Tailfin Walking: Difference between revisions

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One trope that catches animators when portraying fish or cetacean (whale, dolphin and porpoise) characters in cartoons is to have them walk on their tailfins (or tail flukes if a cetacean) when on land. This makes even less sense than a cow with a prehensile tail - cow tails are relatively rigid, but prehensile tails are viable, whereas tailfins just aren't meant to support an animal's weight - but it's easier to show a fish walking on its tailfins than on its pelvic fins.

* An old cartoon had a female competitive swimmer win the trophy, we pull back, revealing her to be a mermaid, and she walks away by tip-toeing on her tail fin.

* ''[[Animalympics]]'' has the dolphin Mark Spritz and the orca Ono Nono stand and walk on their flukes.

* Sometimes played straight and sometimes averted in [[Chuck Jones]]' adaptation of ''[[The White Seal]]''.

* The fish in ''[[Fish Hooks]]'' all stand and walk this way. And yes, their tails look absolutely ''nothing'' like actual fish tails at all!