How come most cartoon characters only have 4 fingers?

Answer 1

Thats some cartoons just look ridiculous with 5 fingers. It should fit the character.

Answer 2

Those who can't draw, draw cartoons. Actually, it's probably just because it's easier to draw 4 fat fingers than five distinct fingers and all the details that would be necessary.
It's also likely because of the desire to elicit more of an emotional response from viewers. There is a hypothesis called the "uncanny valley," which says that (quoting the source) "as a robot (or any human-like entity or character) is made more human-like in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.

Examples of entities that fall within the uncanny valley:
- Video game characters
- Zombies
- Humanoid Robots
- Realistically computer-generated humans.

Answer 3

speaking from experience with drawing people..
because it's a royal pain in the butt to draw all the fingers a lot of times, and also most cartoonists are in a bit of a hurry. A ton of drawings go in to making a cartoon so they may skimp on certain details to save time.

Answer 4

Not only is it faster to draw three fingers and a thumb, but it looks better on the cartoonish arms, and less like human hands. Human-looking hands on a cartoon would be pretty creepy.

Answer 5

My son started asking that same question when he was 5 years old. I guess that their hands would look too big if they put 5 fingers on the hand. It is very hard to draw a small hand with 5 fingers.

Answer 6

Hands are one of the most complex parts of a body to draw. A good artist spends a good bit of time on getting the hands just right. It is just easier to do a four fingered representation of a hand for comics.

Answer 7

The director of the cartoons shows can't count his fingers right.

Answer 8

Easier to draw and look graceful. Besides, they're cartoons. They don't really have to use their fingers.

Answer 9

Cartoons don't have to be realistic. And they probably are lazy and drawing fingers are mad hard. Have you ever tried to draw fingers?

Answer 10

Walt Disney decided that three fingers and thumb was easier and was more aesthetic. He was also a very bad cartoonist in his own right.I think it works in terms of controlling animation.

Read these answers from a past question:
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061004072927AAjlhyc