Carnivore Confusion, or why the Little Mermaid didn't eat fish: click here
anthropomorphism
(people with tails, foxes with hands, cows that type)
Throughout history humans have told stories about the Animal People. Whether it's a Native American legend of how Raven caries the sun, moon and stars into the sky, or a European legend about a fisherman who falls in love with a selkie, or a Japanese legend of the Fox Women, or a modern cartoon starring Wil.E.Coyote, humans use the cast of characters around them in Nature to illustrate deeper ideas about the workings of the universe and the inner workings of the spirit. In the ancient tradition of oral storytelling, you often can't tell whether Coyote is a man who can shapeshift, a guy in a coyote skin hat, a coyote who sometimes acts like a man, or some combination of animal and anthropomorphic features (making something look sort of human). Today, you mostly find anthropomorphics in cartoons aimed at kids under 13. Mostly; there is anime, and plenty of "cartoon" studios like Pixar and Dreamworks do great storytelling that appeals to all ages.
Then, there were those TV shows I grew up with: Lassie, Fury, Flipper... all apparently normal animals, but when my dog didn't act like Lassie, or my horses like Fury, I was befuddled. I had no idea as a four year old that those animals were actually behaving in a very undoglike or horselike manner; they were anthropomorphic. The Madagascar fillms (love them!) are a good example of clever anthropomorphics; animals stylized in a CG cartoon style that works nicely, breaking us out of the mundane world just enough to believe "Zebras can't drive! Only humans and penguins can drive!" If they had been done realistically, the films would have sunk like that other zoo-animals-escape film that came out at the same time as the first Madagascar, and quickly sank into oblivion (the CG style was eerily too real, while the animals talked and were otherwise anthropomorphic). Narnia is another place where anthropomorphism runs wiild: there are Talking Animals, half-beasts (Centaurs and Satyrs and Fauns, oh my), and normal animals. That sets up its own set of rules, like, it's uncool to eat a Talking Deer, but one that only bugles is ok.
For those of you who want to learn more: a quick overview, and some links to more detailed discussions. TV Tropes covers more than TV, and is a wealth of fun, short articles on various storytelling tropes (recurring motifs, cliches, stuff authors do because everybody else does it too). The articles are generally professional in tone (as well as fun) but are not meant for small children (let's call it PG-13).
From Wiki: Anthropomorphism or personification is any attribution of human characteristics (or characteristics assumed to belong only to humans) to other animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s. Examples include animals and plants and forces of nature such as winds, rain or the sun depicted as creatures with human motivations, and/or the abilities to reason and converse. The term derives from the combination of the Greek ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos), "human" and μορφή (morphē), "shape" or "form".
Here's TV Tropes' Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism
Then, there were those TV shows I grew up with: Lassie, Fury, Flipper... all apparently normal animals, but when my dog didn't act like Lassie, or my horses like Fury, I was befuddled. I had no idea as a four year old that those animals were actually behaving in a very undoglike or horselike manner; they were anthropomorphic. The Madagascar fillms (love them!) are a good example of clever anthropomorphics; animals stylized in a CG cartoon style that works nicely, breaking us out of the mundane world just enough to believe "Zebras can't drive! Only humans and penguins can drive!" If they had been done realistically, the films would have sunk like that other zoo-animals-escape film that came out at the same time as the first Madagascar, and quickly sank into oblivion (the CG style was eerily too real, while the animals talked and were otherwise anthropomorphic). Narnia is another place where anthropomorphism runs wiild: there are Talking Animals, half-beasts (Centaurs and Satyrs and Fauns, oh my), and normal animals. That sets up its own set of rules, like, it's uncool to eat a Talking Deer, but one that only bugles is ok.
For those of you who want to learn more: a quick overview, and some links to more detailed discussions. TV Tropes covers more than TV, and is a wealth of fun, short articles on various storytelling tropes (recurring motifs, cliches, stuff authors do because everybody else does it too). The articles are generally professional in tone (as well as fun) but are not meant for small children (let's call it PG-13).
From Wiki: Anthropomorphism or personification is any attribution of human characteristics (or characteristics assumed to belong only to humans) to other animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s. Examples include animals and plants and forces of nature such as winds, rain or the sun depicted as creatures with human motivations, and/or the abilities to reason and converse. The term derives from the combination of the Greek ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos), "human" and μορφή (morphē), "shape" or "form".
Here's TV Tropes' Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism
Petting Zoo People
"A Petting Zoo Person is a type of character who is so anthropomorphized that
they resemble an animal's head and tail placed on an otherwise human body frame." Anime is famous for this type of character. Many video games sport these as well, as does Furry Fandom. "The majority of the fandom consists of people who enjoy fiction and art centered around furry characters whether it be something as simple as text stories, art or comic books, or enjoying something as elaborate as... Kung Fu Panda film franchise by Dreamworks Animation. They may simply take part in what others create, or they may be creators themselves. |
Funny Animals
(like Mickey Mouse)
"They're animals who think, talk and act mostly like human beings. Unlike the Speech-Impaired Animal or Talking Animal (whose priorities and motivations
are still that of an animal despite their ability to speak), the Funny Animal has almost all the mannerisms of a human being." |
Beast-People (Fauns, Centaurs, and that guy from Beauty and the Beast)
"The beast man (or woman, this is a gender neutral trope) is a human who has several animalistic physical and behavioral traits. They will have claws (even on the toes), fangs, either heavy hair or actual fur, possibly horns
or even scales, and the eyes will usually be structurally different or yellow. Also, don't expect them to shave or wax, or have good oral hygiene." |
Animorphism (werewolves and ravens and turning Mom into a bear)
Shapeshifters inhabit some of the oldest legends in storytelling. They give the audience a window into another world, the viewpoint of the animal, of the natural world. Sometimes, as in Pixar's "Brave", a character is turned into an animal, and the other characters have a limited time to undo the spell before it becomes irreversible. In the Selkie legends, a shapeshifter is stuck in human form, and begins to wither and fade, until she gets her "sealskin/soulskin" back.
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Some other tropes:
Civilized Animals: think Peter Rabbit and the Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Mouse World: that hidden world behind the walls, a miniature of your mundane world, where mice are the heroes. This goes back to ancient fairy tales, mice are small, vulnerable (like the children the tales are being told to). Secret of NIMH, Despareaux, Ratatouille. Not Mickey. The Borrowers (the Secret Life of Arriety in Miyasaki's version) and tales with Tinkerbelle sized Faeries are other versions, as well as Lilliputians. The fun is seeing your own world from a smaller viewpoint, where even mundane things become giant obstacles.
Talking Animals: Just what it sounds like: normal aninmals who talk to the humans.Think; the characters in the Jungle Books (Kipling, not Disney, where they are more like Civilized Animals). Or Charlotte's Web. Or Babe.
Speech-impaired Animal: Scooby-Doo. Doesn't act really like a dog, but can't talk either.
Nearly Normal Animals: Lassie, Fury, Flipper. "What's that Lassie? Timmie's fallen down the well?" Obviously showing more initiative and human behavior than the animal would. Also cartoons like Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron, in which the artists studied real Spanish Mustangs, but added eyebrows and extreme vocalizations (horses, a prey item, are generally silent) to make non-horsemen in the audience understand the equine characters better.
There are lots more, but that's what google, and TV Tropes is for.
Civilized Animals: think Peter Rabbit and the Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Mouse World: that hidden world behind the walls, a miniature of your mundane world, where mice are the heroes. This goes back to ancient fairy tales, mice are small, vulnerable (like the children the tales are being told to). Secret of NIMH, Despareaux, Ratatouille. Not Mickey. The Borrowers (the Secret Life of Arriety in Miyasaki's version) and tales with Tinkerbelle sized Faeries are other versions, as well as Lilliputians. The fun is seeing your own world from a smaller viewpoint, where even mundane things become giant obstacles.
Talking Animals: Just what it sounds like: normal aninmals who talk to the humans.Think; the characters in the Jungle Books (Kipling, not Disney, where they are more like Civilized Animals). Or Charlotte's Web. Or Babe.
Speech-impaired Animal: Scooby-Doo. Doesn't act really like a dog, but can't talk either.
Nearly Normal Animals: Lassie, Fury, Flipper. "What's that Lassie? Timmie's fallen down the well?" Obviously showing more initiative and human behavior than the animal would. Also cartoons like Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron, in which the artists studied real Spanish Mustangs, but added eyebrows and extreme vocalizations (horses, a prey item, are generally silent) to make non-horsemen in the audience understand the equine characters better.
There are lots more, but that's what google, and TV Tropes is for.
