Kid Appeal Character: Difference between revisions
m
Fixed grammar.
m (Mass update links) |
TheEric132 (talk | contribs) m (Fixed grammar.) |
||
| (13 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|'''[[Sonic the Hedgehog
'''Chris''': Friends of yours?
'''Sonic''': More like obligatory kid appeal characters.
|''[[Sonic F]]''}}
[[File:250px-
The [[Kid Appeal Character]] is typically the [[Exactly What It Says
As well as that, the Kid Appeal Character is all too often portrayed as seeing [[The Hero]] and [[The Captain|leader]] of the Good Guys as his Father Figure. If the Leader is also quite young, chances are he'll see him as his Big Brother. In the same regard, he may look at [[The Lancer]] as being his uncle. Oh, and being {{color|goldenrod|yellow}} is not
Depending on how young he is, how nice he is, or how old his father/brother figure is, the
# Clown. Not just any clown either, this is the Kid Clown, who hurls humor at every available point. He may be funny, he may be clumsy (the former trope name was not called The '''[[A Worldwide Punomenon|Bumble]]'''bee for nothing), or he may just be the joker of the team, playing pranks, making wisecracks and sometimes just whining about all the problems that are going on. Usually played for laughs but may have a serious side.
Line 24 ⟶ 25:
Kids love to purchase his [[Toys]]. [[Fanfic]] writers love to give them [[Launcher of a Thousand Ships|massive sex roles]] and [[Slash Fic|pair them up with their father figure.]]
See also [[Tagalong Kid]], [[Bratty Half-Pint]], [[Kid Sidekick]], [[Plucky Comic Relief]]. The kid appeal character is not quite the same as the Tagalong. The Kid Appeal Character is an official full member of the team while the Tagalong is either not a member or holds some sort of secondary membership status like team [[Mascot]]. They will likely be great friends, though. A Tagalong that [[Took a Level
When the character is a robot or an actual child, and is in a [[Science Fiction]] series, the Kid Appeal Character may well be an example of [[Kids and Cute Robots]], to which this is a [[Super-Trope]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'': Ed, being the youngest and most playful plays Kid Appeal Character to Spike Spiegel's Hero, Jet Black's Lancer.
* Seira, the [[Token
* ...though not as much as Sailor Chibimoon of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', who became a one-girl [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]] in season four after two seasons with her hanging around the older girls and playing with sparkly wands to match [[Kid From the Future|her mom's]].
* [[Mascot|Pikachu]] of ''[[Pokémon]]''. Very much a Type 3. Its species is extremely weak (though the [[Status Buff|Light Ball]] makes this debatable), and particularly in the first season, it got beaten by pretty much every Gym Leader at least once, but it always got back up. It's far and away the most popular character, and it's {{color|yellow|yellow}}.
** A [https://web.archive.org/web/20120511213259/http://homepage1.nifty.com/rally43/Models/Complete/misc/pika-f1.jpg Volkswagen Beetle] was modeled after him. Hmmm...
** Also, it's the [[Mascot]] of the [[Cash Cow Franchise|franchise]]. Somewhere a [[What Could Have Been|Clefairy]] cries.
** Max and Piplup could also qualify, with the former being Type 4 and the latter being Type 3.
Line 40 ⟶ 42:
* Chopper from ''[[One Piece]]''.
* Hwang Bu-ling/Mew Pudding of ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' fits here: eight years old, wears bright {{color|yellow|yellow}}, equal member of the team, and dove right into danger even before she or anyone knew she had any powers. Even her [[Verbal Tic]] (nano da!) screams cute exuberance.
* [[
** While until the [[Time Skip]] and several [[Took a Level
** [[Blood Knight|Gaara]] is a rather interesting case, being a [[Defeat Means Friendship|former]] [[Ax Crazy]] antagonist, he becomes a [[The Stoic|stoic]] variation of this trope among the 5 kages once he takes up the mantle of kazekage, becoming the youngest to hold the title.
* Nearly all of the seasons in ''[[Digimon]]'' have at least one of these:
Line 50 ⟶ 52:
* Arguably, [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann|Simon,]] in the first half of his series.
* Gohan, Goten and Trunks in ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. Also, Krillin due to all his panicking.
* In ''[[
* Yahiko in ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]''.
* Happy from ''[[Fairy Tail]]''
* Jinpei from ''[[
* Kon from [[Bleach]].
* In ''[[Saint Beast]]'', in comparison to the rest of the cast Gai is younger, more energetic, less mature, fun and inquisitive, and to top it off has yellow and dark brown hair.
Line 63 ⟶ 65:
** In ''New X-Men'', Pixie was one of the youngest, had brightly coloured wings, and was otherwise comic relief. For the few issues that focused on her before [[Break the Cutie]] (Which really didn't break her very much at all).
* Jolt was this in the early years of ''[[Thunderbolts]]''.
* Impulse in ''[[Young Justice (
* [[Transformers Generation 1|The original Bumblebee]] is usually portrayed in comics as being the sort who keeps trying to "prove himself" to his bigger, stronger teammates, and usually gets into trouble because of it. (Prime, for his part, thinks Bumblebee has proven himself well enough in his given role of a spy that he shouldn't feel like this.)
* [[
* The Human Torch in the [[Fantastic Four]] was the teenager in a cast of adults. Early on in the series, he was extremely popular and was the [[Breakout Character]] with his own [[Spin-Off]] within a year after the series started. His popularity was one of the reasons why Marvel created other teen superheroes like [[Spider-Man]] and the [[X-Men]].
* Speaking of Spider-Man, when he is put into a team dynamic, such as [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]], he usually fits this [[Trope]] as a combination of the Type 1 Clown and the Type 4 Smart Guy, in fact there have been team-ups where he has out and out ''stolen'' this role from Johnny Storm, {{spoiler|to the point where he's taken Johnny's place on the FF!}}
Line 71 ⟶ 73:
== Film ==
* Quite obviously, Jar Jar Binks from the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[
** He fills basically the same "funny personality" role as R2-D2 and C3-PO. But both Artoo and Threepio had valuable technical skills compared to Jar Jar's [[Spanner in
*** And of course, let's not forget that Artoo and Threepio were still present in the films that Jar Jar appeared in, making Jar Jar somewhat redundant.
** Jar-Jar's position is further weakened by the fact that ''The Phantom Menace'' had Anakin himself as a child. That brought us to the absurd critical mass of ''four'' Kid Appeal Characters in the movie: one useful multitool, one chatty throwback to the original trilogy, one [[The Chosen One|chosen one]]... and Jar-Jar. That's a lot of kid appeal for a series with so many adult fans, so dislike for the least plot-critical of them was inevitable, even if Jar-Jar wasn't totally obnoxious and often offensive (and he was). Fortunately, the second and third prequels both toned him down and reduced his role.
* The twins in ''[[Revenge of the Fallen]]'', as [[Michael Bay]] [[Word of God|states]], were meant to be this (hell, they're even stuck with Bumblebee for much of the movie)... in spite of being violent [[Jive Turkey
** In the third film, Bumblebee's kid-friendly nature gets taken advantage of by {{spoiler|Laserbeak}}, who turns into a mini pink Bumblebee to convince a little girl to let him in {{spoiler|so that he can assassinate her father}}.
** In ''Dark of the Moon'' the character type is also embodied by the duo of Wheelie and Brains, who are small robots and basically act like kids during the course of the movie. Unlike Skids and Mudflap, though, they have relatively little screen time and would rather be chilling at Sam's home watching TV instead of being involved with the [[Robot War]].
* Skippy Rabbit from [[Disney]]'s ''[[Robin Hood (Disney film)|Robin Hood]]'' falls into the Ankle Biter category.
* Weak but lovable type in Olivia from ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]''.
* Chip from ''[[Beauty and
Line 93 ⟶ 95:
** Kelsey from ''[[Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue]]''. A quintessential Type 3 -- an extreme daredevil who always loved to show off. (Also a {{color|gold|Yellow}} Ranger.)
** Max from ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]''. The definite kid of the group (high school age when the others were in college at a minimum) and had childlike enthusiasm to match, but got a lot less focus than your standard example.
** Ziggy from ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'', fitting Type 2: a [[Lovable Coward]], the weakest fighter on the team (he became a Ranger [[Falling Into the Cockpit|by accident]]), best buds with and sidekick to the [[Troubled but Cute]] [[Lancer]], and something of a viewpoint character as a [[Meta Guy]]. However, he was the same age as the other Rangers and didn't come off as all that "childlike" in comparison, being in trouble with [[The Family for
*** Also from ''RPM'', [[Sixth Ranger
* ''Power Rangers'' ' parent series, ''[[Super Sentai]]'', has this [[Trope]] recurring because of the [[Five-Man Band]] layout. There's several kinds of Kid Appeal Characters, whether they are eccentric geniuses ([[Mirai Sentai Timeranger|Sion / TimeGreen]], [[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger|Sen-chan / DekaGreen]] or [[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
** More commonly, when the [[The Hero|other]] [[The Lancer|main]] [[The Big Guy|four]] [[The Chick|roles]] except [[The Smart Guy]] is taken... and this Smart Guy isn't really as SMART, then this is the place of the kid appeal character. In older times, this trope can also be applied for the youngest (mostly) male character ([[Dai Sentai Goggle Five|Aoyama / Goggle Blue]], [[Dengeki Sentai Changeman|Yuuma / Change Pegasus]], [[Hikari Sentai Maskman|Akira / Blue Mask]], [[Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger|Boi / Tiger Ranger]], [[Gekisou Sentai Carranger|Naoki / Blue Racer]]) as due to their youth, they seem to appeal more for kids. Note that even if she's female and the youngest, [[Choujin Sentai Jetman|Ako / Blue Swallow]] would've also fit in.
** There are a few Super Sentai teams where [[The Hero]] (like [[Mahou Sentai Magiranger|Kai Ozu / Magi Red]]) or [[Sixth Ranger]] (like [[Gosei Sentai Dairanger|Ko / Kibaranger]]) has kid appeal.
Line 104 ⟶ 106:
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* [[Rey Mysterio, Jr.]] isn't the youngest in WWE and isn't (too) obnoxious, but he fulfills every other requirement as the Ankle Biter subset. He's tiny, wildly popular with kids, frequently wears ridiculously bright clothes, and gets picked on by the bad guys a lot. He's even had several of the bigger faces in WWE (Dave [[Batista]] most noticeably) in a big brother role at one point or another.
** Rey plays directly to very little fans on his ring entrance. If there are kids on the sides next to the ramp during his entrance wearing merch masks, he'll walk right over and touch his forehead to theirs. One special kid will actually get Rey to take off his peel off part of his mask and put it on them, ala when Bret Hart used to take off his sunglasses and put them on a child in the front row.
* Hornswoggle's a recent example, fitting many of the same characteristics Mysterio does except he's much less competent, actually is either the youngest man on the roster or close to it, and is about a foot smaller than Mysterio is. And Mysterio's 5'3".
* Command Bolshoi of All Japan Wrestling, also known as Piko. She stands at only 125
Line 115 ⟶ 117:
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Imoen in ''[[
* Tails from ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' is probably the first Kid Appeal character [[Sega]] made, featuring in just about every cartoon as Sonic's best friend.
** Also Charmy.
** Cream and Cheese.
* Pal-18 from ''[[Anachronox]]'' is a toy robot (though his owner has upgraded him with weapons and hacking systems) with a squeaky voice and a hip personality. You actually obtain his best weapon by letting him play in a playground for four hours (real time). Also, his theme color (relevant to the magic system) is yellow...
* Relm from ''[[
** [[Final Fantasy III
* The Scout is one of these that stopped trying to convince people that ''[[
** After his weapon pack came out, it could be said he [[Took a Level
** Wait, when was the Scout trying to convince people that TF2 is kid-friendly? He's loud-mouthed, swears (albeit mildly) more than any other member of the team, and makes jokes about beating people to death with a baseball bat.
*** He's fills all the criteria: the youngest, a [[Fragile Speedster]], loudmouthed, clownish and obnoxious (in a good way).
* Sakura Kusagano from the ''[[
* Akari Ichijou in ''[[Last Blade]]''.
* Kurara in the ''[[Power Instinct]]'' series.
Line 132 ⟶ 134:
* [[Genki Girl|Luste Teuber]] and [[Cute Bruiser|Dolis Warmind]] of ''[[Rosenkreuzstilette]]''. Luste portrays herself as a hero of justice despite smashing everything in sight and likes playing with Tia, and Dolis is the leader of RKS's special ops division, being calm in the heat of battle, very intelligent despite knowing little about the outside world, and easily jealous and reacting rather badly to being called small.
* The Blue Bird from ''[[Angry Birds]]'', who also doubled as [[The Lancer]].
* Many [[Pokémon]] qualify as this, but none more so
** Clefairy and Jigglypuff are also appealing to children (specifically girls), and like Pikachu, they've also received various expies based on them (Togepi, Skitty, Buneary and Minccino to name a few).
Line 139 ⟶ 141:
* Bumblebee from ''[[Transformers]]''. Down to originally transforming into a Volkswagen. Every single version of him - ever - is a kid-appeal character. They even partnered him with the ''human'' kid on the show. (Weirdly enough, despite his being bright yellow, his function was ''[[Highly-Visible Ninja|espionage]]''.)
** Given how ubiquitous Volkswagen Beetles were at the time, he's actually pretty well disguised for espionage. Even to this day, the VW Beetle is ''still'' among the most common cars on the planet. Some 22 million were made, and most of them are still on the roads.
** After the [[Transformers:
** This role was then taken over by Holi in ''[[Transformers Victory]]'', who was blue but otherwise a combination of all this trope's aspects.
** Cheetor from ''[[
** Hot Shot, from ''[[Transformers Armada]]'', also yellow, falls under the third version. A bit of a goofball but [[Let's Get Dangerous|surprisingly competent in battle]].
** Wedge, from ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise|Robots in Disguise]]'', is small, orange and gutsy, but where the typical Bumblebee-type in Transformers is fast, Wedge's assets are strength and engineering know-how. (that, and being the leader of a team that forms a [[Combining Mecha]].)
*** Side Burn also fills the role, a type 1 clown who [[Running Gag|constantly tries to hit on non-sentient red sports cars]] driven by the [[Butt Monkey]] bystander.
** This is all parodied in the [[Transformers:
*** And amusingly, it was ''Beast''-era Megatron who called ''Animated'' Bumblebee "Cheetor," given that he never actually referred to Cheetor by his name during ''[[
** In [[Transformers Prime]] this is sort of true, with Bumblebee based on his film counterpart and partnered with the youngest of the human characters.
** [http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=75783&pid=1725359&mode=threaded&start=0#entry1725359 According to] [[Word of God]], in [[Bizarro Universe]] ''[[Transformers: Shattered Glass|Shattered Glass]]'', Soundwave is intended as filling the Kid Appeal Character role, and has a personality that's mostly #1 with a little of #2 and #5.
* And on that note, T-Bob from ''[[
* Scooter from ''[[Challenge of the Go Bots]]''
* Flash from ''[[Justice League]]''. Though he's also quite popular with the older fanbase.
** The original pitch had a modified [[Young Justice (
* Kid Flash serves as this in ''[[Young Justice (
** Robin is the youngest of the team and serves as a bit of a Type 4.
* Scrappy-Doo from ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' was a [[The Scrappy|famously unpopular one]].
* Jade from ''[[
* Beast Boy from ''[[Teen Titans (
* Tuck from ''[[My Life
* Chameleon Boy from ''[[Teen Titans (
* ''[[
* Orko from ''[[He
* Buji from ''Mi Familia es un Dibujo'' (originally introduced in the movie ''Dibu: La [[Pel Ã]]cula'').
* Upita from ''Patoruzito''. In the original comic book, there was no such character, there was only Upa.
* Wasabi from ''[[Sushi Pack]]''.
* Enzo from ''[[
* Ahsoka from ''[[Star Wars:
* Richie Foley in ''[[Static Shock]]''. He replaces Frieda Goren as Static's best friend because the show was geared towards a younger audience than the comics were. He's the second definition of Kid Appeal Character. He was also given superpowers because the writers were having a hard time keeping him in the episodes, but often his attempts at defeating the enemy don't work. He's been kidnapped at least four times and he's been turned into a mind slave twice.
* In ''[[
* Rusty the Boy Robot in ''[[Big Guy and Rusty
* Ironically enough, [[The Wasp]] from ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
* Snap from ''[[
* The Cutie Mark Crusaders in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** And the first member introduced to the viewers, Apple Bloom? {{color|yellow|Yellow}} coat.
** Oh, and Pinkie Pie also has kid appeal.
* Gus Griswald from ''[[Recess]]'', the small, cute [[Sixth Ranger]] to the main group of kids, and is weak and cowardly, but warmhearted and lovable. While not as obnoxious as most examples, he's still a [[Base Breaker]] among the fandom.
* Michelangelo of ''[[
* Nibbles (or Tuffy depending on the short), the little gray mouse Jerry adopts in some shorts, filled this role in ''[[
* Jay in [[Ninjago]] is the least series character on the team and makes constant jokes and seems a bit younger then the others.
* Cody and Cowarado Kid seem to [[Depending
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Youngsters]]
[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
| |||