When watching cartoons, or even playing video games, you might notice something is a little off when it comes to the hands of most characters. Specifically, a finger is missing.
Almost all animated characters only have three fingers and a thumb rather than the anatomically correct four fingers and a thumb.
The question is why.
The answer begins with the earliest examples of animation. In those early days, every image had to be hand drawn. At 24 images per second in an animated video, it can take a long time to draw out every detail. Anything that can be done to streamline the process without sacrificing the story is at least worth considering.
One thing that animators were able to do is cut back to three fingers and a thumb, and nobody seemed to mind.
In addition to the efficiency benefits, however, having just three fingers helped the animation to look better. Walt Disney once said:
“Using five fingers would have made Mickey’s hands look like a bunch of bananas.”
It is also important to keep in mind that early animation was done in black and white, and even once color television was invented, the resolution left a lot to be desired. Drawing in three fingers instead of four left more room on the image, which helped to make the character as clear as possible.
Another thing to take note of is the fact that many animated characters wear gloves. This is most famously done with Mickey Mouse, but others do this as well. The gloves help to add contrast from the arm to the hand, which is easier to see on the low-quality screens in the past.
The Walt Disney Family Museum explains how this came to be:
“In the 1929 cartoon, The Opry House, the gloves made their debut appearance as part of his stage costume, but had the added effect of distinguishing his hands from his body. His trademark gloves became a permanent fixture in the following short, When the Cat’s Away (1929), and has remained part of his design ever since.”
So, now when you are enjoying iconic cartoons like Mickey Mouse, Sponge Bob Squarepants, The Simpsons, and many others, you will know why their hands are missing a finger.
Who would have thought?
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a quantum computer simulation that has “reversed time” and physics may never be the same.
