Cartoon characters wearing gloves

[Scuz Fink]

Where did the tradition of cartoon characters wearing gloves originate from?

[Ray Pointer]

Basically, it's from two sources. The first from some comic strips like MUTT AND JEFF. But the other source comes from Minstral Theater, where, unfortunately many of the facial designs of characters such as FELIX, OSWALD, and MICKEY have their roots. While FELIX and OSWALD did not sposrt gloves, MICKEY eventually did, and so did all other characters made in imitation including BIMBO and BOSKO.

The white gloves offered a contrast to the black mass for the body and also allowed for better definition of the hands. It also seems that this is part of the three fingers and thumb tradition for chartoon characters as well. As Walter Lantz mentioned in one of his on screen appearances on THE WOODY WOODPECKER SHOW, he stated, "You may have noticed that cartoon characters traditionally have only three fingers and a thumb. Why, I don't know. But we've found that they were easier to draw that way...." This makes sense since it is easier and faster to divided the mitten of the hand into thirds with an esthetic balance.

As we see the evolution of the great Warner's characters starting in the late 1930s, the tradition of the three fingered hand in gloves continued in characters such as Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny. In this case the addition of the gloves is a sort of dressing giving them a sort of elegence, but also serves the same purpose in helping the hands to register against their body color, particularly when the hands cross over or are in front of the body. It also helps bring the hands forward on a flat image so that they can be seen.
This is important since most of the acting is in the face and hands.:bosko:

[JPox]

I've always loved the gag from Arthur Davis' "What Makes Daffy Duck" when Elmer orders the fox to 'throw up your hands' and when he does, the gloves fly up revealing his animal-like paws. lol
http://klangley.blogspot.com/2007/10/art-davis-what-makes-daffy-duck.html

[frizfrelengfan]

To veer off the topic a bit, The Fleischers drew their characters with four fingers on the hand. (I'm thinking of the boy in "Play Safe.")

And a character in "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song" starts out with four fingers and ends up with three...

[Dell Comics Fan]

To veer off the topic a bit, The Fleischers drew their characters with four fingers on the hand. (I'm thinking of the boy in "Play Safe.")

And a character in "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song" starts out with four fingers and ends up with three...

Similarly, in The Flintstones episode "The Blessed Event," while Fred is counting
on his fingers (the steps required to get Wilma to the hospital), he has five
fingers--but afterwards, he has four fingers again.

[jazzman78]

I always thought that it was a carry over from Minstrels with the black face. The white gloves would add some extra character when seen from a distance and it would do the same for black and white cartoons.

HS

[Marty26]

Veering a little off topic, I heard somewhere that the reason why Mario wears those white gloves is because, when Donkey Kong was being programmed, his hands could hardly be seen without them due to the game's extremely limited color palette.

[larriva9/11]

Similarly, in The Flintstones episode "The Blessed Event," while Fred is counting
on his fingers (the steps required to get Wilma to the hospital), he has five
fingers--but afterwards, he has four fingers again.

Then there's Jubalio Wolf's ten toes toes toes toes toes in "Billy Boy"...

[Steve Stanch]

Dfferent artists often pose the character's hands in similar ways from cartoon to cartoon. Bill Nolan seems to favor poses with the pinky and thumb spread out. Scrappy has all five fingers in many of the cartoons, though I like Dick Heumer's poses (in the Kokos and into the Scrappy cartoons) where he pulls the fingers tightly together and the hands to the sides of the character, almost like duck wings. Of course, no one in real life ever poses like that, but it makes a nice clean cartoon pose. Iwerk's hands tend to handle all the fingers like little sausages, fingers splain straight out in many poses...Scribner's cartoon hands seem to often be in great pain and under tension, with lots of extra detail. Jones uses the line of action through one of the fingers often in main poses.

[Ray Pointer]

And the gloves?

[AnthroCoon]

On various episodes of Inch High Private Eye, he has either four or five fingers depending on when you look...

The webcomic Newshounds features characters who also wear gloves
a la classic cartoon characters
http://www.newshounds.com/cast.html
Creator Thomas K. Dye explains:

>>The fact is it’s a toon convention of the past that I rather enjoy. Face it, why is Bugs Bunny naked except for a pair of white gloves? When I was growing up, Bugs Bunny’s gloves represented that his front paws were hands, thank you very much

http://www.newshounds.com/quasifaq.html

Simpsons characters also have four fingers (well, three fingers and a thumb)--in one episode there was the following bit of dialogue:
LISA: It says here that someday through evolution humans may eventually
have five fingers
BART: Eww...!



(http://www.newshounds.com/cast.html)

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Disney's Pinocchio is drawn with three fingers in white gloves when he is a puppet, but when he becomes a real boy he has realistic, four-fingered bare hands. Go figure.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Stimpy is also naked except for white gloves. But it was turned into some kind of weird joke, since his white glove have fingernails on them.

[AnthroCoon]

>>his front paws were hands, thank you very much

making him an anthro animal (along with standing upright, power to speak etc). btw it's interesting when anthro AND non-anthro animals show up in the same cartoon

ONCE UPON A FOREST: Abigail, Edgar, Russell, and Cornelius are all anthro.
The owl and rats (seen briefly when A, E, & R are in a sewer) are not

ARTHUR is an anthro aardvark in a world where dogs (Fern, Binky) are also anthro... yet he has a non-anthro dog, Pal, as a pet :)

[Ray Pointer]

If a two-fingered claw would serve the purpose, that would have entered as well. The whole thing is that you are seeing the overall impression. From a distance you do not notice the number of fingers.

In many cases the hands grew and extra digit on Close-ups as when BUGS BUNNY arches his hands making them look like a dog sniffing for the carrot, then grabbing it. If it serves the purpose, anything is possible, gloves or sans gloves, four digits or five. To put is simply, "it's only a cartoon."

[Leviathan]

Interestingly, Daffy has all-black plumage, yet he doesn't wear gloves.

And the one time he is actually put in gloves (The Great Piggy Bank Robbery), it looks kinda weird.

[speedy fast]

Daffy also wore gloves at the beginning of Hollywood Daffy.

It seems like Porky Pig started out with gloves, but then eventually stoped wearing them.

it's funny how in The Slick Hare, Bugs takes off his gloves revealing another pair underneath them.

[Ray Pointer]

Daffy also wore gloves at the beginning of Hollywood Daffy.

It seems like Porky Pig started out with gloves, but then eventually stoped wearing them.

it's funny how in The Slick Hare, Bugs takes off his gloves revealing another pair underneath them.

Just think where those gloves have been. After a number of years, don't you think he'd need to wash them?:ham:

[David Gerstein]

Yikes! You're right, Ray. Mickey "only" pilots planes and fights pirates with gloves on. Bugs actually has his gloves on as he digs hundred-mile trails through solid dirt.

[Studio Toledo]

If a two-fingered claw would serve the purpose, that would have entered as well. The whole thing is that you are seeing the overall impression. From a distance you do not notice the number of fingers.
How I managed to get by without thinking too far into it. In today's world, I can see how people just can't get those things out of their minds thanks to VCR's, the Internet and other conveniences, leading to those constant questions on YouTube like as if people are visually ignorant to understand certain concepts that had been understandable before.

In many cases the hands grew and extra digit on Close-ups as when BUGS BUNNY arches his hands making them look like a dog sniffing for the carrot, then grabbing it. If it serves the purpose, anything is possible, gloves or sans gloves, four digits or five.
That is one good example. Times when it happens without a purpose could just be a fault of whomever animated the character and didn't notice the number of digits anyway.

To put is simply, "it's only a cartoon."
We should really just relax! :D

[Steve Stanch]

And the gloves?

They all have them. ;)