Analysis / Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism

Animal Anthropomorphism Sliding Scale Analysis

History

Evolution of animal anthropomorphism in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries

Animal anthropomorphizing has evolved over time. In the 19th century and in earlier decades of the 20th century, animals were usually presented as less humanlike than they are now. This can be seen in the 1942 Disney movie, Bambi. Even though the animals can speak, they still move pretty realistically as animals, and what they think about/talk about is more focused on “animal” concerns and uses animal logic. Animals were also seen as less “gendered” creatures.

Bipedal, anthropomorphic animals in the 19th and early 20th century were usually of the Civilized Animal type. The most notable examples include many of Beatrix Potter's works and The Wind in the Willows. The Wind in the Willows may shift toward the Funny Animal trope with Mr. Toad and later parts of the story, but the Funny Animal trope really started to rise in the late 1920s with animated cartoons featuring animals. The Civilized Animal resurfaced in the 1940s, but this kind is more humanized than those in Beatrix Potter's works and can switch between Civilized Animal and Funny Animal depending on the cartoon and/or their mood. Both types of Civilized Animal and Funny Animal became less prominent by the 1970s.

Before the rise of the modern Furry Fandom, characters more human than they are animal were few and far between and Non-Mammal Mammaries tropes were less common. The most notable early examples of this are various female animals in some Tex Avery cartoons and most of the cats that Tom of Tom and Jerry swoon over.

In the last 30 years however, the anthropomorphized animated animals have grown in their roles to become much more human like, both in movement, speech, and thought. Compare the animals in Bambi (Nearly Normal Animal) to the animals in The Lion King (Nearly Normal Animal, Partially Civilized Animal) and the mice in Cinderella (Civilized Animal) to the mice in The Great Mouse Detective (Funny Animal).

When that happened (animals being animated, drawn, rendered, or written to be more humanlike) they also began to reflect more a lot of “human” socialization, like more intensified gender coding (through behavior, speech, as well as assigned roles). Non-Mammal Mammaries and Humanoid Female Animal tropes grew more common.

Funny Animal and Civilized Animal characters in the Golden Age cartoons

In the 1930s, the Funny Animals created (like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Porky Pig) were basically humans who happen to be drawn as animals for the most part. They live like humans, they act like humans, they own animals as pets. Goofy is fully dressed and even more humanlike. His anthropomorphism reached its zenith in the 1950s, when more animal like cartoon animals were created.

The cartoon stars who emerged in the 1940s and 1950s were often animals who actually lived and/or acted like animals. For example, Tom and Jerry acted like a cat and mouse, Bugs Bunny lives in a hole in the ground, eats carrots, and is menaced by hunters, and Chip 'n Dale live in a tree and crave nuts. These characters are, for the most part, naked, whereas Mickey, Porky, and Donald wear partial outfits. With a character like Bugs, his adversaries have to be human. When they're not, they have to be animal-like animals, like hunting dogs or Tasmanian Devils.

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Sliding Scale Of Animal Body Shape Anthropomorphism

Animal Body Shape Anthropomorphism

• Little Bit Beastly: They are characters who appear virtually human and have completely human skin, but feature the added characteristics of an animal's ears, tail, and sometimes claws, horns, Cute Little Fangs. The special abilities or instincts of that animal may also be present. Unlike "Borderline Little Bit Beastly" (below), this type has a completely human nose. There are two types of Little Bit Beastly, Kemonomimi and Gijinka. Kemonomimi look like (or basically are) humans, but have the added characteristics of an animal's ears and tail. Gijinka also look like humans that have the added characteristics of an animal's ears and tail, but they are regarded as actual creatures or animals in-story. Cat Girls are a good example of this type.
• Borderline Little Bit Beastly: This form is basically a Beast Man, but with a more or mostly (but not completely) human-like head. Or, alternatively, a Little Bit Beastly person with a furry skin and/or an animal nose or muzzle. They are often treated more like a Beast Man than like Little Bit Beastly. The cast of Cucumber Quest is a good example.
• Beast Man:A human (male or female) with animalistic physical and often behavioral traits. They resemble an animal's head and tail (where applicable) placed on an animal accented human body frame. They have either a completely animal-shaped head, a largely animal-shaped head, or a half human/half animal-shaped head. They have the muzzle, beak, or bill of their respective species. They can have feet that are either plantigrade or digitigrade (or unguligrade if a hoofed animal) and usually keep the shape of that of their respective species. Females will usually possess human-like breasts. A more anthropomorphic variant can have a mostly or nearly human-shaped head with the animal's ears, and muzzle, beak, or bill, animal-accented human hands, and have human-proportioned, plantigrade feet that are either human-shaped or shaped like that of their species. A female will often have humanlike, styleable hair (or feathers if a bird) on her head, though males with similarly humanlike hair (or feathers if a bird) is also common. Humanlike, styleable head hair (or head feathers if a bird) is not exclusive to this type and can sometimes be found further down the scale. This is also known as the jyūjin, which is regarded as a zoomorphic human. The kemono looks as humanoid, but is regarded as an animal, whether contextually human or not. Cheetara from Thunder Cats is the former, or a Beast Woman, whereas Minerva Mink from ‘’Animaniacs’’ is the latter.
• Borderline Beast Man: Their bodies look partly humanoid and partly like their species, often they have either humanoid legs and non-humanoid torso, a humanoid torso and non-humanoid legs, or look semi-humanoid all over. Like Funny Animal / Civilized Animal Animals, they walk on two legs for at least a good part of the time. Also like that type, naturally quadrupedal animals can walk on two legs and on all fours equally well, especially if they are of the humanoid torso/non-humanoid legs type or the semi-humanoid all over type. They can have either digitigrade or plantigrade feet, and females will sometimes have human-like breasts. Humanlike, styleable head hair (or head feathers if a bird) is not uncommon to this type.
• Funny Animal / Civilized Animal Animals: Like the final type, they have a body resembling their respective species, except some portions have been altered. Whether they normally have paws, hooves, or tentacles, they're depicted in the work with human hands, fingers and all, although feet might remain digitigrade or plantigrade. They walk on two legs for at least a good part of the time. They are bipedal even if their species is not naturally so. Naturally quadrupedal animals can walk on two legs just as well as they can on all fours in this form. They can either stand with their legs straight (standard Funny Animal / Civilized Animal body type pose), sit up on their haunches (depending on the species in question), or stand with their knuckles on the ground (if a monkey or ape). Birds (almost always) have Feather Fingers, and their wings can look completely like wings or look like arms to varying degrees. They very seldom have human-like breasts. Funny Animals, Civilized Animals, and a few Nearly Normal Animals are of this body type.
• Animalistic Animals: Animals that practically mirror their Real Life versions. If they normally have paws they have paws, if they normally have hooves they have hooves, if they normally have tentacles they have tentacles - no fingered hands. If they walk on four legs, they walk on four legs. However, many of them are capable of performing feats that their Real Life physiology generally wouldn't allow, like grasping objects as if they have opposable thumbs or a prehensile tail and being able to make human-like arm and hand gestures, while others are not. Birds can have Feather Fingers, but their wings still look completely like wings and not a human hand. The majority of Speech Impaired Animals, Talking Animals, and Partially Civilized Animals, and most Nearly Normal Animals are of this body type.

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Peculiarities of the anthropomorphism of various animal species

Arthropod anthropomorphism

There is a much greater tendency to actually add facial and bodily features to insects and arachnids that simply aren't present on their real counterparts in order to anthropomorphize them even slightly. Other animals are much less commonly subject to this when they are anthropomorphized or otherwise drawn in a non-lifelike manner. Typically, those facial and bodily features are human or otherwise mammalian.

Anthropomorphism of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and other animals is straightforward; you give them human mannerisms, emotions, speech capabilities, and even body shape, but usually keep their basic head shape. But with insects and arachnids, you not only give them human mannerisms, emotions, speech capabilities, and body shape, you also give them human-like, mammal-like, and other otherwise vertebrate-like facial and bodily features even when they're supposed to be completely or mostly normal insects or arachnids in their world. When insects and arachnids are anthropomorphized even slightly, they are drawn with more mammalian traits and fewer traits that would show up on a real insect or arachnid.

Usually, this is to make insects and arachnids resemble humans to varying degrees to make them easier to sympathize with. The fact that they have other mammalian and other vertebrate-like facial and bodily traits, like vaguely dog-shaped noses, is a side effect of this.

Insect and arachnid protagonists are almost always heavily anthropomorphized to make them sympathetic. After all, bugs look bizarre from a human standpoint, so it's more-or-less impossible to like them when they're drawn realistically. Sometime they'll be left a few insectoid facial features, usually antennae or a decorative set of Monstrous Mandibles, but the majority of their face will look rather human.

Common features of anthropomorphic arachnids and insects

• Noses shaped either like human noses or like the generic jellybean shape that looks vaguely like a dog's nose. Real Life insects and arachnids don't even have noses to begin with.
• Vertebrate eye structure with sclerae, pupils, the ability to blink, and even irides.
• Often has four legs instead of the correct six if an insect.
• Often has six legs instead of the correct eight if an arachnid.
• Sometimes have Non-Mammal Mammaries.
• Having back legs or back and middle legs located on the abdomen instead of having all legs being located on the thorax like they are in Real Life insects.
• Have legs on the abdomen and a head instead of having all legs and head located on the cephalothorax and an abdomen like they are in Real Life arachnids.
• Hands and feet with fingers and toes respectively.
• Two eyes instead of the five eyes that Real Life insects have. This can be forgiven as three of those five eyes are far smaller than the other two.
• Two eyes instead of the eight eyes that Real Life spiders have.
• Have vertebrate mouths, jaws, and teeth instead of or in conjunction to their mandibles if an insect.
• Have vertebrate mouths, jaws, and teeth instead of or in conjunction to their chelicera if a arachnid.
• Sometimes have a facial "mask" marking
• Sometimes have a shortish, doglike muzzle
• Sometimes have a vaguely humanoid torso

A note about flea anthropomorphism

The toon world treats them as a phenomenon particular to canines when virtually every mammalian species on Earth has a variety of flea all its own. However, if a cartoon features dogs, you can count on a plot or subplot eventually centering on popular culture's favorite endoparasites.

Animators tend not to pay attention to what a flea actually looks like, often drawing them as nondescript cartoon "bugs" or even tiny human-like creatures. This is especially evident in Looney Tunes cartoons. Some exceptions to this include Droopy's Dixieland flea band, the fleas in CatDog, the fleas in the Moxy Pirate Cartoon Show, the fleas in the All Dogs Go to Heaven TV series, and P.T. Flea in A Bug's Life. They were still at least a little anthropomorphic, but they looked very reasonably flea-like.

Examples in fiction

Advertising

• The Honey Nut Cheerios Bee.
• The mascot of the Filipino restaurant Jollibee◊.
• The Nasonex Bee - played by Antonio Banderas.

Anime and Manga

• The animated adaption of Maya the Bee.

Film

• Similarly, the ants in Antz.
• The bees from Bee Movie
• The bugs in A Bug's Life are much more human-like than real insects, having hands (either mitts with thumbs like Heimleich or Four-Fingered Hands), four legs and Cartoony Eyes with irises. The grasshoppers have six legs and the houseflies have eyes like real houseflies, however.
• The insects in the Disney Fairies books and movies have Cartoony Eyes.
• In James and the Giant Peach, the giant insects inside the peach have noticeably human-like faces.
• Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio is an extreme example; he looks a little man with a nose and head like a rabbit.
• The fireflies, including Ray, and butterflies in The Princess and the Frog
• Averted with the cockroach from WALL•E, despite its propensity to behave like a dog.

Live Action TV

• Though not a straight example of this trope, Star Trek's Andorians fit this description, at least how they were originally conceived, as having both mammalian and insect-like traits.

Video Games

• Charmy Bee from Sonic the Hedgehog is a two-foot tall bee with only four limbs and a muzzle with a jellybean nose.
• Pokémon's bugs vary but usually just have somewhat more mammalian eyes than their real-life counterparts, often only four legs and optional bipedalism. Scyther, however, though nominally a praying mantis, obviously borrows several vital features from vertebrates: its head resembles a reptile, complete with the accompanying mouth, fangs and eyes, and while its forelegs end in curved blades based on those of a praying mantis, its hind legs are clawed. Additionally, though Flygon is arguably only partly based on an antlion, it has a cute mammal-like body, paws and a tail.
• In Bug and Bug Too, there are several insects with mammalian-looking characteristics. Two notable examples are Bug's girlfriend from the first game and several enemies from the sequel.

Tabletop Games

• Magic: The Gathering tends to be inconsistent in this, Depending on the Artist : artists with a clear wildlife illustration background will do well referenced work; others will just wing it.

Webcomics

• Dreamwalk Journal features literally mammalian insect and arachnid hybrids. The implication is that the entire population is the result of genetic engineering (pantropy) by their human ancestors.

Western Animation

• The French short series Miniscule features otherwise quite realistically drawn insect characters, but the small spider's two eyes have pupils. It also shivers when cold.
• Chuck Jones' A Cricket In Times Square averts the body design issues with Chester Cricket◊, though he has a cartoonishly-stylized face.
• Ken the weevil and Grubby from Dirt Girl World have faces that look awfully like human faces.
  • Mostly averted with the other insects in the show, though.
• The monarch butterfly who's considered a perfectly normal butterfly in the Handy Manny world has correct number of legs (that is, six), but it has Cartoony Vertebrate-Style Eyes.
• The insects in The Buzz on Maggie
• The Classic Disney Shorts are teeming with them.
  • Bucky Bug, from the Silly Symphony "Bugs In Love" and a series of comics set on his hometown of Bugville.
  • Wilbur the Grasshopper, from the Silly Symphony "The Grasshopper and the Ants" and the Goofy cartoon "Goofy and Wilbur". Also, the ants from the former short.
  • Donald Duck often had to deal with insects, including ants, a bee (which had a big red nose) and the Bootle Beetle.
  • The title character from the Silly Symphony "The Moth and the Flame", which was a Humanoid Female Animal, as well as the more cartoony male moths.
  • The Pluto the Pup cartoon "Springtime for Pluto" had a butterfly that looked more like a '40s Pin Up with wings.
• Zipper from Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, as well as any other insect characters the Rangers came across.
• The population of Santo Bugito.
• The moth and butterfly from the Animaniacs episode, "Wings Take Heart" are this. The moth has four legs, a light facial "mask" marking, and a red, doglike nose and the butterfly looks basically like a human with antennae and wings.
• The female Mantis in Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness has a mammalian bustline, lipstick and blush.
• Averted with the giant ant in the Futurama movie, The Beast With a Billion Backs.

Snake anthropomorphism

Real Life snakes do not blink, but cartoon snakes are nearly always shown blinking regardless of their level of anthropomorphism.

Since snakes don't have leg, arms, feet, or hands and Civilized/Funny animals are almost always bipedal, it is hard to anthropomorphize them beyond a Partially Civilized Animal, let alone to Funny Animal tier without actually adding said body parts. So, if you want to make a snake shrug, it would have to use its elongate body to do so. Also, if it's going to be able to grasp objects or gesture, it's tail would have to made prehensile.

Partially Civilized Animal, Civilized Animal, and Funny Animal snakes are frequently depicted as slithering on their bottom half, while their head and some of their upper body is constantly elevated. It's the closest to walking on two legs you can really pull off with a snake, so almost any anthropomorphized snake will move this way, while real snakes usually keep their head low to the ground while moving and put it up only briefly to analyze the surroundings or make a threat gesture.

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