Why does Mickey Mouse (and many other cartoon characters) have only 4 fingers, a thumb and three fingers, on each hand?

Ahh, the "whys" of the cartoon world. Why doesn't Donald Duck wear pants? Why does Mickey wear gloves?

Why can Goofy walk and wear pants, but Pluto can't? The age-old question about four-fingered cartoon hands can be answered by taking a pencil, a sheet of paper, and drawing a quick cartoon sketch of a person/animal with hands and fingers. Five fingers is tough to fit, isn't it?

There's something about five fingers that is really hard to fit on to a proportionally sized cartoon hand. It probably has something to do with cartoons having somewhat large sausagey fingers for cartoon effect. Plus remember, these are cartoons!

They were designed to be goofy caricatures of people and animals, and it's a funny and convenient shortcut for animators to take. Just as an artist won't sketch every hair of Homer Simpson's head (just add a squiggle and go! ) or draw pupils on Little Orphan Annie (poor stone-eyed girl!), four fingers is just a nice way of saying, " these are just cartoons!

Goofy characters for your amusement! ". You'll notice that animated films or shows that take themselves more seriously *will* draw all five fingers.

I think the bottom line is that if we can accept that Wyle E. Coyote can walk around like an accordion after an anvil falls on him, then I think we can just accept that three fingers is the least of the problems of most cartoon characters. ;) It's either that, or Walt Disney was a psychotic S.O.B. Who liked to perform amputations in his livingroom and reflected it through his art.

The choice is up to you! Mwa ha ha!

I've heard, it's because cartoonist have so many things to draw they tend to keep details to a minimum. The more detailed the picture is the harder it is to replicate. So, imagine drawing the same picture again and again, pretty soon you will leave out details and find ways to draw it faster.

I also found this article that collaborates with what I just said.

Its a way of hands looking proportioned when drawing them, hands are very difficult to draw and simplifying them often looks better in cartoons and adds to the cartooness of the drawing if that make sense.

Simple. Cost and time. Its cheaper and faster to draw only three digits and thumb instead of a real hand.

Duh, don't you know there's no evolutionary purpose for pinkies anyway. Cartoonists are drawing biological perfection.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.