Why Pixar-esque cartoon faces are taking over your social media feeds

• A new cartoon video effect is cropping up all over social media, from TikTok to Twitter to Snapchat.
• The effect originated on Snapchat, where it's a "lens" known as "Cartoon 3D Style."
• People are using the lens on themselves as well as popular movie scenes.

A cartoon effect that turns you and your friends into Disney and Pixar-esque characters is taking off on social media, with people posting videos showing themselves acting like princesses or reinventing movie sequences in an animated style.

While popular on TikTok and other platforms, the effect is actually native to Snapchat, where it's a "lens" - the platform's name for effects - known as "Cartoon 3D style."

But like other photo-based apps, Snapchat lets users download videos and reupload them elsewhere, making these videos spread far beyond their original context on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram.

According to Snapchat, over 215 million users had used the new lens as of Monday, and it's been viewed on the app over 1.7 billion times. The new filter is not affiliated with Pixar, though social-media users have commented on its similarities to the studio's style.

How to use Snapchat's cartoon face filter

The filter transforms faces into either a long face or round face rendering of a cartoon person that's reminiscent of characters like Collette and Linguini from "Ratatouille." You're able to toggle between the two different face shapes with the filter, though it will at first assign your face the edition it most aligns with. Some people have posted to TikTok about the effect seemingly being unable to tell which face to assign them.

In order to access the filter, you open the camera on Snapchat, click the smile button towards the bottom of the screen, and search "Cartoon 3D Style."

Snapchat uses augmented reality (AR) technology to power the effect, according to TechCrunch.

The filter is going viral on social media

In addition to using it on themselves, people are also applying the filter to film and TV characters, drawing humor from watching characters spit profanity while looking like they could have been yanked straight out of a Pixar film.

As TechCrunch reported, this is far from the first time that a cartoon filter has gone viral on social media. In fact, it's not even the only cartoon filter circulating on social media right now. Another app called Voilà AI Artist also hosts a cartoon effect that allows you to edit photos, but not videos, while Snapchat's filter applies to both.

Snapchat has also released other cartoon-based lenses in the past. In August 2020, it released a "Cartoon Face" effect that people used to turn their pets into Disney-style animals.

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