[AlanYx]

That's what it is for me. I also get the same feeling from certain common manga/anime drawing styles (e.g., "moe") with exaggerated eyes and exaggerated responses, despite moe apparently being seen to be cute by most people. (I get this feeling especially strongly from styles where no nose is drawn.)

[atlasunshrugged]

Moe from the Simpsons? I thought the running bit was that he was considered ugly?

[AlanYx]

No, "moe" in the Japanese sense. Typically, a petite face, large eyes dominated by enormous black pupils, etc.

The way it makes me feel is a little like the response evoked by the movie Coraline, which used dolls with big black button eyes and no noses to evoke a queasy kind of horror-lite response.

It doesn't have to be large features though, it can be exaggerated small ones too. For example, Art the Clown has a small black dot on the tip of his otherwise white nose. It's unsettling.