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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Hey, I'm '''trying''' to pass the potatoes! My forelimbs are as useless as yours!"''
|'''A T. Rex''', ''[[The Far Side]]''}}
Also known as wingers. [[As You Know|You may have noticed]] that many non-primate animals [[Captain Obvious|have extremely un-humanlike limbs]]. They may have wings, they may have fins, they may have claws like a lobster or long grappling hooks like a sloth.
But because [[Most Writers Are Human|Most Animators Are Human]], they have a tendency to fall back on making the very different anatomy of animal
The [[Trope Namer
There is a variant of this trope in which thumbs appear on the front paws of many cats and dogs (and sometimes other animals) when grasping something or gesturing, but disappear when the front paws are just used for four-legged walking or otherwise in a default pose.
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This is usually the very first step in a character/series' [[Anthropomorphic Shift]]. It's just easier for animators to draw a character playing the drums or baking cookies using the body motions based off human references. It takes a hell of a lot of dedication to avert this trope, as it involves having to stop and really think about how the heck [[Bloom County|a penguin could possibly manipulate a tuba]].
See also [[Cartoony Eyes]], [[Toothy Bird]], [[Anatomy Anomaly]], and [[Invisible Anatomy]]. An extreme (and outright bizarre) variation is all those cartoon fish who are somehow able to [[Tailfin Walking|walk on their tailfins]]. There's also a more subtle variation where an animal will be given a few human-like features that their real-life equivalents tend to lack (think of all those [[Old Master|wise old]] [[Turtle Power|turtles]] [[Non
{{examples}}
'''Note:''' This is such a [[Universal Trope]] that, instead of listing every single cartoon animal in the world, we will instead list notable exceptions and subversions.
=== [[Advertising]] ===
* In a DQ ad, a "rock and roll falcon" gives the heavy metal/evil eye sign with both wings.▼
▲=== Exceptions, Subversions, Aversions, and Notable Examples: ===
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* Subverted with Tama the tiger in ''[[
** Which is kinda funny since even big cats can sheath their claws. Usually only doing big stretches do claws automatically pop out.
* Perhaps justified in ''[[One Piece]]'', in which Tony Tony Chopper, the Devil Fruit-enabled human-reindeer has obvious hooves, but never seems to have any trouble doing human tasks that would seem to require hands, even play [http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Hito_Hito_no_Mi#Trivia Rock Paper Scissors].
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* In ''[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'', the creations of [[The Island of Dr. Moreau|Dr. Moreau]] - who are twisted parodies of existing [[Funny Animal]] characters - are very anthropomorphic, but the plotline dwells heavily on how unnatural and physically painful it is for them to walk on their hind legs and imitate other human behaviors. Furthermore, the comic book was being faithful to the source, as this is a major point of contention in the original novel as well.
* ''[[
** When an election is held, Rose Red also addresses this when the votes are being submitted. If a non-human fable is unable to write their own name and turn in their own ballot they are to have one who can do so for them. The fable is then to verify that the ballot was filled in to their satisfaction.
* Big Eggo, an ostrich, the original cover star from ''[[The Beano]]'' used this trope to try and appear more human.
===
* The owls in ''[[Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of
▲* In a DQ ad, a "rock and roll falcon" gives the heavy metal/evil eye sign with both wings.
* ''[[
* The pigeons in ''[[
== Film ==▼
* Done with a variation in the ''[[
▲* The owls in ''[[Legend of the Guardians The Owls of ga Hoole]]'' use their feet rather than their wings to manipulate objects.
* Puss in Boots (and the other cats) in the three ''[[
▲* ''[[Kung Fu Panda (Animation)|Kung Fu Panda]]'' has mixed uses of this trope. Ducks and geese are able to use their feathers like fingers, but Crane (the, well, crane) has realistic wings and uses his feet and beak to move objects.
▲* The pigeons in ''[[Bolt (Disney)|Bolt]]'' surprisingly avert this. Even when gesturing, their wings still move like real wings, and they tend to investigate or manipulate objects with their beaks.
▲* Done with a variation in the ''[[Cars (Animation)|Cars]]'' movies. The characters don't have any appendages ''at all,'' yet they manage to write, paint, operate machinery, and hold things. This is usually done with a combination of prehensile antennae, prehensile windshield wipers, or clamps.
▲* Puss in Boots (and the other cats) in the three ''[[Shrek (Animation)|Shrek]]'' sequels and [[Puss in Boots (Animation)|in his own movie]] has normal cat paws, but with manual dexterity equal to that of a human.
▲* The Gabble sisters and their Uncle Waldo from ''[[The Aristocats (Disney)|The Aristocats]]''.
=== [[Literature]] ===
* Played with in the ''[[Spellsinger]]'' novels. While the series' intelligent birds have an unlikely degree of manual dexterity with their wings, weapons and tools with special
* In [[Timothy Zahn]]'s ''[[Hand of Thrawn]]'' duology, the President of the New Republic is a [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Calibop Calibop], an avian sentient species with a number of equine features. They also have wings and prehensile feathertips; the President is shown manipulating keys on a lectern and later signing the Imperial-New Republic peace treaty with Pellaeon. Granted, this is pretty much the trope played straight with the caveat that [[Bizarre Nonhuman Biology|Calibops are aliens.]]
* The Ythrians, a bird-like alien race from several [[Poul Anderson]] [[Technic History]] stories, look basically like huge birds of prey. They do not need to pick up anything with their wings however because their highly efficient respiratory system allows them to hover for long periods of time without getting tired, allowing them to use their feet to manipulate objects.
* [[Babar the Elephant]], of Jean de Brunhoff's stories, normally uses his trunk to manipulate things, much like an actual elephant would. However, Babar (and all the other elephants of Celesteville, for that matter) walk upright on two legs. This means that there are instances of them using their forelimbs like
** De Brunoff's later stories, as well as the TV and film tie-ins take this a step further. Quadrupeds living along side the elephants, such as Lord Rataxes and the other rhinoceroses have hands with fingers. Since Rataxes' troops are typically [[Card
=== [[Live
* The Tenga Warriors in ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' actually have clawed hands at the ends of their wings.
=== [[Newspaper Comics]] ===
* Gary Larson liked to subvert this in ''The [[Far Side]]'', even though he was just as likely to play it straight based upon the [[Rule of Funny]]. In one comic, two cows were staring at a ringing phone, unable to answer it due to lacking opposable thumbs.
** Another had several snakes wanting to let another snake in, but being not quite sure in how to work the doorknob. (Don't ask [[Fridge Logic|how the other snakes got inside in the first place...]])
=== [[Tabletop
* With thousands of cards representing the creatures of ''[[Magic:
* [[Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)|''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' Card Game]]:
*
=== [[Video
* A rather unusual subversion takes place in the videogame ''[[Godzilla]]: Unleashed''. Both [[Our Dragons Are Different|King Ghidorah]] and [[We Can Rebuild Him|Mecha-King Ghidorah]], who both just happen to be three-headed dragons, use two of their heads/mouths as arms/hands to pick things up. Likewise, [[Giant Flyer|Rodan]] just picks things up with his talons.
** Then again, this is in line with some of the films, in which Ghidora's heads are essentially hand puppets.
* The [[Everything
* Another very strange example is ''[[The Lion King]]'' level of ''[[
** And then on the subject of the actual movie, the trope is played around with. Rafiki being a monkey, he does have real hands. Zazu sometimes gestures with his wings, which sometimes become hand-like, but at least he doesn't pick anything up with them. The lions use their dewclaws as thumbs, sometimes using them as hands. This is most obvious with Scar, as seen when he's tormenting a mouse (he even raises his pinky!) and in his [[Villain Song]]. Timon the meerkat is a bit odd. Meerkats in real life have very long, black claws at the ends of their stubby beige paws, so the animators gave Timon perfectly humanoid hands with black fingers to represent these. He pretty much always walks upright; from the waist up he uses his hands like a human would, both grasping and gesturing often.
* Averted with [[Owl Be Damned|Lechuku and Nechkuku]] in ''[[Okami]]''. While their outfits do have kimono-style sleeves for the wings, they also have a set of more humanoid arms for holding their weapons, and one of their attacks involves them grabbing Amaterasu with their hindclaws like a normal owl.
* Alternately averted and played straight with [[Banjo
* [[Embarrassing First Name|Pecker]] in the ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' series might be a justified example, as he is a [[Mix and Match Critter]] known as a "monkaw," a monkey/macaw hybrid.
* Jet the Hawk, Storm the Albatross, and Wave the Swallow in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' have the same cartoon arms everyone else does in the series, with no obvious wings in sight. Meanwhile, Rouge the Bat has both arms ''and'' wings, presumably because combining them would look strange.
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' has a few cases of feathers as fingers and vice versa:
**
** Inverted with Lugia; by all appearances, instead of having feather fingers, it has finger feathers!
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the [[Harvey Birdman, Attorney
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* In ''The legend of Anne Bunny'' equine characters wear special [http://www.hirezfox.com/km/loab/loab650/d/20041101.html cybergloves] over their forehooves.
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'': Krosp, The King of Cats, has normal cat-like paws with short dewclaws, meaning he can't manipulate that many things that need opposable thumbs or hold that many things without using both paws well, like a normal cat.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* In ''Peep and the Big Wide World'', most of the major characters don't even have visible forelimbs. So they hold things in their beaks (like actual birds). Chirp does have visible wings but she uses them mostly to gesticulate.
* ''[[I Am Not an Animal]]'' is a British animation about a bunch of superintelligent animals who are released from a research facility. The nominally smartest of them, a horse, is mortified that he can't put on his pants by himself now he's outside the research facility. He uses magnets on his hooves to hold knives and forks, and the sparrow somehow attaches plastic fingers on sticks to his wings to allow him to type and play keyboard.
* Probably the strangest example would be ''[[My Little Pony Tales]]''. The Ponies are not normally anthropomorphic or human-like in the least; aside from the fact that they talk, they are quadrupedal equines with hooves. And yet, in this series, they live in a human-like 1980s suburbia, and can carry and use objects that have obviously been designed for
* In the current show ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
*
* Somewhat related is one of the major criticisms directed at ''[[Happy Feet]]''. The result of using motion capture footage of humans to animate penguins tap-dancing [[Uncanny Valley|ends up very strange, due to the wildly different anatomy]].
** There have been a few similar criticisms leveled at the aforementioned ''[[Guardians of
* Coco from ''[[
* Iago the parrot from ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' holds things in his beak and claws while flying, but uses his wings as hands when on the ground. In at least one episode he loses all his feathers and we can see his wings look like mittens, with ''opposable thumbs''.
** Granted, if you pay attention to the anatomy of the "hand" next time you eat chicken wings, it ''does'' look like a mitten... [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Budgerigar_baby02.jpg sort of]. But play with the Alula ("thumb") a bit and you'll note the range of motion is very restricted.
* The cows in ''[[Home
* In ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'', the fish characters avoid the [[Tailfin Walking]] subtrope for almost the entire movie. Then they start dancing on their tails during "Under the Sea" and it just looks odd. (And, of course, Scuttle is one of the [[Trope Namers]].)
* Dr. Zoidberg on ''[[Futurama]]'' is an lobster-like alien with claws for "hands". Generally he's about as clumsy as you'd expect, occasionally even snapping things he's trying to hold in two. He does manage to write without too much trouble, and in a couple instances actually ''holds a needle and sutures a wound''. That's probably just [[Rule of Funny]], or simply years of practice. (If you had pincers all your life, you'd pick up a few tricks over time.)
* Played straight in the [[The Film of the Book|film adaptation]] of ''The Trumpet Of The Swan''. We mention it here because the book had actually [[Averted Trope|averted]] this trope and had the swan play with his feet. This was a major plot point in the book, in fact. Louis at one point {{spoiler|asks his [[Lions and Tigers
* Averted in ''[[Arthur (
* On ''[[Fish Hooks]]'', the characters' fins actually change shape between semi-normal fins and hands.
* Unlike the above example, Sally the fish on ''[[
* Used in one of [[Robot Chicken]]'s shorts parodying the Muppet Show and the Muppet Babies. When the murderer (who happens to be Skooter dressed up as his homicidal sister, Skeeter, to seek bloody vengeance on the other muppets after they drowned her when they were baby muppets and kept it a secret throughout their lives) corners and is ready to kill the remaining muppets Kermit and Miss Piggy, Carmilla the chicken (Gonzo's love interest before he was killed off first) threatens him with a drawn bow and arrow, prompting the incredulous Skooter to call out on this trope: " You can't shoot me! Chickens don't even have fingers!" (is shot dead).
* Most of the cast of ''[[Birdz]]'' has mostly arm-like wings which they use just like normal arms despite also being capable of flight. Strangely, one episode has them bowling with their feet.
* [[Donald Duck]] and Daisy Duck not only have awfully handlike wing feathers, they develop ''Tail''
* Averted with Roadrunner from ''[[Looney Tunes]]''. He carries things with his feet instead of his wings.
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* Since we're on the subject of avian "hand" anatomy, this is a '''major''' point of contention among Paleoartists: Did Maniraptors have truly opposable thumbs or what? It's thought that some of them did, like Bambiraptor, but the others are a puzzle. And this is quite relevant to this trope, as most [[Furry Fandom|Anthro artists]] unquestionably assume that they did. Seriously, though, about the only thing anyone agrees upon is that [http://whenpigsfly-returns.blogspot.com/2009/03/theropod-handprints-their-implications.html the "kangaroo hands"] in ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' are all kinds of wrong. A good reference for this can be found [http://albertonykus.deviantart.com/#/d2ytnst here] (with super-cute illustrations).
* Inverted with Koalas. They have eight opposable thumbs (two on each paw).
▲=== Film ===
* Averted with the lions in ''[[The Lion King]]''. They keep their thumbs/dewclaws even when their paws are just used for walking.
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* A odd case in ''Melonpool'': Sam T. Dogg is a telegraphic dog with no thumbs for most of webcomic with funny jokes, but suddenly had thumbs at one point with lampshading about lack of such in past.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' sometimes did this, especially in the earliest cartoons. He would normally walk around on all fours, with very dog-like paws, but when a zany scheme was involved, he'd stand up on his hind legs with no difficulty, and thumbs would mysteriously appear on his front paws.
* ''Family Guy'''s Brian the Dog is perfectly canine in every respect (other than speech and bipedal movement), but he still has hands with
* Otis and the other cows from ''[[Barnyard]]'' and ''[[Back
* Rita from ''[[
** Same thing occurs with the other cats from ''[[
** But averted with the Warner Sibs in the few instances that they're standing on four legs. They not only retain their thumbs when they're on four legs, their hands still look like hands on the floor.
* Pooh and Tigger from ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'' have [[Powerpuff Girl Hands]] with thumbs that appear when they grasp something or gesture.
* Thumbs sometimes appear on the paws of [[Pluto the Pup]], [[Figaro]], and other "[[Nearly
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Funny Animal Anatomy]]
[[Category:Avian Tropes]]
[[Category:Fine Feathered Tropes]]
[[Category:Animal Anthropomorphism Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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