Kid-Appeal Character

The Man of Steel, the Caped Crusader, and the characters kids really read the book for.

Sonic: It's Cream and Cheese!
Chris: Friends of yours?
Sonic: More like obligatory kid-appeal characters.

— Sonic F

The Kid-Appeal Character is typically the character designed to appeal to a younger demographic. Cute, popular, tiny, likely to be Totally Radical, and almost always the youngest character on The Team, he's invariably obnoxious and thinks he's so totally cool, in a frantic effort to convince viewers that this is a family friendly show.

As well as that, the Kid-Appeal Character is all too often portrayed as seeing The Hero and/or The Leader of the Good Guys as his Father Figure. If the Leader is also quite young, chances are he'll see him as his Big Brother. In the same regard, he may look at The Lancer as being his uncle. If a color is associated with the character, then that color would be, if not yellow (if the character is female, she'll almost certainly be pink), then frequently brightly colored at any rate.

Depending on how young he is, how nice he is, or how old his father/brother figure is, the Kid-Appeal Character will usually take one of these roles:

• Clown. Not just any clown either, this is the Kid Clown, who hurls humor at every available point. He may be funny, he may be clumsy, or he may just be the joker of the team, playing pranks, making wisecracks and sometimes just whining about all the problems that are going on. Usually Played for Laughs, but may have a serious side.
• Weak but Lovable. Often getting into trouble, whether it's with the enemies or with the badass members of the good team. He's still kid-appeal heavy, but less of a prankster. Their bravery as a Reckless Sidekick often backfires on them, but they have just enough nobility or good intentions to avoid being written off as useless.
• Ankle Biter. Mega-brave young character who's awfully gutsy for his (or her) puny age, puny height, or puny strength. They may be swatted aside by the more powerful enemies, but their determination will not let them stay down. Sometimes they'll make them a Cute Bruiser so he can match the big guys, or a Fragile Speedster in combat.
• Adorably Precocious Child/Innocent Prodigy: Those kids in the story who have adult-level responsibilities, intelligence, or both.
• Teen Genius (or Pre-Teen Genius). The Millenial/Gen-Z type who is more tech-savvy than the older generation.
• The Team Wannabe. If there is a group, this kid will want more than anything to join, and may learn some lessons in how to eventually be a proper member.
• Some combination of all of the above.

The Kid-Appeal Character tends to stand out, especially in a story largely involving adult characters. Because of this any version can become The Scrappy, which is fitting since the original Scrappy was one of these. The ways this can happen is: The Clown is obnoxious as well as a Karma Houdini, the Weak But Lovable one never shows any real sign of helpfulness, the Ankle Biter slowly takes up prominence in the story over the primary characters, and as for the Teen Genius... have you ever heard the name "Wesley Crusher"? The wannabe can easily come across as a whiner, and become The Load. Slightly more common is for the character to acquire a Periphery Hatedom: loved by his intended fanbase, hated by everyone else.

However, that doesn't mean this type of character should never be used. In fact, they can be enjoyable when written well.

If the Kid-Appeal Character is a member of a Five-Man Band, they're probably The Heart as the moral center of the team, always considering the little guys. It's also possible that they're The Smart Guy instead, more adapted to modern technology than their older teammates. They won't often be The Leader, The Lancer, or The Big Guy, though, as they rarely have enough strength for any of those roles (strength of personality for the first two and physical strength for the third). A smart leader is often fully aware that the Kid-Appeal Character is not a strong front-line warrior and will assign them roles better suited towards their skills, such as being a scout (like Optimus Prime did with the former Trope Namer, Bumblebee). On the other hand, they may be explicitly not part of the team, being a Tagalong Kid (or in nonhuman cases, a Team Pet) at best. This doesn't preclude showrunners from trying to appeal to kids by giving the character their own subplots, taking care of something the main heroes are otherwise too distracted with.

If the Kid-Appeal Character is killed off at the beginning or the middle of the series, this guarantees to lead to a much more serious route.

These characters don't have to necessarily be in media targeted towards children to qualify. The characters just have to have traits and qualities that would appeal towards children even if such characters are actually characters who are part of media that is more mature and aimed towards adults. Conversely, just being younger than the rest of the cast isn't enough to qualify; they actually have to have said traits and qualities.

See also Tagalong Kid, Bratty Half-Pint, Kid Hero, Kid Sidekick, Plucky Comic Relief. The Bumbling Sidekick, Gratuitous Animal Sidekick, and Gratuitous Princess are common ways of appealing to kids. Compare Cousin Oliver or Spin-Off Babies. Parental Bonus is the inverse. Contrast Toyless Toyline Character.

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Examples

Anime and Manga

• Beyblade Burst: Valt Aoi is a really silly, but powerful kid who's good at his favorite sport: Beyblade. He may be cute and dorky, but his pride is the reason why kids love him and the anime.
• Cowboy Bebop: Ed, being the youngest and most playful plays Kid-Appeal Character to Spike Spiegel's Hero, Jet Black's Lancer.
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Zenitsu Agatsuma's comedic loudness and frequent overreacting may be annoying to some grown folks but it has been noted to be quite popular with little children in Japan, with middle-school merchandise in Zenitsu's likeness being quite sought after; his japanese voice actor, Hiro Shimono, has said that he was once casually passing by an electronic store, there he witnessed a little boy watching an anime scene with Zenitsu pulling his usual antics, the kid was frantically running around being loud like Zenitsu and imitating his sword moves, Shimono ends the recollection saying that at the time he wasn't sure if he should be flattered for children liked Zenitsu enough to imitate him or that he should be worried for their parents with the children possibly being too unruly by imitating Zenitsu. In the 1st Databook, where the creation process prior to the publication is detailed, it is noted more comedic events and characters were added to the original more serious premise, exactly in an attempt to be more palatable to younger boys.
• Digimon has a history of having team members significantly younger than the rest of the group, usually with a yellow or pink partner Digimon, often said Digimon are also Kid-Appeal Characters themselves. Digimon Adventure had T.K., his Patamon, and Kari, Digimon Adventure 02 had Cody, Digimon Tamers had Susie, Digimon Frontier had Tommy, and Digimon Universe: App Monsters had Torajiro and Musimon. Most of these fall under "Weak (well, initially) but lovable" except for Cody who is closest to the Teen Genius, and Torajiro and Musimon, who are very much clownish comic relief characters.
• Seira, the Token Mini-Moe of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, pumps up the kid appeal and has a whole season revolving around her.
• Chibi-Usa/Sailor Chibi Moon of Sailor Moon is the youngest of the Sailor Guardians, being in elementary school while the others are in middle school or high school, and she's clearly meant to appeal to younger female fans. Unfortunately, the 90s anime messes this up — while her manga counterpart was semi-powerful and leveled up in lock-step with her teammates, her anime self suffered from Adaptational Comic Relief and Adaptational Wimp, making her a joke meant to be saved by the other Sailors when her attacks don't work and spends her time arguing with Usagi/Sailor Moon. Thus, when she becomes the focus character in its fourth season, the results are not pretty at all.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Ash's Pikachu. Its species isn't that strong (though the Light Ball makes this debatable), and particularly in the first season, it got beaten by pretty much every Gym Leader at least once, but it always got back up. It's far and away the most popular character, and it's yellow. Later seasons downplay the child-like aspects, and now it behaves more as a Team Dad among Ash and his friend's Pokémon. Other Pokémon like Togepi, Piplup, Axew and Dedenne have stepped to these roles in Pikachu's place.
  • Jigglypuff, a reoccurring Pokémon who the main cast used to run into time and time again mostly appeared to provide humor in the form of a running gag. Every time it encounters anyone, it'll try to sing a song that had a side effect of putting them to sleep. It would then get mad and draw on the victim's face.
  • As far a human characters are concerned, there's Max, the younger brother of May. He is too young to train his own Pokémon, but he travels along with the rest of the cast because he loves Pokémon that much. Pokémon the Series: XY introduces Bonnie, the younger sister of Clemont, who fulfills a similar role.
• Chopper from One Piece is the youngest, most innocent, and easily the most adorable member of the Straw Hats.
• Hwang Bu-ling/Mew Pudding of Tokyo Mew Mew fits here: eight years old, wears bright yellow, equal member of the team, and dove right into danger even before she or anyone knew she had any powers. Even her Verbal Tic (nano da!) screams cute exuberance.
• Naruto is a rare occasion where the Kid-Appeal Character is the main character. Brightly colored, often obnoxious and alternatively very weak and ridiculously strong, and to top it all off, his leader wears a mask over◊ the lower part of his face. This is even Lampshaded in the story itself, as a few characters make the snarky observation that Naruto is the kind of person who would never be the main character in some story.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Simon is this in the first half, as a teenager who looks younger in a cast of young adults.
• Goten and Present Trunks in the later arcs of Dragon Ball Z bring a good deal of levity and irreverence compared to the increasingly self-serious adult characters. They treat gaining planet-cracking martial arts powers and fighting ancient Eldritch Abominations as a lark.
• In GoLion, Hiroshi "Chibi/Shorty" Suzuishi is the youngest at 12, plus he's always trying to prove himself and gets excited so easily.
• Voltes V: Hiyoshi, at ten years old, is the youngest of the Go siblings. He wants to live a normal childhood of playing games and swimming, but can't because he's restrained to his duties of being the pilot of the Volt Frigate. Many episodes have him express a desire to leave his mission and have fun, only for his older brother Kenichi to admonish him. When he uses his super-genius skills to do something useful like manufacture a coffee-making Robot Buddy, said Jerkass brother yells at him for "wasting time" (which is reminiscient of younger siblings being written off as "annoying" by their older ones).
• Jinpei from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is often boastful, sometimes capable of taking out bad guys and sometimes not, and makes stupid jokes. He has occasionally felt the need to prove himself, and gone to deal with the villains. The various derived characters in adapted versions of the show have the same characteristics.
• In Saint Beast, in comparison to the rest of the cast Gai is younger, more energetic, less mature, fun and inquisitive, and to top it off has yellow and dark brown hair.
• Chiyo-chan in Azumanga Daioh is a Child Prodigy with orange Girlish Pigtails who has skipped up to high school. She's a source of much of the series' cuteness and humor. Chiyo has some aspects of "weak but lovable" mixed with being a "preteen genius".
• Hana-chan from Ojamajo Doremi; she's a combination between type 1 and 2, despite being established as having some very powerful magic. Justified since she really is a toddler in an eleven-year-old's body. Doremi's precocious little sister Pop also qualifies.
• Pretty Cure
  • Yayoi Kise/Cure Peace from Smile PreCure! is this. Timid yet happy, sports a yellow dress and blonde hair, and obsessed with superheroes.
  • Emiru Aisaki/Cure Ma'Cherie from HuGtto! Pretty Cure is an even straighter example, since she's the youngest of the Cures (being in elementary school while the others are in middle school) and has elements of The Team Wannabe since she secretly dresses up as a Cure and wishes she could be one before joining the team for real.
• Deconstructed in Bokurano with the floating mouse thing named Koyemshi. He is a sociopath Jerkass who Was Once a Man with deadly powers (like teleporting you or your body parts to another dimension). He conveniently forgot the Zearth kids that piloting that robot will kill them because their reaction amused him. He shows readers that appearances can be deceiving.
  • Even though Neon Genesis Evangelion is a show that is more mature rated, the character Pen-Pen looks appealing towards kids due to the fact that he is a penguin.
• The Tachikomas from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Badass Adorable Cute Machines with adorable high pitched voices and childlike personalities that provide most of the show's comic relief, though they can get philosophical at times. The fact that they're spider tanks doesn't make them any less lovable.

Comic Books

• Atomic Robo: The trope was discussed by the creators. When pitching a possible movie adaptation, the studio execs insisted that there be a kid protagonist involved; even though the creators argued that it wouldn't make sense for a child to be employed by Tesladyne, and that Robo himself would theoretically appeal to kid viewers enough as a big friendly robot. Eventually, they came up with the idea of a kid being swept up in an adventure through their Science Fair project. The movie fell through, but the concept was later turned into a Free Comic Book Day side-story — which ends with Robo gently telling the kid that given the hyperdangerous science shenanigans that Tesladyne regularly deals with, it would be illegal and unethical for him to hire her no matter how smart she is.
• Batman: Robin was originally the weak-but-lovable sidekick to Batman, and even has the yellow cape. In fact, most comic-book sidekicks in the Golden and Silver Ages (Bucky, Speedy, Wonder Girl, Aqualad, Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel, Supergirl, etc.) were created specifically to give younger readers a character to identify with.
• Fantastic Four: The Human Torch is a teenager in a cast of adults. Early on in the series, he was extremely popular and was the Breakout Character with his own spinoff within a year after the series started. His popularity was one of the reasons why Marvel created other teen superheroes like Spider-Man and the X-Men.
• Jem and the Holograms (IDW): Kimber appeals to the teenage demographic of the comic. She has an almost pink shade of red hair, is the youngest major character at eighteen, is the spunkiest by far, and is the most into pop culture. She even dressed as the Superbowl sharks for the Halloween Episode.
• Saga: The comic is a series that is not for kids, but Ghus, who is a harp seal-like alien, looks a lot like a character that would appeal to kids due to his appearance, his kind personality, his yellow overalls, and the fact that he doesn't use profanity unlike the rest of the characters.
• Shazam!: This was the source of the original Captain Marvel's runaway success. While a little kid reading comics might have trouble imagining himself as Clark Kent, pretending to be Billy Batson, and transforming into a superhero by simply saying "Shazam!", seemed far more achievable. There was a reason Captain Marvel was the highest-selling comic on the stands, even outselling Superman.
• Spider-Man: When Spider-Man is put into a team dynamic, such as The Avengers, he usually fits this trope as a combination of the Clown and the Smart Guy; in fact there have been team-ups where he has out and out stolen this role from Johnny Storm, to the point where he's temporarily taken Johnny's place on the FF!
• Superboy: The pre-Crisis Superboy (i.e., Superman as a boy) was also meant to be a kid-appeal character, debuting in 1945's More Fun Comics #101.
• Super Sons: The series stars the sons of Superman and Batman: Jon Kent/Superboy and Damian Wayne/Robin. Jon is a Subversion of the Weak but Lovable variety; he's super strong like his father, but his genes make his powers, namely invulnerability, inconsistent so he usually has to play it safe. Damian is more of a straight Teen Genius with traits of the Ankle Biter since more emphasis is put on his immaturity and arrogance.
• Teen Titans: Kid Flash.
• Transformers: The original Bumblebee is usually portrayed in comics as being the sort who keeps trying to "prove himself" to his bigger, stronger teammates, and usually gets into trouble because of it. (Prime, for his part, thinks Bumblebee has proven himself well enough in his given role of a spy that he shouldn't feel like this.)
• Wonder Woman
  • Wonder Woman (1942): Glitch, a small energetic alien who loves human pop culture and wears a cloaking device that human children can see through, is a very kid friendly character.
  • Wonder Woman (Rebirth): Peony McGill/Star Blossom is a Kid Hero adaptation of a similiar character from the stillborn Wonder Woman and the Star Riders franchise, revamped to be a draw for young readers.
• X-Men:
  • Kitty Pryde started out as a young teenage hero on a team of adults, but eventually grew out of the role.
  • Jubilee, particularly in the 90s: young, fun-loving, sarcastic, one of Wolverine's many sidekicks, and (appropriately) known for wearing a lot of yellow.
  • In New X-Men: Academy X, Pixie was one of the youngest, had brightly colored wings, and was otherwise comic relief, for the few issues that focused on her before Break the Cutie (which really didn't break her very much at all).
  • Gabby Kinney / Honey Badger is the younger sister of X-23, and serves much the same role to her that Jubilee served to Logan, and is primarily the Ankle-Biter variety. She's a cute and peppy smart-alleck to contrast with Laura's stoicism, has an interminably upbeat demeanor, and is a font of humor with her off-kilter and observant humor. She even has a Team Pet in the form of Jonathan the actual wolverine.

Fan Works

• Unsurprisingly, taking example from all versions prior, Bumblebee is again this in Transformers Meta. Customarily, he is yellow, the youngest on the team, and fast (his peds are actually wheels). But his kid-appeal factor is accentuated in his eccentrically childish, whimsical, and optimistic personality. He is the Ankle Biter on the team, but occasional tendencies qualify him as Weak but Lovable.
  • He is a Fragile Speedster, as Hound's analysis of him indicates when they were training in the fifth episode.
  • Despite his naivety, he has proven competent in battle when he almost got the upper hand over Barricade in the third episode and when he helped fight Starscream and ended up overcoming Waspinator, which also makes him somewhat of a Cute Bruiser.
• To some extent, Mariko and Chiyoko from the Lucky Star fanfics Holiday Vacation and Lucky Star: After Story. The former for being a Badass Adorable Genki Girl and the latter for being a Token Mini-Moe.

Films — Animation

• Aladdin:
  • Genie serves as comic relief for the film due to his glowing blue colored skin, flamboyance, eccentricity, and his witty personality. He was also voiced by the late Robin Williams, an actor who appeared in many kids movies.
  • The magic carpet also qualifies due to its brimming colors and its tendency to be mistaken for a blanket by younger kids.
  • Iago becomes this in the sequel films and series due to his sarcasm and the fact that he is voiced by the late Gilbert Gottfried.
• Animal Farm (1954) uses a cute baby duckling for comic relief in the earlier scenes, which was added by one of the producers who was concerned the film was too dark.
• Chip from Beauty and the Beast (though he didn't originally have more than one line; the makers were impressed by the actor and wanted to see more, while also noting it as a useful chance to have kid access if not mandated kid appeal).
• Big Hero 6:
  • Baymax, in his design of a robot that looks like a huggable, plush marshmallow was clearly designed to attract children, not to mention his likable and kind personality. Many plush toys based on him are popular. His super suit also adds some flavor into him when it comes to action figures.
  • Fred is also this due to his laid back and carefree personality as well as his unique super suit that looks like a monster ripped off from Japanese monster films. His super suit is also popular in plush toys and action figures.
• The Black Cauldron has Gurgi and the Creeper. Things become more serious when Gurgi performs a Heroic Sacrifice.
• The Detention Kids from The Book of Life. Trouble-making rascals who get invested in the story.
• A Bug's Life: Dot is the only child-aged main character.
• Despicable Me:
  • The Minions are of the Clown variety. They're annoying, they're yellow and they make Illumination millions.
  • Margo, Edith, and Agnes are this to a lesser extent. They are usually helpless in action-packed moments, but have unique personalities and vulnerable moments that make them lovable.
• Olaf from Frozen is a clown variety. He is a very chipper and naive snowman that Elsa accidentally brought to life. He sings songs about how he loves summer, despite being a snowman (he doesn't understand the concept of melting yet), and generally acts like a young child with a man's voice. In development the writers toned down his original personality because he was deemed too annoying instead of amusing. Olaf ended up appealing well to both younger and older audiences.
• Olivia from The Great Mouse Detective is the weak, but lovable type. She even does her best to help Basil and Dawson solve the case.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame:
  • Quasimodo due to his kind loving heart and his grotesque but unique appearance.
  • The gargoyles Victor, Hugo, and Lavernne as they are the main source of comic relief in a Disney film that has very dark and mature themes.
  • Djali the goat (Esmerelda's animal companion) is one of the few characters that has a noticably cute apperance and designed with children in mind. He even starred in a few book tie-ins that were aimed at children and was Lighter and Softer than the original movie.
• Po Ping, the title character of Kung Fu Panda, is a cute, fluffy panda warrior who constantly shouts catchphrases and is generally much more upbeat than his more serious teammates. Though Character Development and taking multiple levels in badass does give him some adult appeal.
• The Lion King: Timon and Pumbaa. They're the source of many of the lighthearted moments after the movie hits Cerebus Syndrome thanks to Mufasa's death.
• Flounder from The Little Mermaid, for being a young fish with a bright yellow and blue color scheme, in addition to his Lovable Coward personality.
• Mushu from Mulan is a small dragon who serves as most of the comic relief for most of the film. The fact that he is voiced by Eddie Murphy also helps.
• The Princess and the Frog:
  • Louis the Alligator appeals towards kids due to the fact that he is an oddball alligator as he has a sensitive personality, has a huge body, plays a small trumpet, and is one out of few alligators in an animated film to be one of the good guys.
  • Ray the Firefly also served as this due to his Cajun accent and personality as his tendency to make farts jokes out of his ability to glow due to being a firefly. Some audiences were upset when Ray gets murdered by Dr. Facilier, the movie's villain, which caused the film to briefly go into Cerebus Syndrome.
• Skippy Rabbit from Disney's Robin Hood (1973) falls into the Ankle Biter category, with the titular Robin Hood as the object of his Hero Worship.

Films — Live-Action

• Moose in Ernest Goes to Camp is the youngest of the detention boys to go to camp, and while the others are generic troublemakers at best, Moose is given a little more of a personality, being a genuinely nice kid (with no explanation or clue as to why he was in the detention center), and being the first of them to like Ernest (after Ernest saves him from drowning).
• Godzilla: As the later films in the Showa Era began aiming at an increasingly younger demographic, a monster relatable to children was added in Son of Godzilla, introducing the titular character, Minilla/Minya, a pudgy and friendly hatchling adopted by Godzilla (who was also redesigned with a muppet-like appearance to make him seem more "fatherly" and less threatening than he usually is). Minilla appeared in a few following films, with the trope reaching its nadir in All Monsters Attack, where he gained the ability to shrink to kid-sized and talk to humans, befriending a lonely boy (in his dreams), but when later films went back to a darker and more adult-oriented tone, Minilla was Put on a Bus, up until Godzilla: Final Wars, a deliberately campy throw-back to the later Showa movies.
  • Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire: The introduction of Suko, a cute and friendly juvenile member of the Kong species, providing a titan-child character, much like Minilla, Godzooky and Godzilla Junior before him, for younger audiences to gravitate towards.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Spider-Man fills this role in Captain America: Civil War. Civil War is one of the MCU's darker films, but while most of the adults are wrapped up in angst-ridden plots about superhero politics, divided loyalty, grief, and revenge, Spider-Man is a wisecracking teenage fanboy who's just excited to be there.
  • Princess Shuri in Black Panther. Shuri's a grown woman in the comics, but in the movie, she's a cheerful, meme-loving Teen Genius who provides much of the film's humor.
• Robocop 3: Nikko Halloran is a pre-teen hacker who helps the main cast twice with her hacker skills (especially at the film's climax) and is there to have cute interactions with everybody, especially Murphy (she also ends up representing the cruelty of the Rehabs further when it’s revealed her parents were "shot while trying to escape" a Rehab "relocation camp" after they were separated in the film's prologue. She notably is the only heroic "kid" character in the original trilogy (there is also "Gadget" Parks in Robocop The Series, which was produced later) with all other kids that appear being either innocent bystanders (in the first film) or Enfante Terribles that are one more example of how much Detroit has gone to Hell in a hand basket (Hob Mills and the thieving softball team in '’Robocop 2'’).
• Denny is the only kid-like character in The Room (2003) (he is 18 years old but looks and acts much younger). Not that kids are even supposed to be seeing the movie, which is rated R, making him one of the many inexplicable things about it.
• Star Wars:
  • Jar Jar Binks from the prequels is a wacky, goofy and slapstick character with a funny way of talking, making him a very obvious attempt at the trope. He was highly unpopular with adult viewers.
  • C-3PO and R2-D2 served this role in the original trilogy. Unlike Jar Jar though, they didn't alienate adult viewers.
  • The Ewoks of Return of the Jedi are living teddy bears. They play a major role in the climax of the series.
  • BB-8 in The Force Awakens is small, cute and makes for a very popular toy.
• The Transformers Film Series:
  • The twins in Revenge of the Fallen, as Michael Bay states, were meant to be this (hell, they're even stuck with Bumblebee for much of the movie)... in spite of being violent Jive Turkeys who keep beating up each other. Their toy bios essentially say that being among the few Autobots who made it to Earth made them living their dream of working directly alongside Optimus Prime, which is certainly a common trait for this type of character. Their immature wrestling and talking about being "quiet like a ninja" also highlights their relative youth.
  • In Dark of the Moon, Bumblebee's kid-friendly nature gets taken advantage of by Laserbeak, who turns into a mini pink Bumblebee to convince a little girl to let him in so that he can assassinate her father.
  • In the third film, the character type is also embodied by the duo of Wheelie and Brains, who are small robots and basically act like kids during the course of the movie. Unlike Skids and Mudflap, though, they have relatively little screen time and would rather be chilling at Sam's home watching TV instead of being involved with the Robot War.
  • In Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Bumblebee's role of the youthful and optimistic Autobot who makes friends with humans has been passed down to Mirage.
• Roger Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit really stands out as the one original character that appeals the most to kids.
• The Wizard of Oz has four for the price of one. Toto, for being Dorothy's dog, the Scarecrow for being a clumsy comic relief, the Tin Woodsman for being a Gentle Giant and the Cowardly Lion for being the comedic talking animal sidekick who gets scared easily.

Literature

• Gavin Darklighter plays this role in the first four books of the X-Wing Series. He starts out as a sixteen-year-old Farm Boy from Tatooine who is utterly naive and gets taunted by the rudest of his fellow Rogues, who for the most part are five to ten years older than he is. So he serves to be the newbie trying to find his place and being surprised by things that the older pilots find commonplace. While his subplots are pretty much in the background, he does go through Character Development and grow and mature. Eventually, by the New Jedi Order, he's the leader of Rogue Squadron.
• Gavroche, from Les Misérables, of the plucky ankle-biting variety. His reaction to getting shot at by the military is to make up on the spot a song insulting French intellectuals! Then, this being Les Misérables, Surprisingly Realistic Outcome occurs.

Live-Action TV

• LazyTown: Ziggy is a Cheerful Child who has a ginormous Sweet Tooth and dresses himself as a superhero like any other normal kid.
• Keeping up the Star Wars tradition, The Mandalorian has The Child/Baby Yoda/Grogu. He mostly exists to be a cute Living MacGuffin and get into adorable mischief, but he occasionally saves the day with his nascent Force powers. It's telling that he's ubiquitous in The Merch, even more than the title character.
• While several Power Rangers have kid-appeal elements, few really seem to go so far as to be a viewpoint character kids are "supposed" to identify with. One that definitely does, though, is Justin Stewart from Power Rangers Turbo, currently the only one who was a Ranger as a kid when most are in their late teens or early twenties. Other good candidates include:
  • Max Cooper from Power Rangers Wild Force. The definite kid of the group (high school age when the others were in college at a minimum) and had childlike enthusiasm to match, but got a lot less focus than your standard example.
  • Ziggy Grover from Power Rangers RPM, a Lovable Coward, the weakest fighter on the team (he became a Ranger by accident), best buds with and sidekick to the Troubled, but Cute Lancer, and something of a viewpoint character as a Meta Guy. However, he was the same age as the other Rangers and didn't come off as all that "childlike" in comparison, being in trouble with organized crime and showing hints of being a Chivalrous Pervert.
  • Also from RPM, Sixth Rangers Gem and Gemma, who were extremely childlike (even seeming to be developmentally a year or two behind the target audience). They're more of a subversion, really; rather than being audience surrogates for kids, their immaturity came off as them being very very screwed up.
  • Another blatant one was Fred in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. While the Rangers fought off the monsters he rallied Angel Grove's kids (and Bulk and Skull) to rescue their parents. Made all the more obvious because he's the only "civilian" character who wasn't part of the show's regular cast.
• Super Sentai indulges in this.
  • The Kid-Appeal Ranger is typically the youngest male Ranger on a team, especially if he's neither The Hero nor The Lancer of the Five-Man Band; as such, Yellow and Green Rangers fill this role more often than other colors. One such example is Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger's Don (Gokai Green), who lacks the confidence and dash of his teammates and has a bumbling, comical fighting style. Ironically, the only two actual child Rangers in the franchise's history don't quite fit this trope; Kou/Kibaranger was a Bratty Half-Pint who engaged in Dirty Kid antics early on, while Kotaro/Koguma Skyblue is essentially a standard Ranger who just so happens to be a kid, possessing a surprising amount of maturity for someone as young as he is.
  • On occasion, the Red Ranger will be made the Kid-Appeal Character, since naturally every kid wants to be The Hero; however, this tends to produce characters who are incredibly unpopular with Sentai's older fanbase. One infamous example is Takaharu from Shuriken Sentai Ninninger, an Idiot Hero with basically zero Character Development whose only real skills seemed to be bull-headed enthusiasm and a catchphrase he shouted at the top of his lungs every ten minutes, but who still gets treated by the other Ninningers as the strongest member of the team and the one person they could never surpass. Nagi from the same series is a more traditional KAC, being the team's "baby" who feels somewhat inadequate because he has to keep up with his more accomplished cousins.
  • Ressha Sentai Toqger is a rare case where the entire team is like this, being enthusiastic, child-like, and possessing Imagination Based Superpowers. Near the end of the series it's revealed that all five of the core ToQgers are actually children who've been imagining themselves as teenagers all this time, justifying their childish personalities.
• Mark McCain in The Rifleman definitely falls into this trope. He's sweet'n'innocent, but he can be pretty scrappy if the situation calls for it. But usually, he's there to provide a kid's perspective of the situation and to allow Lucas to become Mr. Exposition.
• Sesame Street is a show already aimed at children (and their families) but even in that context, Elmo is a character designed to represent and appeal to the youngest members of the show's target demographic. He's the smallest cast member, has the most child-like voice, and is generally the voice of innocence and naivete.
• In another Muppet-adjacent example, Baby Sinclair from Dinosaurs appealed to kids by being cute and getting the show's most famous Running Gag (him hitting his father on the head with a frying pan) and catchphrase ("I'm the Baby. Gotta Love Me", which was made into a Music Video). Tropes Are Tools, as the writers used Baby's popularity as a Trojan Horse to cover a variety of weighty and controversial topics, such as sexual harassment, the horrors of war, government corruption and corporate greed.
• Doctor Who often uses companions for this:
  • When Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert were conceptualizing their new science fiction serial, Newman told her that the Doctor needed a friend who was 'a kid who gets themselves into trouble' to appeal to the child audience, which they decided should be a teenage girl. Since it was important that it didn't appear that anything creepy was going on, she was made into his granddaughter. Verity Lambert eventually created Susan Foreman, a weird, Creepy Good alien Action Girl, but Newman had her Retooled into a 'normal girl' in between the unaired pilot and "An Unearthly Child" to make her more appealing to the child audience.
  • Susan's Suspiciously Similar Substitute Vicki was much the same, being even younger and having a cuter personality, as well as resembling a futuristic Scooter-Riding Mod.
  • Jamie - very young, naive, a bit stupid, loveable and resembling a trendy 1960s teen as much as possible considering his 18th Century origins. He was written into a pure historical serial as a very minor character, but was added to the permanent cast at the last minute because the crew realised a cute teenage Scottish warrior would be appealing to children and young teenage girls. Frazer Hines even described his job at one point as being 'paid to get the girls back from the disco'.
  • The Fourth Doctor companion K-9, a cute, Literal-Minded, brilliant but naive Robot Dog, was added for this reason.
  • The Fourth and Fifth Doctor companion Adric was something of a failed attempt at one of these. He appears as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for K-9 and was a Teen Genius conceived to represent both the child demographic and the growing cult fandom, but was notoriously unpopular due to a combination of Matthew Waterhouse's limitations, inconsistent scripting, and a heavy dose of This Loser Is You.
  • A weird instance where the Doctor was retooled into a Kid-Appeal Character was the Seventh, who was written at first as a silly, bumbling, Fun Personified clownlike figure who did magic tricks and danced and made you laugh, because the executives were aiming for a much younger audience at the time. It didn't stick.
  • The Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor pseudo-companion Strax, a good Sontaran and Minion with an F in Evil who is mindbogglingly stupid, does Slapstick and doesn't understand human concepts like gender or hair.
  • The Thirteenth Doctor's upbeat and cheery demeanor, her childlike personality, and her general lack of sophistication and authority compared to the other Doctors (especially in contrast to Twelve, her direct predecessor, who had a much larger appeal with older fans) arguably qualify her for this trope.
• Klus from Studio100's Kabouter Plop series is very popular with children in Belgium. This might be due to his trickster and fun personality he has compared to the other gnomes from the show. Here's an example from a live show in Plopsa Indoor Hasselt.
• BOTH Star from The Good Night Show and Banjo from The Lets Go Show. Both appear to be around four years old, as, in one episode, the former mentions he turned four on his last birthday, and a Sprout press release reveals the latter represents the typical age and humor of a preschooler.

Music

• Ringo Starr of The Beatles has often been seen this way. Completely unintentional, of course, but between the fact that he was the "funny" Beatle and the fact that his solos were all rather whimsical, sweet songs about things like octopus's gardens and The Power of Friendship (while his bandmates were singing about sex and drugs), it's an understandable interpretation.
• Emma Bunton is the youngest Spice Girl, since her nickname was Baby Spice. She's also weak but lovable.
• blink-182's popularity exploded after they got their second drummer Travis Barker, whose sense of style and drumming ability was the epitome of cool for many 11 year olds in the late 90s and early 2000s, causing them to form their own bands.
• Ryuto, Kagamine Rin, and Kagamine Len are this for Vocaloid. Ryuto is based on a popular kids character with a silly voice and has the youngest official age of any Vocaloid released. The Kagamine duo are the youngest of the Crypton Vocaloids, have youthful, cutesy voices, give energetic performances in official concerts, and even have the yellow color scheme.

Professional Wrestling

• Satoru Sayama, the first man to bring Tiger Mask to life in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (Samson Kutsuwada did it earlier but in Korea). Despite having a style nothing like Tiger Mask, who was submission/power wrestler rather than a technical/high flier, it worked well enough for New Japan to try again with Jushin Thunder Liger, this time using Jushin Liger as the reference, obviously.
• El idolo de los Niños, better known as Atlantis in CMLL, Michinoku Pro and Toryumon. Notably he wasn't been cheered by older fans for awhile into his career, when he was doing text book rudo work. But the kids still loved him. For a further bit of irony, he's never been the youngest man on any roster.
• Chigusa Nagayo drew deafening crowds of chanting girls into AJW. Unfortunately, she and Crush Gal partner Lioness Asuka had to "retire" at 25, leading to a Face–Heel Turn and several of those inspired girls growing up to get mercilessly beaten by their former hero.
• Tiny Tammy Jones, The Superheroes Thunderbolt & Lightning and every Farmer's Daughter in GLOW.
• The World Wrestling Federation repackaged Hillbilly Jim as one, and kept as a baby face his entire run there.
• Rey Mysterio Jr. isn't the youngest in WWE and isn't (too) obnoxious, but he fulfills every other requirement as the Ankle Biter subset. He's tiny, wildly popular with kids, frequently wears ridiculously bright clothes, and gets picked on by the bad guys a lot. He's even had several of the bigger faces in WWE (Dave Batista most noticeably) in a big brother role at one point or another. Compared to his uncle, the original Rey Misterio, you could say he's always been this.
  • Rey plays directly to very little fans on his ring entrance. If there are kids on the sides next to the ramp during his entrance wearing merch masks, he'll walk right over and touch his forehead to theirs. One special kid will actually get Rey to take off his peel off part of his mask and put it on them, ala when Bret Hart used to take off his sunglasses and put them on a child in the front row.
• Command Bolshoi, trained by the Japanese Women's Pro-Wrestling Project, veteran of All Japan, also known as Bolshoi Kid, U.S.shoi, Dotonborishoi, Santa Bolshoi and Piko. She stands at only 4'11 imperially, has a mask with a clown nose but has a successful career as an ankle biter.
• After unmasking, Konnan became one in CMLL, and was enough of an ankle biter to be their first World Heavyweight Champion when they decided to introduce new titles higher than the national level.
• Jeff Hardy, being a brightly colored dressing high flier who paints himself. Unfortunately, WWE decided to focus on his legal and substance abuse troubles, and positively contrast him against straight edge wrestler CM Punk.
• Gregory Helms as the Hurricane, though the every classy WWE named his side kick the Super Hero In Training. Old habits die hard it seems.
• Pro Wrestling NOAH did this with Taiji Ishimori, giving him lots of shiny, bright colored sets of ring gear and lots of lucha libre inspired moves, including Rey Mysterio's 619. It helps that he's only 5'4.
• London and Kendrick on WWE Smackdown and Velocity, excepting that time Spanky went streaking.
• John Cena's "Never Give Up" gimmick is this. The only people it really appeals to besides kids are women. Randy Orton accidentally added fuel to this fire by suggesting only women and kids cheered Cena.
• Hulk Hogan (as a babyface at least), the red-and-yellow clad "Real American" hero who told kids to "Train hard, Eat their vitamins, Say their prayers and Believe in themselves."
• Bobby Lashley was molded into one after being called from OVW to WWE, with the camera routinely zooming in on a father and his child chanting "Lashley, Lashley" whenever he made an entrance.
• Eugene Dinsmore as he debuted on Monday Night Raw as a wrestling savant who was a big fan of legendary wrestlers such as The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
• Even though they were jobbers The Norfolk Dolls attracted quite a few cheering girls in Real Quality Wrestling, likely because they were practically children themselves. They'd grow out of the jobber roll in time, Britani before Melodi..
• Hornswoggle became an example after his presence failed to make Finley hated, fitting many of the same characteristics Mysterio does except he's much less competent, is either the youngest man on the roster or close to it, and is about a foot smaller than Mysterio is. And Mysterio's 5'3".
• Kofi Kingston has been one almost his entire WWE run following his departure from WWECW. Though Kofi has a temper, which is hard to provoke but very frightening once awakened.
• Tiger Mask's kid appeal status was parodied in Wonder Ring STARDOM with "Yuzupon Mask", who fought a child in her "debut".(that child being Haruka, a straight example)
• The Buddy System of SHIMMER\SHINE, with Marti Belle sarcastically crediting the tag team's existence to everyone being twelve.
• Bayley behaves the way one would expect a younger fan to on NXT, and to drive the point home she has been bound. Uniquely for this type of character, she's beloved by plenty of adult fans too. Bayley is also most likely to hug a few children during her walk to the ring. Though she would abandon this upon turning heel in 2019.
• Alexa Bliss showed signs of being this type of character. Given the gimmick of a Plucky Girl who loves glitter and sparkles, she proved very popular with younger fans. As a face she was a Token Wholesome, but received a Face–Heel Turn to become Hotter and Sexier.
• Sting was this before becoming Darker and Edgier in the mid-90s. Even though he was a 6'2" ex-bodybuilder, he wore the bright colors, fought all the much larger bad guys, did a lot of charity work, was popular with children and was well-respected in the locker room. The Big Show even compared him to John Cena. However, unlike Cena, Sting was also popular with adult fans as well.
• WWE in general tries to do this with most of their wrestlers (or at least their merchandise) because of their transition to more family-friendly programming. This will include anything from the typical bright colors to literally anything they can possibly sell).
  • Adrian Neville became a pure Face after being a Tweener in NXT. He had superhero inspired gear with a cape and purple gear. It helped that he's similar to Rey Mysterio Jr., in that he's a high-flier that's relatively small for a WWE wrestler.
  • Becky Lynch had light up rainbow goggles.
• Jurassic Express from All Elite Wrestling fills this niche nicely:
  • Marko Stunt is the short, plucky ankle biter of the bunch.
  • Jungle Boy is the Tarzan Boy babyface hero and the group's star member.
  • Even Luchasaurus is a Gentle Giant who's gimmick fits with Kids Love Dinosaurs.

Theatre

• Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer from Cats are two comedic cats who cause mischief. They're brightly colored and have an energetic musical number. Depending on the Writer they're depicted as older kittens.

Toys

• Takua in the first years of BIONICLE. While the Toa were the main heroes - and the ones that actually got the action figures - Takua started out as the Featureless Protagonist of the first few video games (one before the Toa arrived, and the other as the Hero of Another Story). After the games he remained a major character and his character was developed as adventurous and loving to explore, but knowing to leave the real fights to the Toa. All this culminated in the Mask of Light movie, where he was the main character and became a Toa himself (renaming himself "Takanuva").
• Monster High tends to give short, pink, girly Draculaura a ton of screentime and merchandise as she's popular with kids. Howleen also fills this role as she's the Tagalong Kid, particularly in Fright On!. Each was also given her own TV special with a plot of "we have to save (Draculaura/Howleen) from (new character X)": Why Do Ghouls Fall In Love and 13 Wishes.
• Barbie gave us Barbie's sisters Skipper, Stacie, Chelsea, Kelly, or whatever sister Mattel decides to use at that time. Skipper was conceived as a character more similar to the actual target audience's age than Barbie, however she has since been aged into a teenager. As Barbie leans more towards a young adult than she originally did, Skipper has taken over as the "teenager" doll, while her younger siblings are the "child" (and sometimes "baby") characters. Skipper is more tech savvy than Barbie and is a Phoneaholic Teenager.

Video Games

• Imoen in Baldur's Gate. Nothing like as sexy as other female characters, Imoen is certainly the most innocent, and one of the best (and nicest) thieves you'll find. Pretty much a sister figure to the main character. And it turns out you're right, by the way.
• The Lunar series has adorable high pitched, wisecracking baby dragons Nall and Ruby, with Nall being the clown (albeit more of a Deadpan Snarker than other examples, but still very naive) and Ruby being the Ankle Biter. Well, before Character Development, anyway.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Tails is easily one of the most well known examples of this trope in Video games, being the first additional character added in the series behind Sonic and Dr. Eggman. He falls under the "Weak but Lovable" and Teen Genius varieties (Even though he's canonically 8), but avoids the worst of the trope by actually being able to hold his own alongside Sonic...at least until Sonic Unleashed which started the trend of Tails being a bit of a coward and then he started becoming much more abrasive and sardonic on top of that.
  • The Bratty Half-Pint Charmy came later, and was followed by Badass Adorable Cream and Cheese, both only six years old.
• Pal-18 from Anachronox is a toy robot (though his owner has upgraded him with weapons and hacking systems) with a squeaky voice and a hip personality. You actually obtain his best weapon by letting him play in a playground for four hours (real time). Also, his theme color (relevant to the magic system) is yellow...
• Relm from Final Fantasy VI is an extremely sassy ten-year-old girl who, despite her grandfather's best efforts, keeps insisting on jumping into the fray. And she holds her own!
• Sakura Kasugano from the Street Fighter Alpha series. She was always out to prove herself against older, better-trained, and often bigger fighters.
• Trickster Twins Ami and Mami Futami from The Idolmaster are the youngest idols in the main game and have a yellow color scheme to boot.
  • The unit Mofumofuen from THE iDOLM@STER: SideM are this in-universe, being the youngest idols, made up of former children's entertainers. Many of the events in the game have them star in kids shows.
• Slippy Toad from the Star Fox series, being (and very much sounding like) the youngest squad member. As a pilot, he's constantly in need of saving, but he pulls his weight as a mechanic.
• The Antlan species in Monster Rancher seems to be an amalgamation of everything stereotypically loved by Japanese children, including stag beetles, tokusatsu heroes, and Ninja, with a strong sense of justice, all in a Kid Hero size body. Even the in-game encyclopedia in the fourth game mentions they are beloved by kids.
• Meta Knight from the Kirby series is an inversion; he appeals to older players in this adorable, beginner-focused series through his cool design and mature personality. In the Super Smash Bros. games, he fits right in with the cast of Fire Emblem as seen when he teams up with Marth and Ike, and nobody bats an eyelid at his cartoony design or diminutive stature.
• Yoshi, the cute friendly dinosaur from Super Mario Bros. Most of the Yoshi games are aimed at a younger audience and have a Sugar Bowl aesthetic to boot.

Web Original

• Discussed in the History of Power Rangers review of Power Rangers Turbo. While Linkara considered Justin a well-executed character, he took issue with the idea that kids needed someone their own age to relate to; noting that the show had already done just fine without one for four seasons at that point.
• DSBT InsaniT: Bear, Duck, Balloon, and to a lesser extent, Snake. All of them are child characters who get into mischief as kids will do.
• In the Springhole article "On Writing More Likable and Useful Sidekicks", Syera advises against using this character type as a sidekick in an otherwise mature story to gain a younger audience.

Western Animation

• Transformers
  • Bumblebee from The Transformers was the original Trope Namer. Down to originally transforming into a Volkswagen. Every single version of him - ever - is a kid-appeal character. Almost every version of a kid-appeal character and their human ally being a pair owes something to Bumblebee's friendship with Spike.
    • Strangely enough, in the original "More Than Meets The Eye" miniseries that began the cartoon, it seemed that Hound was geared towards being the kid-appeal character: his bio noted that he'd fallen in love with Earth and wanted to learn more about it, and he spent quite a bit of time with Spike. However, by the time the series proper began, Bumblebee was easily the closest of the Autobots to Spike.
    • After the animated movie, the kid-appeal role was taken on by Wheelie for the third series of Generation 1 (which paired him with Daniel, the son of Bumblebee's partner Spike, though not quite as often) and all of Transformers: ★Headmasters. Unfortunately, the Wheelie and Daniel dynamic was nowhere near as popular as Bumblebee and Spike's, at least partially because they were much younger and so came off as much more of The Load.
    • This role was then taken over by Holi in Transformers Victory, who was blue but otherwise a combination of all this trope's aspects. For example, in most episodes he'll be bickering with Jan, Star Saber's adopted human son, but in combat situations he and his team focus on rescue and evacuation while leaving combat to the older and more powerful Autobots. The few times he actually tries to fight are in desperate situations, like when he charged at the combiner Liokaiser in an attempt to distract him while others went for help.
  • Cheetor from Beast Wars is also yellow, fast and the youngest one on the Maximal Team. And if that weren't enough to tell that he's the kid of the team, he's got freckles. Unlike Bumblebee however, he is actually quite a competent warrior and later became The Lancer to Optimus Primal. In Beast Machines, he's replaced in this role by Nightscream. It, uh, kinda didn't work.
  • Wedge, from Robots in Disguise, is small, orange and gutsy, but where the typical Bumblebee-type in Transformers is fast, Wedge's assets are strength and engineering know-how (that, and being the leader of a team that forms a Combining Mecha).
    • Side Burn also fills the role, a clown who constantly tries to hit on non-sentient red sports cars driven by the Butt-Monkey bystander.
  • Hot Shot, from Transformers: Armada, also yellow, falls under the third version. A bit of a goofball but surprisingly competent in battle. His role was handed off to Ironhide in Energon and then 180'd right back to him in Cybertron.
  • This is all parodied in the Botcon script reading "Bee in the City," where Bumblebee from Animated is identified as the kid-appeal character and is asked if he's a Bumblebee or a Hot Shot (also referencing how he was originally supposed to be a new Hot Shot). Over the course of the program various characters also called him Wheelie, Side Burn, Cheetor, and even T-Bob, much to his annoyance.
  • In Transformers: Prime, Bumblebee became the Ankle Biter, in accordance with the show's more serious tones, being based more on his film counterpart. But he's still paired with the youngest of the human characters. Halfway through Season 2, Smokescreen is introduced and takes over the role for the remainder of Prime. By RID, as Bumblebee is now The Leader and Smokescreen has been Put on a Bus, the role has been passed on to Sideswipe.
  • According to Word of God, in Bizarro Universe Shattered Glass, Soundwave is intended as filling the Kid-Appeal Character role.
  • Transformers Earthspark pokes fun at this with Bumblebee seeing how much in-universe merchandise there is of him, and getting especially annoyed towards how most of it got his appearance wrong. For added irony, his role is to play mentor to the young Terran 'bots and their two human child partners, all of whom fit the kid-appeal role far more than he does in this series.
    Bumblebee: I miss adults…
  • TFWiki.net even has its own article on the subject.
• Scooter from Challenge Of The Go Bots. He was most often paired with Nick, the youngest of the Gobots' human allies.
• Young Justice (2010):
  • Kid Flash serves as a clown type. He's a jokester, dresses in a yellow costume, and has red hair.
  • Robin is the youngest of the team and has a Verbal Tic. This aspect of his character is abandoned in Invasion, where he is now an adult that goes by Nightwing.
  • Beast Boy applies in Invasion as a clown type. He is also brightly colored (being completely green) and is the youngest member.
• Marcia Mouse from Blinky Bill easily fits the ankle biter type, being the fiery Plucky Girl of Blinky's gang.
• Both Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo's characters were created with this trope in mind. Scooby, the Clown, had a goofy personality that was specifically meant to counterbalance the show's darker moments, while Scrappy was one of the Ankle-Biter variety (though he was surprisingly strong for his size, edging towards Cute Bruiser territory). That said, when he isn't around it's usually Shaggy and Scooby himself who get into silly antics in the midst of monster-hunting.
• Jade from Jackie Chan Adventures. She's not powerful enough to be a solo hero and regularly ends up getting into trouble, but she's adventurous and determined and usually finds a way to be useful.
• Beast Boy from Teen Titans (2003) is a clown type. He's always trying to be funny and is clearly the least mature, and he usually seems to be the weakest fighter on the team. Usually.
• Tuck from My Life as a Teenage Robot as he's the only character in the show under 10 in a cast largely made of teenagers.
• Thunder Cats and Thunder Cats 2011: WilyKat and Kit. In the latter they are, as a Brother–Sister Team of Trickster Twins, Clowns and Ankle-biters. As Artful Dodgers, teasing, trickery and theft are their forms of attack, from baiting monsters into tripwire to stealing others' weapons.
• Orko from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), an adorable Inept Mage. He didn't exist in the original toyline, Filmation created him to appeal to younger kids.
• Enzo from ReBoot was written in specifically for this purpose. The producers of the show admitted that during pre-production they were instructed to put a kid in the show by the execs and they were against having a kid "mess up our kick-ass action show." But they came to love the character, feeling he was the heart and soul of the show, and after he received a Plot-Relevant Age-Up, they worked to bring back the original kid (for a certain value of "original") because they missed him.
• Ahsoka from Star Wars: The Clone Wars helps give the show a kid-perspective in a series filled with adults. Character Development in later seasons has her grow into a competent (if still young) hero in her own right.
• Richie Foley in Static Shock. He replaces Frieda Goren as Static's best friend because the show was geared towards a younger audience than the comics were. He's the second definition of Kid-Appeal Character. He was also given superpowers because the writers were having a hard time keeping him in the episodes, but often his attempts at defeating the enemy don't work. He's been kidnapped at least four times and he's been turned into a mind slave twice.
• In Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, android Buzzwang is the Rangers' Plucky Comic Relief Robot Buddy—and a substantial portion of the fanbase will never forgive him for it.
• Rusty the Boy Robot in Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot. He's seriously determined to be a hero and actually has enormous powers, but his inexperience is always getting in the way.
• Ironically enough, the Wasp from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. She's small (even without her shrinking powers), brightly colored, a Fragile Speedster, and generally more childlike than her teammates. Incidentally, she's quite popular with the older fanbase and the show's Ensemble Dark Horse.
• Meelo from The Legend of Korra, as he is the instigator of almost all of the show's Toilet Humor, which places him firmly in the "Clown" category.
  • The trope is also referenced when Varrick launches the motion picture industry, saying he'll have "romance, action, some... funny animal stuff for the kids".
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • The Cutie Mark Crusaders. Friendship Is Magic is itself a kids' show, but the main cast are young adults(ish). The CMC are a lot closer to the age of the target demographic, and thus are easier for said audience to relate to.
  • Pinkie Pie also has an above-average amount of kid appeal (she's basically The Hub's mascot at this point), though the show often uses her as a means to take shots at the mentality underlying many uses of this trope (for example, "The Piggy Dance," which parodies the overly simplistic and repetitive nature of many children-directed songs, and seals the deal by causing the infant Cake twins to cry in response to it).
  • Spike appears to be this for younger males who may watch the show. He's a little boy, that's a dragon, that gets to go on adventures with older girls all day.
• Gus Griswald from Recess, the small, cute Sixth Ranger to the main group of kids, and is weak and cowardly, but warmhearted and lovable.
• Michelangelo of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), and thanks to his reception, became a Breakout Character amongst the brothers. He's the goofiest brother, likes to party and have fun, and wears an orange headband.
• Jay in Ninjago is the least serious character on the original four-ninja team, constantly making jokes even during stressful or dangerous situations as well frequently ranting about the problems that the team have to face. He also has a love of video games, and seems to be a bit younger and shorter than the others overall (not counting Lloyd).
• Broadway from Gargoyles appeals to kids due to being a sensitive guy, his love for modern culture, his big body, and his role as comic relief in a TV series that has dark themes.
• SpongeBob SquarePants is wacky, acts like he just got out of third grade, and is yellow.
• Parodied in Mr. Incredible and Pals (presented as a Show Within a Show in the Incredibles universe), where Mr. Incredible and Frozone are joined by the bunny Mr. Skipperdoo, whose contribution to the plot is looking cute and occasionally bouncing up and down. When the "real" Mr. Incredible and Frozone watch it, neither one is impressed, to say the least.
  Mr. Incredible: The rabbit is cuddly! Kids like little cuddly sidekicks! I mean, the rabbit... it's a time-tested... okay, the rabbit bites.
• Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls is presented as The Cutie of the group, is treated as the youngest despite the sisters all being "born" at literally the same time, and has the softest color palette (baby blue). She might seem "weak but lovable" (at least compared to her sisters) however when angered it's shown Bubbles is quite possibly the most powerful of the triplets. Bubbles is the Kid-Appeal Character in a different way in The Powerpuff Girls (2016). She's the most Girly Girl of the girls, has the softest color palette, is a fangirl prone to squealing and Wingding Eyes, and is the most internet culture savvy. Her "cute" aspect is downplayed to emphasise her excitable aspects.
• Kimber from Jem has bright red hair, has a catchphrase ("Outrageous!"), is considerably less mature than the others, and is the youngster major character.
• Sheegwa from Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat is the youngest and most cheerful character in the show.
• Bunga from The Lion Guard is a clown type. He is loud, occasionally gross, rash, and has a catchphrase he uses at least once an episode. He is hated by most of the Periphery Demographic due to this characterization.
• My Little Pony (G3):
  • Pinkie Pie is pink colored, friendly, and loves fun. She was ascended to The Leader in the "Core 7" soft-reboot and was treated as the mascot to G3.
  • Minty is a light green color, is Pinkie's best friend, has an unusual character tic of loving socks, and is one of the resident Cloudcuckoolander characters.
• Super Noobs:
  • Alien warriors Memnock and Zenblock. This is because of their very cool reptillian appearances as aliens as well as the fact that both of them behave very immaturely and act like kids a lot. Memnock is more of a kid-appeal character than his comrade, Zenblock due to Memnock's cute little fangs, yellowish skin, and his appeal towards kids of both genders due to his love for cooking and any activity whether masculine, feminine, or childish.
  • Roach is also such a character due to his hairstyle that covers his eyes as well as his carefree and laid back personality.
• Johnny Test: Since the titular character, Johnny can be very hard to root for at times, his dog, Dukey is designed to appeal towards kids due to his ability to talk, hilarious laughing and personality, and his quirkiness.
• Total Drama:
  • Owen, a contestant in the first season, was designed to appeal towards kids due to his likable and oafish personality as well as his flatulence and toilet humor. He was used to promote the show a lot and he even won the first season in his ending.
  • DJ is also an appeal character too due to his bead eyes, likable personality, and love for animals and his mother.
  • Cameron, a season four contestant is much smaller than any of the other contestants as he looks more like a kid than a teen and sounds like one too. His high intelligence and good personality also appeals towards kids.
  • "Pahkitew Island":
    • Shawn takes this role due to his eccentric behavior and obsession with zombies.
    • Max has a short and stocky Non-Standard Character Design allowing him more exaggerated expressions than other characters, as well as a very loud sense of humor tied to the Evil Is Hammy trope and his laughable cartoony incompetence. It makes sense that he's one of the only Pahkitew contestants to appear in the Spinoff Babies show Total DramaRama.
• The Ridonculous Race:
  • Junior takes the role due to the fact that he is the youngest contestant on the show and looks a lot like Justin Bieber.
  • Carrie and Devin also fill in this role due to fact that they were featured in many promotional images of the show and that their budding romance is one of the main plot points of the show.
  • Geoff and Brody are also this due to their immature and eccentric behavior.
• Kulipari: An Army of Frogs:
  • Gee is an example of this due to his oafish personality, love of food, and role as comic relief for the show when it starts to get into darker themes.
  • Any of the characters who are kulipari also fill in this role due to the fact that they glow and emit very beautiful colors when they use their powers. They include but not limited to Ponto and Darel's little siblings.
• Otto from Time Squad is the youngest member of the team at the age of eight and he provides the educational value of the show due to his vast knowledge of history.
• On Beat Bugs, Buzz is of the "bumblebee" type. She gets her name in part because she is always buzzing with enthusiasm, and she tends to be up for just about anything. She is also the youngest of the group, easily, and designed with a cute, lovable child look with Girlish Pigtails.
• Mindy from Ready Jet Go!, who was originally not in the show, but was added to appeal the younger demographic^note Believe it or not, the show wasn't originally intended for preschoolers, but the team didn't want to completely lose them. Mindy embodies curiosity, as she often asks questions that drive the episodes' plots and prompt Jet, Sean, and Sydney to go to space to look for an answer. This is a successful example, as Mindy became a very popular character within the show's target audience. However, in season 2, this prompted the writers to make everything revolve around Mindy.
• In The Yum Yums, the Toppins, including Blueper Bear, Fudgie Wudgie Bunny, Pinky Kitty, and Splitzles Puppy, were younger siblings of the Yum Yums made to appeal to even younger children.
• The Simpsons:
  • Bart was extremely popular with children of The '90s due to his rebellious nature and one-liners making him an appealing Escapist Character for real-life elementary schoolers — to the point Moral Guardians were often concerned about kids emulating his behavior. To this day, he frequently appears on merchandise for both older and younger viewers, often leaning into Totally Radical.
  • Maggie, being The Baby of the Bunch, leans into this on the rare occasion she has a subplot, as her antics often involve cutesy cartoony antics (such as escaping a daycare or communicating with animals) and being The Voiceless means her comedy isn't as dialogue-driven as other characters. A Maggie-centric short was the first Simpsons short to be attached to a family-friendly Disney property. She even has a spinoff book line aimed at preschoolers.

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