Aladdin and Abu have a nice partnership, but who's saving who all the time? Whether it's keeping Aladdin from running into a wall over Jasmine or busting him out of prison, Abu steals the jewels and steals the show.

The Genie: Aladdin has his moments but without the Genie's charisma and mojo, the kid would never have the guts to face his would-be girlfriend.

Iago: Who does all the hard work? The bird. Who takes the brunt of the abuse? The bird. Who helps Aladdin in the second film? Hmm, the red parrot comes to mind.

Rajah: This is the name of Jasmine's tiger and only true friend in the beginning. If he had wanted to, Rajah could have made mence meat out of Aladdin when he kept trying to pester the poor girl. Also, he's probably the perfect foil to everyone in the film except Jafar and the Carpet.

And... Carpet: He does a lot of work to keep his frienRAB alive, keep the Genie company, help Aladdin woo Jasmine and continually put his Arabian fabric on the line for others. I think the only time he was appreciated was when he was frozen into a block of ice. Least to say he's probably one of the more interesting characters... possibly even more than our two leading lovers.

"Look at me, I'm losing to a rug." - Genie quote.
 
Not originally from animation, but Captain Haddock was the first one that came to my mind when I saw this thread. Of course, considering that Tintin himself is a rather bland character, it's no wonder that the more flawed and dynamic Haddock managed to overshadow him through sheer force of personality.
 
John Zoidberg, M.D.

That is all.

Also...Franklin Sherman.

You're pretty much guaranteed entertainment value whenever these two show up.
 
Ron Stoppable from Kim Possible is another one I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned, in season one he was the reason I was even watching the show. He was just so freakin funny. Than season two the series started getting better I'll say, but I wasn't a fan of Kim Possible herself, Ron kept stealing the show. I started liking Kim in maybe season three and four.
 
Scrat from the Ice Age movies.

He's pretty much the ONLY reason to watch the movies, because everything else in the movies is hit or miss. His constant burabling to collect acorns changes the world time and time again. Without him, Ice Age would probably just be pushed into the farthest reaches of our subconscious as that weird animal movie in theaters for a few months.
 
Looney Tunes has a dozen or so of these. First you have characters like Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, and Foghorn Leghorn who all managed to become big names despite debuting as supporting characters. Then you have characters like Yosemite Sam or the Tazmanian Devil who became insanely popular through marketing. And then you have characters who simply outshone the stars whenever they appeared, like Cecil the Turtle or the Do-Do Bird.
 
I agree, I thought Ron and Rufus were more entertaining to watch than Kim herself. With that said, Rufus is also a bit of a scene stealer due to his cartoon antics.
 
The funny thing about that is that I think the writers realized that fact. A lot of the really big episodes--Emotion Sickness, both movies, Graduation--were focused mostly on Ron. Sure, Kim was still the star--though Ron did have to carry signifigant portions of a couple of those episodes--but the focus of each episode was on her and Ron. Thier relationship, thier teamwork, etc. That was one of the things that really stood out about that show.




To add to the general thread....Well, just like most of the Looney Toons characters, in Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain pretty quickly rose from sideshow-status to being stars in their own right.
 
Yah I noticed how season four had a lot of Ron episodes. I'm not sure if Shego counts as a sidekick scene stealer, for she's a villain. I know many fans that watch the series for Shego
 
Back
Top