Non-Human Sidekick

Don't worry, he's not here to hog her spotlight.

"I'm sorry, the position of annoying talking animal has already been taken!"

— Donkey, Shrek 2

Odder than even an Odd Couple, one of these guys isn't human! They might be an ordinary animal who's just a bit smarter than average, some form of Talking Animal, a Robot Buddy, a space alien, or even stranger, a normally inanimate object gifted with sentience or even locomotion (and sometimes not even that). Particularly useful when it comes to going for help, stealing keys when the villain has you locked up, or throwing the OFF switch on the Conveyor Belt o' Doom once they leaves the room.

In webcomics it often takes the form of the Snarky Non-Human Sidekick. May be a Bond Creature. They often share A Boy and His X dynamic.

In a Mons Series, this takes the form of a Signature Mon.

This primarily applies if the sidekick is distinctly different from its buddy. Pinky from Pinky and the Brain is decidedly nonhuman, and the Brain's sidekick, but since the Brain is a mouse himself there's no real difference.

Compare and contrast with Amusing Alien and Token Non-Human.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Many years ago, Dr. Pepper did a series of commercials set "after the Cola Wars", with a human hero and his diminutive alien sidekick. In one of them, the duo walk into a bar, and the female bartender greats them with "Well, hello stranger.. and stranger yet!"

Anime & Manga

• Most, if not all Mons shows can be seen as an inversion of this, because, let's face it, it's the mons who do the dirty work and get the stuffing beaten out of them when things get hairy, leaving The Kid with the Remote Control as the sidekick.
  • Digimon, in particular, inverts the conventions of this trope, where the Mons are The Chosen Ones and the kids are actually less crucial to the in-universe situation.
    • Bokomon and Neemon from Digimon Frontier really carry this vibe, being unable to transform or fight while the kids themselves transform into Digimon. (Not only were they never shown to fight in the series, the card game, which is the source of attack names for many a character who didn't do any fighting in the shows, gives their attacks as "Book of Knowledge" and "Pretend Sleep," respectively. They also share "Escape Dash." Being good strictly for comic relief and occasional exposition is in their programming.
• Most Magical Girls have one or more of these, who often overlap with Weasel Mascot, Mentor Mascot, and/or Ridiculously Cute Critter:
  • Mepple and Mipple from Futari wa Pretty Cure, and for that matter, all the non-human characters in Pretty Cure. Cute floating critters who transform into the Transformation Trinket are a mainstay of the franchise.
  • The talking cats Luna and Artemis from Sailor Moon.
  • Keroberos (Kero-chan) and Yue in Cardcaptor Sakura. The Clow Cards themselves could also qualify, as each card is shown to be a sentient, living thing. Also, Spinel Sun and Ruby Moon.
  • Access Time and Finn Fish in Phantom Thief Jeanne. Later subverted with Finn's Face–Heel Turn.
  • The titular beings in Shugo Chara!.
  • Go, the robot-dog in Miracle Shojo Limit-chan.
  • Nubo and Cato in Hana no Ko Lunlun.
  • The trio of kappa in Persia, the Magic Fairy.
  • Mogu and Pigu, the stuffed dinosaurs in Fancy Lala.
  • Posi and Nega, the alien cats in Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel.
  • Topo, the fairy spirit/purple stuffed flying squirrel in Magical Emi, the Magic Star.
  • Stonston the pig and Araessa the chicken in Yume no Crayon Oukoku.
  • Konpoco, the raccoon-looking dog in Esper Mami.
  • Shiina from Vampire Princess Miyu. He's also a Ridiculously Cute Critter resembling a small pink rabbit... except when he shows the hideous, swollen eye he normally kept hidden behind one of his ears. Yeah, it's that kind of show.
  • Pokota, a stuffed lion brought to life, is Himeko's in Hime-chan's Ribbon and Erica has her sentient broomstick, Chappy.
• Almost every character in Hetalia: Axis Powers has one, with cats, dogs, fish, birds, whales, aliens, fairies and such.
• The Cat Returns: Muta and Baron. However later in the film, this trope gets subverted when Haru herself starts to turn into a cat.
• Patch (a dog), Bingo and Chuchu (mice), and Papy (a bird) in The Story of Cinderella. Misha the cat starts out as one for Cinderella's stepmother, though (in contrast to Lucifer in the Disney version) she eventually crosses over to Cinderella's side.
  • An earlier anime adaptation of Cinderella, the version in Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics, gives Cinderella two pigeons named Algernon and Gwendolyn.
• CLAMP: Rabbit-like creature Mokona in several works, most notably Magic Knight Rayearth, Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, and ×××HOLiC.
  • Mokona is Mokona! Mokona (the original one from MKR, anyway), is also apparently God.
• Lili the Fata (music fairy) in La Corda d'Oro.
• Ein from Cowboy Bebop. Different in that Ein is as intelligent as any normal human, yet otherwise a normal dog, and thus, he can't speak.
• Doraemon features Doraemon, a robot cat from the future, who often acts as a sidekick to the human Nobita.
• Fairy Tail: Happy, cat Charle, and Pantherlily are the sidekicks to Natsu, Wendy, and Gajeel respectively.
• Galaxy Fraulein Yuna: Elner. Debatably, also Yuna's three android doubles (who eventually can appear human).
• Inuyasha: To some degree, Shippo.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders has among the protagonists Iggy, a Boston Terrier who commands the sand-based Stand The Fool. The opposition has Pet Shop, a hawk who commands the ice-based Horus. The two even duke it out one on one eventually. The fourth storyline (Diamond Is Unbreakable) has Stray Cat, a sentient cat-turned-flower with the power to launch bubbles, and the sixth (Stone Ocean) has Foo Fighters, a mass of plankton inhabiting dead ex-criminal Etro's body.
• Jonathan the baby seal from Kaleido Star.
• Kir from King of Bandit Jing is a talking crow who also serve as Jing's Equippable Ally when needed.
• Hermes the talking motorcycle in Kino's Journey.
• Mylene's highly-emotive furball Guvava in Macross 7.
• All of the various devices and familiars in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. In particular:
  • Arf is a wolf-dog that supports Fate.
  • Everyone thinks Yuuno is one of these for Nanoha because they first met when he was in ferret form.
  • Friedrich, Caro's baby silver dragon.
• Chachamaru (a magic-powered gynoid) in Negima! Magister Negi Magi.
  • Also Chamo. And Chachamaru's "sister" Chachazero.
• Princess Nausicaa's "fox squirrel" Teto in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
• One Piece:
  • Most of Monkey D. Luffy's crew members are humans like him (or at least partially human, as in the case of the cyborg and the skeleton) but he does have two non-human members: Tony Tony Chopper, an anthropomorphic reindeer, and Jimbei, a Fishman.
  • Trafalgar Law's navigator and probably the crew member who's the closest to him is Bepo, a polar bear Mink.
  • Quite a few other, more minor crews are shown to have some non-human members as well, such as other Minks or Fishmen.
• Pokémon: The Series: As with most Mons series, it's the non-human characters who are the real focus and are involved in the majority of the action. However, there are some who are clearly associated with a particular human or humans in a manner fitting this trope:
  • Ash's Pikachu arguably fills the role best out of all the Pokémon characters in the show, since it has a highly developed relationship with Ash.
  • Meowth of the Team Rocket trio (though he's an equal member of the group more than a sidekick).
  • Others include Togepi for Misty (until it gets released later), Piplup for Dawn, Axew for Iris, and Pansage for Cilan.
• Ruu the monkey (to Nowa), Setra the sceptre (to Menace), and Kere-tan the snake (to Echidna) in Queen's Blade.
• Shy: Ebio, a shrimp-like creature that acts as Shy's advisor and Mission Control.
• Speed Racer: Chim-Chim, Spritle's chimpanzee pal.
• The Battle Spiders from the Spider Riders anime of course.
• Ryoko and her cat/rabbit thing Ryo-Ohki from Tenchi Muyo!.
• Simon has Boota, his loyal little pig-mole, in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
  • While Lordgenome has General Guame The Immovable; who first filled almost exactly the same role and later evolved (literally) into a more direct sidekick role.
• Lord/Lady Belbel in There, Beyond the Beyond is a rabbit-like creature who accompanies the heroes in his/her capacity as a magician.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • The first case of a character having Duel Spirits as companions was Raphael during the DOMA arc of the original anime; he could see the spirits of his Guardian monsters and even spoke to them. (Whether or not they spoke back is unknown.)
  • This became far more common in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Judai has Winged Kuriboh (later joined by the Neo Spacians), Manjyome has the Ojamas (in the manga, it's Light and Darkness Dragon), and Johan has the Crystal Beasts, Ruby Carbuncle especially.
  • While not as common in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, Luna/Ruka could see and talk to spirits, and had a few that could be considered sidekicks; Kuribbon was likely the most constant, with Ancient Fairy Dragon becoming a constant presence after her card was rescued from the Dark Signers.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, Yuma has Astral, but he's far more a "partner" than a "sidekick". Kaito has his Robot Buddy Orbital 7 helping him most of the time.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, Yusaku has Ai, an AI based off of him. However, he's not giving that much help for Yusaku during duel and tends to panic a lot except giving him Storm Access. Flame is also this to Takeru, but he's more to Snarky Non-Human Sidekick.

Comedy

• Comedian/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and basically any of his puppet partners (IE: Walter, Peanut, Bubba J, Achmed, etc.). Made all the more hilarious in that one of the puppets, Peanut, points out several times that well-
  Peanut: You're arguing with yourself....AND LOSING!
  • Jeff plays off this with Walter and Jose as well.

Comic Books

• In The Autumnlands: Tooth & Claw Dusty, an anthropomorphic dog, acts as an unofficial sidekick to the human hero.
• Birdman: Avenger, the improbably intelligent golden eagle.
• Groo the Wanderer: Groo's dog Rufferto
• Ampersand, Yorick's Capuchin monkey in Y: The Last Man.
• Redwing, partner to The Falcon.
• The hero Squirrel Girl also has had two animal sidekicks, squirrels Monkey Joe and Tippy Toe
• A super villain, the Red Ghost, was active alongside three superpowered apes.
• The second Major Mapleleaf gained his powers from his sidekick, a horse named Thunder.
• Tintin has his dog Milou/Snowy. This is usually his method of escape for almost everything.
• Jo, Zette and Jocko: Jocko, who is Jo and Zette's pet chimpanzee.
• Spirou & Fantasio
  • Spirou has a pet squirrel, Spip, with exactly the same role as Tintin's Milou.
  • And the Marsupilami in earlier books.
• Belgian comic Jommeke has his parrot Flip, Jommeke's best friend and human sidekick has a dog named Pekkie and the occasional sidekick twins the Miekes have a chimpanzee named Choco. This leaves plenty of animal sidekicks to still get stuff done when one of them happens to get captured.
• Superman:
  • Krypto is Superman's Kryptonian pet dog.
  • Supergirl's pets, Streaky the Super-Cat and Comet the Super-Horse who appeared in "The Super-Steed of Steel". And while later, they were joined by Beppo the Super-Monkey. Together, they formed the Legion of Super-Pets.
• Ace, the Bat-Hound, Batman's dog pet. He wore a mask because a birthmark on his face would have given him away as Bruce Wayne's dog.
• Streak, the Wonder Dog, Green Lantern Alan Scott's pet... who had human thoughts and eventually just about took over Green Lantern (1941), right before it was cancelled.
• The Inhumans: Lockjaw, a supersmart intelligent teleporting canine the size of a small car.
• X-Men:
  • Lockheed, Kitty Pryde's pet miniature dragon.
  • Maggot was accompanied by Eany and Meany, a pair of matter eating slugs...which were his mutated intestines.
• Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Gyro Gearloose's sentient-lightbulb "Helper".
• In ElfQuest the Wolfriders have their wolves, and the Chosen Eight from the Gliders of Blue Mountain have their giant hawks. The Preservers could also be considered non-elf sidekicks, however annoying. A borderline example in recent episodes is Dart of the Wolfriders, whose wolf Kimo is actually a shapeshifting elf, and also his boyfriend.
• Skink, Ethan's sidekick in Scion.
• Giselle's pet squit in Mystic.
• Carson the Muskrat from Dork Tower.
• Kevin from Sin City had an unnamed pet wolf.
• Often used in the Anthology Comic The Beano most well known with the pairing of Dennis the Menace and Gnasher. But is also used with other characters such as Calamity James and his pet Alexander Lemming.
• Chameleon Boy of the Legion of Super-Heroes had Proty (best described as a shape-shifting blob of Silly Putty).
• Spot (the eponymous 'Monster') in Stanley and His Monster.
• Old Lace, the pet deinonychus of Gertrude Yorkes of the Runaways.
• Two examples from Big Bang Comics:
  • Mr. US, the equivalent of Captain America, had a dog sidekick named Dogtag in his original incarnation. Dogtag was originally just a stray who wouldn't leave him alone — Mr. US made the name up on the spot when the dog followed him into a bad guy hideout. ("Uh, that's my sidekick... Dogtag!")
  • In the other instance, Hummingbird, a combination of Hawkman and The Atom, had Edgar the raven. Of some note is the fact that Edgar is larger than Hummingbird, who is permanently stuck at a maximum height of six inches.
• The MAX incarnation of the Foolkiller had Jester, a large Rottweiler mix who was vicious to enemies but a Big Friendly Dog to innocents.
• Big Trouble in Little China gives us Pete, the unearthly hell-beast (former) servant of Lo Pan which swears its loyalty to Jack Burton following its previous master's demise.
• Robin: Lagoon Boy introduces his new rather intelligent loyal animal companion, a giant fishlike crustacean thing with tentacles and several rows of serrated teeth. He calls him Spot.
• Golden Age Timely Comics character the Ferret was a private eye who had a pet ferret, called Nosie, as a sort of sidekick.
• Justice Society of America: Doctor Mid-Nite I, Charles McNider, was always accomanied during his heroics by his pet owl Hooty. His sucessor Dr. Mid-Nite II, Pieter Cross, also keeps a pet owl and while he generally does not have it accompany him into fights he does allow it to perch on his shoulder and flit about the lab as he's treating other superheroes. Cross's owl is named Charles, after the late Charles McNider.
• Wonder Woman Vol 1: For a couple of years Steve Trevor found himself accompanied by the little pop-culture loving mechanic alien known as "Glitch".

Eastern European Animation

• Masha and the Bear: Masha, a little human girl, and, well, the Bear.

Fan Works

• Inverted in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction Silent Knight. Spike and/or Twilight Sparkle are the heroes, and Chirp is the mute human sidekick.
• In King Explosion Murder The Shield Hero, Katsuki Bakugou’s group of sidekicks consists of Neia who is a water elf, Daven who is a cat demi-human, and Kirishima who is a dragon. Averted with Rino and Melty though, they are both normal humans with magic.

Films — Animation

• Disney Animated Canon:
  • Most (if not all) of the human heroes and heroines have a pantheon of these (besides a sub-array of generic Adorable Woodland Critters). The only aversion is Atlantis: The Lost Empire, which has no non-human sidekicks. Examples include:
    • Pinocchio's conscience Jiminy Cricket is considered by many to be not only the first Non Human Disney sidekick in a long line of many, but also the first wise cracking sidekick who used (what was at the time) modern humor and colloquialisms. To boot, he was also voiced by a radio star who many households at the time would've been able to distinguish: Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards. In this movie there's also Figaro and Cleo, nonhuman sidekicks to Gepetto.
    • Make Mine Music: Sasha the bird, Sonja the duck, and Ivan the cat to Peter.
    • The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad: Gunpowder the horse to Ichabod Crane, and Cyril Proudbottom the horse to J. Thaddeus Toad (while Mole, Water Rat and Angus MacBadger are bipedal, clothes-wearing Funny Animals just like Toad, Cyril is a quadrupedal, naked Talking Animal).
    • Cinderella: The mice, two of who perform the aforementioned key-stealing chore so well in that it's become the best-loved scene from that movie.
    • Alice in Wonderland: The March Hare to the Mad Hatter.
    • Sleeping Beauty: The three good fairies to Aurora. And Samson the horse to Prince Phillip.
    • The Sword in the Stone: Archimedes the Owl to Merlin.
    • The Jungle Book (1967): Baloo, Bagheera, and the vultures to Mowgli.
    • The Rescuers: Both Bernard and Bianca are considered sidekicks to the human children they helped in both films. Also the Albatross brothers, the Swamp folk, Evinrude the dragonfly, and Marahute the eagle.
    • The Black Cauldron: Gurgi.
    • The Little Mermaid: Sebastian the crab, Flounder the fish and Scuttle the seagull. Not to mention Max the dog, though he inexplicably can't speak like the aforementioned three can.
    • Beauty and the Beast: The enchanted castle appliances, led by a clock, a teapot and a candelabra. Subverted at the end, as they are all reverted to humans under a magic spell.
    • Aladdin: The Genie, Abu the monkey, and the Carpet to Aladdin. Iago the parrot joins them in the sequels after his Heel–Face Turn.
    • The Lion King (1994): Although there are no humans in the film, most of the cast are lions, and Timon and Pumbaa qualify as Simba's non-lion sidekicks.
    • Pocahontas has Meeko the raccoon, who has his own sidekick, a hummingbird.
    • The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Achilles (a horse) to Phoebus, Djali (a goat) to Esmeralda, and three gargoyles to Quasimodo.
    • Hercules: Phil and Pegasus.
    • Mulan: Mushu the guardian. Also, in non-speaking roles, a lucky cricket, a horse, a dog and a falcon.
    • The Emperor's New Groove: Defied; Kuzco angers Bucky the squirrel, who then wakes up the local jaguar pack, and later tells Punch-Clock Villain Kronk where to find him. Also inverted with Kuzco and Pacha themselves, az Pacha is the human sidekick to the human-turned-llama protagonist Kuzco.
    • Treasure Planet: Morph. Dr. Delbert Doppler and B.E.N. fit the bill as well.
    • Meet the Robinsons: The singing frogs, Carl the robot, and Tiny the Tyrannosaurus rex.
    • The Princess and the Frog: Louis and Ray from are sort of an odd example, considering the human protagonists are also in the form of frogs during the majority of the movie.
    • Tangled: Maximus the horse and Pascal the chameleon. Maximus was originally a Basset Hound but was changed to a horse while keeping his canine traits because it was funny.
    • Frozen: Olaf the talking snowman and Sven the reindeer (who is also Kristoff's adopted brother).
    • Big Hero 6: Baymax is a robot, while the rest of the eponymous team consists of humans.
    • Moana: HeiHei the chicken is Moana's cute (if dimwitted) animal sidekick, a point that gets lampshaded when Maui says Moana must be a princess because she has a sidekick. Moana actually seems to only tolerate him at best. Contrary to advertisements, Pua the piglet is not actually Moana's sidekick for most of the film. He stays on the island while Moana goes sailing, and thus is only present at the very start and at the very end.
  • There's also sidekicks of the villains. Examples include:
    • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: An unnamed raven to the Evil Queen.
    • Pinocchio: Gideon the cat to J. Worthington "Honest John" Foulfellow the fox and the Phantom Blot-esque minions to the Coachman.
    • Fantasia: Chernabog's demons.
    • Bambi: The bloodhounds to Man.
    • The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad: The weasels to Mr. Winkie. They reappear in Who Framed Roger Rabbit where they serve Judge Doom.
    • Cinderella: Lucifer the cat to the evil stepmother.
    • Lady and the Tramp The Siamese cats to the film's human villain.
    • Sleeping Beauty: Diablo the raven to Maleficent.
    • The Rescuers: Brutus and Nero to Madame Medusa from the first film, and Joanna the goanna to Percival McLeach from the second.
    • The Fox and the Hound: Chief to Amos Slade.
    • The Black Cauldron: Creeper, the Gwythaints, and the Cauldron Born to the Horned King.
    • The Great Mouse Detective: Fidget the bat to Professor Ratigan.
    • Oliver & Company: Roscoe and Desoto the dobermans to Sykes.
    • The Little Mermaid: Flotsam and Jetsam to Ursula.
    • Aladdin: Iago the parrot to Jafar.
    • Pocahontas: Percy the pug to Governor Ratcliffe.
    • Hercules: Pain and Panic, the Fates, the Hydra, the Titans, and the Cyclops to Hades.
    • Mulan: Hayabusa the falcon Shan Yu.
    • Lilo & Stitch: Agent Wendy Pleakley to Dr. Jumba Jookiba, and Captain Gantu to Doctor Jacques von Hamsterviel in the series.
    • The Princess and the Frog: The Friends from the Other Side to Doctor "The Shadow Man" Facilier.
    • Meet the Robinsons: DOR-15 to Michael "Bowler Hat Guy" Yagoobian.
    • Home on the Range: Junior the bison to Alameda Slim.
• Pixar:
  • Like Disney, Pixar heroes frequently have non-human sidekicks:
    • Toy Story 2: A bit of an odd case. Technically all of the protagonists are non-human, but in the Show Within a Show "Woody's Roundup", Bullseye the horse is this to Woody. He also serves as this to the other toy characters, since he's the only one who isn't anthropomorphized.
    • Ratatouille: Double subversion, in that not only is the non-human sidekick The Protagonist, but he has his own small human sidekick (or psychotic delusion - you decide). Truth be told, one might argue that Linguini is Remy's non-rodent sidekick because Remy is the brains of the pair.
    • WALL•E: M-O (a cleaner robot) and the cockroach to WALL•E, a trash-compacting robot.
    • Up: Dug and Kevin.
    • Coco: Miguel has Dante, while Imelda has Pepita.
  • The villains have them as well, naturally:
    • Toy Story: Scud the pit bull to Sid Phillips.
    • Up: Charles Muntz's dogs.
• Altivo the horse is this to the protagonists of The Road to El Dorado.
• Villains get these in many films— see Rasputin's bat Bartok in Anastasia.
• Tom and Jerry themselves in Tom and Jerry: The Movie. Also, The Fat Dog on a Skateboard for the villain.
• Perhaps the biggest abuse of this trope is the animated version of The King and I. Every single major character has a sidekick, and they're mostly animals. The animals have little role in the plot besides comic relief.
• Hayao Miyazaki:
  • The, already quoted above, "fox squirrel" Teto in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
  • Jiji the black cat in Kiki's Delivery Service.
  • In Spirited Away, Yubaba the witch is served by a bunch of lesser spirits, including three body-less heads and a human-headed bird. After Yubaba's son and bird servant get transfigured int a "mouse" and "humming bird", respectively, they become Chihiro's sidekicks.
  • Calcifer the fire spirit and Heen the dog from Howl's Moving Castle.
• In Shrek, the titular ogre has the talking Donkey as his sidekick. In the sequels he also gets Puss-in-Boots. Lampshaded by Donkey in Shrek 2.
  Donkey: I’m sorry, the position of annoying talking animal has already been filled.
• In Little Angels: The Brightest Christmas, Daniel is accompanied on his journey with his family's dog, Scout.
• Filmation‘s adaptation of Treasure Island has Hiccup the mouse who accompanies Billy Bones, he is named as such because he is addicted to liquor and hiccups after he gets drunk, after Bones’ death he goes with Jim.

Films — Live-Action

• Star Wars: Han Solo and Chewbacca. R2-D2 and C-3PO also work for the group as a whole.
• A Boy and His Dog features the titular boy and dog duo, which shares a telepathic bond.
• Beastmaster. Seeing as his best friends are a tiger, a hawk, two ferrets and so forth, Non Human Sidekick sums up the entire concept of the movies and the show.
• In Flora and Ulysses Ulysses, a superpowered squirrel, teams up with Flora, a ten-year-old girl obsessed with superheroes.
• Interstellar: The robots TARS and CASE to the human crew.
• Stanley Ipkiss's dog Milo in The Mask.
• Possibly subverted in Ladyhawke, a story of two cursed lovers, a man who is a wolf by night and a woman who is a hawk by day.
• Dog in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
• The monkey in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome - does help him out in two occasions
• Mr. Shoop's dog Wondermutt in the rather silly '80s Mark Harmon vehicle Summer School. Wondermutt also has (and loses), his own NHC, a severed Raggedy Andy doll head called Bob.
• Roger plays a natural sidekick to Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
• Nails the Spider in Cool World.
• Hey Man in Rock of Ages.
• Diaval the raven in Maleficent despite being transformed into a human man for a good potion of the film.
• Alien Nation pairs an alien cop with a human cop who is prejudiced against aliens.
• In the bizarre 1928 short comedy film There It Is, MacNeesha the Scotland Yard detective is accompanied by his investigative partner, MacGregor the fly. MacGregor lives in a matchbox and has his own little magnifying glass to look for clues.

Literature

• Keeley from Greystone Valley is a tiny dragon who can be quite handy thanks to her speed and occasional habit of sneezing fireballs.
• Several in The Baby-Sitters Club, although Mary Anne's cat Tigger is probably the most frequently showcased — partly because Mary Anne, unlike the others, is an only child.
• Phenomena: the main characters are elves(well Sha-ra is never specified but heavily implied to be one) and a winter bear but they all speak and act like a family. But Alk finds an ahmel and they become good friends and becomens his sidekick, and only Alk can speak to it. But sadly the ahmel is eaten alive early in the 2nd book... but they get new ones like wolves, eagles and a dragon as the story progresses.
• A number of these occur in the Tamora Pierce Tortall series.
  • Alanna and Faithful, a black cat who is possibly a God avatar.
  • Daine - justified in this case, as Daine is can speak to animals. Her two closest non-human partners are Cloud, her pony, and Kitten, a baby dragon. A partial list of her other companions includes the cat, badger, and platypus gods, cats, dragons, Stormwings, basilisks, a marmoset, wolves, hyenas, bats, various birds, a squirrel, a ferret, and a massive array of undead dinosaurs.
• In Four Seasons for Little People, the squirrel appears in almost of the illustrations with the human children, probably serving as a visual gag.
  • Kel makes it a point to always be kind to both animals and non-noble humans, something not always approved of in her time and has an array of animal friends unmatched by any character other than Daine; interestingly, there Kel has more recurring animal friends than Daine. She rescues a massive temperamental horse going for the slaughter, temporarily fosters a very hostile baby griffin at great personal risk, adopts a flock of sparrows, and has a dog who has accounted for a number of deaths in battle.
  • Aly takes this to the next level, as she marries a crow who could turn into a man, Nawat.
  • Bekah Cooper has a cat that is hinted to be the same cat that Alanna possesses - though Bekah lived a number of generations before Alanna.
• Conrad had Bortan, a mutated armoured dog for a pet (not really a sidekick as he's not there till the end of the book), in ...And Call Me Conrad
• In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, first Twoflower and then Rincewind are followed about by the trusty Luggage, one of the best animated objects ever.
  • Additionally, Death of the same series has the Death of Rats, a dark-robed rat skeleton that preforms the function of death for small rodents, and his horse Binky. Death technically isn't human, but he's pretty close.
  • It may be stretching the definition, but Tiffany Aching's loyal Nac Mac Feegles may also count.
  • Greebo in the witch novels certainly does (except when Humanity Ensues). There's also Errol the swamp dragon in Guards! Guards!, who briefly becomes the Watch mascot. And You, the kitten adopted by Granny Weatherwax toward the end of the series.
  • Keith in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents has the titular Maurice (a cat) and the educated rodents. Although Maurice would insist that the "stupid-looking kid" is his sidekick.
• In Steven Brust's Dragaera books, Vlad Taltos has a jhereg familiar Loiosh, who looks like a miniature wyvern and acts as a Servile Snarker.
• Land of Oz:
  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Toto, Dorothy's faithful dog, is her first traveling companion, and her most common one.
  • The Scarecrow, as an inanimate object brought to life. Cowardly Lion is also a legit example, being a sentient feline in the original. He is later joined by the Hungry Tiger, who openly longs to 'eat fat babies', but can't because he has a conscience.
  • The Patchwork Girl (a large stuffed doll), Jack Pumpkinhead (a mannequin), the Glass Cat and the Sawhorse, all of which become sentient via the magical — and later outlawed — Powder of Life. There's also mention of accidents with a phonograph and a bearskin rug. It seems that every mundane animal that makes the trip to Oz ends up talking, such as Billina the hen, Jim the horse, Eureka the kitten, and the Wizard's piglets.
• Tock (a literal watchdog) and the Humbug (an oversized beetle) in The Phantom Tollbooth.
• The Reynard Cycle: Prophet, Tiecelin's talking raven in Reynard the Fox. "Doom!"
• The Stark kids' direwolves in A Song of Ice and Fire
• Wolf, of The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness.
• Grimya the telepathic mutant wolf from Louise Cooper's Indigo series.
• The Chronicles of Prydain: Gurgi is an ally to Taran and the remainder heroes. He is not human, but what he is exactly is never really clear.
• Chronicles of the Kencyrath is full of these. The most common Shanir trait is being bound to animals, which means they're a Non Human Sidekick.
  • Jame is always accompanied by Jorin, an ounce (small hunting cat). Jorin, blind from birth, uses Jame's eyes to see, while Jame sometimes gets sensory impressions from Jorin's senses of smell and hearing. Jorin also warns Jame when he becomes aware of danger, though Jame sometimes ignores them to her detriment.
  • Shade and her adder, Addy
  • Gorbel and his silly-looking dog, Twizzle.
  • All the Falconeers: Tarn and Torvo, and later Turvie. Mouse and Mick and Mack.
  • Torisen and Yce, though she's... kind of human, and gets more so with age.
• Mogget and the Disreputable Dog in Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series.
• The Harry Potter series gives the Golden Trio each a pet. Then there is Fawkes the phoenix, who is definitely is this for Dumbledore. Voldemort also has this with his snake Nagini, although material outside the main series of books indicates she used to be a human who was cursed into becoming a snake, the books never state she's anything other than an animal. It's turns out she's something of a Bond Creature when it's revealed that she's a horcrux as well.
• The The Inkworld Trilogy has two martins.
• Jordan and Ixil from Timothy Zahn's The Icarus Hunt.
• Humanx Commonwealth: Pip and Flinx.
• Greyn from Secret Of Dragonhome fits this very well as a wolf. Given Melayne's power to speak to animals, he also acts as a mentor towards the end of the book.
• Horus and Jack from Matthew Reilly's Seven Ancient Wonders, Horus being a Perigrine Falcon.
• Kazairl in the Shadowleague books.
• Somewhat part of this trope, as the protagonist isn't really human, In Tale of the Body Thief, the vampire Lestat adopts a stray dog, not for food, keeps him as a pet.
• In Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance, pirate Jet Nebula has a faithful droid called Clunker as companion, who can't talk (or even beep R2-style) but can use a military sign language for communication.
• Curdle the milk carton in Un Lun Dun.
• Tobias and Ax in Animorphs. Technically speaking, neither one of them is human but Tobias used to be. He's soon stuck in Hawk form.
• The cat Bastet in several of the early Amelia Peabody novels, even though these are mysteries, not fantasies. She is amazingly, though not quite supernaturally, intelligent and loyal. When she eventually dies at an advanced age, other cats show up — sometimes her descendants, sometimes just adopted strays — to continue the tradition, though only her daughter comes close to her calibre. By the way, the stories mostly take place in Egypt and the cat Bastet is always referred to as "the cat Bastet," never just "Bastet," as if even the very unsuperstitious Emersons wanted to be careful that she not be mistaken for any other Bastet.
• In the Heralds of Valdemar series, the Companions (essentially avatars of the gods or souls of previous Heralds in horse form), Firecats (former Sons of the Sun reincarnated in cat form), and the Hawkbrother's bondbirds can function as sidekicks. Some Shin'a'in may consider their battlesteeds to be this.
• In Poul Anderson's "To Build A World", Oscar.
• Two cases pop up in Dinotopia. In the main books, there's Bix the Protoceratops, although she probably wouldn't take too kindly to being called a sidekick, and in the prequel First Flight, there's Fritz, a floating robot head who lost his body in a junkyard.
• Played with in Kafka's "Cares of a Family Man", in which a nameless narrator has a little wooden thing that follows him around and talks to him; the narrator isn't exactly fond of little Odradek, and in fact thinks he's a little creepy, especially since the creature has been around as long as he can remember without ever aging.
  • Also from Kafka, the unfinished "Blumfeld" tells the story of an elderly bank clerk that discovers that he is being stalked by a pair of magical bouncing balls of energy that he can't get rid of.
• Legacy of the Dragokin: Wispy is a cat who follows Benji and (unwillingly) assists in his schemes.
• In Half World, Melanie's sidekick is a talking stone rat named Jade Rat.
• Tobimar (human) and Poplock (intelligent toad) in The Balanced Sword. Though Poplock will probably claim that Tobimar is his sidekick.
• From The Dresden Files:
  • Harry Dresden has several. First, and most important for much of the series was Bob the Skull. At first glance, a sarcastic talking skull, but really a spirit of intellect. He sometimes provides a helping hand (so to speak), though his main purpose is to serve as a repository of information regarding aspects of magic and magical beings.
  • Harry's next sidekick is Mister the Cat, a large but otherwise normal housecat. He doesn't do much, but Harry sometimes lets Bob possess him for a short while to act as an extra set of eyes and ears.
  • Lastly, comes Mouse a Tibetan Mastiff and Fu dog. He's got some supernatural powers, has tremendous levels of strength and durability, is as smart as at least most people, and is capable of fully understanding human speech. Of course being a dog means he still can't speak or do things that require opposable thumbs.
• In the Jacob's Ladder Trilogy, Mallory has Gavin, a talking, snarking basilisk, who is in fact the point of view character in a lot of scenes involving Mallory.
• Stephen King's The Dark Tower series features Oy the billy-bumbler in 5 of the 7 books, beginning with the 3rd one, The Waste Lands. A billy-bumbler looks like a blend of dog, raccoon, and muskrat, with golden-ringed eyes and a long tail that rolls up. Oy is remarkably intelligent and can speak English to a limited extent (he understands it better than he speaks it). He is fiercely loyal and brave, and counts as a full member of the ka-tet band of gunslingers.
• Togetherly Long: Chiisai is an unidentified magical creature looking like a man-sized newt with porcupine quills, and she's Oukii's sidekick.

Live-Action TV

• Twiki from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
  • Also Dr. Theophilus, although given that he's a sentient AI charged with helping run the affairs of humanity one could argue an inversion in this case.
• The Bear from B.J. and the Bear
• Game of Thrones: The dragons to Daenerys.
• KITT from Knight Rider
  • Or is Michael KITT's sidekick, considering how often KITT gets Michael out of trouble?
• Austrian series Inspector Rex may be a unique example in that the dog is the main character.
• K-9 in Doctor Who
  • Also usually inverted with the Doctor and his companions: he's a nonhuman with generally human sidekicks.
  • The TARDIS as well.
• On Wonderfalls the main character, Jaye, often receives cryptic advice from many supposedly inanimate objects, including a wax lion, a puppet chamaeleon, a wind-up penguin, and a teddy bear in a barrel.
• Salem on Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
• Fraser's deaf half-wolf Diefenbaker in Due South
• Brisco's horse Comet in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
• Spock. Possibly a Trope Codifier.
• Muffit the robotic dog in the classic Battlestar Galactica.
• Far Scape: John Crichton and Ka D'Argo, stepping into the shoes of Han and Chewie for this space opera. Since Crichton is both the series lead and the Token Human, technically it's also this trope any time he pairs off with somebody, but by far his biggest bromance is with D'Argo.

Puppet Shows

• Chica on The Sunny Side Up Show.
• Banjo on The Lets Go Show.
• Snug on Sprout House.

Roleplay

• Chompy and PBB, Frozeen's sidekicks from Alpha Team: Mission Deep Freeze RPG.
• In Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, Hyeon accidentally runs over a squirrel while on the way home from the empowering event. Out of guilt, he adopts the squirrel's child, names him Kwang, and affectionately treats him like a pet/friend.
• Trouble, a tamed Mutant Lizard, was Rex's sidekick in the early days of Dino Attack RPG. Laxus the Martian could also be considered Andrew's sidekick.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons (specifically 3rd edition) gave several character classes some variety of animal companion as a built in feature. And any class might acquire one with proper feat selection. In 4th edition, only the Ranger class retained the option.
• The Companions in Heroine are not required to be non-human, but most of them are, anyway, because it's just more fun. The eponymous Heroine is usually the only Token Human in the group.

Theme Parks

• In the Clyde and Seamore shows at SeaWorld, Seamore is Clyde's sea lion sidekick.

Video Games

• Portal 2 has Robot Buddy Wheatley, who guides Chell through the facility and helps her stay under GLaDOS's radar. However, after Wheatley betrays you, you get GLaDOS instead (or rather, GLaDOS in a potato). She's not much of a sidekick (she can't move, can't help you with puzzles, and barely has the energy to think), but she does offer some useful insights and is a big help during the Final Boss.
• Clank, Ratchet's Robot Buddy from the Ratchet & Clank series. And also, Merc and Green in Deadlocked. Of course, Ratchet ain't human either.
• The nameless dog in Duck Hunt, who catches the ducks you shoot, not returning it to you (it probably ate it). When you can't shoot any ducks, he'll laugh at you, as if mocking your 'stupidity'. Nevertheless, it remains one of the earliest, and still most hated video game character ever. No wonder there's versions of the game where you can shoot the dog...
• Wang Koh-San's pelican, Heoh-Heoh from Art of Fighting 3.
• Safiya's familiar the winged golem Kaji from the Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion Mask of the Betrayer.
• In Mass Effect 2, Tali named her combat drone. In context, this is a holographic ball of light a little bigger than a basketball that is temporarily summoned by engineers to attack enemies.
  • It's also TWO Shout Outs to characters from BioWare's much ealier game Baldur's Gate II.
• Mieu in Tales of the Abyss is a cheagle (an intelligent, talking...rabbit-creature) that can do things for the party such as break stones and breathe fire.
• Hanpan in Wild ARMs.
• Dogmeat in the Fallout series. Later, ED-E and Rex. Also, (technically) Fawkes, RL-3, Lily, Raul, and Charon. And maybe Jericho, judging by his comment about "growing a fourth arm."
• In Age of Empires III, European explorers can get a dog to help them fight. Like the explorer himself, this dog cannot be permanently killed.
• Dragon Quest VIII has one of these in the form of Munchie. He solves puzzles on his own and can assist you in battle with the right items. Not bad for a mouse. He's actually the hero's grandfather in disguise but then again both him and the hero are dragons that have taken human form.
• Samurai Shodown introduced Mamaha (Nakoruru's falcon) and Poppy (Galford's dog). Later games added occasional others (Paku Paku, Cham Cham's monkey, for one). And then the last one let you play AS Poppy.
• The dog of Fable II. So much so it became a back of the box feature.
• Monster Hunter:
  • The Felynes, who for all intents and purposes are cats of human intelligence that can talk and stand on their hind legs. You can hire them as chefs, and from Freedom Unite onwards as companions in battle. Although they're very talkative in the form of text, in-game they just sound like cats. This makes it a little jarring when your companion gets attacked by something (especially if you happen to be a fancier of cats), even though they can just burrow underground to recover from injury, while you don't get that luxury. Thankfully, Felynes bailing to heal in this manner don't count against your faint tally.
  • Felynes are town support NPCs at best in Monster Hunter 3 (Tri), unlike the other games. Your ally this time around is instead a Shakalaka, a little humanoid that is never seen without a mask. This one answers to Cha-cha. For those of you who miss your Felynes, there's a False Felyne mask you can get for Cha-cha... if you don't mind a less-than-friendly fireworks display. 3 Ultimate adds Kayamba, another Shakalaka.
  • Monster Hunter: Rise adds Palamutes, Canine Companions who act both as partners in battle and as mounted steeds.
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has Marche with Montblanc, Ritz with Shara, Mewt with Babus, and possibly, Doned with Nono and Cid with Ezel.
• Your Creature in Black & White.
• In World of Warcraft, your characters can gain up to 150 different Non-Combat or Companion pets, most of which are miniature animals that follow your character around - cats, snakes, frogs and the like. Some are machines, tame miniature monsters, or meta-game characters such as a mini-Diablo. There are rewards for collecting as many as you can. As a reverse of the trope, one non-combat pet awarded for participation in a tournament is called the Argent Squire/Argent Gruntling - which is a human or orc (depending on your faction) who will carry a flag for you and, with an expensive upgrade, act as a store, bank or mailbox.
  • Also, the Hunter Class is basically built around this trope.
    • And Warlock.
• Beneath a Steel Sky: Foster and Joey, the talking, sentient robot.
• Dragon Age: Origins allows you to have a Mabari War Hound as one of your companions, whose default name is "Dog". A popular fan name is "Barkspawn", thanks to a certain webcomic.
  • Ascended to being semi-canonical in the Darkspawn Chronicles DLC - at the very least, that's what Alistair would name him, given the chance.
• You acquire several non-human companions in Paper Mario, including friendly versions of the normally hostile Goomba, Koopa, Bob-omb, Boo and Lakitu.
  • In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, you get an air spirit named Madam Flurrie who helps you when you fight the Three Shadow Sirens and get her necklace back, and a Shadow Siren named Vivian who had decided to go over the Moral Event Horizon and helps Mario when his identity was stolen by Doopliss. But she didn't know it was him before. When Mario squares off with Doppliss, she runs away for three turns, then does a Heel–Face Turn to help Mario.
  • Outside of Paper Mario, depending on the game one of two characters may act as a sidekick to the Bros. In the Mario & Luigi games, starting with the third, it's Starlow, a Star Sprite; and in other games it's Yoshi, a... Well, Yoshi.
• Archimedes in Suika plays this role for Ojou. That is, until he moves on to Chitose and sacrifices his life so she doesn't die during surgery.
• Persona:
  • Teddie in Persona 4 is an interesting version. He starts off as a teddy bear thing, but gains a human body when in the real world. Though he's not a sidekick per se, he has a high regard for the protagonist, whom he calls "Sensei", and his Social Link is the only non-group one that ranks up automatically.
  • Persona 5 has Morgana. Inside the Metaverse, he's a cartoony cat thing. In the real world, he takes the form of a regular cat. Unlike Teddie, Morgana is constantly at the protagonist's side, even at school.
• In Knights of the Old Republic 2, Bao-Dur is always accompanied by a small flying orb with built-in laser. You yourself have the option of three robotic sidekicks, plus several alien ones.
• In La Pucelle: Tactics, your entire party lineup aside from plot-essential humans consist of monsters you've recruited in the field.
• In Ghost Trick, it could be said that Missile is Sissel's sidekick. However, it turns out that Sissel is a cat, thus meaning that all this time Sissel has been Lynne's sidekick.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • In the first three games and the eighth, Donald Duck and Goofy are this to Sora, as they fight alongside him right from the moment they met. And several various world-based party members are also non human, including Jack Skellington, Beast, Ariel, Simba, TRON, Woody, Buzz, Sulley, Mike, Marshmallow, and Baymax.
    • Of course, Sora's not human in certain worlds either because of Fisher Kingdom status. This applies to Atlantica (merman), the Pride Lands (lion), Space Paranoids (computer program), Toy Box (action figure), and Monstropolis (werecat). Although in Space Paranoids and Toy Box, he does resemble a human.
  • As of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, King Mickey can be considered one to Riku
  • Throughout Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Sora and Riku can train Dream Eaters, who serve as this (particularly Meow Wow and Komory Bat, their respective starters). Both are sidekicks for Riku in Melody of Memories.
• Daxter from Jak and Daxter, who, ironically enough, started off as a human boy before being turned into an ottsel at the beginning of the first game. At the end of the third game, Veger is also turned into an ottsel, and becomes this to Kliever by force.
• Gloop the mimic slime from Master of the Monster Lair, who joins Owen early in his quest.
• The transforming genju from Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War.
• The main character in Escape from Thunder Island and its sequel, Rita James and the Race to Shangri La had a hyper-competent, one-eyed monkey named Marbles as a sidekick.
• In the later Mystery Trackers games every Mystery Trackers agent has a pet of some sort, usually with special powers. The main character's own pet is a small dog they freed from being chained to a lamp post in Mystery Trackers 3: Black Isle.
• Fidget from Dust: An Elysian Tail counts, as she's smaller and less anthropromorphized then the main character, Dust.
• In Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey, there's Jaq and Gus in Cinderella's world, and Abu in Jasmine's world, as well as the Pixie.
• Both Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army and Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon give the titular hero Gouto-douji, a feline companion who happens to be extremely well acquainted with the Devil Summoner profession's every aspect. It's stated he's actually the drifting spirit of the first Raidou Kuzunoha, who commited some unspecified sin and as a result is cursed to mentor every Raidou until their ultimate death. Gouto-douji is actually the name of the curse anchoring him in the world of the living.
• The Imp in Witches' Legacy used to be Lynn's dog until Elisabeth got her hands on him. Now he sits on the hint button and helps the player with other tasks that Carrie might not otherwise be able to achieve. He even gets his own A Day in the Limelight when he has to save Carrie, Lynn and Edward in the bonus chapter of Hunter and the Hunted.
• In Holy Umbrella, the talking bird Bonto is the first character to join you on your adventure, though he doesn't do so when you first meet.
• When playing as Rosalina in Mario Kart Wii, a yellow Luma floats alongside you, and it typically giggles or gives an excited squeal whenever you do an aerial trick.
• Eagle Island features a young man (Quill) and one of his two owls (Koji) as the protagonists on a journey to save the other owl (Ichiro).
• The Girl and the Robot: Obviously, the protagonists are a girl and her robot friend, which she found while trying to escape the castle. Now the two work together to escape.

Web Animation

• The Cheat from Homestar Runner.
  • Technically, Strong Bad is non-human but The Cheat still counts.
• Kevin from Gorilla Girl.
• Dusty from Matt 'n' Dusty.
• Kumo from Acedemy Sugoi Seiun.
• DSBT InsaniT:
  • Evil Balloon towards Dave.
  • Sand Snake towards Lisa.
  • Chilly towards Autmn.
  • Perry towards Snake.
  • Crystal Dragon towards Cody.
  • Several other members of the cast get one in episode 7 as carnival prizes.

Webcomics

• George, the huge-eyed larval bit of monster kibble who can only emit the noise 'Meep,' is Evi's sidekick in A Moment of Peace. And eventually the much more bashful Hulking Shyster joins him in this role.
• While Krosp better fits into the Snarky Non-Human Sidekick trope, the Jager trio of Dimo, Maxim, and Oggie from Girl Genius fit into this trope, considering they're monstrous constructs who have an almost puppy-like devotion to Agatha to the point that they'll break into dangerous cities to aid her and/or look after anyone she considers an ally or friend.
  • And there are the dingbots.
• Molly the Peanut Butter Monster in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!. Or, for that matter, her pet, Snookums the Tentacle Bunny.
• Blackwing the raven, Vaarsuvius' familiar in The Order of the Stick. He only shows up, in V's own words, when Vaarsuvius acknowledges Blackwing's existence. Since V apologized for being such a terrible master and has been treating Blackwing with more respect, he could become a more straight example of this trope in the future.
• Conrad the vampire and the unnamed zombie from Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name. Conrad's more whiny and the zombie's more stoic, so neither of them are really Snarky Non Human Sidekicks.
  • Now there's also Toni the werewolf and Veser the half-selkie.
• Bob the Crab serves as the immoral foil to both the GM's workaholic personality, and Denise who is the voice of reason in the Las Vegas Tsunami of The Dugs.
• Boo and Sushi from SPRINGIETTE
• Hugo the rat from Capt'n Crazy.
• Wicked Awesome Adventure supplies each of the playable characters with one or more live teddyanimals that function as upgradeable sidekicks.
  • JET also carries around a real mouse.
• While the main characters of Goblins are not humans, but, well, goblins, Dies Horribly has a non-goblin sidekick: Klik. Maybe K'Seliss and Kin counts, too.
• Mia from Unintentionally Pretentious has Aibo, her robotic guide dog and guardian, making it also her Angry Guard Dog, but with a manual Berserk Button.
  • And occasionally as a household appliance.
• A Beginner's Guide to the End of the Universe has both Snuffy the pooch and Chairman Jack the giant sparrow, which the Everyman creates or uplifts to serve as his allies. He also upgrades them to cyborgs.
• The Black Brick Road of O.Z.'s Straw Shawn is a living scarecrow, and he's the first person to join Dorothy's party.
• In Penny Blackfeather, Princess the parrot is credited by the other characters with anything from being a pretty birdie to being the secret mastermind directing the plot. But, playing with this trope, she's actually an enchanted woman.
• Heroes of Thantopolis Xisea (a cat-spider ghost) and Trickster (an anthropomorphic bird) are Cyrus's best buds in the City of the Dead.
• In Yokoka's Quest, Yfa acts as the animal sidekick to Yokoka a lot of the time, though he's fully capable of acting independently of her too.

Web Original

• How to Hero has an entire entry on animal sidekicks and at various points the guide recommends using magic to grant different inanimate objects sentience for convenience (such a file cabinet if you need to escape your hideout with lots of files, or a giant magnet to follow you around and deflect bullets.)

Western Animation

• Bozzly from Abby Hatcher.
• Appa and Momo from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Appa's a giant flying six-legged bison, and Momo's a flying lemur. They're animal companions with just slightly higher than normal intelligence.
  • Naga the polar bear dog◊ and Pabu the Fire Ferret from Sequel Series The Legend of Korra.
  • In general, every Avatar has at least one animal companion, with whom they share an unbreaking bond. Aside from the aforementioned companions, Aang's predecessor as the Avatar, Roku, had a dragon named Fang.
  • In The Legend of Korra, Zuko gained a non-human sidekick in his dragon Druk.
• Snarf from ThunderCats (1985) and Thunder Cats 2011.
• Plank from Ed, Edd n Eddy.
• Rufus, Ron's genitalialess naked mole rat from Kim Possible. Funny enough, Ron seems to be supposed to be Kim's sidekick, so Rufus is technically a sidekick's sidekick.
  • And a living Deus ex Machina to boot.
• Slimer on The Real Ghostbusters.
• Hanna-Barbera loves this trope. You couldn't have a Hanna Barbera cartoon at one point in time without a wacky/annoying non-human sidekick. Mr. Cool (Fonz and the Happy Days Gang), Godzooky (Godzilla animated series), Doing (Mork & Mindy cartoon), Sgt. Squealy (Laverne & Shirley in the Army), Dribbles (Harlem Globetrotters) and so on and so forth.
• Faffy and, to a lesser extent, Twinkle the Marvel Horse in Dave the Barbarian.
• Radarr, the blue-monkey creature from Storm Hawks, plays the role of co-pilot and constant companion to Aerrow, the leader of the heroic Storm Hawks.
• Capt. HuggyFace in WordGirl.
• Every DTV Barbie movie seem to have one.
• Fetch, Loud Kiddington's dog on Histeria!!
• Jonny Quest. Bandit is the Quests' Team Pet dog. He gets Jonny into trouble as often as he gets him out of trouble.
• Custard in the 2002 Strawberry Shortcake series.
• Blip from Space Ghost.
• Brain from Inspector Gadget. Mad Cat had his moments as well; how often does the Evil Genius tell his pet cat to launch the missiles, anyway?
• In two of the Superfriends cartoon series from the 70's, there were non-human sidekicks belonging to the "junior" superheroes. First, there was Wonderdog, sidekick to Wendy and Marvin in the original cartoon series. Then there was Gleek the monkey, sidekick to Zan and Jayna, the wonder twins.
• During The Fairly Oddparents Wishology trilogy, Mark is actually declared Timmy's sidekick.
• The Secret Saturdays - Zak has three - Komodo the komodo dragon, Fisk the gorilla-cat, and Zon the pteradactyl.
• Liz from the Magic School Bus.
• Zeek to Fishtronaut.
• Jake the dog from Adventure Time.
• The eponymous Scooby-Doo.
• Making Fiends. Vendetta's sidekick is a giant hamster named Grudge.
  • Also, one episode in the webseries, she had replaced grudge with another in-human sidekick, named Rubella.
• Invader Zim (who isn't human, but if the Doctor can be listed here, he can too) has his Robot Buddy GIR, and gains another - just before the series was cancelled - in Minimoose.
• All three of Seth MacFarlane's animated series (Family Guy, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show) feature a Non Human Sidekick, who is also a Snarky Non-Human Sidekick most of the time. Family Guy has Brian, Peter's talking dog and best friend. American Dad has both Roger the alien and Klaus a goldfish with the brain of a German spy. And in The Cleveland Show, Cleveland's best friend is a bear.
• Dynomutt, Dog Wonder: Blue Falcon had Dynomutt.
• Futurama: Fry has Bender; Zapp has Kif; Farnsworth has Zoidberg.
• South Park:
  • Mr. Garrison has Mr. Hat/Mr. Twig.
  • Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo.
  • Towelie.
  • Jennifer Lopez/Mitch Conner (Cartman's hand puppet in "Fat Butt & Pancake Head").
  • K-10, who, thanks to time distortions, later became KIT-9 and COCKA-3.
• Bronx in the animated series Gargoyles is an aversion to this trope according to Word of God, being unable to speak and rarely showing any emotion or intellectual understanding. Within the show, it is eventually revealed that Bronx behaves no differently than any muggle of his species. Fans generally agree, and don't like the suggestion of Bronx as a 'sidekick' in the sense of this trope.
• Spike is this for Twilight Sparkle in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Angel might count as this for Fluttershy as well, as he seems worlds more intelligent than most of the other animals.
• Peg has her feline pal Cat in their show Peg + Cat.
• Djali in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Burbank Animation), of course. Also, Clopin has a green parrot.
• Defenders of the Earth: Kisa (a panther) and Zuffy (a zuffoid) are the respective Non-Human Sidekicks of Jedda and Kshin.
• Boots the monkey from Dora the Explorer.
  • The spinoff Go, Diego, Go!, has Baby Jaguar.
• Steven Universe has Lion, Steven's...well, lion. Doubles as a Familiar.
• Shows up in Filmation's She-Ra: Princess of Power. In order, we have:
  • She-Ra had the winged unicorn Swiftwind, which by extension meant Adora had Spirit.
  • White witch Madame Razz had her sentient broom... Broom.
  • Bow had Kowl.
  • Hordak even had a sidekick of his own in the form of Imp.
  • Modulok tried to create his own. The first time failed thanks to his subject escaping, but the second resulted in his permanent sidekick, the robot Multi-Bot.
• Even if not Japanese, Magical Girl type heroes must have cute critters as sidekicks and guides. In Miraculous Ladybug, Ladybug and others like her have small critters called 'kwamis' that give them their powers by merging with the Transformation Trinket.
• The W.I.T.C.H. team's sidekick is a 'passling' called Blunk who has the natural ability to find portals.
• Beatrice the talking bird in Over the Garden Wall is this to Wirt and Greg.
• Tadpole was a goofy bear who joined human boy Spunky on serialized adventures in the long-forgotten 1958 cartoon (what else?) Spunky & Tadpole.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold: AQUAMAN has Fluke, a Playful Dolphin. Batman absolutely despises him, made worse by the fact Fluke follows him around like a puppy.
• Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: Bumpy the Ankylosaurus becomes this to Ben.
• A Thousand and One... Americas: Lon, the yellow dog owned by Chris. Despite not being able to talk, he's very intelligent and has an optimal understanding of all the things Chris and other humans say (to him or otherwise). The two make up for a charming owner-pet duo, and also face all sorts of dangers in Chris' dreams.

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