An animated series that started in 2016, created by Phil Materese and Mike Luciano and known for its dark and often vulgar comedy, Animals follows the lives of various inner-city creatures and their interactions with each other and the human world. Told in loosely related vignettes, their stories usually meditate on the human experience through the eyes of an animal culture.
Animales provides examples of:
- Abusive Parent:
- Pigeon Phil's dad abandoned him when he was young, only to show up later to extort money from him for a scam.
- Fly Phil's father was an abusive drunk. (Oddly, he's played by Phil Materese's
actual father.)
- Action Girl: April certainly puts her traveling companions to shame in "Squirrels".
- Affably Evil: The adorable cat couple living in an apartment complex will certainly make you feel at home before submitting you to sadistic torture.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Squirrel Phil is one to Squirrel Mike in "Squirrels", though they later warm up in the end. In season 2, Mason becomes the annoying younger step sibling to Squirrel Phil at his mother's wedding.
- Art Shift:
- Several episodes feature music videos with distinctly more fluid animation than the puppetry used in normal segments.
- The end of "Dogs" is live action.
- Back for the Finale: The finale of season 1 contains shots of the various animal characters who appeared throughout the season. Same with the finale of season 2.
- Bald of Evil: Dr. Labcoat, the Big Bad of season 2, is entirely bald.
- Big Bad:
- The Big Damn Kiss: Between Mike and Phil in the last episode. Both their rat and human counterparts.
- Cardboard Prison: Subverted in Dogs. While escaping the dog park is as easy as waiting for a human to walk through the front gate, making it past the sentry is another story.
- Corrupt Politician: The Mayor in season 1, who is willing to employ violence and other shady means to get reelected.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Squirrel Mike doesn't end up with April at the end of "Squirrels".
- Early-Bird Cameo: Pesci Corp, the MegaCorp in season 2, appear several times in the finale of season 1.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The human characters are generally only known by a title, such as "the Mayor" or "the Detective".
- Everyone Is Bi: As the series progresses, the number of LGBT characters increases. This culminates in Phil and Mike getting The Big Damn Kiss.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: "Humans" is almost entirely live action and has no animal characters. It's also the only episode where Matarese and Luciano have no lines.
- Generation Xerox: Phil Jr. winds up being almost exactly like his father.
- Hero of Another Story: The human characters drive the Myth Arc of each season, but generally stay in the background while the episode focuses on the "Animals".
- MegaCorp: Pesci Co. in season 2.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Dog Phil meets a Pomeranian at the dog park who sports a swastika tattoo underneath his chest fur and boasts about the superiority of "purebreeds".
- One-Steve Limit: Graciously averted. Most of the animal characters are either named "Mike" or "Phil".
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Pigeon Phil woman's disguise consists of him wearing a wig and a female outfit. Oh, and he doesn't change his voice and goes by "Phil," short form of "Philip." Obviously, Jerry falls for him.
- Playing the Victim Card: Rat Phil has a habit of using his Disappeared Dad as a shield against criticism.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: In general, the Mikes tend to be calm and cool while the Phils are more Hot-Blooded.
- Series Fauxnale: The finale of season two certainly feels like a series finale, given that it ends with the entire human population of New York City dead and animals taking over the city, and Rat Mike ditching college to make an independent cartoon with Phil. Hell, the song playing over the ending credits is Ohia's "Farewell Transmission." However, the series has been renewed for a third season.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Phil Jr. quickly fills Rat Phil's role after he dies.
- Swallowed Whole: The snake and mouse segment has the latter being devoured by the former in this way.
- Synthetic Plague: Virus X was engineered by Pesci Co. so they could market the Green Pill and brainwash the population of New York.
- Tulpa: Lumpy in episode 1 of season 2 only exists in Rat Mike and Phil's minds as long as they continue to take the green pill, thus she forces the two rats to continue taking the pill so she can continue to exist.
- Tunnel King: Well, it might be difficult to find a dog who isn't one. But Pug Mike seems more invested in the idea than most.
- The Virus: Virus X in season 2. It eventually ends up wiping out the human population of the NYC.
