Using anthromorphic characters as metaphors or allegories is hardly new or
limited to advertising. Consider the talking horses from Gulliver's Travels
or the animals from Animal Farm. Certainly anthromorphic characters have
become staples of both cartoons and animations. I would assume that part of
it was that such characters are easier to animate than humans are. Even as
Disney had pretty much gotten Mickey and gang down, the prince from Snow
White proved so difficult that scenes with him were cut due to his animation
being unacceptable. Though by the time Fantasia and Pinocchio were finished
human animation had been fully realized. And Bambi was among the most
difficult, if it's not the most difficult, animated films ever made. Even
with a full staff of animators they only averaged 20 feet of film a day.
As for skunks, well, you must consider that the store may have been drawing
from the famous character Pepe Le Pew from the Warner Bros, Cartoons. After
all, he was suave, possessed of a French accent, and positively a lady's
man. How that might benefit the trio is beyond me, but I assume that's the
association that works for that male skunk mascot.
One of the strengths of anthromorphic characters besides being a shorthand
way of representing something is that it's possible to make them inherently
cuter than real life would allow. An easy example would be the changes made
to Kaa from The Jungle Book (Disney). To my shame I can not recall who
animated him, but that animator made a specific series of changes to Kaa in
order to make him more likeable. Mainly making his eyes bigger and pushing
them closer together. The ability to make these characters unnaturally cute
is probably a big part of their popularity for certain kinds of advertising.
Disney, and others, managed to render cute to something of a precise
science.
I imagine that anthromorphic characters will always make for handy aliens in
Sci-Fi as well as alternate races for fantasy. So as long as both kinds of
movies keep being made they will show up there. I don't hold any real hope
for genetics, as there are issues beyond DNA manipulation involved. While it
might be possible to circumvent the genetic compatibility barrier, I really
doubt the results of such cross-breeding would be favorable. Certainly it's
doubtful that anthromorphic characters such as are popular in art would be
the result. I fear the actual results would be pretty horrific; if it worked
at all. There are also some basic body construction issues that come in. All
in all I doubt that genetics will really produce anthromorphics.
As for body modification, said issues with body structure will limit how far
they can go. As they are I personally find such cosmetic modifications to be
more creepy than anything; not really very representative of the animals
they are supposed to be altered towards.
If I had to guess, I'd rather vote for robotics, AI technology, and android
development being the most likely to yield real-life anthromorphic beings.
Well, if you can call a machine entity real-life that is. Presumably
technology in those areas will continue to develop to the point where
creating creatures who are so close to living beings that it would no longer
be easy to tell the difference. Add in the ability to get around some of the
body construction issues found in real living creatures, and I do see that
man made anthromorphics are simply more likely. Whether a robotic
anthromorphic character would be one's cup of tea is another issue.
-----Original Message-----
From: Scrapper Black Dragon [mailto:scrapperbd_at_yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 7:58 PM
To: Skunkworks AMA
Subject: [SkunkworksAMA] Furry Acceptance
Having one of those deep-and-meaningful-thought sessions
this morning (okay, so I was standing at the kitchen bench,
half asleep, eating a bowl of cereal...) Best be warned
this post may become rambly and draw no useful conclusion
from this, but feel free to add your bit...
Cute little anthro characters seem to be accepted as
mascots for our sports teams, breakfast cereal and recently
asthma awareness (Wheezy Dragon - cuddly looking purple
fellow...) They seem to cross the borders to represent
things that either 'seem wrong' to associate with a person
stereo type (so they generate a new one instead).
Eg, Buzly Bee and his honey association (being on the Honey
Wheats box). But how would they portray this if they were
to use a human character? Farmer Jones doesn't have a
honey association, though for some reason we may draw a
link between Farmer Jones and wheat. Then again, King
Willie Wheaties is an anthro grain of wheat, probably
answering my question in this regard. If you were using a
HUMAN character, would you choose Farmer Jones to be a
young white male? How about an older man with a beard? Or
maybe a black man? With a white beard? Or maybe Farmer
Jones could be a woman? On this thought train (that seems
to be lacking a caboose) why wasn't it Queen Wheaties?
Then again, think of a girl's name that starts with W that
kids can pronounce (the target audience, for sure!) and
goes with Wheat... On a lateral, why wasn't a red or
yellow human? So I suppose I've answered my own question -
an anthro piece of wheat has wider appeal and doesn't
stereotype the cereal as being for a certain niche of the
market, though I am sure someone can read something into
it... >_<
Considering applications for product endorsement from our
favourite characters, I suspect prejudice of stereotype is
likely to reduce their application. But having said this,
there is a 'trendy' clothes shop (ie, overpriced 'home boy'
clothes that you can get cheaper at K-mart etc) a few
blocks away that calls itself Skunkwear and has a fairly
cool male anthro skunk as its logo.
Somehow home-boys may not care if they have a 'stinky'
image, but the I can't think of another application for the
skunks. Deodorant is not likely to work, unless used in a
derogatory way - "Don't smell like a skunk, use XYZ
deodorant..." I suspect only people on this group have
other associations that have pleasant connotations for
skunks...
Even though Des the chameleon may be good for hair care
products, it isn't something normal people have an
association with neither. Though having said this, what DO
you generally associate chameleons with other than changing
colour? New hair dye products? Possible, maybe...
So where am I going with this? JMH isn't going to get a
big commission doing product promos any time soon? We
seem, as a society to tolerate the use of anthro creatures
to illustrate something with a stereotype without bringing
in the prejudices associate with a possibly related human
stereo type. *shrugs* Okay, so what? Until computer game
manufacturers get systems we can VR around in, we are
unlikely much development in our chances of 'meeting a
furry' except in cute promos and cartoons, since the
genetics issue is still generally a sore point and the
equalitarian mob are unlikely to support the creation of a
'sub-species' as a working class (can't blame them), so no
likely furry creatures going to appear from that strain.
Though some of those freakers out there who are getting
massive amounts of cosmetic surgery (note that it is
COSMETIC) to try and look like their favourite animals, but
aren't going to kick of a new (or even compatable) species
any time soon.
Hint - don't stay up till 1am watching Tank Girl on TV,
even if it does have anthro kangaroos in it, if you have to
get up again at 6am....
Scrapper, Black Dragon, who'll be quiet now... >_<
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Received on Tue Aug 05 2003 - 15:50:13 CDT