Thin-line animation is a stylistic trend that has emerged in The New '10s based around thinner lines, rounder shapes and noodle-like appendages than seen in standard animation, all while still being distinctively Western.
This style may have emerged for a number of different reasons. The emergence of anime and their influences on Western cartoonists have made them focused less on detail. Different coloring techniques with digital art may have removed the need for thicker lines, and thus it only remains when it's a stylistic choice. The need for quicker, cheaper animation after the economic downturn may also have driven the desire for more cheap, yet still pleasing animation styles. It also may have been due to the widespread adoption of High Definition (HD) televisions — before HD, small features such as thin lines in an image tended to flicker and/or disappear depending on their angle and motion; HD allowed the freedom for this new, previously unattainable style. Finally, many Western cartoonists are striving to achieve a modern art style that is distinctly American without being just another Disney clone or overly influenced by foreign elements such as the aformentioned anime.
It is also known as the "CalArts Style", a pejorative term originally coined by The Ren & Stimpy Show creator John Kricfalusi in a post on his blog John K. Stuff which alleged that certain animated films and many animators in The '90s who graduated from the California Institute of the Arts heavily copied Disney's animation and art style, note which has since morphed into any animated work from the 21st century that uses this style that one considers "samey-looking", despite similar art styles being the norm since the infancy of the medium itself. However, the term tends to be used more specifically for works that not only have thin lines and round shapes, but also bean-shaped heads, bean-shaped mouths and dome-shaped teeth, so works that have the former but not the latter don’t tend to get labeled as such. As such, please do not include examples of shows that simply have thin outlines — they also need rounded/noodle-like styles to qualify.
Thin-line animation is actually Older Than Television, since many cartoon shorts during The Silent Age of Animation (particularly those made by Disney and Max and Dave Fleischer) featured rounded ball-and-noodle art-styles and thin outlines. However, it was often done out of necessity since the simplistic designs made things easier on the animators at the time.
Compare Puni Plush and Animesque, contrast with Thick-Line Animation. See also Tooth Strip, Sphere Eyes, Black Bead Eyes, Black Dot Pupils.
Examples
- Kirby: Right Back at Ya! zigzagged this trope, with its combination of rounded designs note and angular designs.note
- One Piece is one of the few modern animes to use this trope. Its art-style, while far from simplistic, is noticeably more rounded and cartoony compared to other anime at the time of its initial premiere. It lessened over time, however, with the art-style becoming more angular and complex.
- Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon: Everyone looks much more rounded compared to previous eras, like a quasi Steven Universe with a Pokémon coat of paint. In fact, not only has the palette gone for a much more pastel inspired look, but also did the eponymous Pokémon themselves.
- The Chinese animated series Incredible Ant
is notable for being a rare non-western example of this artstyle. Series creator Cheng Li has stated that this was intended to help the show stick out from the numerous animesque series produced in his country, with his own show's art direction being heavily inspired by the many popular Thin-Line western cartoons he himself is a fan of.
- Kung Fu Wa
- Hayop Ka!: The Nimfa Dimaano Story sports a lineless variant of this style, making it stand out compared to other examples.
- Several recent Pixar movies, while 3D animated and therefore lack the thin outlines the style is named after, otherwise resemble this visual style, with the characters having large, often pear-shaped heads, round eyes and bean-shaped mouths. Examples include The Good Dinosaur, Luca and especially Turning Red; the latter also employs Wingding Eyes and other stylised expressions that are often used in this art style.
- Dreamworks Animation also started using similar character designs with The Bad Guys (2022), which uses 3D animation but with many 2D elements, such as the characters' eyes and teeth, and a lot of action lines around the characters.
- Similarly to the above, Sony Pictures Animation's The Mitchells vs. the Machines translates this into 3D with the more stylized designs and large round eyes.
- The direct-to-video Looney Tunes movie King Tweety re-imagines Sylvester and Tweety in this style.
- Ronal the Barbarian is 3D but has the style, with many characters having round heads, thin limbs and bean-like mouths.
- We Lost Our Human uses the version of this animation style commonly associated with European animated TV series, including Euro-American co-productions, such as The Amazing World of Gumball and Pinky Malinky.
- The cutscenes for Marco & the Galaxy Dragon are animated in this style, with the usual simplified designs, bright colors, and fluid motion. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the visual novel, which uses a more detailed and proportional anime-style typical of visual novels.
- Bee and Puppycat crosses this with Animesque.
- Bravest Warriors: The show was created by Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward, and shares the same art-style.
- Camp Camp
- CartoonMania used this technique until the episode "Whatever Happened to Victor Virus?" which have slightly thicker lines than the previous episodes.
- Deep Space 69
- GoAnimate: The most well-known theme, Comedy World, fits this style (looking like a Seth MacFarlane cartoon).
- Mighty Magiswords has outlines somewhat thicker but the shapes that he made his designs are too round.
- Poppy Playtime Logic: The outlines are thicker than most examples, but the shapes and character designs fit the style.
- Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy
- Spooky Month
- Parodied in an episode of Sublo and Tangy Mustard. During the performance evaluation the duo are told their costumes don't match the current models, which is based on this trope.
- Trick Moon
- 50/50 Heroes
- The 7D
- Adventure Time: Probably the one that singlehandedly popularized the modern trend in animation.
- The Amazing World of Gumball: Certain characters, such as the Watterson and Fitzgerald families, are drawn in a rounded style. The change in art style between the first two seasons made several character designs more round and less rectangular (particularly with the Wattersons), though it also made the outlines thicker.
- Amphibia
- Apple & Onion
- Atomic Puppet: Although the outlines are thicker than most examples, the character designs and incorporated shapes are in the Thin-Line style.
- Ba Da Bean: The outlines are very thick compared to most examples, but the design philosophies of the characters are Thin-Line
- Baby Shark's Big Show!
- Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!
- Being Ian: Although this series predates when the style became popular, it bears many of its hallmarks, such as simplistic, rounded shapes and noodly limbs.
- Ben 10 (2016)
- Best and Bester
- Best Bugs Forever
- Big Blue: While the outlines are quite thick, the artstyle is still very rounded and simplistic.
- Big City Greens
- Billy Dilley's Super Duper Subterranean Summer
- Bob's Burgers
- Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese
- Breadwinners: While it does have a rounded art-style, the outlines are more thickish.
- Brickleberry
- Care Bears: Unlock the Magic
- Carol and the End of the World
- Centaurworld uses this style for the residents of Centaurworld; notably, Horse and Rider's world is instead depicted in a more detailed Animesque style.
- Central Park
- Chowder is considered a pioneer of the style, despite the characters having slightly rougher lines than the others on the list.
- Clarence: The episode "Goldfish Follies" highlights this style's inherent similarity to the Inkblot Cartoon Style.
- Coach Me If You Can
- Counterfeit Cat
- Craig of the Creek
- Cupcake & Dino: General Services
- The Cuphead Show!: It goes between this and the rubber hose animation. This is justified due to the fact that the show alongside it’s video game counterpart were heavy inspired by cartoons from the 1930’s
- Dead End: Paranormal Park
- Dude, That's My Ghost!
- Duncanville
- El Chavo Animado, especially in the later seasons.
- The works of Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show) use a less noodle-y but still simplistic and rounded art-style.
- Fangbone!, although the books it was based on had a nearly identical artstyle.
- Final Space: A lot of the characters there have round faces and noodle like arms especially the alien characters but the titans, especially Bolo are shown to be more bulkier in shape.
- Fish Hooks. In the fish designs, they have outlines thicker but with rounded shapes.
- The Fungies!
- Future-Worm!
- The Ghost and Molly McGee
- Gravity Falls: The art-style is rounded, but compared to Breadwinners above, the outlines are more in between thin and thick.
- The Great North
- Harvey Beaks
- Harvey Street Kids crosses this style with the Harvey Comics style.
- The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe
- Hilda
- Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh
- Hoops
- Infinity Train
- Inside Job
- It's Pony
- Jellystone!
- Kiff
- Lyla in the Loop
- The Loud House and its spin-off, The Casagrandes. While both series possess much thicker outlines than is typical for the style, the character designs and rounded shapes used by them are typical of the Thin-Line style.
- Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart
- The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack: The show's staff, in fact, included Alex Hirsch, Pendleton Ward, and others as storyboarders, who would all later do their own shows. While despite the art-style being round, the outlines seem somewhat thicker.
- The Midnight Gospel
- Monster Loving Maniacs
- Nate Is Late
- Oddballs
- Oggy and the Cockroaches is a Mime and Music-Only Cartoon example.
- OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes
- Ollie's Pack
- Oswaldo
- Over the Garden Wall
- The Owl House crosses this with Animesque similarly to Bee And Puppy Cat above.
- Paradise PD
- Pickle and Peanut
- Pinecone And Pony
- Pinky Malinky
- The Powerpuff Girls (2016) uses this style in sharp contrast to the original's more angular thick-line art-style. Notably, the Girls in the original series had a Non-Standard Character Design that could be considered a prototypical version of this style.
- Regular Show: This is more straight in later seasons when the outlines became thinner.
- Close Enough, also made by J. G. Quintel, uses a similar artstyle.
- Rick and Morty
- Rolling with the Ronks!
- Sanjay and Craig: Features character designer Jay Howell, who also worked for Bob's Burgers.
- Saving Me
- The Simpsons is considered the Ur-Example of this style.
- Futurama and Disenchantment, both also from Matt Groening, follow a similar artstyle.
- Smiling Friends
- Solar Opposites
- SpongeBob SquarePants started using this style since Season 9.
- Star Trek: Lower Decks
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The outlines started off thick but became relatively thinner following the change in animation studios in the middle of the first season.
- Steven Universe: Compared to some of the other shows listed here, the outlines for this particular show remain consistently thick, and the characters have fairly realistic proportions.
- The Strange Chores
- Summer Camp Island
- Summer Memories
- Super Wish
- ThunderCats Roar
- Tig 'n Seek
- Trolls: The Beat Goes On!
- Uncle Grandpa: Again, rounded art-style but with relatively thick outlines.
- Underdogs United, though some scenes tend to draw the characters in thick lines.
- The Unstoppable Yellow Yeti
- Victor and Valentino
- Wander over Yonder: The art direction is generally rounded, but true to Craig McCracken's Signature Style, the outlines are pretty thick.
- We Bare Bears: It's mostly with the Funny Animal characters. Humans have less noodle-y proportions.
- Welcome to the Wayne
- Wishfart
- Work It Out Wombats!
- Zig & Sharko is an another Mime and Music-Only Cartoon example.
- Zuzubaland