Ensemble Dark Horse / Animated Films

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Example Subpages

• Zootopia

Other Examples:

Examples A to F

• Aladdin and the King of Thieves: Among the Quirky Miniboss Squad thieves, the fat thief and the martial artist are the most popular of the group and have a decent amount of fan art. The former is popular for his Stout Strength, being the last of the remaining thieves to join Sa'Luk, and his menacing yet funny song line about how people will feel fear when the thieves "drop by for cookies and tea." The martial artist is well-liked for his fighting skills and for being one of the more conventionally handsome members of the group.
• Alpha and Omega has a few, but the most notable one is Lilly due to her cuteness and situation. She and Garth, another example in regards to his character development and terrible howl gag, are sometimes preferred over Kate and Humphrey, to the point of some fans becoming concerned that they'll disappear in the sequels. (Which they did.)
• Anastasia has Sophie, the Dowager Empress's lady-in-waiting who is especially beloved by older male fans for her generous assets.
• Marie from Disney's The Aristocats has gotten a huge load of attention from Disney and cat lovers over the years, especially in Japan, she was exclusive to Tokyo Disneyland in the mid 2000's, until she started making appearances in Walt Disney World's Epcot and moved to the Magic Kingdom a few years later. Speaking of Japan, there was a spinoff manga called Miyiya & Marie that was made in 2012 and released in Japan and Brazil where Marie is the main character. The manga later gained a US/Canada release on June 2018 under the "Disney Manga" brand. She's also featured the most in Disney merchandise and anything related to the film. In fact, there was going to be a sequel which starred Marie, but it got canceled when Disney closed its animation studio.
  • Marie's even gotten her own Japanese music video which can also be found on the Japanese Disney Youtube channel.
  • Lafayette and Napoleon, the two country dogs, are also very popular for how funny they are.
• Star from Balto who sadly didn't appear in the sequels is quite well-liked by the Balto fandom. "Circles are a good thing!"
• Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast is very memorable, mainly due to his charming personality and performance of “Be Our Guest.” His voice actor, Jerry Orbach, admitted he was surprised by how popular the character was.
• Big Hero 6:
  • Mochi, the pet cat and "hairy baby" of the Hamada household.
  • Tadashi has become popular, even though he is only in the first act, due to being a very likable Nice Guy whose death is a huge Tear Jerker.
  • Aunt Cass was popular just on looks before the movie came out, after its release, her adult Genki Girl personality and loving relationship with Hiro and Tadashi cemented her dark horse status.
  • Krei's secretary. Yes, really, likely due to her looks. The follow-up TV series made her a Recurring Character, with a Deadpan Snarker personality and the name Judy.
  • Technicians 1 and 2 due to them being voiced by two well-known YouTube users in the UK version of the film.
• Manolo's cousins, the skeleton bandita looking Adelita twins from The Book of Life, are popular for their design. Though their personalities also help.
• The relatively minor character Morkubine Porcupine from Chicken Little has quite a fanbase despite his small screen time and only three lines of dialogue (They were "Yo", "No", and "Whoa"). He's also considered far nicer than most of the characters.
  • Foxy Loxy also seems to be rather popular, considering how many have complained about her Heel–Face Brainwashing.
• The Cinderella films have the two stepsisters, especially Anastasia. Her Heel–Face Turn in the third movie helps.
• In the Coraline fandom, there are insanely-huge fan-followings for The Other Wybie.
• After the three mains, Bonejangles can be said to be the most popular character in Corpse Bride, and is often the subject of an alternate ship with Emily. Apart from his big song "Remains of the Day," however, Bonejangles is pretty much just an amusing background character in the movie. He never even gets a name on-screen. Being voiced by Danny Elfman helps a lot.
• Dumbo provided one in the form of Casey Junior. In spite of having only five scenes to his name, and little personality to boot, fans latched onto him for his memorably catchy self-titled theme song "Casey, Jr.", his cute design, and being a small, but mighty powerhouse who grits his way up a steep mountain with a heavy train behind him. In fact, he's gotten numerous theme park appearances (including an opening day attraction), a book based on how the circus bought him, and a few cameos in other Disney properties.
• From The Emoji Movie we have Akiko Glitter from the Just Dance app. While the main characters are quite unliked, viewers liked Akiko and felt sorry for her when her app is deleted, essentially killing her.
  • Smiler also seems to be pretty well-liked, if the amount of people (including on this very website) believing that she's the real hero of the movie and supporting her antagonizing of Gene is any indication.
• Encanto:
  • Although all the secondary members of the Madrigal family are particularly popular, Camilo is by far the one that stands out the most. He is the member of the family with the least amount of screen time and the least amount of development among the youngest generation, and however he quickly gained a large fan base, making him one of the most popular characters in the film. Loved thanks to his friendly and mischievous personality, be a Pretty Boy, being popular popular on the LGBT Fanbase, his beautiful singing voice that makes him shine on "We Don't Talk About Bruno" and his Shapeshifting gift that fans love to speculate on whether or not he has hidden angst like the rest of the family.
  • Bruno only appears a few minutes longer than Camilo in the film, but he has found a huge fandom in being an Adorkable hero who's Bad Powers, Good People personified.The fandom has found his frustrated attempts at humor and simple advice to be close parallels with autistic people.
    • And along with him are his rat friends, they don't even have names and are less than one minute on screen, but they are by far the most popular animals in the film. Thanks to their Undying Loyalty to Bruno, their cute design and the funny joke of the novels that is a common theme in fanfics.
  • Outside of the Madrigal family, Mariano Guzmán and Lili have gotten their fair share of fans despite being minor characters. The first is beloved for being a genuine Nice Guy and averting most of the common negative stereotypes of the Disposable Fiancé, while the latter has garnered a decent bit of fan art thanks to her much more detailed design than the rest of the Encanto residents.
• Epic (2013):
  • Dagda, son of Mandrake, has a small role, yet his fanbase is surprisingly high.
  • Same goes for Finn, Ronin's second-in-command in the Leafmen. Despite his name never being mentioned, he also has a surprising amount of fans. One of the biggest mysteries, if not biggest, among these fans: What is his hairstyle?
• Chernabog and his sequence, Night on Bald Mountain, from Fantasia. Everyone remembers the beautiful pieces of music from the whole thing, but this was the one that stuck to everyone's memory. Everyone that ever watched this was in fear and awe of Chernabog, the sequence is regarded as both so amazing and frightening that it caused the Slavic Satan to haunt many's memories to this day, and it should come as no surprise that, of all the things from Fantasia to put into Kingdom Hearts, they chose Chernabog.
• Finding Nemo
  • The uber wise, Totally Radical speaking, surfer turtle Crush. He manages to steal the show with what little time he gets on screen..
  • Some of the few other characters who contest him for that popularity are the Shark trio (averting Everything's Even Worse With Sharks) and the seagulls. All three showed up when Walt Disney World's EPCOT park decided to add the Finding Nemo characters to its The Seas aquarium — the gulls appear in animatronic form outside, Bruce educates kids in a section dedicated just to sharks (despite not having the space for any actual sharks), and Crush hosts "Turtle Time With Crush".
  • Tad, the fish that says "I'm obnoxious."
  • The fish with the lisp that shouts "Oh my gosh! Nemo's swimming out to SEA!" has a lot of fans too. In the sequel, she is given more lines.
  • The anglerfish, for being the biggest source of Nightmare Fuel in the film and being portrayed as a feral, implacable predator, in sharp contrast with the more comedic sharks and seagulls.
  • The random crab who nearly gets eaten by the seagulls, then proceeds to confuse them with Funny Bruce Lee Noises and karate moves before jumping back into the water.
  • Pearl the flapjack octopus is very popular in merchandising, despite not having that much screentime.

Examples H to W

• Mambo from Happily N'Ever After. A cute, purple, awesome, wisecracking, sarcastic cat from a rather mediocre animated movie. Even people who hate the movie love him.
• Even those that don't like Home on the Range have singled out Lucky Jack, the cows' jackrabbit sidekick, as being the best character. Reasons generally include his appealing design and Nice Guy personality.

• She appears for less than two minutes in the film and has only one line (apart from loudly inhaling), yet still manages to upstage Carol Burnett, Jim Carrey, and Steve Carell. Katie from Horton Hears a Who! (2008) is a perfect example of this trope.
• Ruffnut from How to Train Your Dragon, despite having only a few lines and sharing all of her scenes with the other secondary characters. She's aroused by insanity, that's always hot! Being voiced by Kristen Wiig certainly helps.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame: A lot of people also seem to have a fondness for Clopin, the All-Knowing Singing Narrator of the film.
• The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild: Zee is this to some, for being a competent Action Girl and decent Foil to Buck. It also helps that she lacks any Faux Action Girl moments while also never upstaging Buck, making the two true equals who simply have different approaches when dealing with danger.
• The Incredibles gave us the crazed, meddling, indignant, and all around badass fashion goddess, Edna Mode. Mr. Huph is pretty hilarious too.
• Justice League × RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen: The movie's incarnation of Jessica Cruz is one of its most lauded elements, with many citing her interactions with Jaune as the highlight and emotional core of the film, and her struggles with anxiety as its most profound subplot. Her performance from Jeannie Tirado has been similarly lauded as one of the production's best.
• Kung Fu Panda: Mei Ling from Secrets of the Furious Five has gained quite a following, as have the Wu Sisters (A trio of Lynx assassins) from the video game.
• The director of Lightyear said Sox was one of those in-universe, and audiences agreed, with the robot cat being called one of the film's highlights, if not more compelling than the title character.
• The hyenas of The Lion King (1994), so much so that the Timon & Pumbaa series (starring another pair of Ensemble Dark Horses) featured a few episodes with them in the spotlight.
• The trio of Humming-Fish from The Lorax (2012) are this, as well as Cy, the O'Hare delivery guy. The latter in particular, as he only appeared on screen for less than three minutes of the movie's entirety!
• Madagascar:
  • The original film had the Penguins and King Julien in secondary roles, but lo and behold, they became popular enough to get their own spin-off shows and films.
  • Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa features a hippo named Moto Moto who has only four minutes of screentime (in an 89-minute-long film), but became the subject of a meme in 2019 because of the catchy song that plays during his scene and him being a funny, if underdeveloped, character.
  • Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted:
    • Vitaly the tiger is a big one, with his being voiced by Bryan Cranston probably helping. That, and the LGBT community seem to like his muscular appearance.
• Tamatoa, the giant crab from Disney's Moana. He only appears in one scene, but his catchy yet creepy Villain Song, "Shiny", makes him quite memorable.

• Over the Hedge has Heather, who has a decently large fanbase due to her friendly nature and being the Cloudcuckoolander's Minder to her father Ozzie, as well as being portrayed by Avril Lavigne.
• The Princess and the Frog has Charlotte who is utterly beloved despite her supporting role. Not only does she help Tiana achieve her dreams by paying her a lot of money to cater a party, but when an accident happens and Tiana ruins a plate of food, Charlotte accepts it as an accident, takes Tiana upstairs, and gives her some of her own clothes to wear since hers were ruined. She subvert everything you'd expect from a beautiful rich girl. Her energetic and humorous personality also helps.
• Shrek:
  • Gingy and Pinocchio are very popular with kids and adults alike despite their secondary role, especially Gingy, whose interrogation scene is considered a highlight of the first movie. For this reason, Gingy is often an Advertised Extra and plays a major role in the TV specials and games, while Pinocchio becomes an Ascended Extra in Shrek: The Musical.
  • The first film DVD's 'Technical Goofs' segment gave us Fuzzy Donkey, which a lot of fans liked since it's basically Donkey having been transformed into an adorable Donkey-shaped mass of fluff.
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas has Eris who, despite being the villain, has very little screen time. Through her gorgeous character design, alongside her interesting personality and powers, she is very popular in fandom, to a point that many only watch this movie for her.
• Sing:
  • The first movie had Mike the Mouse, a character who became popular due to his sly, cool guy attitude. It also helps that Seth MacFarlane provided his voice too. Many fans were disappointed to hear that he wouldn’t be returning for the sequel.
  • The second movie introduced us to Porsha Crystal, a character who really made the furries go “ga-ga” and became a major subject of fan art and internet memes.
  • Also introduced in the second film: Suki Lane, a character who started off semi-antagonistic towards Buster Moon but later on tried to help him. This inspired many fans to ship those two. It also helps that Suki has some pretty hot looks too!
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie's interpretation of Lumalee from Super Mario Galaxy is darker than the original, having gone insane enough from being in Bowser's castle to become a Straw Nihilist who desires death, whereas the original had him be jovial. He only appears for a few scenes in the film and barely has any plot relevance, yet his Black Comedy earned him many fans.
• The Sword in the Stone: The movie is not a movie about a boy and a wizard who turn into squirrels and said boy attracts the attention of a cheerful, overly friendly female squirrel who becomes the cute version of a Stalker with a Crush and wouldn't leave him alone, mistaking his actions for playing hard to get or his way of attracting a mate but is ultimately a Determinator set on making him love her back and earn him as a mate for life only to learn he's a human and run away in tears, watching the boy she fell in love with walk away forever to his home miles away. That's just 9 minutes of the movie, but with all of the fan art and fanfiction surrounding said little squirrel, you'd think those 9 minutes were a major importance to the plot. 4chan actually wrote a story where the squirrel gets a human form and comes to live with Arthur.
• Trolls World Tour:
  • The Techno trolls (especially Trollex) have become a subject of interest to the fanbase due to their unique, neon-esque design.
  • A not-quite-literal example with Hickory, whose good looks, charm, and remorse for his role in Poppy's capture have endeared him to a great number of fans.
• Toy Story: Evil Emperor Zurg is extremely popular in spite of his small screen time, thanks to his Darth Vader-inspired design, his menacing voice, and his reveling in evil schemes (not to mention it helped expand more on Buzz's toyline). He earned a place as the main antagonist of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Lightyear as a result.
• Turning Red: The fictional boy-band 4*Town has received tons of love despite having only a few minutes of screen time in both the fantasy sequence and near the end. Plus they have at least three songs, one that's very vital to the plot, another that plays during the montage, and one that plays during the credits. The band also has a official website that exists, which gives off bio explaining more about each members that the film hasn't mentioned. (Examples include: Robaire originally lived in the film's main setting; Toronto, Jesse has two kids, Aaron Z being shy.)
• Up: Due to her Genki Girl personality leading to tons of funny moments and her sweet relationship with Carl, Ellie has tons more fans than her small amount of screentime would suggest.
• Steve from Wonder Park seems to have a following among animation and comedy fans, with even people who hated the film saying he was one of the best parts.
• Wreck-It Ralph
  • For those who don't hate them, the Sugar Rush racers are intensely popular, to the point where some think that they deserve their own spin-off series. Particularly Rancis is popular for being the most prominent male racer, fanfiction frequently turns him into Vanellope's Love Interest.
  • The Surge Protector, for being a Deadpan Snarker and one of the few characters living in the arcade who isn't a video game character.
  • The "First Person Shooter", for being a brilliant take on the Featureless Protagonist, as well as also having a personality.
  • Sour Bill is quite popular, due to his simplistic, yet interesting design and deadpan delivery.
  • The NPCs from Turbo Time appeared for about 3 seconds, but since they were likely erased from existence, many are fascinated with them nonetheless, giving them personalities and backstories.

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