Older Than They Look/Western Animation

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of characters that are Older Than They Look in Western Animation include:

  • In Code Lyoko, Aelita is chronologically 22-23, but ten of those years were spent in stasis as a Digital Avatar in Lyoko. Because of this, she has far more knowledge and intelligence than any ordinary teenager, but she's still physically and emotionally 12-13, and is in a relationship with Jérémie, who's physically the same age.
  • Judging by the age of her daughter, Susan Vandom of WITCH is about 45 years old and works in IT. Judging by appearances she's about 25 and a professional glamor model. Compared to her, Cornelia's mom and Irma's mom are less mind-blowing, but still look nowhere near what middle-aged women should (or do) look like. Though we do get an idea where their daughters get it from...
    • Halinor, the blonde bombshell of the previous team of Guardians, still looks quite good for her age, with only a few facial wrinkles. She definitely doesn't look like she's pushing 60, and Yan Lin even comments on Halinor's youthful appearance when the two see one another in a second season episode. Similarly, when we meet Kadma (basically a grown up version of the Alpha Bitch) she's supposed to be at least in her sixties, maybe seventies. Physically she has, like, a line under her eyes and white hair...otherwise she maintained her prized assets and slender, youthful looks perfectly. Compared to her contemporaries, Yan Lin (who looks her age) and Narissa (who looks the Universe's age) one has to assume she's been either getting very good plastic surgery over the years or tapping her magic to stay young. Don't even get me started when all four turn into eye-popping teen hotties later.
  • Batman: The Animated Series has Mary "Baby Doll" Dahl, a former actress-turned-criminal who, due to a rare genetic disorder, continued to look like a small child even after reaching adulthood. Her anguish over being an adult trapped in such a body, and the public's refusal to respect and treat her like her true age, is the source of her criminal mindset. In a later episode, "Love is a Croc", she romantically teams up with Killer Croc, a similarly outcast bruiser who looks like a human crocodile.

Batgirl: What do you suppose they do on a date?
Batman: I don't want to think about it.

  • From The Simpsons:
    • Kearney (the bald, fat bully with the white T-shirt, blue pants, and studded wristbands): Even though he looks old enough to be in high school (yet he's been held back to the fourth grade for a long time), Kearney is actually older than that. He was alive when the Watergate scandal and the 1976 Bicentennial happened Lisa the Iconoclast, has a child from a divorce A Milhouse Divided, was in Otto the bus driver's third grade class The Mook, The Chef, The Wife, and Her Homer, is old enough to drink in a bar El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (though he often uses fake IDs Much Apu about Nothing or tricks Homer into getting him alcohol Last Tap Dance in Springfield" and that Mary Poppins parody episode from season 8), was tried as an adult and put in an actual prison "Realty Bites, voted in a U.S. Presidential Election Treehouse of Horror XIX, and has a car Lisa's Date with Density, even though he can be seen on the school bus. Of course, this can be interpreted as a satire on how children grow up too fast and how the most childish of men are somehow fathers before they're emotionally ready (it is The Simpsons after all).
    • Ned Flanders: All outside appearances seem to imply that Flanders is around the same age as Homer (late 30s/early 40s), but in season 10's "Viva Ned Flanders", Flanders reveals that he's sixty years old and looks young because he's never done anything sinful and crazy in his life.
    • One episode has Hans Moleman being 31 years old, but has aged significantly due to alcoholism. Other episodes show him to be a senior citizen due to Negative Continuity.
    • Krusty appears to be the same age as most of the prominent adults on the show, but it's implied that he's actually much older. Considering his harsh lifestyle (and the fact that his father is still alive and well), this is pretty impressive.
  • Shapey from Moral Orel looks, talks and acts like a 3-year old but he is actually seven.
  • Quagmire from Family Guy has been revealed to be 61. His secret is carrots.
    • Speaking of Quagmire, Quagmire's transsexual father from the episode "Quagmire's Dad" barely looks any older than his son. Quite impressive, given that he would have to be in his seventies or eighties.
  • In an episode of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Flapjack encounters what appears to be a creepy, annoying, wide eyed little boy who won't leave him alone. Finally he tells him "You need to grow up", and the "boy" responds "Grow up? I'm 38 years old!", which is followed by a Gross Up Close-Up of his wrinkled face.
  • Probably Mrs. Dr. Possible. In fact, in one episode of Kim Possible ("Mother's Day"), Dr.Drakken truthfully believes that she's Kim's sister.
  • Slurms Mackenzie's party girls from Futurama. Before he makes his Heroic Sacrifice, he says that they have served him well during the past 40 years. The two of them look to be about twenty years old.
    • Bender accuses the Planet Express ship of this because the ship has tubes.
    • And Fry is 1000 years older than he looks.
    • In one episode the entire crew jumped into an alien fountain of youth to reverse their rapid anti-aging and as a consequence all came out physically younger than their original ages (except for the Professor, who got even older). Which explains how after over ten years they all still look roughly the same age.
  • Magneto in X-Men: Evolution is at least as old as his movie counterpart, but looks only middle-aged the first time we see him without his helmet. In a later episode it turns out he uses his knowledge of genetics to maintain vitality and the appearance of youth, and when this fails him he reverts to his true age. Then he uses the Rebirth formula (which granted Captain America (comics) his powers) to de-age himself again, and looks like a young White-Haired Pretty Boy for the remainder of the show (on the rare occasions he's seen without his face-concealing helmet).
  • Mrs. Ridgemount from Stoked. She looks (and behaves) more as the older sister of her daughter Lo that her mother.
  • Mr. Garcia, Jonesy's father, from 6teen. He looks more as the older brother of his children. Heck, he looks younger that his new wife, Emma Masterson, Jen and Courtney's mother.
  • Crystal Zilla from My Dad the Rock Star, who looks barely older than her daughter!
  • Taken to an extreme with Aang in Avatar: The Last Airbender, who, thanks to a century spent in Suspended Animation, is technically 112 years old. He's still not the longest-lived Avatar, though; Avatar Kyoshi lived to the ripe old age of 230, while never looking any older than 40 in her appearances.
  • Henry and June of KaBlam!! are supposedly around 8 to 11 years old...yet depending on the artist for the episode, they look about 5 (could also be Rule of Cute in effect)
  • Invader Zim is described by Jhonen Vasquez as "older than any human alive". Whether that puts him into Really 700 Years Old territory or just Older Than They Look is the subject of much fan speculation.
  • The young adult male Smurfs are really about 100 years old (150 in the cartoon show), while Papa Smurf is 542. Of course, this could also be referred to as the Vague Age where it's uncertain what particular human age their ages are supposed to correspond to.
  • Miss Martian in Young Justice is actually 48 years old in Earth years, but since Martians age slower than humans, she has the mentality and maturity of a 16-year old.
    • Which makes it weird when you consider that her Love Interest is less than six months old.
    • Superboy is a bizarre example - he's technically Younger Than He Looks (being that he is chronologically 5 1/2 years old by the second season) but is mentally 21 in the body of a 16-year-old. It's stated that due to the cloning process, he will look 16 for the rest of his life.
  • Cute, pink-haired assassin Claire from Titan Maximum looks like she's eight, but Gibbs points out she's 24.
  • There was a clever variation in Courage the Cowardly Dog with the episode "Conway the Contaminationist", in which the eponymous Conway is in his 130s and can backflip around at will if he feels good—but, instead of looking distinctly elderly, he just looks bizarrely deformed.
  • Elmyra Duff from Tiny Toon Adventures looks and acts like she's somewhere between 5-8 but she's 13.
  • Cody in Total Drama Island, despite being 16 like his fellow contestants, he looks a little like a 13-year old boy.
    • Likewise, Dawn in Total Drama Revenge of the Island looks like a pre-teen despite being 16 in actuality.
    • A lampshaded example is Chris, who looks about 25, but is actually in his mid-forties.
  • Sarah and Jimmy from Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy look and act like they're around seven or eight, but are apparently old enough to attend junior high.
  • When Barda appears in Batman Beyond she does not look a day older than she does in Justice League; understandable, as in mainstream DC she is stated to be 250 Earth years old, which is young for The New Gods.
  • Lieutenant T'Lyn from Star Trek: Lower Decks is 62 years old, but being a Vulcan, she looks no older than Mariner.
  • Cute Vampire Girl Mavis from Hotel Transylvania certainly knows how to keep her ghoulish figure even at 125 years old.
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