It's something you don't really notice, until you do. Switch to any television channel during peak cartoon hours and 9 times out of 10 the characters will only have four

fingers.

More specifically, they'll have 3 fingers and a thumb. Opposable thumbs give anthropomorphic creatures the ability to grasp things, which helps sell the idea of walking and talking drawings, especially

animals.

The other three fingers are almost inconsequential and more or less the same length, but where exactly are those missing digits? There are actually a few reasons why they are

missing in action, the first being out of convenience for the animators.

Depending on the network, an episode of a cartoon is typically between 11 and 22 minutes long. This translates to thousands of drawings, and tens of thousands of fingers and toes.

"One of the reasons why in animation everyone shortens it to three fingers and a thumb is simply economy of line," Disney animator Jeff Marsh told BBC. "When

you’re having to animate 24 drawings per second, dropping one finger makes a huge difference."

So it saves time, and it also saves money. Two less fingers per drawing means more drawings in a day, and less opportunities for mistakes because hands are hard.

And this isn't something that started with Disney shows or with longer running shows like "The Simpsons." In the early days, Walt Disney drew characters like Oswald The Lucky Rabbit

with four fingers, and continued that trend when he introduced the world to Mickey Mouse (aka Steamboat Willie) in 1928.

As YouTuber ChannelFrederator points out, Bray Studios was doing the same thing in the '20s, but it's unclear who started it.

Disney is often quoted as saying he gave Mickey four fingers because "five digits are too many for a mouse, it would look like a bunch of bananas." We can't

confirm that he ever said it, but it's hard to disagree with that opinion.

Which brings up another reason for the trend: animal anatomy. Jawed vertebrates are believed to have five digits on their hands and feet (pentadactyls) because of evolution, which is

also why dogs and other cursorial animals (having limbs adapted for running) don't. 

PS: mice actually do have five digits on their back feet and four on the front. Mickey's hind feet were drawn as black blocks or in shoes, so either way...no

bananas.

It's possible that newer cartoons were influenced by the greats and went with four-finger characters as an homage more so than a time/money-saving technique, since hand drawing each frame is

not that common anymore. 

Walt Disney is a major influence on just about every animator born in the last 80 years. In the past three decades, Matt Groening and his team on shows like

"The Simpsons" and "Futurama" have also risen to the ranks of animation royalty.

It's God.

But there are cultural reasons why some cartoons have to have all of their digits. In Japan for example, the number four is considered unlucky. The Japanese pronunciation of the

word for the number 4 is shi, which is also the word for death. 

Having four fingers in Japanese culture is also not ideal for images presented to children because of ties to the infamous Yakuza gang. Members of the gang perform ritual self

amputations (yubitsume) as punishment for mistakes that go against the Yakuza code. 

You can see how having Naruto or Goku drawn with missing pinkies could send the wrong message. Even giving villains less fingers could be dangerous territory.

In some cases, like with "Bob the Builder," fingers had to be added to characters before they could be shown to Japanese audiences. 

So it turns out some cartoon characters have four fingers on each hand for different reasons, but those missing digits don't make us love them any less. How many of

your favorites (not including the ones listed in this gallery) can you name?