All Of Your Favorite 90s Cartoon Characters If They Were IRL

BuzzFeed’s Loryn Brantz imagined what ’90s cartoon characters would look like IRL. This is the result. There’s Arthur and the gang, the whole crew from Rocko’s Modern Life, Ren & Stimpy, and more. But let’s try to forget poor Darkwing Duck, man. That’s just sad! Childhood = ruined.

Originally published in 2015, Brantz’s ’90s Cartoons Reimagined As Live Action took some of our favorite animated characters and gave them a much more realistic makeover. And by realistic, I mean occasionally horrifying. Turns out there’s a reason these guys were cartoons in the first place.

What ’90s Cartoon Characters Would Look Like in Real Life

Take Arthur, for example. That lovable little aardvark and his friends were perfectly adorable in their animated universe. But start applying actual animal anatomy to those familiar faces, and suddenly things get weird. Really weird. I’m starting to think some childhood memories are better left in two dimensions.

And then there’s Rocko’s Modern Life. Rocko, Heffer, and the rest of the gang were already pretty bizarre, but seeing cartoon animals imagined with real-world features takes the weirdness to another level. Which is impressive, considering how strange that show was to begin with.

Brantz didn’t stop there, either. Her original collection also tackled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Tick, SpongeBob SquarePants, Pinky and the Brain, and more. Apparently no cartoon was safe from the reality treatment.

Some Cartoons Should Probably Stay Cartoons

Of course, Ren & Stimpy were practically nightmare fuel already. Those two never needed much help looking gross. Between the bulging eyes, exaggerated expressions, and general disregard for everything decent, they were basically begging for this treatment.

But Darkwing Duck? Come on! The guy was a crime-fighting superhero. He had a cape! A cool hat! A whole mysterious crime-fighter thing going on! And now I’m supposed to imagine what an actual duck dressed like that would look like? No thanks.

Still, you have to appreciate the imagination behind these ridiculous makeovers. Brantz took characters we grew up loving and asked what they’d look like without the magical powers of cartoon animation. The answer? A whole lot of creatures I absolutely do not want to meet in a dark alley.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to watch some actual cartoons until these images disappear from my brain. Childhood = ruined. Again.