Girl Week: Underrated Animated Female Characters

 

It's that time of year again over at Dell on Movies - Girl Week! All week long, ladies have the focus. I always love making lists, as I've done a few times for this blogathon in the past, but this time I wanted to show some love for the animated girls. Here are a few underrated female characters from animated movies. 

Saoirse from Song of the Sea - I adore this movie and while Saoirse is silent for 98% of her time on screen, I really just enjoyed her presence She's a Selkie, so she can turn into a seal. While the film is mostly from her brother's point of view, we never lose sight of Saoirse's place in all of this. And her Selkie scenes are visually stunning.

Penny from The Rescuers - I feel like everyone prefers Rescuers: Down Under but I always had a soft spot for the original. Penny has it so rough and I think as a mostly sad child I felt like I could relate to her a lot. Even though she's in such an awful situation, she still finds the bright side of things and cares deeply about the animal friends she makes. You go, Penny.

Suzy from The Rugrats - In these past few years, Suzy has started to get the appreciation she deserved as the logical and sassy child in the Rugrats gang, but it took way too long for everyone to acknowledge how awesome she is. She was nice to the babies, she put Angelica in her place when need be, and she represented black girls on a cartoon with mostly white characters. I realize even more now how important that was, and how there should be more of it. 

Raven from Teen Titans - Teen Titans itself isn't "underrated" anymore, it's just that the version from the early aughts is rarely talked about. The newer, kiddier version Teen Titans Go! is huge now and WB has a live action version that's about to start its third season. But 2000's Raven? Absolutely love her. Her stories were always very interesting and she was easily the most powerful of the Titans. 

Ginger from As Told By Ginger - This show came on right when I was starting to age out of cartoons, but I was also the same age as Ginger was in her show, so I watched a bit of it and honestly, it was great. I was always too embarrassed to admit to my friends that I'd occasionally tune into episodes. (Though I found out later they all did too) but I felt like this was such a mature thing for Nickelodeon to do at the time and they tackled a lot of the same things I was going through at the time. I think it was the first time I really looked at an animated show and felt that way. 

Astrid from How To Train Your Dragon - I can't talk about animation without bringing HTTYD into it. I loved Astrid's entire journey. She started off as this overly determined kid who was very standoffish but became more open to other points of view and eventually Hiccup's #1 supporter, and now she's Chieftess. Plus I always loved that her weapon of choice was a warhammer. 

Nani from Lilo and Stich - I was going to avoid using Disney all together but Lilo and Stitch is pretty popular in my house and as a parent watching, I can't help but appreciate Nani, Lilo's older sister so much. While I don't believe her exact age is stated she's clearly in her early 20's at best and is working hard raising her little sister and has probably been doing so since she was a teenager. Obviously it takes a huge toll on her and she's forced to deal with CPS (AND aliens) It's just a lot for a young person to do and I have nothing but respect for her. 

Tell me who some of your favorite animated girls are.