Talking animals

[MonkeyFunk]

I've just realised something - there's a Donald Duck cartoon where he marries a chicken... and another one where he eats a chicken. Still, guess it's no different from Sylvester trying to kill and eat another intelligent creature.

But as many problems as the food chain causes, nothing makes a talking animal cartoon hit a brick wall like humans. I mean... Charlie Brown owns Snoopy, Jon owns Garfield, Wallace owns Gromit, Davey owns Goliath... isn't that, like, slavery?

And what he hell's up with Elmer Fudd!? Talk about racially motivated murder!

[lupercal]

I think part of the comic effect comes from that juxtaposition: of domestic animals being sentient. but still maintaining some of their basic animal traits.

Mike Kazaleh (who drew the Ren and Stimpy comics) did a comic once - I can't remember what it is; possibly one of his 'Har Har Comics' that had a story called "What if all our pets were anthromoporhic?" In this one the dogs aren't just intelligent, they're bipedal. And they behave with this combination of domestic dog behaviour and normal human nehaviour, which is hilarious. Like the guy is leading this huge dog down the road (walking upright), and when he gets into a fight with some other guy's dog he verbally abuses him instead of growling. And they have arguments about whether he can sleep on the bed, and so on.

In most of the satrips you've named (well, except for the last one, which I don't know) there's still a barrier between them and the human characters because generally they don't talk to humans; they have interior monologues which come out as speech bubbles. Except Gromit, who doesn't talk at all.

Loop

[starlac]

there's a Donald Duck cartoon where he marries a chicken

Must have missed that one, which Donald short was that in?

In the first segment of Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, Donald, Daisy, the nephews etc all sit down to enjoy a turkey dinner, both me and my brother thought much the same thing, cannabalism (apart from the technical point of the birds being different species).

Yet I suppose a part of it has to do with the worlds these characters live in and how much anthropomorphism is apparently entered into them; Donald may appear to be a duck but he's all too human in his mannerisms and insofar as the stories he's in are concerned.

Sylvester is an odd case, because he is either a human or a cat depending on the cartoon's needs; in the cartoons were he is a cat, his pursuit of prey species is just him following his feline instincts; when he plays a human, like in Scarlet Pumpernickle, he doesn't go around chasing Tweety, Speedy etc.

As for the pets, well they are extremely clever, but in the world's they inhabit they are still animals and pets first. None of them can really talk (although I can't speak of Goliath). We read/heard their thoughts in the comics and cartoons they appear in, but they still belong in the animal kingdoms of their respected worlds. Most of them tend to have a beneficial deal, ask yourself who really wears the pants in the Arbuckle residence.

Elmer's problem is that although he's hunting rabbits (or whatever animals in season), the rabbits etc that inhabit his world (and other animals come to that) are of generally equal or higher intelligence than the greatest human minds and certainly his.

EDIT:

In this one the dogs aren't just intelligent, they're bipedal. And they behave with this combination of domestic dog behaviour and normal human nehaviour, which is hilarious.

That reminds me of the Tex Avery short "Mixed-up Pup" where a human and a dog swap some of their normal characteristics after a paramedic gives them the wrong type of plasma (the human gets dog plasma and the dog gets human plasma).

ADDITIONAL EDIT: A quick glance at my encyclopedia of cartoon animals tells me that Goliath speaks only to Davey, not to anyone else. If it is slavery then it is chosen slavery

[MonkeyFunk]

Must have missed that one, which Donald short was that in?

I think it was one of the new ones for Mouseworks/House of Mouse.

[starlac]

That might be why I missed it, cause I can't remember seeing that in either volume 1 or 2 of Donald's Disney Treasures DVDs.

[Inkwolf]

Brings up the classic old question; if Pluto is a dog, then what the heck is Goofy? :D