We think we are pretty familiar with Mickey, Goofy, and all the other famous cartoon characters—but are we really? It's true that many cartoon characters changed over time from their original design, but not many people know that Betty Boop was once a dog or that Tom and Jerry were originally called Jasper and Jinx. Here are 10 surprising facts about classic cartoon characters.
我们自以为对米奇、高飞等著名卡通人物所知甚多，但我们真的了解他们吗？实际上随着时间的流逝，很多卡通人物已不是最原初设定的样子，贝蒂曾是条狗，而汤姆和杰瑞最原初的名字是雅斯佩尔和金克斯。现在，就让我们来历数一下10个古典卡通人物的雷人真相吧。

10.Betty Boop Was A Dog
10.贝蒂小姐是条狗

In 1930, when the Fleischer brothers created the Betty Boop character, she was a French poodle, drawn with flabby ears and a black round nose. In her first appearance on screen, at 2:39 in 1930's "Dizzy Dishes" above, she looks very much like an anthropomorphized dog. She was only slowly was transformed into a fully human character. In the wonderfully trippy "Bimbo's Initiation" from 1931, when she seduces Bimbo in the final scene, she no longer has a very pronounced dog face but she still sports long flabby ears.
1930年弗莱舍尔兄弟创造了贝蒂小姐这一卡通形象，此时的她是一只法国波特尔犬，长着一双下垂的耳朵和一只黑色的小圆鼻子。她第一次登上荧屏是在"Dizzy Dishes"两分三十九秒的时候，看起来像一只人格化的狗。经过不断地改进，贝蒂最终变成了一个完全的人类角色。在1931年《宾波的磨难》的最后一幕，贝蒂为宾波指明方向时她已没有了狗的相貌却依然保留着那双下垂的耳朵。
It was only in 1932, in "Any Rags," that she became completely human and her former poodle ears were transformed into earrings. Incidentally, perhaps to prove her full femininity, this short features Betty Boop revealing her bra—twice.
直到1932年的《一堆破布》中，贝蒂小姐的耳朵才被改为人类的样子，从此她完全成为了一个成熟的女人。为了凸显她的女人味，动画里她还两次露出了内衣。

9.Donald Duck Supported Family Planning In The Third World
9.唐老鸭支持第三世界的计划生育

Everybody knows that Donald Duck once was portrayed as a Nazi in a series of propaganda cartoons during World War II. Less widely known is Donald Duck's participation in a series of educational films during the '60s, the last of which was about the dicey subject of family planning. In the 1968 film seen above, called simply "Family Planning" and produced by Disney for the US Population Council, an "average couple" of the world (a Latino man and his Indian wife) is lectured on how to have fewer babies. The idea is to restore the "population balance," which was compromised because, as the narrator tells us, modern medicine saved too many children from death.
众所周知唐老鸭在二战期间曾被描画成纳粹党人的形象，但很少有人知道它在60年代的一批教育短片中也频频出镜。这批短片的最后一部的主题是"计划生育"，是1968年迪士尼电影公司为美国人口委员会所制，片名就叫做《计划生育》。这部影片讲述的是一对普通夫妇（丈夫是拉丁美洲人而妻子是印第安人）在一起研究如何才能节育。这涉及到人口平衡的问题，解说员告诉我们，由于当今医药业的发展，婴幼儿死亡率降低，过多的人口将对人口平衡造成威胁。
Donald Duck appears between each segment performing clumsy antics, and he even dresses as a doctor to give the couple the "key" to the magic of family planning. As the narrator explains, this magical key can be obtained "merely by taking pills or using simple devices."In the end, the video is not as shocking as it seems and it offers a somewhat sensible message, but it is strange to see a beloved children's character like Donald Duck taking part in such piece. In the end of the short, Donald even points menacingly to the audience while the narrator says, "and all of us have a responsibility towards the family of man—including YOU!"
唐老鸭每次出场的形象都显得笨拙而滑稽，这一次，它甚至穿上了白大褂为这对夫妻提供一些节育的小方法。和解说员想的一样，唐老鸭认为最有用的方法莫过于服用避孕药以及使用简单的避孕工具。最后我们要说的是这部卡通其实没有乍看上去那么奇葩，而且不乏有价值的信息，但它的奇怪之处就在于让孩子们最喜欢的卡通人物出现在如此不相称的话题里。在影片的末尾，唐老鸭甚至还用阴险的表情和解说员同声说："我们每个人都有推动计划生育的责任，你也不例外！"

8.Tom And Jerry Were Originally Called Jasper And Jinx
8.汤姆和杰瑞最早叫贾斯珀和金克斯

At 2:24 in his first appearance in the above 1941 cartoon "Puss Gets the Boot," Tom is called "Jasper" by his owner, Mammy Two Shoes. Although Jerry is unnamed in the short movie, creator Willian Hannah stated that the original name of the mouse was Jinx. The name "Tom and Jerry" was a suggestion by another MGM animator, although some say that the names were inspired by WW II, when the British soldiers were called "Tommies" and the Germans, "Jerries." While "Tom and Jerry" was certainly an improvement over "Jasper and Jinx", no one seemed to have thought of changing the name "Mammy Two Shoes" to something more resembling a real name and less a racist horror.
在1942年的卡通片《被解雇的猫》中，汤姆在两分二十四秒首次登台亮相，当时他被他的主人"两只鞋太太"称作贾斯珀。虽然当时的杰瑞还没有名字，但制作人汉娜表示这只小老鼠最原初的名字是"金克斯"。至于"汤姆"和"杰瑞"这两个名字，则是由后来的一个卡通片绘制人提出来的。一些人认为他们是受到二战的启发，因为在战时人们通常戏称英国士兵为"汤米们"，而德国士兵则被称为"杰瑞们"。毋庸置疑，"汤姆"和"杰瑞"是"贾斯珀"和"金克斯"这两个名字改良后的结果。但似乎从未有人试图把"两只鞋太太"改得更像人类的名字或是不那么带有种族歧视的意味。
Tom's name is, in fact, Thomas. In the second episode, "The Midnight Snack," Tom is only called "Thomas" by Mammy, although in the title card he is identified as Tom. It is not known if Jerry is similarly a diminutive of Gerald or Jerome, as no one calls him by his name.
汤姆真实的名字其实是"托马斯"，在第二个短片《午夜快餐》里，两只鞋太太称呼汤姆"托马斯"，虽然在他的身份牌上分明写着"汤姆"。我们不是很清楚"杰瑞"是不是"杰拉尔德"或是"杰罗姆"的爱称，因为从来就没人以他的名字称呼过他。

7.Mickey Was A Jerk
7.米奇曾是个变态

In the first cartoons, Mickey was not exactly a role model for children—or even for adults. In his first film produced, 1928's "Plane Crazy" (seen video above), he basically date-rapes Minnie, forcing her to kiss him during an airplane ride. At 4:55, she ends up jumping from the plane to avoid further advances from the sex-crazed mouse.
米奇在最早的几部卡通片里，并不像现在一样无论对大人还是孩子都是个行为模范。1928年，米奇第一部卡通片《飞机上的疯狂》诞生，此片中米奇一边开飞机一边强迫米妮吻他，几乎在这次约会中强奸了她。在四分五十五秒的时候，米妮因实在忍受不了这只发情的老鼠得寸进尺的性骚扰而跳机自尽。
In "The Galloping Gaucho," the second film produced from the same year, he watches Minnie dance for other men in a bar, while he laughs and drinks beer.The early Mickey also takes pleasure in abusing other animals. In "Plane Crazy," he uses a wiener dog as a motor for his first airplane, and forcefully tears out the feathers of a peacock to use as a tail for his second airplane. In "Steamboat Willie," he tortures a cat, a goat, and a duck, using them as musical instruments.
同年的第二部影片《飞驰的加乌乔人》中，当米奇看见米妮在酒吧为其他男人跳舞时，他竟一边哈哈大笑一边喝起了啤酒。不仅如此，在早期的影片中米奇还以虐待其他动物为乐。在《飞机上的疯狂》中，他把腊肠狗做成了他第一架飞机的马达，强行拔光了一只孔雀的羽毛来作为他第二架飞机的尾翼。在《威利号汽船》中，他虐待一只猫、一只羊还有一只鸭子来迫使它们当他的乐器。

6.Totoro Inspired The Name Of A Worm With Legs
6.一只长脚的虫子以龙猫命名

Totoro is a beloved cartoon character created in 1988 by Japanese animator Hazao Miyazaki in My Neighbor Totoro. Totoro is so popular in Asia that when new species of velvet worm was recently discovered in Vietnam, it was named Eopepiparus totoro in homage to the film. Visually, the scientists were inspired not so much by the character Totoro itself, but by the "cat bus" in the same movie, whose multiple pairs of legs resemble the velvet worm's.
1988年日本漫画家宫崎骏创造了龙猫这个深受人们喜爱的角色，这部动漫的名字就叫做《我的邻居龙猫》。龙猫深为亚洲人民所喜爱，以至于后来当一种新的毛毛虫在越南被发现的时候，人们将其命名为"Eopepiparus totoro"，以此向这部动画片致敬。从外形上看，科学家们的灵感应该不是来源于龙猫，而是片中的另一个角色——小猫公交车，它的腿和这种毛毛虫的脚十分相像。
This is not the first time that a cartoon character inspires creative biologists. There were a few other names of species inspired by 'toons, the most unusual perhaps being a sponge-like mushroom named Spongiforma squarepantsii, obviously after SpongeBob Squarepants. There is also a species of chameleon native to Madagascar forests which was named Calumna tarzan after the King of the Jungle.
给新生物命名的灵感已不是第一次来源于动画片了。其中最有特点的一次就是把一种很像海绵的蘑菇取名为"海绵方块"，很明显这是因为海绵宝宝嘛！还有一次科学家们把马达加斯加的一种变色龙取名为"Calumna泰山"大家都知道这是《丛林之王》男主角的名字！

翻译:周元 来源：前十网