I was scrolling through my newsfeed the other day and there was a post about childhood cartoon ‘crushes’. While many that made the comments section were Disney princes, I realised that even then, I had rather… unconventional tastes; which I thought of sharing here.

4) Aladdin 

Most of my fellow tweens back then were all over princes like Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty and Eric from The Little Mermaid.

I, on the other hand, fan-girled over Aladdin. The messy long hair, thick eyebrows, big eyes, cheeky grin. I was attracted to Aladdin’s carefree attitude, genuine persona and kindness (when he gives bread to orphans) even though he’s just a ‘street rat’. The bad boy appearance but a softie at heart always gets me. Also, he felt more real because unlike the other Disney princes, Aladdin wasn’t born a prince. He comes across as someone who is smart, resourceful and appreciative of things because he wasn’t born with a silver spoon and has had a hard life.

3) Hans from The Nutcracker Prince 

The only ‘good’ boy on the list, Hans from the classic 1990 cartoon The Nutcracker Prince has one of the best voices I’ve ever heard (it’s Kiefer Sutherland, people). As the protagonist Clara shrinks to a small size and enters the land of the dolls, Hans brings her around his kingdom, fights off a big, mean rat and protects our heroine from all sorts of dangers. Now who wouldn’t want a prince charming like that?

2) Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) 

By day a trickster who gets himself into all sorts of trouble at the X-men academy, by night a superhero with teleporting powers. Kurt Wagner or Nightcrawler from X-Men: Evolution was the guy I would have crushed on for real in high school, the goofy class clown that’s always getting detention for pranking the teachers. I’ve never been one for jocks or athletes; guys that got along with me (and that I crushed on) were usually types like Kurt. Also his ‘German’ accent in the cartoon is way cute.

And last but not least….

1 ) Eduardo Rivera 

Eduardo; the sarcastic, pessimistic slacker from Extreme Ghostbusters. His penchant for cutting comebacks, witty one liners and jokes (and that goatee!) made him extremely hot to my prepubescent self. Also his love hate relationship with Kylie; he cares for her but despite all his brashness, is not really open about his feelings. He is also loyal to his friends, despite his constant bickering with teammate Garett.

**Extreme Ghostbusters was one of the most underrated series in my opinion, and it was good. It catered to a teenage/more mature audience since the stories and ghosts were genuinely scary for an 11-year-old.

And there you have it – four of my childhood cartoon crushes! I can say that this taste in ‘men’ can actually be seen even until today – I tend to like bad boy-looking guys who are softies at heart, who can make me laugh rather than Prince Charming types. Did you also notice that most of them had long hair? Lol.

Who are some of your childhood crushes? Comment below! 😀