Toon Gloves

Opera gloves, or toon gloves, are a main characteristic of cartoon characters. Easily recognized by the three black lines seen on the back, these white, four-fingered gloves have been seen used by toons in shows since the early 1930s. Originally an addition of Walt Disney himself to the classic Mickey Mouse cartoons (to recognize the hands from the bodies when near), the gloves are now seen on the hands of many famous cartoon stars, not only from Disney, but characters from many other universes, such as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , the , and even , also use such gloves.
==Background==
Gloves have been proven not only to be white. Examples of some Disney characters are Roger Rabbit, José Carioca, and the Beagle Boys, whose gloves are yellow.
Classic Walt Disney Comics usually colored most of the characters' gloves appearing in the stories yellow, and sometimes even of a blue color. It is unknown if this was either a glitch in the printing process or if they were intentionally colored as that. The color rarely varies, but the gloves always have soft colors.
The exact usage of the gloves is unknown, so they could be just an accessory. Throughout history of animation, many toons have wondered why do they use these gloves. Two examples of a cartoon character questioning the gloves' purpose are in An Extremely Goofy Movie, where Bobby Zimuruski asks the aforementioned question, to which someone else responds with, "Yeah, man!", and in the Mickey Mouse Works short Pluto's Magic Paws, where Magical Mouse also asks the question.
Many cartoon characters who use such gloves have also been seen without the gloves. Several rare examples are in the 1933 short Three Little Pigs, where Big Bad Wolf's gloves come off when he takes off the Fuller-Brush Man disguise; in the 1935 short The Band Concert, where Clarabelle Cow's glove gets stuck in her flute; in the 1939 short Goofy and Wilbur, where Goofy takes off his glove thinking he caught the frog; in the 1940 film Pinocchio, where Pinocchio's gloves disappear along with his donkey ears and tail when he becomes a real boy; in the 1947 short Mickey's Delayed Date, where Mickey comes out of the bathroom without his gloves on; in the 1951 film Alice in Wonderland, where the fingers on the Walrus' gloves kept getting burnt by his cigar; in the Raw Toonage short Dogzapoppin', where Grumble's dog steals one of Bonkers D. Bobcat's gloves off his hand and eats it; in the Bonkers episode Going Bonkers, where Bonkers takes off one of his gloves and slaps The Collector with it; in the 2004 film Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, where Pete takes off his gloves before he takes a shower; in the Mickey Mouse Works short Big House Mickey, where Mortimer Mouse comes out of the shower without his gloves on; and in the Mickey Mouse episode Cable Car Chaos, where Mickey accidentally pulls off one of Minnie's gloves while trying to save her.
==Notable characters who use gloves==
*Mickey Mouse
*Minnie Mouse
*Mortimer Mouse
*Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse
*Felicity Fieldmouse
*Albemarle Mouse
*Joe Mouse
*Mickey's Twin Cousins
*Millie and Melody Mouse
*Margie Mouse
*Marcus Mouse
*Captain Churchmouse
*Sylvester Shyster
*Dangerous Dan and Idgit the Midget
*The Orphans
*Shamrock Bones
*Butch from the Mickey Mouse comics
*Detective Casey
*Colonel Doberman
*Pluto (seen only in Blue Rhythm and Pluto's Magic Paws)
*Magical Mouse from Pluto's Magic Paws
*Donald Duck (seen only in Mr. Duck Steps Out and Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures when he's driving his race car)
*Daisy Duck (seen only in Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures when she's driving her race car)
*Goofy
*Max Goof
*Goofy's Father
*Goofy's Mother
*Grandma Goofy
*Arizona Goof
*Gilbert Goof
*Captain Goof-Beard
*Goofy's Football Team from How to Play Football
*Dr. Watson
*Coop Hatchback
*Weasels
*Julius
*Pete
*Maw Pete
*Gram-Gram Peg-Leg
*Uncle Bob
*P.J.
*Bobby Zimuruski
*The Salesman from Mickey's Mechanical House
*The Bee and Trombone Player from The Band Concert
*Dutch Spackle
*Powerline
*Clarabelle Cow
*Maw Cow
*Boniface
*Bertie Cow
*Miss Bovina
*Horace Horsecollar
*Pa Horsecollar
*Kat Nipp
*The Alley Cats from The Karnival Kid
*The Tuba Player from Mickey's Follies
*Patricia Pigg
*Katarina Kodorofsky
*Handy Helper
*Peter Pig
*Paddy Pig
*Panchito Pistoles
*José Carioca
*Green Bat
*Beagle Boys
*Dirty Bill
*Monty Citymouse
*Abner Countrymouse
*Mother Goose Melodies characters
**Old King Cole
**Jack and Jill
**Simple Simon
**Humpty Dumpty
**Little Jack Horner
**Little Boy Blue
**Little Bo Peep
**Three Blind Mice
**Mother Goose
*Egyptian Melodies characters
**The Spider
*The Spider and the Fly characters
**The Spider
*The Fox Hunt characters
**The Tuxedo People
**The Horse Riders
*King Neptune characters
**King Neptune
*Father Noah's Ark characters
**Hem
**Shem
**Japeth
**Noah
*Broken Toys characters
**The Marching Band Toys
**The Green Jacket Sewing Man Toy
*Three Blind Mouseketeers characters
**The Three Blind Mouseketeers
**Captain Katt
*Bugs in Love characters
**Bucky Bug
**Pop Bug
**Momma Bug
**June Bug
**Bo Bug
**Junior's Lady Sweet
*The Tortoise and the Hare characters
**Max Hare
**The Race Starter Raccoon
*Three Little Pigs characters
**The Three Little Pigs
**Big Bad Wolf
**Three Little Wolves
**Li'l Bad Wolf
**Izzy Wolf
*The Cookie Carnival characters
**Hobo Cookie
**Miss Licorice
**The Donut
**The Cupcakes
**The Tuxedo Cookie Guys
*Who Killed Cock Robin? characters
**The Bird Doctors
**The Bird Cops
**The Box Birds
**The Chained Blue Jacket Bird
*Cock o' the Walk characters
**Cock o' the Walk
**Hick Rooster
**The Parade Band Musicians
*Pinocchio
*Jiminy Cricket
*J. Worthington Foulfellow
*Gideon
*Timothy Q. Mouse
*Clowns
*Ringmaster
*Roger Rabbit
*Bonkers characters
**Bonkers D. Bobcat
**Fall-Apart Rabbit
**The Collector
**Officer Horn
**Gloomy the Clown
**Hoagie, Knuckles, and Chumps
*Hitch-Hiker's Aid
*Robot Nurse Maid
*Bundle Wrapper
*Mechanical Barber Chair
*Ratigan
*Billy Dilley
*Mr. Wesley
*Ringmaster
*Aldrin Pesky
*Pupert Pesky
*Maggie Pesky
*Chauncey Pesky
*Zeb Pesky
*Dawn Swatworthy
*Rayna Cartflight
*Joe from Melody Time
*André from The Adventures of André and Wally B.
*Lumpy the Clown from Red's Dream
*The Troubadour from Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers
*The Walrus from Alice in Wonderland
==Trivia==
*With the exception of José Carioca, Panchito Pistoles, most of the bird characters from Who Killed Cock Robin? and Cock o' the Walk, Donald Duck (on rare occasions), and Daisy Duck (on rare occasions), no birds in the Disney universe use toon gloves, and even birds outside of it; for example, Daffy Duck from , Yakky Doodle from , Cuckoo from MGM Studios, from Columbia Pictures, from 20th Century Fox, Digit LeBoid from , Bird Brain from , Mordecai from , Sonny the Cuckoo Bird from , Toucan Sam from , the Penguins of Madagascar from , and the Angry Birds from . It is, however, worth noting that Woody Woodpecker from Universal Pictures does wear toon gloves.
*Scrooge McDuck normally doesn’t wear toon gloves; however, in his cartoon debut Scrooge McDuck and Money and in the Don Rosa comic story The Richest Duck in the World, he casually wears a pair of yellow gloves.
==Gallery==
Toon gloves 2.jpg|"Do you ever wonder why we're always, like, wearin' gloves?" ("Yeah, man!")
Why do we all wear the same white gloves?.png|"Why do we all wear the same white gloves?"
No glove.jpg|Clarabelle Cow's glove stuck in her flute.
Mickey with one of Minnie's Gloves.jpg|Mickey pulls off one of Minnie's gloves.
Goofy taking his glove off.jpg|Goofy taking his glove off.
Mickey without his glove while walking Pluto.jpeg|Mickey's glove pops off as he lets go of Pluto's leash.
Minnie's glove slips off as she rubs her eyes.png|Minnie's glove slips off as she rubs her eyes.
Bonkers taking his glove off.jpg|Bonkers takes off his glove and prepares to slap the Collector with it.
Grumble27 glove and eats it.webp|Grumble's nasty dog snatches one of Bonkers' gloves off and eats it.
Alice-disneyscreencaps com-1732.jpg|Two of the Walrus' gloves fingers after being burnt by his cigar, revealing his fingers.
Y'think y'know your neighbors and then they go breakin' into your house like a common burglar!.png|Mortimer without his gloves after taking a shower.
Goofy slips off his glove as he lets go of the paint brush.jpg|Goofy's glove pops off as he lets go of the paint brush.
Girl with gloves.jpg|A girl wearing the gloves at Disneyland.
Cn'D-RR - Various cartoon items.jpg|A glove appears among various other cartoon items in the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers film.
Category:Articles of Clothing
Category:Objects