Sometimes I can remember a single look on the face of a cartoon character just as easily as that of a real actor.
Some of my favorites:
The look on every other Futurama character while Bender reads his sickly-sweet greeting card for Mom.
The look of horror on Stewie’s face when he realizes he was just nursing from Peter’s nipple.
The impound lot owner from Shelbeyville: after he eats the Springfield lemon, the look of watery-eyed triumph.
Milhouse’s teary-eyed expression as they tear down the candy factory (that mirrored that famous shot of the Frenchman during Germany’s invasion in WW2).
Others?
Nothing comes to mind for me, but Chuck Jones said one of his favourites was a look of fake innocence on Marc-Anthony the bulldog in Feed the Kitty, as he tries to hide his adopted kitten from the housewife. Jones said it took over fifty sketches to get it right.
As the plane is hurtling to the ground in the “gremlin” cartoon, Bugs turns every shade of the rainbow (and plaid!) and exhibits a variety of expressions, all to the accompaniment of the ubiquitous “Powerhouse” by Raymond Scott – the aforementioned piece of music being the reason I bought Don Byron’s CD Bug Music.
The garbage expressions (at least a good chunk of them) are an homage to the one that RealityChuck about Marc Antony when he thinks the cat went into the cookie batter. Still good, though, and a nice translation to 3D.
My favorite is a Daffy & Porky cartoon (can’t remember the name) where Porky is trying to have a quiet camping trip, and Daffy won’t leave him alone. Every time Porky threatens violence, Daffy points to a sign saying that ducks are out of season, fines for killing ducks, etc. (It’s not the “Duck Season” with Daffy, Bugs, & Elmer - this one is earlier.)
Anyway, at some point it becomes duck season unbeknownst to Daffy. He holds up sign after sign, but now they seem to *encourage *shooting a duck. Finally he turns his head quickly back to Porky as he slowly backs away. The look on his face is priceless - large, fearful eyes with a sheepish gulp look on his mouth.
One of my personal favorites is in “Bully for Bugs” when the bull realizes he can shoot bullets and a sly smile spreads across his face.
I can’t believe Pixar missed the obvious joke - they should have had Sully doing a Marc Anthony parody when he thought Boo was dead. It would have been great.
A few anime “face faults” come to mind—but mostly when it’s a fairly extreme facial distortion, and when it’s in a show that’s normally pretty straight.
I’m thinking of one from one of the last episodes of Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 —where Nene sees the problem with the Skyhook, and launches into a detailed bug-eyed, froglike expression of aghast surprise. (Complete, in the dub, with the actress screaming “Oh my GAWWWD!” in an impromptu Joisey accent.
Though what probably “made” that one the most was that the next shot was a wide view of the van she was riding in—showing her face in that exact same expression, albeit simplified with the smaller scale, frozen in fear. Perfect.
And, from U.S. animation, I’ve got a couple from The Simpsons:
*On the “Thelma and Louise”-style episode (“Marge on the Lam” I believe) with Marge and the single-mother neighbor Ruth. At one point, in a restaraunt, Ruth gives this perfect shudder of revulsion after Barney says something vile in a restaraunt. I don’t even remember the line, just the shudder.
*“Summer of 4’2"”
The smile that slowly spreads across Homer’s face after Bart draws the “dud” card while playing Mystery Date. It was just so genuinely…human.
My favourite is in A Close Shave; Shaun is being put in the Wash-O-Matic and Wallace says “Don’t worry; it’s perfectly safe - we’ve tested it on Gromit, haven’t we lad?” - Gromit momentarily looks into empty space, clearly recalling something unpleasant.
I also love at the end when Gromit lands on the conveyer belt with robo-Preston. Preston about to squash Gromit but Gromit looks meaningfully over Preston’s shoulder…to the sheep-mincing machine they are both moving towards. Gromit’s expression so clearly says “Ahem. There is something you might want to know…”
(I also like the look of determination on Shaun the sheep’s face as he pulls the rope so that Preston gets sucked into the wash-o-matic. It clearly takes every ounce of strength he has).
— :eek: — 
