Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Inkblot Cartoon Style

 Inkblot Cartoon Style
type
FeatureClass
 Inkblot Cartoon Style
label
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style
page
InkblotCartoonStyle
 Inkblot Cartoon Style
comment
Inkblot Cartoon Style is the cartoon style most prevalent from The Silent Age of Animation. Most historians refer to this as Rubber Hose Animation because characters' arms, legs and pretty much everything else are usually animated as if they were made of rubber tubing and without elbows or knees. In many cartoons in the very late Twenties and early and mid-Thirties, not only does everyone dance to the background music, everything dances to it as well. The style sometimes falls into Accidental Nightmare Fuel territory because of the its tendency toward surrealist humor.
Characteristics of Characters of the Inkblot Cartoon Style:
Black or, less commonly, grey bodies
White facial masks or muzzles
Eyes are often Pie-Eyed and conjoined if it's just their muzzle that is white. Or simply Black Bead Eyes.
Black noses
Rubber-Hose Limbs
Four-Fingered Hands
White Gloves, which make the hands show up more easily.
White paws, typically both back paws/feet and front paws/hands, if not a human. They have a function very similar to that of White Gloves.
The main character is often a Captain Ersatz or an Expy of a famous Silent Age cartoon character.
The main character is often a Cartoon Creature or has an Informed Species.
If this style is used in a cartoon that was made after the 1920s/1930s, it results in Retraux. It often, but not always, goes hand-in-hand with Rubber-Hose Limbs, which originated from this style. Often a Mocky Mouse.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style
fetched
2024-01-27T14:16:11Z
 Inkblot Cartoon Style
parsed
2024-01-27T14:16:12Z
 Inkblot Cartoon Style
processingComment
Dropped link to BigBad: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Inkblot Cartoon Style
processingComment
Dropped link to Moby: Not an Item - IGNORE
 Inkblot Cartoon Style
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_1858fe06
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_1858fe06
comment
Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) #257's Off Panel strip imagines the Sonic cast as if they were in old cartoons when Sonic refers to "the classics", most likely due to the old cartoon style's influence on Sonic's design. Everyone has round bodies, Rubber-Hose Limbs, and Pie Eyes, and Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles are given black fur. Amy is The Flapper and Knuckles is a hobo as regards to the 1920s-30s. Plus, everything is black-and-white! The penciller of this strip, Jonathan H. Gray, posted art of more of the Archie Sonic cast designed in this style.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_1858fe06
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_1858fe06
featureConfidence
1.0
 Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_1858fe06
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_1a780251
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_1a780251
comment
The Tulsey Town commercial seen in I'm Thinking of Ending Things is a Retraux cartoon akin to the Golden Age of Animation, with a Betty Boop-esque fairy queen singing about Tulsey Town and followed by little children drawn in inkblot style — pie eyes, white-gloved four-fingered hands, and rubber hose limbs.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_1a780251
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_1a780251
featureConfidence
1.0
 I'm Thinking of Ending Things
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_1a780251
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_2bbcacd9
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_2bbcacd9
comment
Many Merrie Melodies in the 1930s (which, unlike Looney Tunes, didn't have a regular cast) are drawn with black/gray bodies, Pie Eyes, black noses and White Gloves.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_2bbcacd9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_2bbcacd9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Looney Tunes
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_2bbcacd9
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_30065ab
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_30065ab
comment
The indie title Cuphead. Its visuals and overall art style are a homage to old cartoons by Fleischer Studios and its contemporaries, and features characters drawn with wide eyes and mouths, round features, simple outfits, and white gloves. In motion, they all have Rubber-Hose Limbs and uses Briffits and Squeans. Several characters visually evoke characters from that era, such as Werner Werman looking very similar to Mortimer Mouse; some reference animation figures from that era, like Kahl being named for Milt Kahl. The animation was even all hand-drawn on cels!
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_30065ab
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_30065ab
featureConfidence
1.0
 Cuphead (Video Game)
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_30065ab
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_426a7572
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_426a7572
comment
The Warner siblings from Animaniacs are an obvious parody hitting all the aforementioned marks: they're ill-defined Cartoon Creatures likened to "puppy dogs" with their paws, ears, and tails, White Gloves, black bodies, beady eyes (with a notable shine), and (small) muzzles. In-universe, their design isn't a Retraux: they were actually created during The Golden Age of Animation, but were too screwy to be contained and were hidden away until the '90s, at which point, their designs would look humorously old-fashioned.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_426a7572
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_426a7572
featureConfidence
1.0
 Animaniacs
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_426a7572
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_50a9ace1
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_50a9ace1
comment
The Popeye cartoons of The '30s employ the ink blot style, especially with the characters' Black Bead Eyes and Olive Oyl's flexible Rubber-Hose Limbs. The earliest Popeye cartoons also have FunnyAnimals drawn in a simplified style with the Pie Eyes / Black Bead Eyes that the humans have.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_50a9ace1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_50a9ace1
featureConfidence
1.0
 Popeye (Comic Strip)
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_50a9ace1
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_793e3d3e
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_793e3d3e
comment
In The Grossery Gang webseries, a flashback to Stinky's youth (hinted to be in the 1930s, as he's an elder in the current day) is given a redesign meant to evoke the inkblot style; the color scheme turns black and white, the pinpoint pupils of the original characters are replaced with Pie Eyes, and all characters are given inexplicable White Gloves.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_793e3d3e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_793e3d3e
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Grossery Gang (Web Animation)
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_793e3d3e
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_7cabe488
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_7cabe488
comment
Bendy and the Ink Machine is a First Person puzzle horror game about a demonic machine turning people into these types of characters. The titular Bendy is based on Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat. The animation is done in black and sepia tones as if the entire environment had been hand-drawn.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_7cabe488
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_7cabe488
featureConfidence
1.0
 Bendy and the Ink Machine (Video Game)
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_7cabe488
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_98c961e2
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_98c961e2
comment
Helluva Boss: While undergoing a nasty Mushroom Samba during Truth Seekers, Blitzo sees a vision of Fizzarolli drawn as a Pie-Eyed inkblot cartoon. Notably, of all the people Blitzo has visions of, Fizzarolli is the only one drawn in this style, perhaps hinting that their friendship imploded a long time before Blitzo's relations with Striker, Verosika, Moxxie and Stolas unfolded.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_98c961e2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_98c961e2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Helluva Boss (Web Animation)
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_98c961e2
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_a183d57f
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_a183d57f
comment
The first segment of the Futurama Season 6 finale "Colorama" is animated as an old cartoon from the 1920s and 1930s, specifically revealed in marketing to be those done by Fleischer Studios. The entire thing is in monochrome, and the characters are redesigned to have Rubber-Hose Limbs, pie eyes, rounder features, and white Mickey Mouse-style gloves. Jazz music from the 1920s was also licensed for use in this segment.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_a183d57f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_a183d57f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Futurama
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_a183d57f
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_ac6b386d
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_ac6b386d
comment
Peacock from Skullgirls watched cartoons from this era when younger, so her character design, unlike the Animesque style of the rest of the cast, is inspired from this style. Paying close attention will reveal that what appear to Black Bead Eyes are actually empty eye sockets. Her design also has attributes of the art style like a cartoonish mouth, and Rubber-Hose Limbs, as well as several vintage trappings, such as top hats, petticoats, and White Gloves, evoking the era where inkblot cartoons were in vogue.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_ac6b386d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_ac6b386d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Skullgirls (Video Game)
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_ac6b386d
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_b4967d43
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_b4967d43
comment
In the Classic days, Sonic the Hedgehog's designs of the Funny Animals and Doctor Eggman were influenced by funny animal characters from this era, such as Mickey Mouse, with rounded heads and bodies, White Gloves, Rubber-Hose Limbs, sausage-shaped muzzles, black noses, Conjoined Eyes of hedgehogs, and the Informed Species style. The Modern designs still have some influence, yet have a more anime-oriented style.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_b4967d43
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_b4967d43
featureConfidence
1.0
 Sonic the Hedgehog (Franchise)
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_b4967d43
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_be720e78
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_be720e78
comment
Betty Boop and Bimbo are both quite rubbery with flexible limbs, pie-shaped eyes and Four-Fingered Hands. Bimbo also wears White Gloves.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_be720e78
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_be720e78
featureConfidence
1.0
 Betty Boop
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_be720e78
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_dcbfeeee
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_dcbfeeee
comment
In episode 8 of Little Witch Academia (2017), Sucy's memories are drawn in an old-timey cartoon way◊, with monochrome characters drawn with simplistic shapes, pie eyes, and Rubber-Hose Limbs. To drive the Retraux home, they are framed with film reel borders, and are overall a lot less complex than the series' normal art style.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_dcbfeeee
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_dcbfeeee
featureConfidence
1.0
 Little Witch Academia (2017)
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_dcbfeeee
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_e53e8d5
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_e53e8d5
comment
In the Felix the Cat cartoons, the titular Felix, a cartoon cat, has the characteristic ink-black body, white muzzle, and black nose associated with the ink blot style. The cartoons are the Trope Maker for the Rubber-Hose Limbs technique and has inspired the style of many cartoons after their debut in 1919.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_e53e8d5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_e53e8d5
featureConfidence
1.0
 FelixTheCat
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_e53e8d5
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_ee77a8e2
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_ee77a8e2
comment
Kaiju Girl Caramelise: When Kuroe and Arata go on a date to Destinyland, the theme park's mascot, Mitchy, is portrayed as a rabbit-like animal with a predominantly black body, white face/muzzle, Black Bead Eyes, White Gloves, and vaguely 1930s clothes — basically Mickey as a rabbit. Rinko commandeers a Mitchy costume to spy on their date.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_ee77a8e2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_ee77a8e2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Kaiju Girl Caramelise (Manga)
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_ee77a8e2
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_f05282b3
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_f05282b3
comment
In Spider-Ham: Aporkalypse Now, Spider-Ham is transformed into this style when he travels back to Earth-616's 1930s, getting Black Bead Eyes, Rubber-Hose Limbs, and a tendency to Rhyme On a Dime. Spider-Man is somewhat creeped out by this.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_f05282b3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_f05282b3
featureConfidence
1.0
 Spider-Ham (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_f05282b3
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_f31d7d98
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_f31d7d98
comment
Toot from Drawn Together is a Captain Ersatz of famed inkblot character Betty Boop. She is Deliberately Monochrome in a colorful world of Genre Refugees, has a large head and big dot eyes, and dresses like someone from the early 20th century.
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_f31d7d98
featureApplicability
1.0
 Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_f31d7d98
featureConfidence
1.0
 Drawn Together
hasFeature
Inkblot Cartoon Style / int_f31d7d98

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Inkblot Cartoon Style
processingCategory2
Animation Tropes
 Little Witch Academia (2017) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Slimyswampghost (Blog) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 IF (2024) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Midnight Arcade / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 InkBlotCartoonStyle
sameAs
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Kaiju Girl Caramelise (Manga) / int_61b7da33
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 City of Lost Characters (Roleplay) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Hazbin Hotel: Lucifer's Folly (Roleplay) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 BurgerTime (Video Game) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Clover: Love, Hope, Faith & Luck (Web Animation) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 The Grossery Gang (Web Animation) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 TFS at the Table (Web Video) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Rusty and Co. (Webcomic) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Silent Sillies (Webcomic) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Betty Boop / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Drawn Together / int_61b7da33
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 My Life as a Teenage Robot / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 The Cuphead Show! / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 We Baby Bears / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style
 Darby Allin (Wrestling) / int_93f39613
type
Inkblot Cartoon Style