History InformedSpecies / WesternAnimation

*** This also applies to her long lost cousin, Coral, who will make her debut in the Aqua Pups subseries in 2023. She is also a Cockapoo.

** Although Jose Carioca of the ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'' does look like a parrot, Panchito Pistoles doesn't look much like a rooster due to his lack of a wattle.

** Eileen is supposed to be a mole, but her round, flat tail and occasional buck teeth that stick out make her resemble a beaver more that a mole. Her only mole-like trait is that her eyes beneath her glasses are very small.

** Squidward is actually an octopus despite his name. He lacks two tentacles because it was seen as a burden to animate. Plus, Octoward isn't a very appealing name. Despite being an octopus with squid in his name, he doesn't really look like either, looking more like some sort of alien.

* Granted, his resemblance to the real-life animal is actually somewhat there as opposed to WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}, but the titular Aardvark from ''WesternAnimation/TheAntAndTheAardvark'' doesn't look very much like an aardvark, having [[AmazingTechnicolorWildlife blue fur]], a long snout more like that of an anteater's than an actual aardvark's, and long angular bent ears. Even more so in ''Pink Panther and Pals''. This time the Aardvark's snout is curved upwards like an elephant's and his tail is shortened. Interestingly enough, in the Latin American Spanish dub, he is outright named an anteater instead.

** Beyond the main characters we have the Overlords of Hell: Carmilla is stated to be a [[SeaSerpents sea serpent]]; it's a vague motif at best. Two of the other Overlords have known animal motifs as well, Valentino being a moth and Zestial a spider; while fairly vague, they're much more apparent than the main cast members with those same motifs.

** Patsy is said to be a mongoose, but she doesn't have black rings around her eyes, making her look like a kangaroo.

** Greek goddess of the moon Selene is supposed to be an ibis. However, her bill is much too short, making her resemble a dove.
** Violet Sabrewing is supposed to be a hummingbird, and her name reflects this as an instance of GeniusBonus (the violet sabrewing is a species of hummingbird). However, due to the show's art style, her resemblance to a hummingbird is vague at best-- she mostly just looks like a generic purple bird.

* Bunga from ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'' is a honey badger, but he looks more like a cross between a skunk and a porcupine.

** To say nothing of his diminutive size, [[WesternAnimation/FoghornLeghorn Henery Hawk]] doesn't look that much like a hawk.

** Skye looks nothing like your typical Cockapoo, but this is because she is a flat coated one. Flat coated Cockapoos and other doodle mixes do exist. This is due to a gene known as the improper coat gene. This prevents a doodle from having furnishings, AKA facial hair and prominent eye brows. Without this gene, a Cockapoo looks like a regular Cocker Spaniel.

** Everest is a Husky, but her build makes her look more like an Alaskan Malamute. In addition, Huskies and Malamutes do not have lavender coats.

** Moby, who is the villain in the upcoming Aqua Pups Subseries, is a Portuguese Water Dog. Before his breed reveal, fans thought he was a Border Collie or Australian Shepherd. Like Skye and Coral, he has an improper coat type.

** Madame Gazelle looks more like some kind of rodent than an actual gazelle.

** Plesio is supposed to be a ''Plesiosaurus'', but his long tail, the fact that he has hands and feet instead of flippers, and the tendrils trailing off his scalp mean that he isn't readily identifiable as one.

* Horace Horsecollar is supposed to be a horse, but looks more like Goofy or Clarabelle Cow, who are a dog and cow, respectively.
* Although Jose Carioca of the ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'' does look like a parrot, Panchito Pistoles doesn’t look much like a rooster due to his lack of a wattle.
* WesternAnimation/{{Pete}} the cat from the WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts fell into this trope over time. In ''WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie'', the first time Pete was portrayed as a cat, he looked somewhat reasonably like a cat and had a tail. Since the mid 1930s, he lost his tail and fell into this trope, resembling moreso a Cane Corso with cropped features than a cat. It became so hard to identify him as a cat that ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'', ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'', and ''An Extremely Goofy Movie'' treat him like a [[{{Dogfaces}} Dogface]] instead.

** Horace Horsecollar does not resemble a horse nor does Clarabelle resemble a cow.

** Hal from ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouseFunhouse'' is supposed to be a ''Halszkaraptor''. He looks more like an taller, more animalistic version of Donald Duck with sharp teeth and a long tail, and he doesn't even have the long neck of the real ''Halskaraptor'' or the killing claws of dromaeosaurids (he shares Donald's webbed feet instead). In fact, Daisy mistook him for Donald before properly seeing him in his debut episode.

** The Minnie Mouse parody in "One Flew Over a Cuckoo Clock," with fur on her ears, really short snout, and nose shape, looks more like a koala than a mouse.

** "31st Century Fox" has a chicken that is identified as a Rhode Island Red, but is drawn as a Leghorn.

** "31st Century Fox" has a chicken that is identified as a Rhode Island red, but is drawn as a white leghorn.

* While most of the animal characters from ''WesternAnimation/NoahsIsland resemble the species they supposed to resemble, they were exceptions:
** The water buffalo from “The Butterfly House” resembles a brown Ankole-Watusi cow than the wild bovine she’s named after.

** The kakapos from “Something to Squawk About” resemble lorikeets than the parrot species they’re supposed to resemble. Not mention, kakapos in actuality don’t fly.

** Eileen is supposed to be a mole, but due to looking [[NonStandardCharacterDesign much more human-like]] than the other animal characters, does not resemble one. Her round, flat tail and occasional buck teeth that stick out make her resemble a beaver more that a mole
** Jeremy and Chad (the ostrich and possum in "Replaced") look more like a combless chicken and a stripeless numbat, respectively.

** Arthur Read and his relatives are aardvarks, but aren't readily identifiable as such. Real aardvarks have snouts that stick out and long pointed ears. Arthur, D.W., and other Reads have nostrils and rounded ears. Because of this, they have mostly been mistaken to be gerbils, hamsters, bears of some kind, among other species. In the first book, Arthur's nose was longer but he still looked more like a brown tapir (or a giant anteater, without the stripes or the plumes of hair on the tail) than an aardvark, which have medium-sized pig-like snouts. In both episodes "D.W. Tale Spins" and "The Cave" show off that the cavemen aardvarks used to lookmore like the animals they represnt, meaning that the curret aardvarks have evolved from what they originally looked like.
** Brain and the Tibble Twins are supposed to be bear cubs, but Brain looks more like a gopher or a mouse than an actual bear and the Tibble Twins look like grey-skinned humanoids with bear ears. This is because in the books, they ''were'' humans, and were changed to bears for the cartoon.
** Prunella is either supposed to be a rat like Mr. Ratburn or a poodle with her ears. Due to FlipFlopOfGod it's unclear though. She may actually be a poodle, since Marc Brown Studios' Facebook page says she is. Oddly enough, she looks more like a rat in Brown's books, sporting a pair of sharp teeth that disappeared when she made the transition to television. The official ''Arthur'' website says she's a rat. It seems all we can say for sure is that Prunella looks confusing.

* The protagonists of ''WesternAnimation/{{Catscratch}}'' are cats, but while Gordon gets a pass due to having the most cat-like shape out of the three despite his lack of a nose, Mr. Blik and Waffle barely resemble cats due to their long, thin (and in Waffle's case, floppy) ears.

* The protagonists of ''WesternAnimation/{{Catscratch}}'' are cats, but Mr. Blik and Waffle barely resemble cats due to their long, thin (and in Waffle's case, floppy) ears.

** Rare human examples: WesternAnimation/{{Bosko|The Talk Ink Kid}} and his girlfriend Honey are supposed to be {{blackface}}-looking African-American human characters, but they [[http://darmokthegreen.blogspot.com/2013/02/bosko-minstrel.html don't really read as such]]. They look more like ambiguous-looking [[FantasticRacism chimpanzees or bonobos]] instead.

** Foxy and Roxy, two early ''Merrie Melodies'' characters, are supposed to be foxes. However, [[CaptainErsatz they look exactly like]] WesternAnimation/{{Mickey|Mouse}} and WesternAnimation/MinnieMouse (respectively) save for their bushy tails and pointed ears, [[ScrewedByTheLawyers which led to legal issues in real life]]. Their redesigns for ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' make them look more vulpine.

** The [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner Roadrunner]] also looks nothing like its real-world counterpart. Roadrunners tend to be brown, have a much shorter crown, a longer, black beak and long tailfeathers.
** Hippety Hopper, the baby kangaroo that Sylvester always mistakes him for a giant mouse. In Sylvester's defense Hippety does look far more like a giant mouse than an actual kangaroo.

** [[WesternAnimation/SylvesterTheCatAndTweetyBird Tweety]] doesn't look much like a canary, especially that his feet are oversized.

*** Dizzy Devil (the purple Tasmanian devil), Little Beeper (the red roadrunner), and Gogo Dodo also inherit the non-resemblance of their forebears. Gogo looks more like a turtle, resembling Filburt from Rocko’s Modern Life.

** Tweety doesn't look much like a canary, especially that his feet are oversized.

** To say nothing of his diminutive size, Henery Hawk doesn't look that much like a hawk.

** Rare human examples: Bosko and his girlfriend Honey are supposed to be {{blackface}}-looking African-American human characters, but they [[http://darmokthegreen.blogspot.com/2013/02/bosko-minstrel.html don't really read as such]]. They look more like ambiguous-looking [[FantasticRacism chimpanzees or bonobos]] instead.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'':

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants''

* Wendell T. Wolf from ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'' is supposed to be a Tasmanian wolf (more commonly called the Tasmanian tiger) with beige fur and a striped back and resembling a sort of kangaroo-dog hybrid with a wide mouth and small ears, but he looks more like a combination of Wile E. and Calamity Coyote.

* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'':
** Dizzy Devil (the purple Tasmanian devil), Little Beeper (the red roadrunner), and Gogo Dodo also inherit the non-resemblance of their forebears. Gogo looks more like a turtle, resembling Filburt from Rocko’s Modern Life.
** Shirley the Loon looks more like a white duck like those in Creator/CarlBarks' [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse duck comics]], save for a thicker bill, than like any loon.
** The Flea family are tiny humanoids with almost no insect features except antennae.
** Calamity Coyote looks pretty strange compared to the other coyotes in the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' franchise. He has gray fur, a small tail (even more so than that of Wile E.'s), round long ears with no visible insides and a red nose.