Here’s Why Yellow Cartoon Characters Are So Common In TV and Movies

April 6, 2022

Ever Noticed How Often You See Cartoons With Yellow Characters?

If you think about yellow, it’s hard to feel sad… right? Because of this, it makes perfect sense that there are so many yellow cartoon characters.

It’s actually super fascinating how much research goes into creating cartoon characters. There are so many studies and so much split-testing with children to see which features can create more joy.

The creepy part about this is that the joy that cartoon creators are trying to manufacture is to create a more addicting experience. Why would they want kids to get addicted to their cartoons? Because it means they will watch them more diligently.

It’s all about that dopamine hit, folks. And when it comes to yellow cartoon characters, they do the trick time and time again!

Reasons Why Our Toons Are Feelin’ Yellow

Toons feel yellow because yellow means happy.

That’s one interpretation, anyways. Yellow is a very distinct colour. In addition to it being associated with happiness, it’s also associated with energy and activity. Because of this, it makes perfect sense why artists and producers would want yellow characters.

There’s always a desired effect in mind when creating any kind of character. Villains are meant to fill the story with tension and emotion. The hero is meant to inspire hope, positivity, and faith. It’s understandable that there are certain colours associated with the effects that the characters are meant to have.

Yellow just so happens to be one of the most popular colours for our favourite cartoon characters.

Excellent Contrast

Another reason for yellow cartoon characters is that our eye picks up on the colour very easily. It stands out to us like crazy! Add to that the fact that many backgrounds of cartoons are blue, and it stands out even more.

See, in traditional colour theory blue and orange go together, and yellow and purple go together. However, because purple isn’t as soothing as blue, backgrounds and accents are often blue to increase contrast.

Yellow Makes Us Happy

The associations of yellow and happiness go far beyond just simple colour theory. Colour psychology is an in-depth study of the effect of different colours. For example, on a very basic level, red is associated with anger, and blue with sadness.

Yellow is also the colour of the sun, the traditional smiley face, and sunflowers.

Even Colourblind Folks Can See It

With the increase in accessibility across all fields, it’s understandable that the use of yellow can increase accessibility for those who can’t see colour.

There are a lot of colour blind people have a hard time with colour combinations. For example, green and red, blue and purple, and green and grey are hard to see. It seems that a yellow-ish shade of orange can be easily seen with those who have difficulty seeing colour. This is also why you’ll often see yellow or orange characters against a blue background!

Wow, it all makes sense now.