History FurryConfusion / WesternAnimation

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'', the depiction of any non-rail vehicles will vary widely. Some of them are sentient, while others are not.

** [[https://mobile.twitter.com/VeggieTales/status/1396119666288906244 A Twitter post]] shows Larry the cucumber with cucumbers on his eyes. It got to the point where Phil Vischer commented on the image and said that it was not right for Larry to do this.

** [[https://mobile.twitter.com/VeggieTales/status/1396119666288906244 A Twitter post]] shows Larry the cucumber with cucumbers on his eyes. It got to the point where Phil Vischer commented on the image and said that it was not right for him to do this.

* ''WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall'' is about two boys and their pet frog who are TrappedInAnotherWorld. Animals in the Unknown all seem [[AmplifiedAnimalAptitude amplified]] compared to our world: many wear clothes and go to school, and some can talk, but without explanation why others don't. Meanwhile, the frog slowly becomes more humanlike himself as time goes on: by episode six he can stand upright [[spoiler:[[TheSingingMute and sing]]]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Green Eggs and Ham|2019}}'': The fox, mouse and goat are fully sapient beings, with the former two wearing clothes. Meanwhile, the various MixAndMatchCritters are {{Nearly Normal Animal}}s who are kept in zoos and cannot talk, although at least Chickeraffes and Giroosters [[AmplifiedAnimalAptitude understand speech]]. Furthermore, the green eggs laid by fully sapient chickens are popular food, and the green ham also has to come from somewhere.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'' features animals who [[AnimalTalk talk]] but otherwise mostly act like wild animals. Animals hunting others is discussed frequently and the Lion Guard frequently has to stop hyenas from hunting animals (supposedly because they kill too many and are thus disrupting the 'Circle of Life').

*** As a standard rule, practically every animal appears to be sentient and sapient, although only a subset is shown to be capable of speech (mostly equines, bovines, ovines and magical creatures); other animals, including other ungulates, are consistently depicted as regular if clever animals. Angel Bunny is intelligent, bad-mannered and capable of bossing around Fluttershy (admittedly not a difficult feat), Owloysious is a capable assistant librarian, and every animal in "May the Best Pet Win" are sufficiently self-aware to ignore their natural behavior and try for the pet job. Given that the ponies are apparently exclusively vegetarian, many traditional farm animal jobs would not be applicable (Sweet Apple Acres have pigs, but not for their meat) but others would -- the sheep are likely putting up with routine shearing in exchange for a carefree living. Winona may be as smart as any pony, but she just likes her job. However, she shows less sentience than Angel Bunny, apparently being no different from Earth dogs.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Green Eggs and Ham|2019}}'': The fox, mouse and goat are fully sapient beings, with the former two wearing clothes. Meanwhile, the various MixAndMatchCritters are {{Nearly Normal Animal}}s who are kept in zoos and cannot talk, although at least Chickeraffes and Giroosters understand speech. Furthermore, the green eggs laid by fully sapient chickens are popular food, and the green ham also has to come from somewhere.

** It should be noted that Daffy started out [[http://monicacantu.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/daffy_duck_and_egghead1.jpg looking like this]] and slowly became more and more anthropomorphic.

* To its credit, ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' usually ''tries'' to avert this. If the series needs a non-anthropomorphic animal, the usual choice is to use jellyfish as insects, and there's never been an anthropomorphic jellyfish. Equally consistently, scallops take the place of birds, snails like Gary behave like cats, and deep-sea worms act like dogs.

** An episode of the first season, ''Karate Choppers'', shows an extra (a fish) ''fishing'' [[note]] It's later shown that "clam-fishing" is a thing in the show's world, since Mr. Krabs takes Spongebob and Squidward to do it on Goo Lagoon, but that still [[OrphanedEtymology begs the question of why they call it fishing]] [[/note]]. Considering that the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom know what fishing is, as Mr. Krabs warned Spongebob and Patrick of the dangers of the fishhooks, this is a little bit disturbing when you think about it. A later episode lampshades this when another extra (also a fish) is arrested for cannibalism because he had [[BlackComedyCannibalism fish sticks in his pocket]].

* This trope is parodied and taken to its only logical extreme in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. At a veterinarian's office, there is a man stroking a purring cat. The camera pans, showing a CatGirl (presumed to be alien) petting a cat-sized ''human'', also purring. In a later episode, we see that same Cat Girl and her pet human as contestants in a pet show.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', Circe is an anthro pig. She still has her standard BalefulPolymorph of turning people into non-anthro pigs, and this even happens to her at the end of the episode.

** The song "The Dinner Time Song" from the album contains the recurring line "But hold the tomatoes and the cucumbers, please!", sung by Larry, who himself is a cucumber.

* The ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'' episode "The Zoo", in which a class of kids that includes a giraffe, an elephant and a zebra, with a gazelle teacher, go to the ''zoo''. A running gag is Madame Gazelle mistaking the zookeepers (Mr. Lion, Mrs. Crocodile, and Mr. Giraffe -- Gerald's dad) for animals that have escaped.

** An episode of the first season, ''Karate Choppers'', shows an extra (a fish) ''fishing''. Considering that the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom know what fishing is, as Mr. Krabs warned Spongebob and Patrick of the dangers of the fishhooks, this is a little bit disturbing when you think about it. A later episode lampshades this when another extra (also a fish) is arrested for cannibalism because he had [[BlackComedyCannibalism fish sticks in his pocket]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1985'', Circe is an anthro pig. She still has her standard BalefulPolymorph of turning people into non-anthro pigs, and this even happens to her at the end of the episode.

* WesternAnimation/BettyBoop originated as a HumanoidFemaleAnimal girlfriend for the studio's [[TheEveryman Everyman]] character, a dog named Bimbo. They continued to be presented as a couple after Betty's canine features were phased out, until UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode balked at the InterspeciesRomance implications and Bimbo was cut from the series. A year later, Betty obtained a new canine sidekick in the form of a non-anthropomorphic pet dog, Pudgy; although Pudgy and Bimbo never overlapped, they would subsequently appear together in merchandise and in the 2016 comic book published by Dynamite.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatSantaClausCaper'', the villain shows off his unbreakable toy-preservation film on a doll. Raggedy Ann tearfully protests that it keeps you from cuddling and loving it, while Raggedy Andy dismisses it as a "dumb ol' doll". This would not be unusual - except that Raggedy Ann and Andy are dolls themselves.

* ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' takes this to extreme. The title characters are brothers who have human parents and live as humans, but neither wear clothes and otherwise totally belong to their own species. In one episode they are visited by the ghosts of their Great-Grandparents who are [[spoiler: a normal human and a [[{{Squick}} non-anthropomorphic chicken]]]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfMulan'' is a [[TheMockbuster mockbuster]] of the Disney/{{Mulan}} where all the characters are anthropomorphic insects and mammals. However, they use normal insects and mammals as either weapons or mounts.

* A minor example of this is featured in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'', as Shendu, an anthropomorphic and intelligent dragon capable of speech, commands hordes of non-anthropomorphic dragons who cannot speak and behave in a rather bestial manner.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': A diner patron is seen receiving his steak order...from a cow waitress, who stares daggers at him.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Green Eggs and Ham|2019}}'': The fox, mouse and goat are fully sapient beings, with the former two wearing clothes. Meanwhile, the various MixAndMatchCritters are {{Nearly Normal Animal}}s who are kept in zoos and cannot talk, although at least Chickeraffes and Giroosters understand speech. Furthermore, the green eggs laid by fully sapient hens are popular food, and the green ham also has to come from somewhere.

* ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' takes this to extreme. The title characters are a brother and sister who have human parents and live as humans, but neither wear clothes and otherwise totally belong to their own species. In one episode they are visited by the ghosts of their Great-Grandparents who are [[spoiler: a normal human and a [[{{Squick}} non-anthropomorphic chicken]]]].

** In the episode "Big Penfold" Prof. Squawkencluck, an anthropomorphic hen, appears in the same scene as a non-anthropomorphic rooster and doesn't seem to be bothered that Danger Mouse is eating fried eggs.

** As a standard rule, practically every animal appears to be sentient and sapient, although only a subset is shown to be capable of speech (mostly hoofed mammals and magical creatures). Angel Bunny is intelligent, bad-mannered and capable of bossing around Fluttershy (admittedly not a difficult feat), Owloysious is a capable assistant librarian, and every animal in "May the Best Pet Win" are sufficiently self-aware to ignore their natural behavior and try for the pet job. Given that the ponies are apparently exclusively vegetarian, many traditional farm animal jobs would not be applicable (Sweet Apple Acres have pigs, but not for their meat) but others would - the sheep are likely putting up with routine shearing in exchange for a carefree living. Winona may be as smart as any pony, but she just likes her job.

* G1 ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' had this to varying degrees depending on your canon. [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials The]] [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends original cartoons]] had the Dream Valley ponies live far from humans however where the humans lived everything was 'normal'; Megan's family even had a non-talking, Miniature Horse named TJ. The ''ComicBook/MyLittlePony'' comics and various books throughout G1 had the ponies living in stables and otherwise behaving like horses, while the cartoon had them behaving more anthropomorphic (outside of the first specials) and sleeping in beds. Mr. Moochick had an anthropomorphic rabbit friend who couldn't seem to talk. Peaches, a talking pony, seems to have a pet cat.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': All the characters are anthropomorphic animals, but there are several ordinary sheep who also live in [[CrapsaccharineWorld Smileyland]] with them. In Episode 132, Mr. Cat even lampshades this and says that letting the sheep hang out with the characters would be like [[{{Squick}} having Snow White marry the seven dwarves]].

** If horse-drawn carriages get brought up, expect a good dose of LampshadeHanging, such as in "Over a Barrel" ("Okay, your turn to pull.""Aw, but we just switched!") and "The Best Night Ever" (Twilight enchants a few mice to turn into full-grown horses to pull their carriage, said mice run off...and Rarity solves the problem by simply asking her neighbors to pull)
*** Basically, horse-drawn carriages are shown as the pony equivalent of rickshaws, even acting as a taxi service.

** When Pinkie describes the horrors of the Everfree Forest, she lists off such horrible things as the weather changing on it's own, animals taking care of themselves and so on. The creators are painfully aware of the implications, and takes every chance at lampshading the hell out of it.

** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyBestGiftEver'' features sapient reindeer that can use magic, in contrast to the other deer seen in the show which are non-sapient animals.
*** The IDW comics, however, do feature sapient deer, just adding to the confusion.