Poor Characters In Animation

U

ubss1990

New member
There have been countless animated programs created over the years, but I?ve noticed that poor characters are seldom depicted in them. The ones that do often have the characters mocked and ridiculed, or otherwise portrayed negatively, for their economic situation. I could cite ?South Park? as an example, due to the way that Kenny and his family have been mocked over the years, but that series is meant to offend and I believe that it would be best to focus on other shows. For that reason, I?m going to go with ?The Fairly OddParents? and how they have portrayed Chester McBadbat; it?s been a long time since I actually sat down and watched that series, but I distinctly recall several episodes that drastically exaggerated his family?s lack of wealth and had them portrayed as a bunch of dirty hicks.

Why aren?t poor characters shown in a more positive light in animation? It seems that BS&P are concerned about preaching tolerance and making sure no children are alienated for one reason or another, but when it comes to being poor, it doesn?t seem to matter. Granted, being rich is something that is often mocked and ridiculed as well, but wealth seems to be more understandable to mock than the lack thereof. I don?t wish for this thread to become a list thread, but out of curiosity, I feel the need to ask. Are there any animated programs that actually portray poor characters in a positive light?
 
Not to sound like former president Clinton, but I think part of it depends on how one defines poor. Several series, such as The Flintstones depict the main character(s)' weekly struggle to make an honest living for themselves.

If by "poor" you're in terms of impoverished, then I've seen very few examples of characters who were desperately poor to the point where they were almost homeless. Most of the time, cartoon writers choose not to depict the impoverished at all, except for the occasional "very special episode".

In the writers/producers defense, the majority of extremely wealthy characters are similarly usually portrayed in a negative light. The chief exceptions being Richie Rich and Eddie Lawrence of the defunct Class of 3000.
 
I don?t believe that counts. Fred and Wilma weren?t poor. In fact, they seemed to be doing rather well for themselves from time to time.

I understand that they?re seldom portrayed, which is the reason that I made this thread, but characters such as Chester are an example of them being portrayed negatively. I suppose that Cletus from ?The Simpsons? could also be used as an example, although he is more-or-less poking fun at southern stereotypes instead of poor people.

I made note of that.
 
Except for characters like Snuffy Smith or Li'l Abner (who are mostly hillbilly stereotypes), no examples of the financially challenged come to mind at the moment. Except for the already mentioned Kenny McCormick on South Park, I can't think of any cases in which a characters' abject poverty was played for laughs.
 
Don't know if this counts, but in the Tiny Toons episode "Citizen Max", during the flashback, we see that Max was actually a happy child (and friends with Buster!) when he was dirt poor and homeless. When he struck it rich, he became a self-centered jerk.
 
In most cartoons, no one is ever really depicted as poverty stricken. If there are extremely wealthy characters, they may refer to those that are lower-middle class as poor, but they're not living outta cardboard boxes and crap. Like Veronica Lodge..she calls everyone else poor, period. I guess it's just too sensitive a subject for cartoons that aren't adult geared.
 
Tokyo Godfathers is a great movie about homelessness and poverty in Japan. It's made even more brilliant and subversive given that it would have been illegal to film it in live-action.
 
Japan's laws about filming on the streets are ridiculously strict and there was no way Kon would be allowed to do it. I guess they could have made it with fake studio sets, but it wouldn't offer the immersion of either on-location filming or animation.
 
There was one if not a few eps in Animaniacs that were about the homeless. There were a few times the Warners were seen as poor homeless orphans (In Wakko's Wish that was the plot). In A! there was an ep about a man (the man who tried to make it rich off of the singing Frog) who found a used up piece of wrapping paper for his son's toy, they were living in thier car behind an alley. Rita and Runt were always homeless but not poversh. They had an ep about a family trying to escape the Nazis and it depeicted a bombed city.

Thugnificent from the Boondocks came from a dirt poor town were nobody had enough money to wear cloths. This is the only other show that covers the poor issue and a cultral issues relating around poverty...even if it's not tacken as seriously as it should be.

In most shows, they really don't cover the idea of poverty, but they give the characters high spirits because they're not forced down by the pressures of having the money and they have things that matter most to them, family. Be thankful for what you have.
 
This thread seems to be mostly about cartoon series, but there are some animated movies with poor characters.

Off the top of my head:

Aladin
An American Tale


I'm sure there are others.
 
Stinky Peterssen in Hey Arnold! was depicted as a poor person, living with his dad in an old shack. Allthough not many episodes centered around him, he seemed to enjoy "the simple life and lemon puddin'". He was also the only character to become rich (through fame), I think, and then revert back to his old life
 
The only example I can think of from the top of my head is Doug; Roger was known to come from a poor area (a trailer park, I think) and he was the show's main antagonist. He and he his friends were also ridiculed for their ignorance at times.
 
Back
Top