Colors play a vital role in cartoons. A lot of cartoon characters are color-coded to tell a story or show their personality.
Orange is a bright and cheerful color that attracts attention, making it perfect for loud characters who need more attention. This is why characters like Naruto seem to wear this color, or even Velma, who needs more attention, is covered head to toe in this color.
Check out some of the most vibrant orange cartoon characters in history that managed to grab the world’s attention!
Famous Orange Cartoon Characters That People Love
14. Nigel Thornberry – The Wild Thornberrys
- Age: 47
- Height: –
- Voice Actor: Tim Curry
While his hair is described to be red, it takes on a dark shade of orange hue in The Wild Thornberrys. Nigel is easily distinguishable with his thick orange mustache.
He is the host of a nature documentary series called The Nigel Thornberry’s Wild World, where he devotes his entire life to studying all kinds of wild animals. Nigel is also the main reason why his entire family is always on the move.
13. Aang – Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Age: 12 – 66 (Biologically)
- Height: 190.5 cm (Adult)
- Voice Actor: Zach Tyler Eisen (A: TLA), D.B. Sweeney (A: TLK)
Aang wears the same orange garb as every other air nomad, but considering he’s the last one, he’s the only one wearing orange robes in Avatar the Last Airbender.
He had to ditch his usual comfy clothes when he was presumed dead by the Fire Nation.
Eventually, he wore them again when he went for his second attempt to defeat Fire Lord Ozai and carried on the tradition of wearing more formal orange robes at the epilogue of the story.
12. The Lorax
- Age: –
- Height: 91.44 cm
- Voice Actor: Bob Holt (TV Special), Danny DeVito (2012 Film)
When it comes to orange cartoon characters with a mustache, it’s hard to look past The Lorax.
His mustache isn’t just for show because he uses it to soak up all the spoofs of the creatures found in the woods.
The Lorax cares deeply about the environment, especially the creatures in his forest. He may come off as short-tempered, but that’s only over his protectiveness of the trees because he knows people will be after them.
11. Garfield – Garfield
- Age: –
- Height: 91.44
- Voice Actors: Scott Beach (Fantastic Funnies), Lorenzo Music (1982-2001), Bill Murray (Garfield: The Movie, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties), Frank Welker (2007-present), Chris Pratt (Untitled Alcon film)
You can’t get any more popular than Garfield. This overweight lasagna-loving cat pawns all the other cats.
Garfield has been around since the 70s, and he’s here to show all the orange characters around that he’s the boss.
The tabby cat is known for being selfish, lazy, and sarcastic. However, despite his bad habits, Garfield loves his owners, Jon and Oddie, and will go to lengths to keep them happy.
But only if he has to.
10. Candace Flynn – Phineas and Ferb
- Age: 14-25
- Height: 172.72 cm
- Voice Actor: Ashley Tisdale
This orange-haired girl has tried and failed to bust her brothers for years. Maybe she’s in bright orange because she needs the world to know that her brothers are up to no good.
She also tried to gain the attention of her long-time crush Jeremy who eventually returned her feelings in later episodes of the series.
Candace is also a talented singer in the series. Check out Gitchee Gitchee Goo and her other songs!
9. Applejack – My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
- Age: 25
- Height: 152 cm
- Voice Actor: Ashleigh Ball
Applejack doesn’t need the ability to fly or do magic to stand out. Instead, her bright orange mane is enough to grab any pony’s attention.
The young earth pony represents the element of honesty and usually acts as the older sister and peacemaker of Mane 6. She values her friends and family above all things and makes sure everything is taken care of properly.
The bountiful harvest in Sweet Apple Acres is primarily due to her and her family’s hard work.
8. Yosemite Sam
- Age: 69
- Height: 19 inches tall
- Voice Actors: Mel Blanc (1945-1983, 1989), Joe Alaskey (1988-1992; 1995-1997; 2010-2011), Jeff Bergman (1990-1992, 2014, 2012), Charlie Alder (1990), Greg Burson (1991-1997), Maurice LaMarche (1992-2016), Jim Cummings (1996-2000, 2014)
Yosemite Sam is one of the most popular orange cartoon characters with a mustache that put most beards to shame.
He is a hunter in the Looney Tunes and is usually out looking for Bugs Bunny. Among Bugs’ hunters, he seems to be the most aggressive one. It’s a good thing he isn’t the smartest, so Bugs always manages to get away.
He often appears as a cowboy but has taken on several other occupations in the show.
7. Merida – Brave
- Age: 16
- Height: 162.56 cm
- Voice Actor: Kelly Macdonald
She’s not completely orange, but Merida’s long, curly, and un-kept orange hair is enough to get her on my list.
Just by the look of her wild hair, you can tell Merida is a free-spirited young princess who is enjoying every chance of freedom she can get. She is stubborn and rebellious and tries to show her parents she doesn’t need a prince to marry.
Merida is the first from the Disney Princess lineup to originate from Pixar.
6. Son Goku – Dragon Ball
- Age: 12-41
- Height: 175 cm (Adult)
- Voice Actors: Masako Nozawa (Japanese), Sean Schemmel (Funimation English Dub), Ian James Corlett (Saban English Dub), David Gasman (AB Group English Dub)
Goku didn’t always wear orange at the start of Dragon Ball. He received his signature orange gi from Kamesennin when he entered the Tenkaichi Budokai. The outfit changed over the years, but it’s still mostly a bright, eye-catching orange that you can’t miss.
Eventually, all of the Z fighters also started wearing the same outfit as a battle uniform.
Fans don’t get to see the iconic orange outfit as much during Dragon Ball GT, so they brought it back in Dragon Ball Super!
5. Naruto Uzumaki – Naruto
- Age: 12-32
- Height: 180 cm (Adult)
- Voice Actors: Junko Takeuchi (Japanese), Maile Flanagan (English)
There aren’t many famous orange cartoon characters that can surpass Naruto’s popularity. Naruto proudly wears orange despite being a ninja, but for some reason, the color works for him.
As I mentioned earlier, orange is meant to draw your attention, and attention is something Naruto craved for. It can also mean a whole lot of things for his character. For example, Karuma is an orange nine-tailed fox.
Another reason why orange makes sense for this character is that orange is the combination of Minato and Kushina’s signature colors.
4. Velma Dinkley – Scooby Doo
- Age: 15 (Original Series)
- Height: 152 cm
- Voice Actors: Nicole Jaffe (1976 – 1979), Pat Stevens (1979 – 1980), Mindy Cohn (2002 – 2015)
While Daphne may be the “pretty one” in the mystery gang, it was the orange-clad Velma that stole the heart of every fan throughout the series.
Her iconic turtleneck sweater is the only part of her old outfit that has never changed throughout every series.
The dorky but adorable Velma is one of the brains behind the Mystery Gang, and she is usually the one who can correctly guess the villain in each episode.
3. Charmander/Charizard (Ash’s) – Pokemon
- Age –
- Height: 213.36 cm
- Voice Actor: Shin-ichiro Miki
Fans loved Ash’s Charizard since he was still a little Charmander that nearly died after being abandoned.
After evolving too early, he went into a rebellious phase with Ash, but eventually, his loyalty was reignited. Ash left his Charizard in Charicific Valley to become stronger, but the flying lizard will return under Ash’s care in later seasons.
Charizard is one of Ash’s strongest and most loyal Pokemon.
2. Puss in Boots – Shrek
- Age: –
- Height: 60.96 cm
- Voice Actor: Antonio Banderas
Garfield is not the only famous orange cartoon character who happens to be a cat. This kitty cat was popular enough to have 2 of his own movies, and his name is Puss.
The Zorro-inspired cat became one of Shrek’s closest companions alongside Donkey. He often breaks up tension with random cat behavior, such as drinking milk and coughing up hairballs.
Sadly, it’s those random instances that give his enemies the upper hand since he lets his guard down.
1. Nemo – Finding Nemo
- Age: 6
- Height: –
- Voice Actors: Alexander Gould (Finding Nemo), Hayden Rolence (Finding Dory)
Among the Disney orange cartoon characters, there’s a brave little clownfish named Nemo. Despite his underdeveloped right fin, which he and his father call lucky, the clownfish is still ready to face the ocean regardless of the challenges.
In the first film, viewers manage to see how brave he is when he was willing to risk his life to jam the filter to get himself and the other fish out of the aquarium.
Conclusion
There are many orange cartoon characters that I missed, but I’m sure their colorful personalities can shine in the shows they are in.
How about you? Who’s your favorite orange-colored cartoon character, and did they make it on this list? Do they stand out as brightly as their color entails?
