Older versions of cartoon characters

Since the 1970s, just as animation studios have "re-imagined" famous and well-known cartoon characters either as babies, children or even younger teenagers, they have also occasionally presented young cartoon characters either as teenagers (The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show), pre-teens (All Grown Up!), or even merely increasing their age by a year (Disney's Doug).

In comic books and strips, some characters will occasionally be allowed to age in real time, or the comic will jump ahead in time to when the characters in question are older teenagers or adults.In some movies,cartoon characters grow up in real life,such as stepbrothers Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher became 20 year olds attending high school in the movie Phineas and Ferb:The Real Times.

This trend may have been first seen in animation in 1971 when Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm Bamm Rubble, the two infant children of the Flintstone and Rubble families, were presented as teenagers on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. However, an earlier example comes from comics of the 1960s, in which the Legion of Super Heroes were occasionally presented as adults.

As seen when younger versions of cartoon characters are introduced, there is sometimes a problem with continuity. In The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, Bamm-Bamm's strength seemed to have disappeared as a teenager, although in the telefilm Hollyrock-a-Bye-Baby (made in 1993), Bamm-Bamm had regained his strength.

Television

• All Grown Up! (Klasky-Csupo, Nickelodeon, 2003) based on the series Rugrats. This series presents the toddler-aged regulars on Rugrats (Tommy Pickles, Chuckie Finster, etc.) as pre-teens attending junior high school.
• Digimon Adventure 02 (2000), also commonly written as Digimon 02/Digimon Zero Two, involves the main enemy the Digi-destined thought they had destroyed in the previous season, but has been putting in practice his evil schemes even after his defeat. In this season, the original Digi-destined grew up into Junior High School students (except for Kari and T.K. who became pre-teens) and could no longer watch over the Digital World and be with their Digimon friends. A new generation of Digi-Destined, composed of three new children named Davis, Yolei and Cody, as well as Kari and T.K. and their digimon Gatomon and Patamon, are given a new kind of digivice known as D3, which allows them to be transported to the Digital World through computers. Three new digimon named Veemon, Hawkmon and Armadillomon joined the group, along with the villain-turned-hero Ken and his digimon Wormmon.
• Dragon Ball Z (1999-2003) (Funimation dub) (Cartoon Network (United States)) featured the characters from Dragon Ball as adults five years older, since the Piccolo Jr. saga first showed most characters as adults (Goku and Chi-Chi as a 19-year-olds and 24-year-olds in Dragon Ball Z, Krillin as a 20-year-old and a 25-year-old in Dragon Ball Z, etc.) and Goku and Chi-Chi got married in the end of Dragon Ball, and had a son in Dragon Ball Z.
• Max Goof and his best friend-neighbor Pete Jr. (PJ) started out as 11-year-olds in the Disney series Goof Troop and became teenagers in the movie A Goofy Movie and its sequel An Extremely Goofy Movie. Max Goof himself has been shown in six different ages in all his appearances.
• Disney's Doug (Jumbo Pictures, Disney, 1996) consisted of new episodes for ABC of the former Nickelodeon series. In this series, the characters were aged from 11 to 12½, with the characters now attending middle school and given several changes (such as a new baby sister for series star Doug, Roger Klotz becoming wealthy, and so forth).
• Doraemon (Studio Pierrot, Asahi TV 1973-2005) Nobita Nobi, Shizuka Minamoto, Takeshi Goda, Suneo Honekawa is older as teenager and adult
• In Ed Edd n Eddy's episode entitled "Take This Ed and Shove It", all of the characters are shown in their old (90 to 100 years) forms. In the unedited version of the episode, The Kanker Sisters are not shown. Their old selves can only be seen in the deleted scenes of the episode, along with the babies they have with the Eds. It was removed from television broadcast because of its sexual innuendo.
• Gadget and the Gadgetinis (2001-2003, DiC Entertainment) takes place after the original series. Penny is now twelve years old.
• Sonic X, (TMS Enterntainment, 2003), Chris Thorndyke and his friends Helen, Frances, and Danny are shown to be six years older in the 52nd episode - onward (except that Chris's age regresses back to six years earlier (12 years old) in Episode 53, when he visits Sonic and company once again). The character Cosmo also ages to adulthood in Episode 77.
• The Powerpuff Girls (Hanna-Barbera/Cartoon Network Studios): The episode "City of Clipsville" had a flashback that featured the girls, as well as the Rowdyruff Boys, as teenagers. The explanation of this being presented as a flashback was that the Powerpuff Girls had sped up time.
• Quack Pack (The Walt Disney Company, 1996). This series featured the classic Disney Duck characters (Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, and Huey, Dewey and Louie), though with Huey, Dewey and Louie presented as being teenagers who spoke in conventional (and not duck-like) voices. Several 1950s theatrical Disney shorts, however, were the first to present teenage versions of Donald's nephews.
• The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (Hanna-Barbera, 1996). This spin-off of the 1960s animated series featured Jonny Quest and his friend Hadji as teenagers instead of as children.
• Richie Rich (Hanna-Barbera, 1980). The Harvey Comics character appeared in his own animated television series, which shared a timeslot with Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo as The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show. In the animated series, Richie and his pals are somewhat older, around 12 years old; Richie wears a red sweater with the letter "R" in front.
• Sabrina's Secret Life (DiC Entertainment, 2003) originally aired in syndication in 2003 as a spin-off of Sabrina: The Animated Series. In this series, Sabrina Spellman is a teenager (though a year or two younger than her original comic version) attending Greendale High School. Chloe has moved away, and Gem Stone attends a private school far away from Greendale (even though none of them is mentioned in a single episode). Sabrina's new best friend is a girl named Maritza; additionally, Sabrina still has a crush on her friend, Harvey Kinkle.
• In Ben 10: Alien Force Ben and his cousin Gwen are five years older (now at fifteen) and Kevin is no longer a villain, and instead works with Ben and Gwen to save the world.
• The animated Star Trek episode "The Lorelei Signal" shows the crew visiting a planet aged rapidly. In this episode,the crew are 27 years older with a race of beautiful Loreleian women.

Comics

• The Legion of Super-Heroes occasionally presented in 1960s stories adventures of the "Adult Legion," stories about the adult versions of the Legionnaires.
• The comic strip Funky Winkerbean initially presented its lead characters as teenagers. In the 1990s, however, the strip decided to jump ahead in time and present its characters as young adults some years after high school.
• The characters in the comic strip Luann have been continuously aging (approximately one month per reader year) since a character revamp in 1999.
• Nightwing features Batman's sidekick Robin (Dick Grayson) as an adult crimefighter.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (The Archie Comic) featured a special issue that took place 25 years into the future, featuring older versions of all the characters, including two timelines, one where Sonic married Sally Acorn and became King, the other where Shadow became King instead. ==See also==

See also

• Younger and junior versions of cartoon characters