25 Strange Early Versions of Your Favorite Movie and TV Characters

Bugs Bunny got a serious glow-up
25 Strange Early Versions of Your Favorite Movie and TV Characters
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Other than dipping into an alternate reality, it’s near-impossible to imagine our favorite characters with another look or voice. 

Hmm, now that we think about it, if we were able to tap into an alternate reality, that’s definitely the thing we’d do first. Forget seeing how our lives would be if we took our parents’ advice and became electricians. We’d plunk the even freakier version of Gollum into Lord of the Rings and see which one we liked best!

Check these tidbits out, and you’ll see exactly what we mean…

Aragorn

The first version of Aragorn was a hobbit named Trotter. When Tolkien changed him to Aragorn, a lot of Trotter remained, including his actions (and a lot of his dialogue) at the Prancing Pony. CRACKED.COM

Elsa

In the early drafts of Frozen, Elsa was a villain. She wasn't Anna's sister, and she was a standard supervillain who raised an army of snow monsters. But that got changed because the team behind Frozen thought it was too derivative and unsatisfying. CRACKED.COM

Ariel

Ariel from The Little Mermaid was supposed to be blonde. She originally looked like a Babie doll, and only became a redhead after big fights in the studio. CRACKED.COM

The Beast

In the 19th century, The Beast from Beauty and the Beast was an anthro. In the original story, the beast is only described as frightful, so artists painted all kinds of Beasts. In 1875, Walter Crane interpreted frightful as a two-legged warthog. CRACKED.COM

Casper

CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST SURE IS A HAPPY LITTLE SPOOK. BUT in HIS eARLY YEARS не WAS SUICIDAL. HowtoWin YE FRIENDS and Love YE PEOPLE In his first appearance, Casper repeatedly tries to make friends and fails. Не becomes so despondent that he tries to commit suicide by lying on the railroad tracks. Most of his early cartoons and comic books follow the same formula. Не tries to off himself by jumping off a cliff, tying a rock around himself and jumping into the ocean, and so on. CRACKED.COM https://youtu.be/tw7AipHHBXE

Mr. Freeze

In the early Batman comics, Mr. Freeze looked ridiculous. BUT MR. ZERO AGAIN BRINGS HIS GUN INTO PLAY... THAT WILL STOP YOU COLD, OFFICERS! He was a bald dude with a plastic helmet who looked like a dopey version of Vin Diesel cosplaying an astronaut. CRACKED.COM

Dracula

In the original illustrations for Dracula, Dracula wasn't exactly terrifying. BY BRAM STOKER Не looked like a guy in pyjamas with bat wings that he (badly) sewed himself. CRACKED.COM

The Iron Giant

In early illustrations for The Iron Giant novel, the giant looked terrifying. For some reason, he was depicted as a steampunk mecha stalking the woods. CRACKED.COM

Gollum

Before the Lord of the Rings movies, Gollum was usually drawn as a giant, deformed creature. In the books, Tolkien doesn't mention Gollum's size, so artists apparently assumed he was massive. CRACKED.COM

Darth Maul

MAUL ORIGINALLY LOOKED LIKE A HORROR MOVIE VILLAIN. The Phantom Menace The script described Darth Maul as a vision from your worst nightmare, and artist lain McCaig drew exactly that for his inital design. However, George Lucas thought it was a bit too nightmarish and told Caig to use his second-worst nightmare. CRACKED.COM

The Muppets

Oiginally, Jim Henson wanted the Muppets to be more grown-up and edgy. Не had them guest-star on variety shows, doing comedy definitely aimed at adults, and he wasn't thrilled when they offered him to put the Muppets on Sesame Street and turn them into kids' entertainment. CRACKED.COM

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump was supposed to be a big, overweight, really strong guy. Barry Sonnenfeld, the first choice for director, suggested making Forrest a runner, and the change stuck. CRACKED.COM

Rex

REX Early versions of Rex were much cuddlier, then became almost steampunk, before they settled on the rigid plastic coward you know and love. GRAGKED.COM

Mr. Potato Head

MR POTATO HEAD He's slightly modified from the original toy version, so toy collectors were pissed when those modifications weren't present in the official movie merch. 01607 CRACKED.COM

Buzz Lightyear

BUZZ Buzz started out looking much more rigid, for 1 good reason - he was based on John Lasseter's childhood G.I. Joe. GRACKED.COM

Woody

WOODY But he came perilously close to being a nightmare ventriloquist dummy. GRACKED.COM

Kenny

KENNY 1992 NOW Cursed with In the short immortality. His Jesus vs. Frosty, outfit and traits it's actually the were inspired by Cartman- a real classmate looking dude of Trey Parker's. who's named The real Kenny, Kenny and gets understandably, brutally hates the show. murdered. CRACKED.COM

Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny 1938 NOW Happy Rabbit, Bugs Bunny, studio icon who a temporary holds the guest on Porky Guinness Record Pig's wildly for Most popular show, Portrayed and a foil to Animated Daffy Duck's Character In manic energy. Films. CRACKED.COM

Michelangelo

MICHELANGELO 1984 NOW One of four A doodle of a ultra-popular, wrinkly, ultra-ripped teen nunchuck-wielding heroes. Appears turtle that was in comics, eventually movies, TV, and developed as a ...whatever's single-issue going on in this parody of the high-def CGI popular adventure Dark comics of the 80's. Knightmare. CRACKED.COM

Alvin

Alvin (and the Chipmunks) 1959 NOW S A DAV Ch Cover art for a Nickelodeon's novelty album high-def wherein some karaoke fever guy harmonizes dream. with himself on children's songs in the public domain. CRACKED.COM

Betty Boop

BETTY BOOP NSCTCTCD 1930 NOW Originally a Her dog ears turned into sexy dog, she earrings, and she was developed became fully as the girlfriend human - but to the wildly continued to popular Bimbo date Bimbo for a the Dog. while. CRACKED.COM

Arthur

Arthur TM 1976 NOW Protagonist of Your average Arthur's Nose, a 3rd-grade humanoid children's book aardvark, with an about exceptionally consulting a emotive fist. The rhinologist for surgery went elective well, apparently. surgery. CRACKED.COM

Bart Simpson

Bart Simpson 1987 NOW An Eddie World's oldest Haskell ripoff 10-year-old. King developed 10 of the edgy minutes before catchphrase, the a pitch meeting t-shirt, and the for The Tracey title gag. Ullman Show. GRAGKED.COM

He-Man

HE-MAN 1982 NOW A toy in search After hiring of a plot. In an comic book writers to flesh attempt to out a plot, compete with He-Man has Star Wars toy become a star of sales, a Mattel film, television, designer added and comics, and some clay the face of muscles to an ecstacy. existing toy. CRACKED.COM

Fred Flintstone

Fred Flintstone 1960 NOW Has since Fred Flagstone, cleaned up his a hillbilly Ralph act; sells Kramden vitamins knockoff and instead of Big Tobacco cigarettes. shill. CRACKED.COM

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