If there's one thing that Disney's classic characters Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pinocchio, Roger Rabbit and Clarabelle Cow are remembered for besides being the pioneering faces of early animation, it's their now iconic white gloves. But just why were these unassuming characters ranging from mice to rabbits, cows and wooden puppets forced to wear an article of clothing synonymous with cold winters, chauffeurs and Michael Jackson?


Well, there are many interesting answers to this question ranging from the logical, to the morally dubious and thanks to this latest video from Vox, we can safely say we'll never look at our favorite Disney character's hands in the same way again.


1. Drawing Disney Characters With Gloves Saved Time


Back in the early days of animation, every single frame was hand drawn. This meant that it took a great deal of time even to complete the shortest of animated clips. Consequently, pioneering animators learnt a few tricks so as to produce cartoons at a faster rate.

It was discovered that rounder edges were much easier to draw than harder angles - this is why Felix the cat has such a round face, or why Olive Oyl from Popeye has such a perfectly spherical head. It also goes someway to explaining why so many of Disney's characters have gloves: it saved much more time drawing spherical glove shapes than more angular fingers for each of the characters.

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