Line #107 Main/CartoonyTail


1	[[quoteright:280:[[Franchise/WinnieThePooh https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1tiggerbounce_1724.jpg]]]]
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3	Some animals are drawn with a tail unlike what it would have in RealLife. Either its tail is shaped differently from what its RealLife counterpart would have, or its tail moves around differently from how it should in RealLife. Sometimes its tail is shaped the way it would be shaped in RealLife, but the shape is more exaggerated than it would really appear.
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5	One example is that some cartoon dogs are drawn with tails that look like that of a cat. Dogs may have the widest variety of tail shapes of all animals, but most dogs in RealLife do not have tails that look completely like a typical cat's tail - long with a round or blunt end. A variant of this trope is for a dog with a tail close to the look of a cat's tail but still typical of the breed to have its tail move like that of a cat at least sometimes. In RealLife, a dog's tail should not curl, twitch, or wave like a cat's tail, even if its tail does look like a cat's tail.
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7	Other common examples:
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9	* Wolves with overly bushy tails. In RealLife, wolves have somewhat bushy tails, but not to the extent of foxes.
10	* Cartoon cats from the 1940s and onwards that have tails that taper to a fine point like that of a newborn kitten, albeit longer if an adult cat. Older kittens and adult cats in real life usually have long tails that have a rounded or blunt end. A cat's tail can taper, but usually not like the tail of many cartoon cats. Longhair cartoon cats' tails tend to be drawn like wolves' tails or foxes' tails.
11	* Cartoon chipmunks that have deer-like tails. Real chipmunks have much longer tails similar to that of a squirrel, but thinner. They may also occasionally be InexplicablyTailless.
12	* Speaking of squirrels, cartoon squirrels' tails are usually neater looking than the brush-like tails they have in real life.
13	* Most animals with bushy tails have them portrayed as tapering to a point, when in RealLife, bushy tails are more likely to have a blunt or rounded tip.
14	* Unusually thin and/or fur-covered tails on mice.
15	* Zebras with horse-like tails.
16	* Skunks usually have "neater" tails that taper to a point, rather than the bushy brush-like ones they have in real life. The pattern will often be portrayed with two thin white stripes going through the tail, black at the ends, though typical real life skunks have tails with white at the ends.
17	* Hippos and rhinos with longer and/or thinner tails than in real life. Sometimes they lack tufts at the tip.
18	* Lions without tufts at the end of their tails.
19	* Jaguars with leopard-like tails. Jaguars have shorter, stockier tails.
20	* Platypuses with fur-less, beaver-like tails rather than flat, fur-covered tails.
21	* Mandrills with long, baboon-like tails. Mandrills actually have very short, stubby tails, and [[ScienceMarchesOn are no longer classified as baboons]].
22	* Monkeys in general with {{Prehensile Tail}}s, regardless of species. In reality, only certain New World monkeys have prehensile tails.
23	* Animals with large, heavy tails that drag on the ground (such as beavers, kangaroos and certain reptiles) are drawn with their tails sticking upward.
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25	Then there are extinct animals, where ScienceMarchesOn may be to blame for reconstructions that we now know to be inaccurate:
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27	* Dinosaurs with overly flexible tails, or ones that drag on the ground. The bigger dinosaurs held their tails rigid and level with their bodies. Even stegosaurids, who were able to swing their tails a full 180 degrees, still held them off the ground.
28	* Saber-toothed cats tend to be depicted with long tails similar to other big cats. This was true of primitive saber-toothed cats like ''Machairodus'', but advanced ones like ''Smilodon'' had very stubby tails like a lynx or a bobcat.
29	* Pterosaurs (especially if it's a ''Pteranodon'') with long tails. Most of them, including the Pteranodon, had short tails. Some pterosaurs like ''Rhamphorhynchus'' had long tails, but their heads looked very different from the ''Pteranodon'' mould (with a long crest) that is most commonly drawn.
30	* Diplodocid sauropods like ''Apatosaurus'' and ''Diplodocus'' will sometimes be portrayed with rather short tails, despite the family being known for having long, whip-like tails. Conversely, brachiosaurids had relatively short tails compared to other sauropods, but they are sometimes drawn with long tails similar to those of diplodocids.
31	* Mosasaurs were long thought to have paddle-like tails. It is now the consensus that they had a shark-like vertical fluke.
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33	Please only list examples that are clearly based on actual species. {{Funny Animal}}s clearly based on actual species are allowed too. Aliens, monsters, and mythical beings can have BizarreAlienBiology, so please do not list them.
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35	Subtrope of FunnyAnimalAnatomy. See also FurryEarDissonance. See InexplicablyTailless for normally tailed animals that don't even have tails.
36	----
37	!!Examples:
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39	[[foldercontrol]]
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41	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
42	* Wolffy, Wolnie, and the other wolves in ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' have overly bushy tails compared to real-life wolves which have visibly rounder tails.
43	[[/folder]]
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45	[[folder:Astronomy]]
46	* Example: Ursa Major (The Big Dipper) and Ursa Minor (The Little Dipper) are constellations shaped like bears with unusually long, catlike tails. Lampshaded and justified by the myth(s) they're based on.
47	[[/folder]]
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49	[[folder:Comic Books]]
50	* The wolves of the ''ComicBook/TheBlackBloodAlliance'' have the common, taper off-to-a-point variety. (but surprisingly they are not overly bushy, considering they are sparkledogs).
51	* ''Franchise/{{Marsupilami}}'' may be the best example of this trope, with a long, skinny tail far longer than his own body. Then again, he is [[BizarreAlienBiology a fictional species]].
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Fan Works]]
55	* In the fanfic ''Fanfic/TailsOfTheOldRepublic'', a crossover/ FusionFic between ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' and the videogame ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', Tails the fox has two tails like in the games and other media he regularly features in, but taken to [[ExaggeratedTrope extremes]] here. Not only can he [[HeliCritter fly]] with them, [[BewareMyStingerTail fight]] with them, and even [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe shield]] himself with them, now that he's been [[PlotRelevantAgeUp aged up]] to adolescence, Tails' namesakes are now ''twice'' as long as he is tall!
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57	[[/folder]]
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59	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
60	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Balto}}'' has the common, taper off-to-a-point variety.
61	* Meeko the raccoon from ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'' has a tail that looks really thick at the base and tapers to a fine point, whereas real raccoons usually [[http://theodorafur.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/001.83174138_std.JPG have tails with a blunt tip or have one that at least doesn't taper as much]]. To be fair, a raccoon's tail can taper to a fine point but most raccoons' tails do not look that thick at the base.
62	** They are supposed to be dressed like housecats, but their tails look vaguely like lion's tails.
63	* Rafiki from ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' is a mandrill that has a tail like a baboon.
64	* The mice in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'' have wire-thin tails about the width of a drawn line.
65	* Downplayed: The mice in ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' have thin (although not thread thin) tails, while the rat Ratigan has a long, fleshy, wormlike tail differentiating him from the mice, among [[MyInstinctsAreShowing other things...]]
66	* [[WhatMeasureisaNonCute The coelacanths]] from ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' for some reason have extremely small normal-looking fish tails. In real life, a coelacanth's tail is actually large and paddle-shaped.
67	* Near the middle of ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', the Genie actually transforms Abu the monkey into an elephant... ...with a monkey tail.
68	* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'' where Shen's wolves are all drawn with round, bushy tails.
69	* The mice and rats in Creator/DonBluth's ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH'' and ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' have unusually thin, fur-covered tails. Seems to be fairly standard for animated mice.
70	* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Mei's panda tail is shown to be somewhat prehensile whereas real red panda tails are not prehensile at all. Possibly justified due to the magical nature of the panda.
71	[[/folder]]
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73	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
74	* Averted with The Chipmunks in the two live action ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' movies and the Chipettes in the second one; they have tails like real chipmunks.
75	** Subverted in the cartoons, where they don't even have tails.
76	* [[MovieBonusSong "Pet Me, Poppa"]] from ''Theatre/GuysAndDolls'' has the [[ChorusGirls The Goldwyn Girls]] dressed as pussy cats swinging around totally un-catlike tails.
77	* The weasels in Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit have short, stubby tails rather than longish catlike tails like real weasels.
78	[[/folder]]
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80	[[folder:Literature]]
81	* Real moose have stumpy little tails, even shorter than that of most other deer. ''Literature/MorrisTheMoose'', from the eponymous picture book series, has a long tail with a tuft on the end, kind of like a unicorn!
82	[[/folder]]
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84	[[folder:Mythology and Folklore]]
85	* As noted above with the constellations of bears having long tails:
86	** According to Ojibwe mythology, bears once had long bushy tails but one bear was tricked by an otter into sticking it in a frozen lake to fish and it broke off
87	** In Oneida folklore, the story is similar but, instead of a otter, it was a fox. According to the story, the bear had long tail that he loved to show off, so the fox decided to trick him.
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder: Video Games ]]
91	* Miles "Tails" Power from ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' has two tails that enable him to fly like a helicopter when he spins them. There's no indication of how this is anatomically possible.
92	* The alligators from ''VideoGame/WheresMyWater'' have curling tails like chameleons.
93	* ''Franchise/DonkeyKong'': Despite being an ape like the rest of his family, Diddy inexplicably has a prehensile tail.
94	[[/folder]]
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96	[[folder: Web Animation ]]
97	* Russell the otter from ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' has a flat tail like a beaver.
98	** Also from ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'': Giggles, Flaky, and Cro-Marmot all lack tails, as did Mime during the TV series but was given it back later on. On an antonymous note, Splendid and Petunia have tails that are equal to them in both height and width, if not larger than that.
99	[[/folder]]
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101	[[folder: Western Animation]]
102	* Horse from the Dudley [=DooRight=] segments of ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' has a tail that is just a few long strands of hair growing off his butt.
103	* Averted with the chipmunks from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', which have squirrel-like tails like real chipmunks.
104	* The title character of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' and his mother are cats with tails that are basically rigid sticks.
105	* The Brain from ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' has a tail like a real mouse, except it is kinked in a way that it looks like stairs.
106	** Although in this case, considering it was the ACME experiments that gave him the inflated head, intelligence and ego, it's fairly safe to say that that was a side-effect of one of the experiments. Or, at least, Pinky getting it caught in a door or something.
107	* Weasel [=McGreed=] and the other weasels from the 1985 animated adaptation of ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears'' have tails more like that of a cat's than a weasel's. It could be possible they're long-tailed weasels, but they don't have black marks on the tip.
108	* Stripes, the tiger truck from ''WesternAnimation/BlazeAndTheMonsterMachines'', has a tail that's stylized to look like a car's radio antenna.
109	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bonkers}}'': D. Bobcat is a mild example; his tail is considerably longer that of a real bobcat.
110	* The WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts have some characters with unnatural tails.
111	** Daisy Duck, a female duck, has curled tail feathers, a trait exclusive to male ducks.
112	** Mice have thin, naked tails, but Mickey, Minnie and Mortimer Mouse have tails that are unusually thin even for mice. Pluto has the same kind of tail, despite being a dog.
113	*** Pluto's tail usually acts like a normal dog's tail and seems fairly stiff most of the time
114	** WesternAnimation/ChipAndDale have short tails that end in a point, sort of like deer tails.
115	* Evil the Cat from ''WesternAnimation/EarthwormJim'' has a naked tail like a rat.
116	* Averted with Makini the young mandrill in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard''. She, unlike Rafiki, has a tail like a real mandrill.
117	* Sylvester and a lot of other ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cats have tails that taper to a fine point.
118	* The ponies in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' have {{prehensile tail}}s. Never mind that they're mostly hair. Their tails also tend to be large, wide and arc-shaped, as opposed to a real horse's hanging, loose tail.
119	** Having the ponies' tails constantly raised up is important in giving them a distinctive, memorable silhouette.
120	** Zecora's tail has a lot more hair on it then a real zebra tail.
121	** The hippo seen in "Pinkie Pride" has a tail more similar to that of a rhino's.
122	* Perry the Platypus from ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' has a [[http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files//c5/f3/c5f3d5f20ac3e35307c18193f455e1df.jpg "waffle"]] striped tail that's orange. Platypi are known for their "duck bills" and their "''beaver tails,''" especially after Perry's theme song which claims "he's got a beaver tail and a bill." [[http://cdn.easyapps.nl/pictures/000/000/000/117/209/994_800x600.jpg?r=0 Real platypi have furry tails]]. The only similarity to [[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000255924629/483bfb0cd9f5e808b80386ce14a90783.jpeg beavers' tails]] is that they are both wide and flat.
123	** He also uses it one time while he's swimming, but real platypuses use mostly only their front limbs in swimming and steer with their hind legs and tails.
124	** Candace's imaginary talking zebra has a tail more closely resembling that of a horse.
125	* The aardvarks' tails on ''WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons'' are shorter and stubbier compared to real aardvarks' tails. Well, the male aardvarks on the show have tails, but not the females.
126	** Speaking of which, the raccoons' tails are overly fluffy and large enough to sweep across the floor.
127	* Spike from ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' has a catlike tail.
128	* Franchise/ScoobyDoo is a [[http://www.ttsgreatdanes.com/Buffy/buffysidegreat.JPG Great Dane and has a tail like one,]] but it often curls and waves like that of a cat.
129	* Itchy from the "Itchy and Sratchy Show" on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', like Mickey Mouse, has a tail that is unusually thin for a mouse.
130	* The guard dog of the La Paloma Fog Factory in ''WesternAnimation/TheSylvesterAndTweetyMysteries'' episode, "The Maltese Canary" has a tail with a tailtip shaped like a three-leafed clover.
131	* Arnold the Pit Bull from ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' has a tail like a cat instead of like a dog.
132	* Jerry's tail from ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' is rather short, and fur-covered. In some shorts it also seems to be elastic. Tom's tail is rather short too, and tapers to a point.
133	* Toopy from ''WesternAnimation/ToopyAndBinoo'' has a really short, naked tail that looks like the rattle at the end of a rattlesnake's tail.
134	* Counting Cougar in ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'' has a tail more like that of Kitty Katswell than that of a real cougar.
135	* Tigger from ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'' has a springy tail with a blunt tip that he can bounce on. Also Eeyore has a tall that is like a normal donkey's, except then again, they're technically living toys which [[IThoughtItMeant explains why it's okay and painless]] for the tail to be [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids nailed into his body]].
136	* Unikitty in "WesternAnimation/Unikitty" has a tail that seems to be like a cartoony unicorn or horse tail. Puppycorn has a ball-like tail which looks like a tail of a rabbit while Dr. Fox's tail looked like a brush.
137	[[/folder]]

Context Main / CartoonyTail