Theme: Talking Animals

In almost all cases, Talking Animals refers to the numerous species of animals, birds, reptiles, fish, insects, dinosaurs and the like that feature in Animation. The bevaviour of these animals, while incorporating the characteristics of the animals in question, has been anthropomorphised along the lines of human behaviour and the animals allowed to talk. The first of these appeared in the animated shorts of the 1930s and 40s with characters such as Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety and Sylvester, and others. These spread over to feature films and have become a staple of animation ever since.

The majority of films about Talking Animals films are animated, although there are some occasional live-action equivalents – the most well-known examples being The Muppets and Planet of the Apes franchise, or the assorted CGI talking animal films from Babe (1995) onwards.

There are two different types of animated talking animals. The first type are those that inhabit their own world. In these films, animals are anthropomorphised. That is to say, they gain human-like features, walk upright, wear clothes and speak, while in many cases they are seen holding down human jobs and living in homes. Or else the film is a work where everyday animals in regular farm or pet situations have a secret life where they speak. This is usually a fantasy world removed from the real behaviours of the featured animals – a world free of predators, while those animals that are predators by nature are never seen eating other animals, and where different species live in harmony.

The other type of film is when talking animals interact with humans. This can happen through some magical means, or where the animal is a companion such as the Donkey in the Shrek films. Some science-fiction works show species gaining the capacity of speech due to science (in particular genetic-engineering) or Evolution. In works of fantasy, talking animals occur with regularity in fairytales and Fantasy Otherworlds where they will live alongside humans – a perfect example being Narnia.

The discussion will also group a small subset of these films – the most popular of these being a number of Aardman Animation films – dealing with anthropomorphished animals that displays human-like behaviours but do not talk.