Younger Than They Look / Western Animation

• In Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, Shane Gooseman looks about 25, but the second-to-last episode reveals he is 19, meaning he was 17-18 as of the pilot episode. As he is also stated to be the "youngest" of the Super-Soldier project that created him, the other Supretroopers can't be any older than 30.
• The Amazing World of Gumball: Hector's mother looks and sounds like a crotchety old woman, and she looks even more old and decrepit without makeup, as shown in "The Castle." However, she claims to be 28 in "The Singing."
• In American Dad!, Stan mistakens a 23-year-old waitress for a fat old man.
• In Amphibia, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy were originally written as around 15-16, but Executive Meddling requested they be lowered to 13. However, the actual creative team decided to simply ignore this beyond the numbers, and they both look and behave far more like mid-late teenagers than thirteen-year-olds, with tall, lanky builds and worrying about SATs and driving.
• Bold, of The Animals of Farthing Wood, He left his family behind at an early age and due to his injuries, he took on the appearance of an emaciated fox, then when he met Whisper, she thought he was an "old fox" and Bold tells her that him is not a old fox and that he's just a cub, but she says he doesn't look like it.
• Arcane: Despite only being in his early 20s when first introduced, you could easily mistake Viktor for older due to his gaunt appearance. He becomes increasingly haggard after his disease escalates.
• Binky and his gang The Tough Customers from Arthur look and sound like they’re in their teens, Molly the lone female member even has breasts, but they’re only 9 years old.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • Azula is 14 yet you could easily be forgiven for thinking she was in her early 20s.
  • Katara and Ty Lee have this got this particular bad being only 14 but have developed physiques (as seen when they’re in swimwear) that could easily make them pass for women in their early 20s.
  • Strongly implied with Iroh. While neither he nor Ozai have their exact ages stated, Ozai looks to be in his late thirties or early forties, while Iroh looks about 20 years older. There's no indication that Azulon had Ozai a lot later, particularly considering Iroh was the rightful heir to the throne.
• The titular characters in the Beavis And Butthead episodes where they are middle aged. They were high school students circa 1998 so they ought to be in their late 30s at the youngest or early 40s at the oldest by 2022. However, they look like they’re pushing 60, because of how poorly they take care of themselves.
• While Stinkmeaner was indeed very old in The Boondocks, just before his death he managed to get an agency to create a clone of himself: who looks the same age as the original Stinkmeaner when he is released a few years after.
  Clone Stinkmeaner: Why am I so old?
  Clone Scientist: uh, what?
  Clone Stinkmeaner: If you cloned me when you say you did, shouldn't I still be a little kid?
• Cassie from Bounty Hamster looks and sounds like she's in her late teens, but she's actually 13.
• In Castlevania due to accelerated aging (being half Vampire), Alucard is likely in his early 20s despite looking and sounding much, much older.
• Danny Phantom:
  • Dash Baxter is said to be a freshman, despite looking old enough to be Jazz's age. Of course, it's likely he's held back.
  • Danielle looks to be 12 years old, as Danny said, but she's actually a clone who is about a few months of age.
• In Dinosaur Train's zepplin arc, the Pteranodon family meet a Polycotylus^note a kind of plesiosaur mother and daughter. When Tiny says they're from the Cretaceous, the daughter says "did you think I was born yesterday?"... then clarifies that she meant that literally. Despite being a baby, she's half the size of her mom and can already hold a conversation.
• In the Disenchantment episode "Love's Slimy Embrace" we find out that despite looking like an old man in his 70s or 80s, court wizard Sorcerio is only 31.
• The incarnation of Flintheart Glomgold in DuckTales (2017), normally implied to be around the same age as Scrooge, now deliberately styles himself to be much older than he really is, and although acting elderly, is probably only middle-aged at most. This includes wearing a fake grey beard (when he allows a real beard to grow in, the hair is black) and maintaining a slouch.
• On The Fairly OddParents!, Timmy and Chester play baseball against a team that is filled with huge brutes with five o'clock shadows. Wanda notes that it's hard to believe they're 10.
• In Family Guy, there is one episode where Stewie and Brian go to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus. At one point Santa Claus states that, despite having lots of wrinkles and having a long white beard and appearing to be in his 80s or 90s, Santa is only 28 years old. For added emphasis, he takes off his hat and we get a close up on his boil-covered and heavily wrinkled face. The reason Santa looks so old is that every Christmas billions of people ask for hundreds of complex and expensive toys each, and attempting to keep up with the impossible workload has aged Santa prematurely.
• The title character of Freakazoid!. He's 16, but looks and sounds like he's in his early 20s.
• Thailog, of Gargoyles fame, being a clone who's been artificially aged, reached the end of Gargoyle adolescence after a mere nineteen weeks. Especially impressive, when you consider that Gargoyles live longer and age slower than humans as it is.
• Gravity Falls:
  • Grunkle Stan is grey haired, wrinkled and a hot mess from the shoulders down, with one character guessing him as being in his 70s. The series timeline on the other hand would place him at no more than 60, and his twin brother looks much younger.
  • Mermando has a deep voice and the beginnings of a mustache on his upper lip. He's twelve years old. Mermaids have their voices change when they're three years old.
  • Given her height, and her unusual strength, fifteen-year-old Wendy could probably pass as an adult.
• Hey Arnold!:
  • Wolfgang is a fifth-grader, yet is tall and muscular like a senior high school jock. Matter of fact, the rest of the fifth-graders look more like high school students than fifth-graders. While one could argue that it's just an exaggerated perspective the fourth-graders have on kids roughly over a year older than them, it doesn't explain why Harold, a 13-year-old, is smaller than the fifth-graders as well (and was even shown getting called a "fruit cup" and a "sissy fat boy" by Wolfgang in one episode too).
  • Oskar is established to be 38, yet he looks much older by his being balding, bad posture, and wearing clothing more akin to a senior citizen, including a collarless shirt and a pocket watch.
• Old Kid from Invader Zim, takes it to extremes. He's an elementary school student who looks 80.
  • The intro to Enter the Florpus is rendered in an animesque style, with Dib specifically looking like a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure character, meaning he looks like a handsome, buff adult despite his proclamation of being 12 years old.
• Kaeloo:
  • Mr. Cat looks like (and has the voice of) a young adult, yet according to the 34th episode, he's less than 13 years old.
  • Quack Quack looks like a young child, but is actually supposed to be a baby.
• King of the Hill:
  • Joseph Gribble hit an extreme growth-spurt puberty before turning 13, before Bobby gets a chance and he's older (despite being late-bloomer). He was given an adult menu at a restaurant and assumed of wanting a beer like the parents.
  • Cotton Hill in his younger years after he married Tillie and around Hank's birth and childhood, even though he's around his mid 20s-early to mid 30s he still looks like an old man around 70 just with brown hair.
  • Leanne Platter (Luanne's mother) claims to be in her 30s. Assuming she isn't lying about her age, she has aged horribly and looks like she's in her 40s or 50s. Seeing as she's a drunk, a smoker and an obnoxious piece of white trash, this is more-or-less Truth in Television.
• The Legend of Korra
  • The titular heroine herself is only 17 at the start of the series, but is so physically mature you could easily mistake her for being in her 20s.
  • Asami is only 18 but looks like a 30-something Femme Fatale (she was initially going to be a villain too).
  • Bolin looks like he’s the same age as Korra, being quite muscly but was only 16 at the start of the series.
• Ms. Censordoll from Moral Orel looks like she could easily be in her 70s or 80s, but when someone calls her a senior citizen she shows her ID and it turns out she just turned 40. It's heavily implied and confirmed by Word of God that this and her obsession with eggs comes from her mother having her ovaries removed at a young age.
• My Life as a Teenage Robot uses this as the plot for the episode "I Was A Preschool Dropout", where Robot Girl Jenny is forcibly removed from high school and sent to kindergarten because she's technically "only 5 years old", having been built five years ago, despite being designed as a teenager. The situation is resolved when Nora arrives to point this out to the owners.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Mayor Mare, the supposedly elderly grey-maned mayor of Ponyville, is revealed to have naturally pink hair that she dyes grey to give herself an air of professionalism.
  • Mistmane, one of the legendary Pillars of Old Equestria, looks like an old mare but is actually no older than her fellows. She sacrificed her beauty to restore her homeland and Sable Spirit's, making her look far older than she actually is.
• Lloyd in the later episodes of Ninjago looks to be in his late teens or early 20s. He's actually about 7 to 10, thanks to a magical powder called Tomorrow's Tea giving him a Plot-Relevant Age-Up.
• The Owl House:
  • Eda looks to be in her 50s or 60s, and sounds like it too, but her older appearance is a side effect of a curse she received as a young teenager. Her sister Lilith is actually older than her even though she looks much younger, with Word of God later confirming that they're both in their 40s.
  • Implied to be the case with Hunter. Since Belos can create Grimwalkers at any physical age, and only views them in terms of usefulness, it's highly unlikely he actually raised Hunter for a decade-plus before the boy could take up the mantle of the Golden Guard. While Hunter is physically and mentally sixteen, it's unknown how long ago he was actually 'born.'
• In Pepper Ann, P.A. befriends Effie Shrug, a new student who is exceedingly intelligent and taller than she is. The two get along well, although the viewers learn that Effie can be quite threatening to get what she wants. Pepper Ann invites her over to her house, at which point Moose sees Effie and is immediately horrified. Turns out that Effie was an elementary school student. She'll be 9 next month.
• Pinky and the Brain plays with this. The duo are adult mice... which means they're a mere 2 years old.
  The Brain: Now our only problem is that we need one billion Noodle Noggin dolls. To make all of them ourselves would take 137 years.
  Pinky: Oh, well, we'd be pretty old by then, wouldn't we?
  The Brain: Yes, I believe we'd be 139.
• The Powerpuff Girls. They were born/created the age they are throughout the whole series and start kindergarten shortly after their "birth". As they're the same age throughout the whole show, they're probably less than 1-year-old. The Rowdyruff Boys were also created (twice!) at the age they are, which makes them even younger although appearing to be kindergarten-aged boys as well.
• The Proud Family: Suga Mama appears to be quite elderly, but The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder episode "Old Towne Road" strongly implies that she's a case of this. Her father is still alive and her brothers look decades younger than her (at least one of them is much younger than her, though). It's even pointed out how she "hasn't aged well".
• In an episode of The Ren & Stimpy Show, "Fake Dad", a six-foot-tall, overweight convicted criminal with hairy arms and 5 o'clock shadow, who calls himself Kowalski, is 10 years old.
• In one episode of Rocko's Modern Life, set 17 years in the future, Filburt is said to be 38, even though he looked more like he was in his 80s or 90s. Subverted when he reverts back to his normal self by the end of the episode once he is reunited with Rocko and Heffer, suggesting that he simply didn't take care of himself after his friends' absence.
• There's a reason the Scooby-Doo gang is called "meddling kids" so often. In the original franchise Velma was 15, Daphne 16, and the boys 17. Many viewers are surprised, thinking they're college-aged or older. Many, if not most, future installments age them up.
• The Simpsons:
  • Even though he looks like an old man, Hans Moleman confessed during the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in the Season 4 episode "Duffless" that he's really 31 years old (and looks like an old man due to his alcoholism). This has become a one-off joke, because in later episodes, Hans Moleman is usually seen at the Springfield Retirement Home. In one of the later episodes, though, there's an even older Moleman who he's the son of. They even participate in a father-son wheelbarrow race at the home. It may be possible he's just visiting him all the time. Maybe?
    • A Freeze-Frame Bonus in the episode, "Selma's Choice", reveals on his driver's license that he was born in 1961, which around the time the episode first aired, would make him about 31.
  • Also Homer Simpson is younger than he looks, according to the Season 4 episode "Lisa the Beauty Queen". While at a carnival, Homer tries his luck at the "Guess Your Age and Weight" booth. The mind reader guesses that Homer is 53 years old and 420 pounds. Homer then laughs at him and reveals that he's 36 years old (though later episodes have him as 38 or 39, depending) and 239 pounds, which disturbs the mind reader. If one were to go by the chronological saying that Marge and Homer had become parents shortly after graduating high school, both would only be 28 years old (the episode "I Married Marge" establishes Homer's age at the time of Bart's birth — or at least conception — as 24, but Word of God is that the writers nudged Homer and Marge's ages up a few times so that they wouldn't be older than them). A much later episode has some women at a park assume Bart is Homer's grandson.
  • Also happens to Marge in the episode "The Blue and the Gray", in which she stops dyeing her hair (according to the much earlier "Secrets of a Successful Marriage", she started going grey at 17). She resumes dyeing it at the end of the episode because she doesn't like being mistaken for an older woman.
  • Before Flanderization, Mr. Burns was only 81, but looked older because he went bald during his college years, according to the Season 2 episode "Simpson and Delilah". The later episodes have Mr. Burns as somewhere in the 100s ("Homer the Smithers" confirmed that he was 104; "Goo Goo Gai Pan" had him as 109, with a driver's license that expired in 1909). That said, "The Regina Monologues" and "Them, Robot" imply that Mr. Burns' age has four digits in it (in the former episode, his PIN number for his bank card is his age [PIN numbers are four digits long, for those who live in countries that don't have bank cards or ATMs or have them in a different format than in America], and in "Them, Robot", Homer asks Mr. Burns how old he really is, and Mr. Burns says, "Well, it has four digits...").
  • Albert the spokesman for "Big and Beautiful", an organization for encouraging and accepting overweight people. He looked like he could have been in his 40s or 50s but as it turns out he was only 23. Homer was horrified when he learned of this as he had just died of a massive heart attack.
  • Marge's sisters Selma and Patty are completely grey despite only being 42 but they reveal in one episode that it's due to all the smoke and ash from their cigarettes. They're actually still completely blond and redhead respectively.
  • "The Crazy Cat Lady", formally known as Eleanor Abernathy, looks like an old woman with her grey hair, wrinkles, bad posture and missing teeth. However, one episode showed that she's the same age as Marge and Homer, as they went to the same school, so she can't be much older than 40.
• The Smurfs (1981):
  • Smurfette, despite being an adult Smurf, is really only about a few years old, being a magically-created Smurf.
  • Chlorhydris the witch reveals in one episode that she was stood up at the altar by a young wizard twenty years back when they were attending a school for sorcerers. In the flashbacks of her years at the school she appears to have been in her 20s, which would imply she is at present in her early 40s at most, but she appears to be more in her late 50s.
• In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the artstyle giving him a more weathered appearance combined with his almost fatherly relationship with his apprentice Ahsoka makes it very easy to forget Anakin Skywalker was only in his early twenties at that point in time.
• Steven Universe:
  • Stevonnie is a Statuesque Stunner, looking like a young adult who is past six feet in height and has a powerful, commanding voice that captivates several characters in-universe. Stevonnie is also the result of a fusion between two children, and retains their maturity and worldview despite their much larger form. Later episodes redesign the character to look more like an older teen instead, making them slightly shorter and chubbier.
  • Greg Universe, meanwhile, is only 40 but looks much older due to being Prematurely Bald and having gained considerable weight since his youth. This could partially be due to his grief upon losing Rose when Steven was born.
  • Steven himself looks like a prepubescent child, but is in fact 14 years old for most of the series. An early episode "So Many Birthdays" explains that this is because Steven's physical age is a reflection of his state of mind. By the time he's 16 in Future, he finally looks his age.
  • Most of the Gems encountered are Really 700 Years Old, and most of them look like adults or teenagers (Some can look like children though). But Gems are artificially made and emerge with the same physical appearance they'll have thousands of years later, making newly-made Gems an example of this.
• Octus from Sym-Bionic Titan. Although he's able to take both the guise of a teenager and a middle-aged man, he was heavily implied to have been completed shortly before he, Lance and Ilana fled Galaluna.
• In the first episode of the original 1985 ThunderCats, the Thundercats are placed into cryosleep for a long journey through space. Lion-O was about ten years old upon entering, but due to a malfunction in his pod, when he emerges, he's got the body of a full grown man.
• Total Drama has several characters who look like adults in their late 20s to mid-30s, despite actually being teenagers.
  • DJ, Heather, Leshawna and Trent from the original cast
  • Alejandro and Sierra, introduced in Season 3 (Total Drama World Tour)
  • Brick and Jo in Season 4 (Total Drama Revenge of the Island)
  • Beardo and Scarlett in Season 5.2 (Total Drama Pahkitew Island), the latter due largely to her Prim and Proper Bun
• Young Justice (2010):
  • Superboy has the appearance and mentality of a 16-year-old, but is actually sixteen weeks old, having been born in a test tube. Lampshaded after the Time Skip in the second season. On his birthday, Wendy asks how old he's turning. He offhandedly replies "Six," and noticing her surprise, "corrects" himself that he'll be 22 at six (o'clock). Yes, this means his relationship with Miss Martian is kinda awkward, especially since she's technically freaking 48 years old. On the flip side, he notes that due to his physiology, as he gets older, his body will continue to age internally, but externally, he will continue to look like he's in his late teens.
  • Also Captain Marvel, of course, who is a 10-year-old kid (15 in Season 2) with an Older Alter Ego.
• W.I.T.C.H. has Nerissa, who looks closer to a hundred than her actual age, somewhere in her 50s, due to overusing her powers and draining her life force. Also, there's Shagon, who looks like a grown man (albeit one in a terrifying mask) but is actually Matt, who's somewhere between 15 and 17.

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