Over the years, we’ve come to meet and love all sorts of cartoon characters. By showcasing all sorts of emotions, our favorite cartoon characters have made us feel sad, happy, energetic, and even afraid sometimes.
Among that cluster of emotional characters are the cute angry cartoon characters.
These cartoon characters aren’t warm or joyous. Instead, they’re full of rage. And from Looney Tunes to Regular Show to mainstream Hollywood animated movies, these angry cartoons bring that rage everywhere.
In theory, this should make them the least favorite cartoon characters, and yet it doesn’t. Watching these guys turn red is more entertaining than scary. That’s why it’s no surprise that fans love an animated nut-head.
Here are the 15 best angry cartoon characters that are entertaining to watch but should definitely go get therapy.
15 Famous Angry Cartoon Characters
15. The Grinch
- Show/Movie: The Grinch
- Voice Actor(s): Benedict Cumberbatch
Who better to start an angry cartoon characters list with than the mean and green Grinch? So his heart grew in size, and he switched over to the “joyous” side by the end of the movie. Big deal!
The man who tried to steal Christmas and nearly succeeded will always remain the poster boy of grumpy characters.
Dr. Seuss first introduced The Grinch in his book “How The Grinch Stole Christmas!” That was back in 1957.
Ever since, The Grinch has had a full-length feature film where Jim Carrey played The Grinch, multiple cartoon series, and most recently, an animated film in 2018 starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
14. Marvin the Martian
- Show/Movie: Looney Tunes (Duck Dodgers)
- Voice Actor(s): Mel Blanc/Damon Jones/Eric Bauza
Marvin’s catchphrase – “You’re making me very angry, very angry indeed” – is a big reason why he’s on this list. The other reason, of course, is that Marvin’s always angry.
Marvin is the ruler of Mars and commands the Martian Military. He only has two goals in life- 1) expand his rule to the entire Galaxy and 2) Destroy Earth so he can get a better view of Venus from Mars.
To fulfill these goals, Marvin has attempted Mass Murder, Kidnapping, and Mundicide. But, thanks to Bugs Bunny, he never succeeded.
Fun Fact: Marvin is the mascot of several NASA vehicles.
13. Eric Cartman
- Show/Movie: South Park
- Voice Actor(s): Trey Parker
Eric Theodore Cartman is one of the four main characters of South Park. One might think he’s just a kid, how angry could he be? A LOT! So much so that he often behaves as the antagonist of the show because of his manipulative behavior and sociopathic tendencies.
South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker based Eric Cartman on Archie Bunker from All in the Family.
In other words, Cartman is an evil, angry, foul-mouthed, and obese 9-year-old who resorts to racism and anti-semitism as a defense mechanism.
Looking at Cartman really makes me question Matt and Trey. No one in their right mind can create a character as offensive and ill-mannered as Cartman and then call him their favorite character.
12. Nicole Watterson
- Show/Movie: The Amazing World of Gumball
- Voice Actor(s): Teresa Gallagher
Doctor Nicole Watterson is the loving and protective mother of the Watterson Family. She cares deeply for every single member of her family, does all the chores around the house, and works long hours to provide for the family.
Nicole really is the backbone of her family, but she’s also the bone breaker of the family.
Along with being protective, Nicole is very strict with her children. And because she works around the clock she is almost always under stress. That stress is the reason for Nicole’s short temper.
It doesn’t take much to get Nicole angry, but it’s a good thing that she can project it to get things done. But sometimes, she can also transform into a man-eating red demon.
11. Bender Bending Rodriguez
- Show/Movie: Futurama
- Voice Actor(s): John DiMaggio
Meet the angriest robot the cartoon world has to offer.
Bender is an alcohol-drinking, cigar-smoking robot with humor as dark as a Black Hole. He is rude and vulgar and behaves like a complete sociopath, apart from when he’s around Fry and the turtles. Yes, Bender likes 1 human, and he likes turtles.
Whenever he says, “Kill All Humans,” he also says, “Except one.”
But, despite all his quirks, Bender has a softer side that occasionally surfaces. That’s why he saved Earth from a dangerous sun flame. And that’s why his crew respects him.
Fun Fact: Bender is a strong advocate of Robot Lives Matter!
10. Eustace Bagge
- Show/Movie: Courage The Cowardly Dog
- Voice Actor(s): Howard Hoffman/Lionel Wilson/Arthur Anderson/Jeff Bergman
Kicking off my top 10 angry cartoon characters is Eustace Bagge, one of the most hated cartoon characters from our childhood.
To be fair, our hatred is well-based. This cynical old man is a complete jerk to our hero, Courage, and his wife, Muriel, who happens to be one of the nicest cartoon characters.
How Muriel and Eustace ended up together will remain one of the biggest cartoon mysteries.
Despite his habitual grunting at Muriel, he does show his love for Muriel from time to time. But he doesn’t like Courage one bit. He berates Courage, scares him, and does everything he can to get rid of him- all out of jealousy because Muriel pampers Courage more than her husband.
But if Eustace was my husband, I’d also pay more attention to my pet.
9. Grumpy
- Show/Movie: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Voice Actor(s): Pinto Colvig/Corey Burton
Before Inside Out introduced us to Anger (who also features on the list), Grumpy was the animated personification of anger in the animation world.
Grumpy is a dwarf and an angry one at that. For most of the film, he has very discourteous and negative behavior toward Snow White. He’s also quite sexist and doesn’t like women at all. That’s part of the reason why he opposed Snow White staying at the dwarfs’ cottage.
Aside from world-weariness, Grumpy’s paranoia and fear of the Queen is what turned him so sour towards Snow White initially.
To be fair to him, he did warm up to Snow White in the end. But I think that’s only because he finally projected his anger at the deserving person- the Queen.
8. The Incredible Hulk
- Show/Movie: The Incredible Hulk Animated Series (1996)
- Voice Actor(s): Lou Ferrigno
Yes, Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk is “always angry,” and he gave a fantastic performance in every MCU movie. But, to this date, the animated Incredible Hulk from the classic 1996 series of the same name remains the angriest version of this green giant
We all know why Hulk is always so angry. He’s the polar opposite of Bruce Banner, who’s weak and a total wimp. But that’s too simple a reason for someone to be angry all the time.
The real reason behind Hulk’s rage is the fact that he’s not as smart as he’s supposed to be. Hulk is angry with himself and with others because Bruce Banner is smart and he has turned Hulk into a rage monster.
7. Plankton
- Show/Movie: Spongebob Squarepants
- Voice Actor(s): Doug Lawrence
There are plenty of angry cartoon characters in the Spongebob universe, and Sheldon James Plankton is one of the angriest.
Plankton is a Planktonic Copepod and the main antagonist of Spongebob Squarepants. He runs a restaurant in Bikini Bottom, Chum Bucket, where he serves terrible-tasting food. And thanks to Mr. Krabs Krabby Patties, no one eats at his restaurant.
So, Plankton and his wife Karen decided to steal the secret recipe for Krabby Patties. Plankton plots, Karen plots, but in the end, they never succeed. A yellow-colored sponge always thwarts their plans.
Despite never succeeding, Plankton never gives up. No one would if their restaurant was being driven out of business by competition.
6. Eva
- Show/Movie: Total Drama Island
- Voice Actor(s): Julia Chantrey
Let’s start a debate. When it comes to hot female angry cartoon characters, Eva is the hottest.
Eva is one of the angriest cartoon characters ever. The good thing about Eva is that she realizes and accepts that she gets overly aggressive at times. She auditioned for Total Drama thinking spending some time on a reality TV show will help suppress her anger.
But that didn’t go to plan as she gets eliminated early on.
Eva then decides to attend anger management therapy which did help but not enough to knock her off this list.
She’s tried to strangle people to make them agree with her and destroyed cabins to find her MP3 player- and that’s just in the first few episodes.
5. Squidward Quincy Tentacles
- Show/Movie: Spongebob Squarepants
- Voice Actor(s): Rodger Bumpass/Jason Maybaum
It’s no secret that Squidward has anger issues. Also, it’s no secret why he has anger issues. For those who don’t know, let me enlighten you.
Squidward Quincy Tentacles is an octopus who lives in Bikini Bottom. He is a neighbor and co-worker of Spongebob Squarepants. That means he not only has to work with Spongebob Squarepants all day long, but he also has to bear his idiocracies when he goes back home tired.
No matter how much you love Spongebob, if you had to spend most of your day around him, you’ll develop anger issues too.
I also believe that the reason Squidward is so bad at playing the clarinet is that he’s not interested in music, he just wants to drown out Spongebob and Patrick.
But that’s just my theory.
4. Donald Duck
- Show/Movie: The Wise Little Hen
- Voice Actor(s): Clarence Nash/Tony Anselmo
I wasn’t going to leave out Walt Disney’s problem child now, was I?
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a white, anthropomorphic duck who wears a sailor shirt and hat, but never bothers with trousers. He also has a very unique speech which makes it hard to tell what he’s saying half of the time.
But the thing that made him famous wasn’t his unique voice or his unconventional outfit. Donald Duck is most famous for his short temper and the explosive tantrums that follow.
Aside from anger, The Duck also showcases greed and arrogance. And the things that incite Donald’s anger are mostly the result of his own greedy and arrogant actions.
3. Benson
- Show/Movie: Regular Show
- Voice Actor(s): Sam Marin
The Regular Show proved the renaissance of Cartoon Network, and rightly so. From animation to writing to characters, it’s hard to find anything wrong with the Regular Show.
By incident or by design, the Regular Show also gave us one of the best angry cartoon characters of modern times.
Benson is a gumball machine and works as the Manager of The Park. As the Manager, he is responsible for everything that happens at The Park. And thanks to Mordecai and Rigby, very few good things happen.
With the pressure of managing the whole park and its employees, Gumball has developed a very short temper. At one point, Gumball’s temper overcame him completely, and he decided to kill himself and everyone working at the park. But in the end, he sufficed with shouting.
2. Yosemite Sam
- Show/Movie: Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies
- Voice Actor(s): Fred Tatasciore
Warner Bros. gave us one of the most famous angry cartoon characters, Yosemite Sam. This gunslinging cowboy proved the perfect antagonist to Bugs Bunny because Sam hates animals in general.
He often beats his horses, elephants, and any other animals who dare mock him.
But he has an exaggerated hatred for Bugs Bunny.
What makes him more dangerous than any of Bugs Bunny’s adversaries is that he isn’t afraid of getting violent. On top of that, he has a fiery temper that can go off at the slightest of triggers.
Of course, he still can’t defeat Bugs, but he puts up a better fight than Elmer.
1. Anger
- Show/Movie: Inside Out
- Voice Actor(s): Lewis Black
Disney’s Inside Out finally gave a face and a voice to anger.
Anger from Inside Out is easily the angriest cartoon character ever simply because he is the true personification of anger.
While other characters on this list only express anger as one of the many feelings, Anger here has no other feeling apart from anger. No, wait. He does feel happy when he lets out all of his built-up anger so it can be replaced with new anger.
Apart from that, he just wants to shout at the other emotions inside Riley’s head so they can do the right thing. But he believes that no one can do the right thing apart from himself, so he starts shouting at everyone.
It’s an endless cycle and a pretty entertaining one too!
Conclusion
To Sum up, angry cartoon characters have been a staple of our entertainment for years.
From Looney Tunes to mainstream Hollywood animated movies, these characters have made us feel a range of emotions, including fear, happiness, and even rage.
While we may not always root for them, we can’t deny their entertainment value.
From the mean and green Grinch to the ruler of Mars Marvin, to the personification of anger in Disney’s Inside Out, the 15 angry cartoon characters listed above have captured our attention and imagination.
And while a good therapist would do them a lot of good. But then, we’ll lose plenty of entertainment, won’t we?
Let’s hope these guys never find a good therapist and stay angry! 😀
