25+ Cartoon Characters We All Had a Huge Crush on as Kids

Look, in her blue get-up, Jasmine looks absolutely adorable and stunning, but let’s be honest, we all know what moment in Aladdin was the actual romantic awakening for most people. It was that red outfit Jafar’s magic put her in, wasn’t it?

We know she’s animated, but there’s no other way to say it — that scene was hot! It also didn’t hurt that she was confident, funny, and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. She was a princess with personality and a rockin’ bod.

Sure, he falls in love with a girl without ever actually talking to her. And, yes, he also quickly falls for a new girl just because she chats him up. But, this hopeless romantic was still one of the biggest crushes we all had as kids.

There was just something about Prince Eric’s patience and eagerness that came across as incredibly endearing to our young, impressionable minds. Plus, just look at him! Now, that’s a hunky sailor right there!

He might be Batman’s sidekick, but he’s the main hero of our hearts. Robin (The Teen Titan Richard Grayson version, obviously) just had our hearts fluttering with his angst and too-cool-for-school attitude.

Just like he pined after Starfire for years, we were pining after him and his green spandex pants. There’s just something about a brooding team leader that has us swooning. We were also constantly impressed by his ability to fight all those big bads, even without any special powers.

Quest for Camelot probably isn’t the most well-known movie on this list, since it isn’t Disney, but it was still one of our favorites. If you have seen it, you absolutely understand why we had very strong feelings for Garrett.

He was a perfect love interest — he was brave and chivalrous, with a tragic past that turned him blind and a dream to become a knight, just like his eventual on-screen love interest, Kayley. But the biggest draw was the voice actor, Cary Elwes, who also played Wesley in The Princess Bride.

As her name suggests, Gadget Hackwrench knew how to fix things and make them better, which is probably part of why we loved her so much. Of course, it helped that she was as cute as a button and super pretty – even if she was a mouse.

It also didn’t hurt that she was pretty adorably spacy until she was inventing, and then she would go into an intense focus that was seriously impressive. Clearly, it was a race to her heart between Chip, Dale, and us at home.

From the first time we saw him during “A Rumor in St. Petersburg,” this con man with a heart of gold found his way into our hearts. Dimitri’s floppy hair, chiseled jawline, and sassy smirk won us over, just as they did Anastasia.

Or maybe it was the fact that he went from being a cynical criminal at the beginning of the film to becoming a sincere and humble love interest. Either way, we absolutely dreamt of replacing Anastasia and kissing him by the end of the movie.

Okay, so we know that we should totally give each of these fashionable spies their own space, but we decided that we might as well just talk about them all at once (‘cause we can). The beauty of the show was that no matter what your type is, you had someone to crush on.

Like that big ‘sis, logical energy? Sam was your gal. More into athletics and sassy remarks? That’s what Clover was for. Prefer a more earnest and sweet girl? Take a look at Alex. Of course, your favorite also totally marked your preferred physical type.

Everybody has those days when they feel like an absolute ogre. Luckily, thanks to Shrek, we know that there’s at least one beautiful princess who’d love us no matter what we were like on the outside.

To be fair, Fiona’s human version was based on actress Cameron Diaz, so it’s no surprise that we were all into her. Add to that how she could hold her own in any fight with her martial arts skills, and you’ve got a winning recipe. For those more intrigued by her ogre version – we’re not judging, we promise.

As adults, we know that Miss Sara Bellum was created as a kind of parody of the hot secretary trope. As young teens, we were much more interested in admiring how she was drawn to give much thought to the deeper meaning.

Beyond her rockin’ animated bod, Miss Bellum also has a good head on her shoulders (alongside her massively curly hair), and her logical nature often saves the day. We do have to admit that part of the allure definitely came from the fact that her face was never shown.

Seeing John Smith in Pocahontas for the very first time, we definitely wanted to teach him to paint with all the colors of the wind. After all, he was just around the river bend.

This blond bombshell of a man might have started out as a kind of villain, but by the end of the film, we were just as in love with him as Pocahontas was. The biggest shame was that they didn’t end up together in the sequel. John Rolfe, who?!

Those hips definitely don’t lie! Esmeralda’s bright green eyes and wild hair had us hooked, watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame again and again. We absolutely loved seeing the girl saving the poor guy for a change.

Her free spirit, majestic dance moves, and kind heart made us fall for her quicker than either Quasimodo or Phoebus did. She’s one character that we’d love to see properly done in a live-action movie. Can someone at Disney get on that?

This cartoon character might just be the oldest one on this list, with her first appearance dating all the way back to 1930. Betty Boop was generally inspired by jazz-age flappers, but the main model credited for her look was actress Clara Bow.

Her innocent heart, provocative dress, and adorable personality definitely had our hearts saying “Boop Oop a Doop” as we were growing up.

“No one’s slick as Gaston, no one’s quick as Gaston,” no one’s made us swoon quite as much as Gaston! Yes, we know he’s the bad guy, but has that ever really stopped any of us from falling for him?

Let’s just say we totally get why those three girls were fainting at the sight of him, and why they were shocked that Belle turned him down. Does anyone else feel the need to start using antlers in all of their decorating?

Elvis Presley had his amazing “Thank you, thank you very much,” but Johnny Bravo – who was loosely based on the rock n’ roll star – had the forever iconic “Hey Mama!” and that’s definitely swoon-worthy.

Look, there’s a reason the himbo (male bimbo) has become more popular in recent years. What can we say, we just love a foxy dunderhead with a heart of gold – and that’s exactly what sweet Johnny Bravo is.

Can someone explain to us how we were supposed to not fall in love with every single character in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas? Seriously! The brave Marina (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the sultry Eris (Michelle Pfeiffer), the stand-up Proteus (Joseph Fiennes), and the man of the hour, Sinbad (Brad Pitt)!

It’s like this movie was designed to make us feel all sorts of things that we weren’t expecting. It’s even in the main character’s name! This sinfully bad guy is just way too good at making our hearts skip a beat.

We’re simple people, you know, give us a cool yet tortured goth girl with crazy strong powers and a bathing-suit-esque costume, and we’re going to fall for her. Add to that the fact that Raven is voiced by the talented Tara Strong, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for crushing.

We totally get Beast Boy’s obsession with the demon-powered Teen Titan. Plus, let’s just put it out there, whenever she goes into “super strong villain mode,” it’s pretty hot. We definitely wanted to “Azarath Metrion Zinthos” with her.

Yes, we are, in fact, aware of how very weird it is that we found an animated lion attractive. But look at him! The dark complexion, the green eyes, that scar!!! Rwarrr! What can we say, we love a bad boy – or big cat, in this case.

Honestly, though, seeing his innocence as a cub be crushed, then seeing him battle against his adoptive mother’s indoctrination with the power of his love for Kiara?! That was seriously awe-inspiring and crush-worthy!

It comes as a surprise to no one that Shego made this list, right? We really don’t need to explain why her sassy attitude and her tight suit made us tune in every week to see Kim Possible.

But we’re going to anyway – because that’s literally the point of this article! Let’s be honest, while we did absolutely adore Ron Stoppable and his mole rat, we all secretly wanted Kim to get together with Shego in the end, right?

Some bad guys might be bad guys, but they’re not really bad guys. If you didn’t understand that, go back and watch Wreck it, Ralph. In this case, though, it’s a bad girl — Helga Sinclair.

Helga’s job was to kick butts and take names once the team found Atlantis. But, although she joined the mission due to greed, by the end, she did the right thing, and that just made us love her all the more. Of course, the Lara Croft style definitely didn’t hurt our attraction.

She’s a damsel, she’s in distress, and she can definitely handle this! With lines like that and looks like she has, is it any wonder that we absolutely crushed on the sassy Megara? Hercules might have the pecs, but she definitely has the puns.

But it’s more than just her stunning look and sharp wit. Her slow caring and her tragic backstory made us love her all the more for everything she was willing to do for love. While it might be far from her fate in the original myth, we’re glad she got her happy ending in the Disney version.

G.I. Joe, Captain America, Donald Duck… Some people just have a thing for characters who served their country (look it up if you don’t believe us about Donald). Li Shang from Mulan, though, is definitely one of the top crushes in that category.

He might be awkward when it comes to fighting for Mulan’s heart (does anyone else remember his attempt at flirting being “you fight good?”), but he kicks some pretty serious Hun butt. His vulnerability, alongside his strength, plus his shirtless scenes, certainly made us blush in our youth.

Avatar: The Last Airbender might have ended way back in 2008, but we’re still not over how much we fell for bad boy Prince Zuko. We do want to make it clear that our infatuation with this particular character only started after season one.

There was just something about seeing this angsty teen royal redeem himself slowly and try to fix his mistakes, that made us absolutely swoon. We do have to admit, though, that quite a bit of that attraction had to do with the length of his hair in season three.

Not for nothing was Jessica Rabbit described by her creators as the “ultimate male fantasy, drawn by a cartoonist.” Because, really, after seeing her rain kisses on her Hunny-Bunny, we all wished we were Roger Rabbit.

She was the perfect mix of loving, kind, and smokin’ hot to make us all turn as red as her hair. It all came together to perfectly become one of our first crushes. After all, she wasn’t bad, she was just drawn that way.

Nope, we’re not talking about Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. We also don’t mean Cary Elwes in Men in Tights, although we totally wouldn’t blame you if you were into him.

We speak, of course, of the cunning fox himself — the animated Robin Hood from the Disney film. We really think it was a mix of his general cleverness, his sass in the face of danger, and, of course, Brian Bedford’s spunky voice.

He’s absolutely beastly. That’s right! We’re looking at the crush we all had on the one, the only, the Beast! Yes, we do mean the Beast in his “Beast-Mode” — just like Belle fell in love with him. Because let’s face it, he just wasn’t as hot as a human.

Just like for Belle, when we got to know him, there was something there that wasn’t there before. We liked him when he was “sweet and almost kind,” but we also really liked him when he was “coarse and unrefined.”

Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you,  we all love a redeemable wild boy. We just all want to believe that, unlike Wendy, we’ll be the ones to finally change him and actually make him want to grow up with us.

Alas, it seems that sweet and mercurial Peter Pan will forever stay out of reach for us, even if he did make his way into our hearts when we were little. Thankfully, we can always go and visit him by flying toward the second star to the right and straight on till morning.

We just want to make it very, very clear that we’re talking about the OG Velma, not the weird new version from 2023. Nope, our childhood crush said “Jinkies!” a lot, and constantly lost her glasses.

We would’ve been more than happy to help that sweet and clever geek find her spectacles – even if she did lose them on a weekly basis. What can we say, Velma just made us want to go “Scooby Dooby Doo!”

“Can you feel the love tonight?” We certainly could when we noticed Nala’s sultry gaze toward Simba as they rolled around in the grass. As Moira Kelly (Nala’s super-talented voice actress) explained, Nala has “a sort of authoritative voice but with a lot of warmth.”

So, is it any wonder we fell for her snout over paws? Just like Simba, we became completely infatuated with this bossy lioness. We, too, would go back and fight our awful and creepy uncle if she told us we should.

Okay, here’s the thing — we know Lola Bunny has been on Looney Tunes for years. But did you know that she actually first appeared in the original Space Jam? Before that, the character was named Honey Bunny and wasn’t as appealing.

We just absolutely love her athletic build, along with her sassy and flirty attitude. Just make sure you never call her “Doll,” and you should be all good to join the race to win this bunny’s heart.

We’ve got all the respect in the world for Casey Kasem, who voiced Shaggy Rogers for 28 years, but when we think about the “Zoinks” hippie, all that comes to mind is Matthew Lillard. How could we not think of him?

Lillard is the epitome of all that is Shaggy! He’s all “Like,” Scooby snacks, and gangly good looks. Did you know that, according to the original shows, Shaggy was actually a high school star athlete? He was into both gymnastics and running track.

Anyone who was – and still is – as obsessed with Avatar: The Last Airbender as we were, can recall by heart Katara’s unmistakably attractive voice, thanks to the incredible talent of Mae Whitman.

Just as Aang was instantly in love with the water tribe native, we too were immediately into her. There’s just something about a strong and bossy water bender with a heart of gold that makes us want to follow her to the ends of the earth.

With some cartoon crushes, we’re sometimes left baffled as to why we find them attractive. Thankfully, with Flynn Rider (or Eugene Fitzherbert), there’s practically a scientific reason as to why we fell in love with him.

When the Disney team was creating Flynn, they got all the female employees together in a room and asked them to describe their perfect leading man. This was named the “Hot Man Meeting,” and clearly, it worked, because we’ve been smitten ever since we first saw this dashing thief.

Okay, yeah, we don’t really have a good explanation for this one. Maybe it was his charming, blasé attitude toward his enemies. Perhaps it was his side-splitting one-line takedown. Or, maybe it was just the way he snacked on carrots.

Whatever the reason, we couldn’t get enough of Bugs Bunny! There’s just something about him that’s absolutely captivating, especially to our young impressionable minds. So, don’t be surprised if “What’s up, doc?” makes us grin like maniacs.

Like Candace, we also became instantly infatuated with the optimistic gangly teen, Jeremy Johnson. At first, we just thought he looked cute, but as we got to know him, we found hidden depth in the Mr. Slushy Dawg and Mr. Slushy Burger employee.

Of course, finding out he was a musician and was, in fact, the lead singer and guitarist of Jeremy and the Incidentals cemented our love for him. Seeing him and Candace slowly fall for each other and become a couple through the duration of the show just made our little hearts so happy for her.

While many people loved Mickey’s leading lady, Minnie Mouse, it was actually Donald’s girlfriend, Daisy Duck, that owned our hearts. Sure, Minnie had those sweet smiles and her signature happy disposition, but Daisy had attitude!

While she loves Donald to the ends of the Earth, as a modern duck, she won’t suffer any misbehavior on his part. If he gets out of line, she puts him right back in his place. She also knows how to calm down his famed anger.

You might ask why we have just Blossom on this list. Why not have Bubbles and Buttercup on here as well? Look, all three are definitely worthy of a mention, but after polling everyone around us for like a minute, we have definitive proof that Blossom was the crushing favorite.

She might be made of “sugar, spice, and everything nice,” but Blossom is no shrinking violet. She’s courageous, smart, and exactly the right amount of bossy. We do, however, think that her red hair is, at least, partially responsible for all those childhood crushes.

“Let’s get down to business” to let you know why we all loved Mulan so much. Nowadays, Elsa is considered an amazing feminist icon for needing no man. But! (and we feel very strongly about this) the OG strong warrior was, without a doubt, Mulan.

Mulan just had something for everyone to love, whether you were into boys, girls, or anything in between. Plus, who wouldn’t fall madly in love with a sword-wielding fighter who kicked Hun butt multiple times? Li Shang sure did!

Can you blame us for crushing hard on Hercules? He was literally a Greek god – at least, in the Disney version. And who doesn’t love a “Zero to Hero” storyline about a weakling becoming a dashing star athlete?

Sure, he’s a bit of a himbo, but his awkwardness and happy demeanor just make him all the more lovable, in our opinion. A hero might be measured by the strength of his heart, but our crush was measured by the strength of Hercules’s bulging arms.

Granted, until recently, she didn’t have an animated show, but we’re going to rule that being a drawn character in a video game does count as a cartoon. So, why did we crush on her? Well, isn’t it obvious?

It was all about the thrill of the chase with this alluring and mysterious red lady. Plus, with all her traveling and hiding from the law all over the world, we bet she was pretty cultured and probably had some pretty amazing stories to tell.

Anyone who grew up watching Nickelodeon cartoons in the mid-2000s had a crush on Danny Phantom. That’s just a fact. The more interesting question, of course, is which Danny Phantom you were into. Human teen or ghost teen?

Their personalities might have been basically the same, but there’s no denying that Danny, in his phantom form, was a heck of a lot cuter – and deadlier. He was also a lot more confident and sassy as a ghost, and we were absolutely into that.

Some might consider him riff-raff or a street rat, but we don’t buy that. We see the diamond in the rough that Aladdin really is. He might have been born into poverty, but he knows what he wants to reach, and he’s not afraid to fight to get it.

Of course, his heartfelt friendships with Abu, the Genie, and even Carpet made him all the more endearing to Princess Jasmine – and to us. It also didn’t hurt that he spent the whole film bare-chested.

Since her first appearance in the short “Good Night” on The Tracy Ullman Show in 1987, Marge Simpson has been the leading lady in many young people’s fantasies. Although, fun fact, she was based on Matt Groening’s very own mother.

We think our crush on her was thanks to a combination of her kind and loving personality, and her raspy and alluring voice (that part’s thanks to the talented voice actress Julie Kavner). After all, who wouldn’t want to lovingly hear, “Oh, Homieeee.”

From the very first “Whatcha Doin’?” we were absolutely hooked on the girl who loves love. Isabella Garcia-Shaprio might be head-over-heels for her oblivious neighbor Phineas, but we saw her and appreciated her.

This Fireside Girls troop leader is a confident and kind go-getter from the very beginning of the show. Her wit, charm, and fearless personality made us love her all the more. Thankfully, we know that someday, Phineas will open his eyes and realize what an amazing person was in front of him the whole time.

Jean Grey was powerful, Wolverine was cool, but let’s face it — no one was more tragic and more crush-worthy than Rogue. Her powers might have meant she couldn’t get close to anyone, but we definitely wanted to give her a hug.

We just loved the relentless flirty relationship she had with the suave Gambit, and we absolutely rooted for them to get together. But, we do have to add that one of the main reasons we loved her so much was her wild, multi-colored hair.

Just like Helga, the aptly named Arnold Shortman will forever be our “Football Head.” His optimistic outlook and cool attitude left us all pining for him. Of course, as the series continued, we also got to see his depth.

He might be a bit naive when it comes to not seeing how mean and horrible some people can be, but when he sees injustice or is pushed too far, sweet Arnold also knows how to get mad and defend his friends and his values. How can you not love that?