Anthropomorphic Shift: Difference between revisions

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* While this didn't happen to individual [[Digimon]] in Digimon, it did happen with the design ethos of Digimon as a whole. In the initial birth of the franchise, humanoid Digimon were still given lots of unhuman traits to make sure the audience knew that they were still monsters. For instance, Angemon being [[The Faceless]] and possessing downy fur, and he was one of the most human ones. As the franchise progressed, new humanoid Digimon became more overtly humanoid and less monstrous: compare the fluffy and [[The Faceless]] enigmatic Angemon and Angewomon to Lucemon or Tinkermon (who are both essentially human children with wings and tattoos (and claws in the case of Tinkermon)), for example.

** Traditional anthropomorphic shift can still be seen in a handful of Digimon species. For example, comparing the scaly and reptilian Agumon from the original [[Virtual Pet]] to the round, glove-wearing Agumon from ''[[Digimon Savers]]''. Or comparing [[Expy]] subspecies, like the more dinosauroid Greymon to the more human-proportioned Geo Greymon.

** The comic later got a TV show from it (and a pretty good one too), but it instead goes straight into [[Furry Confusion]]... As it combines mostly anthropomorphic puppets with live animals. And there's no particular difference in intelligence either.

* In the UK's ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' comic book series, aptly titled ''[[Sonic the Comic]]'', Sonic's allies Porker Lewis and Jonny Lightfoot start off as cute little animal critters like those busted out of Badniks in the games. They talk, but they're small, animal proportioned, without clothes and tend to go on all fours. Their shift, however, is anything but gradual: in issue #21 of the series, they are totally bipedal, human-proportioned and fully clothed (in biker jackets and jeans, to be precise). Within a few more issues, Porker's hooves became ordinary human hands.

** Strangely inverted in [[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|the Archie comics]] with Drago Wolf; before, he was just as humanoid as the other prominent Mobian characters. In a later comic, though, he was redesigned to be more feral and [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolf-esque]], complete with more animalistic eyes and digitigrade feet instead of plantigrade like he normally had.

** Played straight in that issue with Lupe, who almost looked human.

* The Rock-Biter had this in ''[[The Neverending Story (film)|The Neverending Story]]''. In the first movie, he is a giant creature sitting in the mountains. In the third he is living with his family in a [[Sitcom]]-like household which even (somewhat undermining the series' message) has a TV.

* In the first ''[[The Lion King]]'' film, one of the few times when one of the lions used a paw like a hand was Scar in the gag scene when he used a skull as a puppet. Otherwise, paws were paws, and used the way most cats use their paws. In ''TLK2'', the paws suddenly became inexplicably dexterous hands which the cats used in a humanlike way—to pick things up and make gestures—complete with opposable thumbs.

** Inverted with Snot Rod (he appears on Andy's calendar) in ''[[Toy Story 3]]''.

** Doc Hudson actually first appeared as a non-anthropomorphic Hudson Hornet seen near the end of ''[[The Incredibles]]''.

** Back to ''[[Toy Story 3]]'', this was also played straight with Finn McMissile, who first appeared as a non-anthro car on one of Andy's posters.

* The Toad in ''[[Flushed Away]]'' apparantly went through this during his [[Start of Darkness]].

* Baby Po in ''[[Kung Fu Panda 2]]'' is a [[Nearly-Normal Animal]], unlike his adult form, which is a [[Funny Animal]].

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

** Odie has retained his inability to talk (or... "think-talk"), but otherwise does not resemble the slobbering pooch from the comic's early days. He's still [[The Ditz]], though.

* Snoopy from ''[[Peanuts]]'', after Charlie Brown taught him to walk upright in 1958.

*** One of the more important distinctions between Achewood and uh other webcomics is that Onstad clearly doesn't give a shit about [[Fan Wank|this stuff]]. Characters are [[Rule of Funny|as anthropomorphic as the gag or story arc demands]].

* Inverted in ''[[Digger]]''. In the beginning, the main character had a [[Non-Mammal Mammaries|slight bust]] to indicate that she was female. These were removed, and now she just looks like any other wombat to human eyes.

 

 

* [[Woody Woodpecker]] started off looking very avian like ([[Deranged Animation|and very deranged at that]]) but later switched to a more streamlined, [[Funny Animal]] like design.

* ''[[My Little Pony]] Tales'' is easily the strangest example. The original ''[[My Little Pony]]'' series took place in a fantasy universe (so the few instances of what would have [[Furry Confusion]] were [[Justified Trope|justified]] at least a little). The "Tales" series, on the other hand, had the Ponies ''acting'' exactly like humans, living in houses and involved in such exciting adventures as going to school and so forth. The thing is, the Ponies ''remained unclothed, quadrupedal equines''. Ask yourself [[Feather Fingers|how a creature with hooves]] is supposed to manipulate (or even invent, since there was no mention at all of humans) an electric guitar. ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' takes a step back in comparison to this, but not all the way back: fantasy setting with no humans, but largely "human" paraphernalia, hoof [[Feather Fingers]] avoided but only as far as it's not too inconvenient.

* ''[[The Raccoons]]'' originally had the animal heroes and humans co-exist in the same world and even though the animals had furniture in their homes, they still lived in trees etc and in general tried to give an illusion of living as a part of nature. In later seasons the humans completely disappeared, the amount of animal characters increased from a small group to a large community with stores and other services like broadcasting and rail transportation systems, the animals started to live in houses, the pet dog the humans had became the owner of a local pub and it became quite clear that the whole world was inhabited by animals who had a significant amount of technology and culture in their hands (paws).

** But the Raccoons still lived in a tree. And to add further confusion, when Ralph's brother's family moved into the forest, they lived in a tree which looked like a normal house on the inside. And had a ''garage''.

*** He was even portrayed as a [[Funny Animal]] in the black and white cartoon "Blue Rhythm."

*** Note that Pluto's Scooby-like talking was all in his first year on the screen (''The Moose Hunt'' and ''Mickey Steps Out'', both 1931). There's a later cartoon where he ''thinks'' in a growly voice (''Mickey's Kangaroo'' [1935]), but that doesn't count. It clearly took a little time to determine exactly what Pluto could normally do, but once set, it was permanent.

** The only time that Mickey and Minnie ever appeared as full-on rodents, right down to being smaller than their domestic surroundings, was in a cartoon that curiously came ''after'' having been anthropomorphic animals in a few other shorts (''Plane Crazy,'' ''Steamboat Willie,'' etc.). This cartoon is ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66AYGjkN4vE When the Cat's Away]'' (1929). For all the most obvious reasons, this interpretation was never seen again.

** Similarly, Walt Disney's original cartoon star, [[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]], was more rabbit-like in his earlier shorts. By 1928, however, the only thing that could distinguish him as a rabbit was his ears and tail. Until [[Walter Lantz]] obtained the rights to the character and gave him a design ''[[Subverted|more]]'' rabbit-like than his 1927 appearance ([[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|which is most likely one of the reasons Oswald's popularity plummeted]].) [[Double Subverted|Until Disney bought him in 2006 and gave him back his 1928 look.]]

* Interesting example, [[Betty Boop]] was originally a poodle. Seriously. Soon after her first cartoon, her ears were remade into earrings and curly fur became flapper girl hair. So by extension, people who regard Betty [[Perverse Sexual Lust|sex symbol]] are in fact [[Furry Fandom|furries]].

* Brian in ''[[Family Guy]]'' follows the [[Rule of Funny]]; while usually unclothed except for his dog collar, he normally is a martini-drinking, Prius-driving (the only identifiable car in the series), bipedal urban sophisticate. When he exhibits canine behavior, it's played for laughs. He did, however, sit like a dog and generally acted more canine in the earliest episodes.

* Tom of ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' undergoes this. He looked like a real cat in the first short, but over time the change was striking. He [[Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better|began to walk upright more and more often]]. Other characters underwent a similar transformation, though Jerry himself changed very little over the course of the series, having always been [[Funny Animal|somewhat anthropomorphic]].

** [[Tom and Jerry]] both show an increased manual dexterity and interest in human activities over the years.