What's with the white gloves?

Question

Cartoon characters with white gloves.

Mickey Mouse

Miny mouse

Goofy

Buggs Bunny

Marvin the martian

Mario and all of his counterparts

All of them have evolved with big white gloves that look across between thick rubber, and leather. TO be fair, a great number of cartoon cats (Silvester, Tom, and the animaniacs) all have white hands... not paws, but hands that sometimes were equipped with tiny claws sticking out like fat worms with beaks.

at this point, if you want anything to look like a cartoon, put white gloves on it and you're half way finished!

The question is... where did this come from. Was it merely just a whole lot easier to draw a thousand times for the cartoonists trying to make episodes on a deadline. True, white is cheap for cartoonists using white paper, so i may have answered my own question. But I want to know more. Are there any stories behind white gloves? Or are white gloves like sugar with it's rarity and importance in the past... but almost no respect or notice by anyone born after 1940.

Answer 1

You are not the only one with that question...

"Another animator pointed out just how common those white gloves are in early cartoons. Any idea why that is? They're always the exact same type too.

I thought that they were simply to help the hands stand out as hands are so expressive but now that I'm looking at these images, I'm thinking I've only ever seen them on characters with black skin tones. Is it an old blackface minstrel thing or something?"

>>The white gloves are there to help the gestures of the hands register and stand out from the grays and blacks of the rest of the image. The theory about minstrel shows is reading to much into it.<<

Yeah I figured I was reading too much into it. I wonder why it's always the same gloves though? Or why they just didn't color the hands white - it's not like realism would have been much of an issue. Even going later, Bugs wears those same gloves and nothing else. The animator that brought it up proposed the theory that maybe it came from mime.

It's because that is the simplest and most effective thing to draw: a white glove with a little donut around it to give the suggestion of a cuff. The three little lines are used because it helps to reinforce the gestures and give some indication that there is a structure within the glove.

"Or why they just didn't colour the hands white - it's not like realism would have been much of an issue."

In a way it was--yes, there are unrealistic things is cartoons but even the most wacky gags usually have some kind of basis in fact that allows it to be understood. Disney has a phrase the 'plausible impossible' and that pretty much sums it up.

"Even going later, Bugs wears those same gloves and nothing else. The animator that brought it up proposed the theory that maybe it came from mime."

It doesn't really come from anything the principal is the same as mime--to help the gestures of the hands register. Remember that hands, even simplified three fingered carton hands, can look quite cluttered and indistinct onscreen.

White Gloves

"Ever wonder why we always wear these white gloves?"

Common accessory for animated characters, ranging from Walt Disney to Warner Bros. to even Japanese characters.

Simply, the character wears puffy White Gloves, with a wrist band and notable knuckle indentations, even if he doesn't wear much else.

The original reason likely has roots in the black and white era of cartoons, where a mostly dark colored character could hold his hands against his chest and still be visible. Felix the Cat is notable for not wearing White Gloves.

Aside from being an animation tradition, this helps emphasize that the character actually has hands if he is a Talking Animal, and makes it much easier to draw familiar gestures.

It is common in Japanese culture for people who are required to physically touch other people in their work (e.g. policemen, "pushers" on the train lines) to wear white gloves. They are also used as a symbol of purity.

Answer 2

According to Wikipedia, Mickey wore gloves because they wanted to distinguish his hands from the rest of his body (which was completely black).

Answer 3

so FBI cant track them for being rapists

Answer 4

No stories at all.

Cartoons are infamous clean freaks.

OCD.

I thought everyone knew that...

:D

Answer 5

It adds a bit of class to things, but the original reason likely has roots in the black and white era of cartoons, where a mostly dark colored character could hold his hands against his chest and still be visible. Felix the Cat is notable for not wearing White Gloves.

Aside from being an animation tradition, this helps emphasize that the character actually has hands if he is a Talking Animal, and makes it much easier to draw familar gestures.  

Answer 6

Mickey Mouse started the trend.

Answer 7

It started with mickey and carried on with eberyone else!

Answer 8

I doubt theres anything to it, it was probably a fashion statement for girls in the old days but... LOL well Mickey Mouse started it... that show is over 20 years old.. really really old