Line #52 Main/RealisticSpeciesCartoonySpecies


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11	For various reasons, humans may be illustrated realistically or in detail while animals appear cartoonish and/or unrealistic in a work of animated or illustrated fiction. Alternatively, humans may appear cartoonish, while the animals appear realistic or detailed. Fictional creatures which are [[WhatMeasureIsaNonHuman neither human nor animal (such as elves and intelligent human-like aliens) may be placed in either category]] for illustration style when appearing in a work that includes both humans and animals. This trope may also apply to works without humans if there is a similar animal to fill the same role.
12
13	The human audience will generally better recognize the appearance of humans than other (real world) animal species, which could explain either form of this trope. If the wild animals look unrealistic, then most of the audience won't notice because they don't remember exactly what that species really looks like. The humans may also look more detailed to diversify their appearance.
14
15	If humans are portrayed as cartoony while other animals are realistic, this may be because it is easy for humans to recognize a character as a human even when the appearance is simplified, while they need to see more detail to know exactly what type of animal a character is. This is most commonly found in manga and anime, where the audience is supposed to relate only to the cartoony... MANGA/ANIME-ish! humans with big eyes, small mouths, and pointy noses, which conforms to the principle of creating cartoony-looking characters for maximum relatability and projectability noted in Creator/ScottMcCloud's ''ComicBook/UnderstandingComics''. Animals just look like real animals most of the time, even in stories where the animal characters have a more prominent role that doesn't overshadow the human ones.
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17	NoCartoonFish is a sister trope, where ''fish'' are realistic and detailed while everything else isn't. This is a {{Graphical Trope\|s}}.
18
19	Also see CartoonCreature and NonStandardCharacterDesign.
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21	----
22	!!Examples:
23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
26	* TOEI animation's ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' shows, where some of the monsters look more like real-world creatures than the humans, to say nothing of the animals.
27	* ''Manga/ChisSweetHome'': The humans, who have BlackBeadEyes, and the cats are more stylized and toony, while the dogs, parakeets, songbirds, snakes, frogs, rabbits, and other animals are semi-realistic.
28	* ''Anime/PrettyCure''
29	** In ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'', Honoka's dog Chuutaro is drawned far more realistic than how she is rendered.
30	** In one episode of ''Anime/FreshPrettyCure'', Love meets a dog named Lucky. Like Chuutaro, Lucky looks more like a real dog than Love looks like a real human.
31	** In Episode 30 of ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'', the girls visit a zoo and see some very realistically-drawn animals, with the shoebill being a notable standout.
32	* Several Pokémon in ''Manga/TheElectricTaleOfPikachu'', such as Charizard, Gyrados, and even Pikachu to an extent, are drawn in a more semi-realistic fashion compared to the humans.
33	* ''Manga/HarlemBeat'' features a realistic Collie but far less realistic humans.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Comic Books]]
37	* In the setting of Jeff Smith's ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'' graphic novel series the humans are quite realistic, while the wild animals are more cartoony; except the rat creatures--the antagonists, who are the most detailed (though not realistic). The Bone brothers break the pattern, being extremely cartoony humanoids; a visual reminder that they're only [[GenreRefugee visiting from a distant land where things are implied to work by different rules]].
38	* ''ComicBook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew'': During the story arc "The Oz/Wonderland War", the Zoo Crew and a few cameos such as [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Hoppy the Marvel Bunny]] appear in the comics' usual FunnyAnimal Saturday morning cartoon style, while the inhabitants and backgrounds of the Literature/LandOfOz and [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Wonderland]] appear in detailed, realistic pen-and-ink style matching the original illustrations of John Tenniel, John R. Neill, and Frank Ver Beck.
39	* ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'', a true Holocaust story, is an interesting (strange) example. All Jewish people appear as cartoonish, anthropomorphic mice, [[FurryLens but this is just a metaphor, as they are humans in-universe]]. Other humans appear as other animals; such as Polish pigs, American dogs, and Nazi cats. In a panel in the first book, a real rat is seen running on the floor of a room that some Jews went into. There was a [[{{show within a show}} comic within a comic]] in this book written by the protagonist, in which [[FourthWallPortrait the characters are detailed and fairly realistic humans]].
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
43	* In the newspaper comic ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' and its sequels, the animals were always cartoony, but got more so during the several occurrences of ArtShift throughout the series.
44	* In ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' people are drawn in a very cartoony style while animals (except for Hobbes) are usually seen only in Calvin's {{Imagine Spot}}s, which tend to be drawn more realistically than the main action.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
48	* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'': The humans are realistic, but the mice, cats, and other animals are cartoony, with the exception of a group of roaches and a few [[NoCartoonFish fish]].
49	* [[spoiler: Koda's mother]] is drawn as being far more realistically than the other bears seen in ''WesternAnimation/BrotherBear'', such as Kenai [[KarmicTransformation post-transformation]] and [[spoiler: her son]] Koda, who are all drawn in a cartoony manner to make them appear more sympathetic. [[spoiler: When we see Koda's mother's ghost at the end of the movie, she is drawn to look exactly like the other bears in the movie.]]
50	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'': The animals (the mice, the songbirds, the chickens, Bruno the dog, Major the horse, and Lucifer the cat) are cartoony but humans are semi-realistic or at least less cartoony than the animals. The four mice-turned-horses and other horses other than Major are semi-realistic though.
51	* The Anglerfish, Jellyfish, and the Whale from ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' and Becky the Loon, the Otters, and the Squid from ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' are drawn more realistically than the other animal characters in the movies, despite many of them being based on actual fish species.
52	* ''{{ComicStrip/Garfield}}'' mostly averts this trope, but this trope is played straight with [[EscapedAnimalRampage the panther]] from ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldInTheRough'', making it look downright ''[[VileVillainSaccharineShow terrifying]]''.
53	* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid\|1989}}'' has cartoony fish and sea creatures, birds and land creatures, and dogs, but relatively realistic humans.
54	%%* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}''.
55	* ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'': The humans are realistic, but aside from the realistic horses, the animals (the mice, bat, rat, cat, dog, lizard, and octopus) are cartoony.
56	* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge''; the original film only, as the sequels strangely didn't have humans. Although a few {{talking animal}}s such as Manny had fairly realistic anatomy--Sid the sloth had strange eyes on the side of his head, as well as some other stylistic shapes on supporting characters. The adult humans looked fairly realistic, and the baby to a lesser extent.
57	* Despite not featuring any humans, the main animal characters in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' are drawn as being far more cartoony than the background animals, as best demonstrated if one compared Timon's design with those of the meerkats seen briefly at the very beginning of the movie. Averted during the song "I Just Can't Wait to be King", where ''all'' the animals are cartoony and sporting stylized designs.
58	* ''WesternAnimation/MrBugGoesToTown'' has cartoon bugs against [[{{Rotoscoping}} rotoscoped]] humans.
59	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'': The humans are semi-realistic, while Cri Kee the cricket and Mushu the dragon are cartoony. Khan the horse is semi-real though, as are the panda bear and Shan-Yu’s hawk (who looks cartoony after his feathers are scorched away).
60	* ''WesternAnimation/OverTheHedge'' has big-headed cartoonish animal protagonists. All of the humans are somewhat realistic, with accurate proportions.
61	* ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'': Snow White, Prince Charming, the Queen (before and after transforming into a hag, but especially before) and the Huntsman are realistic, while the animals are more cartoony, although still semi-realistic. The Dwarfs are appear as heavily cartoonized humans, the most cartoonish in the film, one more hint that they may be supernatural or faerie beings rather than mortal human beings.
62	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'' has cartoonish animated anthropomorphic sea-creatures. All humans [[spoiler:(Creator/DavidHasselhoff and the scuba diver/shopkeeper)]] are live action. [[spoiler:The scenes outside of water have live-action backgrounds, and the sea creatures are live action when they dry and die.]]
63	* The bees and other insects in ''WesternAnimation/BeeMovie'' are cartoonier than the humans.
64	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'': The adult bears, Mor'du and Ellinor as a bear, the dogs, Angus the horse, and the fish caught by bear Ellinor look realistic, but the humans and Merida's triplet brothers as bears appear semi-realistic or cartoony, more typical of the Pixar style.
65	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}''. The human characters are very caricatured (Carl's face is a perfect square, Russel's facial features are too close together, Muntz is unrealistically skinny), but the dogs (apart from Dug, whose eyes clearly show sclerae and are placed close together) look like real dogs. Kevin the "Snipe" is cartoony, but then, on the other hand, her species is fictional, so what is her species ''meant'' to look like?
66	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Turbo}}'', the crows and beetles as they are photorealistic and more realistic than the humans, who are semi-realistic, while the snails are cartoonier than the humans.
67	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'': Monstro the whale, the tuna he eats, and the moths are semirealistic, but Cleo and the other fish shown, Figaro and Gideon the cats, Honest John the fox, the [[ForcedTransformation boys turned into donkeys]], and Jiminy Cricket (who is also an InformedSpecies) are cartoony. The Blue Fairy (basically a woman with wings in appearance) is realistic and [[{{Rotoscoping}} Rotoscoped]] so as to look ethereal, but the humans (Geppetto, Stromboli, Coachman, Lampwick, Pinocchio as a real boy) are cartoony to almost semirealistic. The Blue Fairy as a dove is also realistic. Pinocchio as a puppet is cartoony with FourFingeredHands.
68	* ''WesternAnimation/TheHobbit'': While Elrond looks very noble and close to human, the wood elves are much closer to the original Scandinavian depictions of such creatures, being short, a bit ugly, and having blue skin.
69	* The fairy Prince Cornelius' pet bumblebee from ''WesternAnimation/Thumbelina1994'' is drawn more realistically than the other animals in the movie, including [[FourLeggedInsect all the other insect characters]].
70	* ''Film/TomAndJerry2021'' features live-action humans and [[RogerRabbitEffect animated animals]]. It even features cartoon cuts of meat.
71	* ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'' features live-action humans and CGI Pokemon in place of animals.
72	* In the ''Franchise/{{Sonic the Hedgehog\|FilmSeries}}'' film series, humans (including Robotnik) and non-sapient animals are in live-action, while FunnyAnimal characters retain most of their cartoonish designs from the games. The only sapient animal exception to this is Longclaw the owl who looks realistic.
73	* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': The video game characters of different eras looks very different, with the old characters like Ralph and Felix being very cartoony, while new characters like Calhoun are more realistic. They can apparently notice these differences, since Felix is impressed with Calhoun's "high definiton". Whether they're technically different species is up for debate.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
77	* ''Series/TheFerals'': The humans are played by actual people while the animals are played by puppets.
78	* British science [[EdutainmentShow Edutainment Show]] ''Cats' Eyes'' did this as well. Humans Alf, Katie and Janet/Dora are played by people while cats Jimmy and Juke are puppets.
79	* Most animals seen in ''Series/SesameStreet'' are played by Muppets, aside from Elmo's fish Dorothy, Telly's hamster [[YourTomcatisPregnant Chuckie Sue]], and Bert's pigeon Berniece.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Toys]]
83	* Franchise/{{Lego}} minifigures have simplistic shapes and unrealistic proportions (as well as all-yellow skin[[note]]Except for sets licensed from media[[/note]]), probably to match the rectangular style of Lego pieces and models. The animal figures, however, have better curved shapes and more realistic proportions--probably so that humans will recognize their genus/species.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Video Games]]
87	* Aside from [[BigBad Dr. Eggman]], humans in the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' series from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' to ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' (pictured above) were rendered as anime or realistic styled, compared to the very cartoony FunnyAnimals. ''Sonic '06'' upped the realism of the humans and even gave Eggman a more realistic design. Due to negative fan response, Eggman reverted to his previous design in the next game ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'', where the humans are made to look like Creator/{{Pixar}} characters.
88	* In ''VideoGame/GoVacation'', humans are anime-styled while animals look more realistic.
89	* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' generally toes the line with this trope by having FunnyAnimals alongside anime-style and [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney animated]] humans, but it comes fully into play in the ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' World, which due to being adaptions of live-action films, features realistic humans alongside WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck.
90	* ''VideoGame/PlanetZoo'': In this zoo simulator, the animals look extremely photorealistic and as anatomically accurate as possible, whereas the humans are cartoonish-looking with BlackBeadEyes.
91	* In ''VideoGame/TheUniversim'', the human-like Nuggest are very simple, with FloatingLimbs and no faces. In contrast, the various wild animals are more detailed and realistically-proportioned.
92	* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'': Both the human player characters and anthropomorphic animals are very cartoony, while non-sapient animals like the collectible fish and invertebrates are realistic.
93	[[/folder]]
94
95	[[folder:Webcomics]]
96	* In ''Webcomic/TheWhiteboard'', the FunnyAnimal main characters are drawn in a fairly realistic style, while human extras are drawn as featureless "bubbleheads" distinguishable only by their clothing. Inanimate objects are the most detailed of all, since before starting the comic the author mostly drew hardware or machines. Later on the comic switched to just having everyone be funny animals, and implied that the extras' earlier "human" appearance was simply a lack of description rather than an indication of species.
97	* In ''Webcomic/HyperboleAndAHalf'', none of the pictures are drawn completely realistically, but the animals (usually dogs) have a tendency to be drawn with more complexity than the humans, who can look like they were drawn by a five-year-old.
98	* In ''Webcomic/TetZooTime'', the humans are cartoony like in [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime the show it is based off of]], while the animals are realistic aside from having [[BlackBeadEyes dots for eyes]].
99	* ''Webcomic/ThePerryBibleFellowship'' [[https://pbfcomics.com/comics/cuniculus-vulgaris/ spoofs this]] by showing a realistic rabbit in a town of clothes-wearing {{Funny Animal}}s, who is promptly busted for public indecency.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Western Animation]]
103	* In ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'', protagonist Dora and the other human children look cartoony, and the adults are more realistic. However, her anthropomorphic animal friends are more cartoony, often more so than the children. Her sidekick Boots the monkey, and a few other animals, [[{{Informed Species}} hardly resemble the animal that they are supposed to be]].
104	* Baby Jaguar and other animals in ''WesternAnimation/GoDiegoGo'' are more realistic than Boots, Tico, Benny, Swiper, Isa, and other animals in ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'' and are as realistic as the humans in both shows.
105	* Most of the incarnations of the ''Franchise/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' franchise, but moreso the 1983 cartoon series ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'', the 1987 film ''WesternAnimation/TheChipmunkAdventure'', and the two VHS movies released in 1999 and 2000, ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunksMeetFrankenstein'' and ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunksMeetTheWolfman''; in these incarnations, the human characters have rather realistic designs (especially true for ''The Chipmunk Adventure''), while The Chipmunks and Chipettes are cartoony, roughly three feet tall, and walk, talk, dress, and eat like people.
106	* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', most of the characters are cartoonish, animated anthropomorphic sea-creatures. Patchy the pirate, and his friends, are live action humans (and a mermaid)--save for his pet parrot, who is a marionette.
107	** The episode "Pressure" has [=SpongeBob=] and his friends go on land, they appear as live-action puppets outside the water.
108	** Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are the only cartoony humans in the show, who are otherwise portrayed in live-action sequences.
109	** According to "Feral Friends", the underwater animal characters can become realistic, but only if exposed to Neptune's Moon. It has no effect on the jellyfish whatsoever, and Neptune's Sun has this effect on Sandy, but changes Potty's species outright, with him remaining a puppet. (Implying the character is a puppet in universe)
110	* In ''WesternAnimation/GaspardAndLisa'', the main dog characters and their family and relatives are cartoony and over-stylized, whereas the other animals (like Burlee the kitten and even non-anthropomorphic dogs) and the humans are semi-realistic.
111	* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': The bears and other animals are drawn in an extremely simple, cartoonish style, while the humans, although still stylized, are more detailed and realistically proportioned.
112	* In ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'', the humans and nearly all the animals are drawn quite realistically for a SaturdayMorningCartoon, with the single exception of the PluckyComicRelief dog Bandit, yet somehow it works. WordOfGod is that Bandit's more cartoonish appearance is the direct result of ExecutiveMeddling.
113	* After ''Jonny Quest'', other HB and ''Ruby Spears'' shows had more realistic human and animal designs like ''Space Ghost'', ''Scooby-Doo'', ''Harlem Globetrotters'' and other knockoffs. Excluding the team pet and a few others. Also the humans may have BlackBeadEyes in some of them.
114	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
115	** The humans are cartoony, but the animals in later seasons are realistic. Cats and cattle are still cartoony, however.
116	** Also averted with the Canadian humans and animals as both are cartoony.
117	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Except for those introduced early on the series (Blinky the fish, Snowball II, Santa's Little Helper), animal characters are depicted more realistically than the humans.
118	** From the beginning, the producers established a rule that animals would behave as they do in real life, although that rule has gotten a little looser in later seasons.
119	** Stampy the elephant is actually semi-realistic, unlike most of the other animals and the humans.
120	** The {{Funny Animal}}s from ''JustForFun/TheItchyAndScratchyShow'', however, are exempt.
121	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'', the humans are very cartoonish. Most of the wild animals in the show, who are numerous, are more realistic. Darwin the chimp is as cartoony as the humans however.
122	* ''WesternAnimation/SanjayAndCraig'': The human characters and Craig the snake look cartoony, but the other snakes look semi realistic.
123	* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': The human characters look cartoony with very weak chins, but the other animals, including the horses appear closer to semirealistic.
124	* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', animals are depicted more realistically than the humans.
125	* ''WesternAnimation/WildKratts'': humans are cartoonish, while animals are realistic.
126	* ''WesternAnimation/JurassicWorldCampCretaceous'': The humans are relatively cartoony, while the dinosaurs are more or less a one-to-one depiction as they appear in the live-action films, and therefore have ''much'' more detailed textures and colours.
127	* In ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'', {{Funny Animal}}s are cartoony while non-sapient animals look realistic. This even extends to original characters that underwent AdaptationalNonsapience for the show, such as Tootsie, [[WesternAnimation/TheWuzzles Rhinokey, Butterbear]], and Poe's raven form. When humans make an appearance in "Quack Pack!", they are just as cartoony as the FunnyAnimal cast other than having five-fingered hands.
128	* In ''WesternAnimation/TwelveOunceMouse'', Skillet and the humans from Season 3 (not counting the Kid) are realistic while the rest of the humans and animals are cartoony.
129	[[/folder]]

Context Main / RealisticSpeciesCartoonySpecies