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Non-Human Sidekick: Difference between revisions
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* Rufferto in ''[[Groo the Wanderer]]''
* Ampersand, Yorick's Capuchin monkey in ''[[Y: The Last Man]]''.
* Redwing, partner to [[Marvel Comics]] hero [[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 Snowy.
* ''[[Spirou and Fantasio|Spirou]]'' has a pet squirrel with excactly the same role as Tintins Snowy. And the [[Marsupilami]] in earlier books.
* Krypto, the Super-Dog, [[Superman]]'s [[Silver Age]] Kryptonian pet, who has apparently made a recent comeback. He was later joined by [[Supergirl]]'s pets, Streaky the Super-Cat, Beppo the Super-Monkey, and Comet the Super-Horse (also Kara sometimes-boyfriend in his centaur form). Together, they formed the Legion of Super-Pets.
** Don't forget Ace, the Bat-Hound.
* Lockjaw from the ''Inhumans'' group from [[Marvel Comics]]. Noteable for his status changing. He goes from being a supersmart intelligent teleporting canine the size of a small car to...a sentient being trapped in large-dog form. Which is horrifying considering how noble the Inhumans are supposed to be. Oddly, not only do the writers play with this fact as if they can't look him up in the reference books, so do ''the characters''.
* Lockheed, Kitty Pryde's pet miniature dragon, from the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]].
** The [[X-Men]] had a stranger version with the character Maggot, who was accompanied by Eany and Meany, a pair of [[Extreme Omnivore|matter eating slugs]]....which were his ''mutated intestines.''
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* Dog in ''[[Mad Max]] 2: The Road Warrior''
* The monkey in ''[[Mad Max 3]]: 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 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?]]''.
== Literature ==
* A number of these occur in the [[Tamora Pierce]] ''[[Tortall Universe|Tortall]]'' series.
** Alanna and Faithful, a black cat who is quite possibly a God avatar. Has [[Purple Eyes]].
** Daine - very justified in this case, as Daine is [[Speaks Fluent Animal|can speak]] [[Nature Hero|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 {{spoiler|massive array of undead dinosaurs.}} Note that Daine also spent a considerable amount of time [[Raised by Wolves|living with wolves]]. Usually she only has a few of these at a time.
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** Additionally, [[The Grim Reaper|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.
** 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 ''[[Discworld/Guards Guards|Guards Guards]]'', who briefly becomes the Watch mascot.
** Keith in ''[[Discworld/The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents|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.
* Loiosh, the snarky dragonet familiar of the title character in the ''[[Taltos]]'' novels.
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* 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 ''[[The Vampire Chronicles|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]]''.
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* 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 Steven Brust's [[Dragaera]] books, Vlad Taltos has a jhereg familiar Loiosh, who looks like a miniature wyvern and acts as a [[Servile Snarker]].
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* Clank, Ratchet's [[Robot Buddy]] from the ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' series. 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). And 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 [[The Scrappy|most hated]] video game character ever.
** No wonder there's versions of the game where you can shoot the dog ...
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* ''[[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 and White]]
* Is Boo the sidekick of [[Boisterous Bruiser|Minsc]] or is Minsc Boo's sidekick?
* 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.
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** In ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'', you get an air spirit named Madam Flurrie who helps you {{spoiler|when you fight the Three Shadow Sirens and get her necklace back}}, and a Shadow Siren named Vivian {{spoiler|who had decided to go over the [[Moral Event Horizon]] and }}helps Mario when his identity was stolen by Dooplus. {{spoiler|But she didn't know it was him before.}} When Mario squares off with Dooplus, she runs away for three turns, then does a [[Heel Face Turn]] to help Mario.
* Archimedes in [[Suika]] plays this role for Ojou. {{spoiler|That is, until he moves on to Chitose and sacrifices his life so she doesn't die during surgery.}}
* Teddie in [[Persona 4]]
* 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.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* 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.
** [http://mimg.ugo.com/201107/3/7/5/203573/korra-with-polar-bear-dog.png Naga the polar bear dog] and Pabu the Fire Ferret from [[Sequel Series]] ''[[The Legend of Korra]]''.
* Snarf from ''[[Thundercats]]'' and ''[[Thundercats 2011|ThunderCats (2011)]]''
* Plank from ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]''.
* ''[[Shrek]]'' and Donkey.
* Rufus, Ron's naked mole rat from ''[[Kim Possible]]''.
** And a living [[Deus Ex Machina]] to boot.
* Slimer on ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]''.
* Most (if not all) of [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney's]] human heroes and heroines have a pantheon of these (besides a sub-array of generic Adorable Woodland Critters), notably:
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** Phil and Pegasus in ''Hercules''.
** In an example of Disney taking it too far, Meeko the raccoon in [[Pocahontas]] had his own sidekick, the hummingbird, Flit.
** Bronx in the animated series [[Gargoyles]] is a subversion 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.
** Morph in ''[[Treasure Planet]]''. Dr. Delbert Doppler and B.E.N. fit the bill as well.
** [[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.
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** Subverted in ''[[The Emperor's New Groove|The Emperors New Groove]]''; Kuzco angers Bucky the squirrel, who then wakes up the local jaguar pack, and later [[Suddenly Fluent in Gibberish|tells]] [[Punch Clock Villain]] Kronk where to find him. Also inverted with Kuzco and Pacha themselves.
** Baloo, Bagheera, and the vultures from ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]''.
** The Seven Dwarfs from ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]''.
** Archimedes the Owl from ''[[The Sword in the Stone]]''.
** The singing frogs, Carl the robot, and Tiny the [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]] from ''[[Meet the Robinsons]]''.
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*** MO (a cleaner robot) and the cockroach to [[WALL-E]], a trash-compacting robot.
** And then, there's also the sidekicks of the bad guys. Examples include:
*** An unnamed raven to [[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|the Evil Queen.]]
*** Gideon the cat to J. Worthington "Honest John" Foulfellow the fox and the Phantom Blot-esque minions to the Coachman from ''[[Pinocchio (Disney film)|Pinocchio]]''.
*** [[Fantasia|Chenabog's]] demons.
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*** The Friends from the Other Side to [[The Princess and the Frog|Doctor "The Shadow Man" Facilier.]]
** Notable aversions: Both ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire|Atlantis the Lost Empire]]'' and ''[[The Incredibles]]'', which have the least nonhuman characters (zero in all) of any animated Disney film.
* Wow nobody wants to mention "[[Hanna-Barbera]]"'s LOVE of 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.
* Villains get these too -- see Rasputin's bat Bartok in ''Anastasia.''
* Faffy and, to a lesser extent, Twinkle the Marvel Horse in ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]''.
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