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Give me your top 5 black cartoon characters. Now watch this episode and see if your top 5 matches my top 5
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Hi, my name is Jarrod and welcome to The Five where we share 5 interesting things in black
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culture and society in every episode. Don't forget to subscribe and hit that bell so you can get notified when we release new videos
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I'm excited for today's episode because come on, it's about cartoons. Everybody does or at least did love cartoons
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This list, of course, is in no particular order. We all have our favorite black cartoons
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I'm most likely going to leave out some of your favorite cartoon characters
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So, of course, let me know in the comments. Let's start with Disney's first, Princess Tiana
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Tiana is a fictional character in Walt Disney Pictures' 49th animated feature film, The Princess and the Frog
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Being Disney's first black princess, Princess Tiana brought some diversity to Disney's empire that was lacking in the arena of black characters
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Tiana is headstrong and bent on living her princess life to what she desires
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As an adult Princess Tiana was voiced by Annika Nani Rose while Elizabeth M Dampier voiced the character as a child As a character Tiana has been mostly positively received
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Helen O'Hara of Empire wrote positively of the character, describing her as a hard-headed
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heroine who works hard and displays a focus and drive. Princess Tiana is now a legendary princess for not only being Disney's first black princess
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also being such a great character. Number 2, one of my favorites from the X-Men, Storm
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Storm is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics
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A descendant from a long line of African witch princesses, Storm is born with superhuman abilities
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Her supernatural power is her ability to manipulate the weather and bend it to her will
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The character was created by writer Lynn Ween and artist Dave Cockrum
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Storm has made numerous appearances in other media including the X-Men animated television
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series, X- Evolution, Wolverine, and the X-Men. She appeared in six live-action X-Men films, mostly portrayed by actress Holly Berry in
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four of the films but her younger self is portrayed by Alex Shipp in X Apocalypse and X Dark Phoenix She is a playable character in almost every X video game Number 3 Susie Carmichael
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Susanna Susie Carmichael is a character from the Nickelodeon TV series Rugrats and its
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spin-off series All Grown Up. Susie is probably one of the first black characters in a mainstream cartoon
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Susie is really smart having multiple other characters even look up to her
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Many people don't know Susie's first appearance is actually the Rugrats 3D board game called Rugrats Turn the House Upside Down
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It was made in 1992 and the Rugrats episode Meet the Carmichael's was made in January 10th, 1993
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Susie was such an important character at the time when diversity was lacking in children's programming
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Therefore, she gets the legendary status from us. Number 4, Huey Freeman
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Hughie Freeman is the main protagonist in the cartoon series The Boondocks
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The series was created from the syndicated comic strip written by Aaron Magruder
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Politically savvy and borderline militant, Hughie is a self-described revolutionary left-wing radical
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Hughie is highly intelligent but quite inexpressive being that he seldom laughs or smiles His character regularly reflects upon the current events and the plight of African Americans as it relates to the greater American society
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Huey's nickname is Angry Kid with an Afro. The character is voiced by Regina King
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In 2006, Huey Freeman was named Best Male Character by the Glyph Comic Awards
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At number 5, Gerald from Hey Arnold. Gerald Martin Johanissen is one of the main characters of the TV series Hey Arnold
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He is Arnold's best friend in the Nickelodeon series. Gerald was voiced by Jamil Walker Smith throughout the entire run of the original series
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even as Smith went through puberty. The voice change was explained as a side effect of when his tonsils were removed
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and from that point on, Smith's voice was digitally mastered to a higher pitch by using sound audio
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Gerald is a fun, cool character who is at times the voice of reason
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Hey, that's it. Where's Afro Samurai? He's anime. Oh, anime. We did already do a top five anime series that you can check out anywhere around here
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That's it for this episode of The Five. We'll be back with another episode in black culture and society
