The year was 1932.
Two dog characters made their debut.
The first was GOOPY GEER on April 16 1932 from Warner Bros.
"He he he!!! I made my debut before Goofy did!!!"
A month later, Goofy made his debut in Mickey's Revue.
Of course back then, he was referred to as DIPPY DAWG and his early design looked a little unsavory at best. But what can we say, this was during the GREAT DEPRESSION so cut the artists some slack will ya.
The dog with the glasses and the hat is GOOFY.... err.... his prototype DIPPY DAWG
Both Goofy and Goopy Geer had two things in common,
THEY BOTH ARE ANTHROPOMORPHIZED DOGS.
No, seriously, they're dogs.
Go watch the "WHAT THE HELL IS GOOFY?" scene from STAND BY ME and you'll get the gist of what I'm talking about.
But those two characters influenced a new kind of design logic for bipedal animals in both Cartoons and Anime that have endured for many years to come....
But of course, it's not just Goofy and Goopy Gear that made the influence.
It was also Betty Boop too... but that was two years prior to the aforementioned Goopy Geer and Mickey's Revue.
Plus even though Betty Boop started off as a dog in the earliest days of her career, she would eventually lose the dog nose and dog ears when she made the complete transformation to a human being in ANY RAGS in 1932.
"Who knows, Maybe my boyfriend Bimbo personally tutored both Goofy and Goopy Geer before their Debut."
Betty, I highly doubt your old boyfriend BIMBO was ever hired as Goopy and Goofy's acting coach.
The whole DOGNOSE design really got it's start when artist Carl Barks used it during his time drawing comics for Disney.
The irony is that Carl Barks wanted to draw humans but Walt Disney himself insisted on a comic book universe where there are no humans.
You have to understand that translating human beings in cartoons was still considered difficult due to the perception at that time being that the more realistic a human character looks, the less appealing and less emotive with character will look....
Windsor McCay would not approve of this mantra as he tackled Human Characters like Little Nemo below many years before Carl Barks did.
Anyway, this design was used extensively during Carl Bark's career.
The idea of DogNose is not limited only to Dogs but also other animals too.
All you need to do is draw your desired animal with human anatomy, slap a horizontal ellipse or upside-down triangle with smooth edges and....and sometimes floppy ears.....and
Presto!!!
New Design with characters that resemble humans but are meant to be animals.
.... DID I SAY NEW????
Dog Nose sure wasn't invented by Carl Barks but it rather it was reintroduced as a new type of design logic.
Dog Nose probably had it's start with Felix the Cat.
"The ghost of Otto Mesmer called. He demands royalties from Carl Bark's Ghost. We're here to collect the dog nose tax which has skyrocketed in price since the 30s."
In the ensuing years, Dog Nose Designs would evolve from just trying to emulate Carl Barks to other forms of dog nose.
The first is THE CARL BARKS HOMAGE.
According to this above image of Peg Pete from GOOF TROOP, this is a design philosophy where you know you want your characters to look as humane as possible in terms of anatomy but at the same time, you just can't help but be a CARL BARKS fan so you end up creating characters that feels like BARKS really designed them but in reality, you're only influenced.
I often prefer this type of Dog Nose Design because it allows characters to not only still have human anatomy but at the same time, let them be cartoon characters for cartoon sake.
Of course, like I said, Dog Nose is not limited only to dogs. And in Peg's case, she's a cat.
"Omaha Jensen, Eat your heart out."
PEG!!! Why are you mentioning Omaha? I've haven't got to her yet!
Then we have what's referred to as SLAP THE NOSE MASK
SLAP THE NOSE MASK is where the character's obviously are human no matter their design. The only thing that makes them actual animals is their nose.
While everything else in their construction is all designed to be human anatomy.
Like for example below, Angel and Mok from ROCK AND RULE.
ROCK AND RULE is an excellent example of having characters that obviously designed their characters to have human anatomy but are actually animals.
The reason I give ROCK AND RULE some slack is because it's part of the story where animals evolved into human-like characters after the previous Nuclear conflict.
But while it fits Angel fine, it becomes unsettling when one realizes that MOK is actually a caricature of MICK JAGGER..... even though DON FRANCKS did the voice.
Then there's FURRIES,
This is where the animals in question are all in the mold of Animals in facial design but retain all their human anatomy.
OMAHA THE CAT DANCER is an example of a work where there is a mix of characters who range from ACTUAL Animal designs but retain human anatomy.
Most characters which include the title Character Omaha and her boyfriend Chuck Katt are designed with faces that look really like an actual cats. It also helps that OMAHA THE CAT DANCE often goes loose and nuts with the character construction to allow more depth for their mouth and snout designs too.
Sometimes, certain angles make the characters look like they have the THE CARLS BARKS HOMAGE design philosophy in their facial design.
Or at least, when Shelly Hines' front profile looks like this.
Shelly actually still has a proper dog snout as seen in this panel shown below.
Also, I've noticed how certain cat characters like Omaha Jensen lack whiskers while characters like Chuck Katt retains his whiskers
It pretty much helps Reed Waller designed designs the characters with more human-like anatomy but with the proper face of an animal..... translated to something that can emote with ease.
So where do existing franchises Fit that bill?
Lets find out with these designs.
Alvin and the Chipmunks is an example of where the characters were originally designed with CARL BARKS HOMAGE in them.... at least for 1961.
Say what you will about how simplistic Dave Seville looked in the early 60s but you can tell his face greatly differed compared to his 3 adopted rodent children.
"Dave warns his sons about the design changes they'll be getting in the 80s."
The 1983 series, and one that many people prefer to say it's where the Chipmunks began, uses the SLAP THE NOSE MASK logic in terms of do... I mean... rodentface design.
I can tell because the Chipmunk's were redesigned from their original cartoon rodent designs to these saccharine baby-faced designs but despite my criticisms, people on Social Media prefer these designs of the chipmunks over the 60s or live action designs because it's what they grew up with.
Oh look, Jeanette and Eleanor are bantering about how they look different after Sandra Berez took away their original Corny Cole Designs.
For those who are wondering what the original Corny Cole Chipette's looked like, behold the image below.
BOJACK HORSEMAN, which I did watch on Netflix many years ago,
is an example of FURRIES although the furries co-mingle with human beings.
And plenty of moments where due to the biological nature of the anthropomorphic animals, the characters might lapse in their biological urges...
Such as Mr. Peanutbutter shaking water off his body like an actual dog would.
Or wearing the cone of shame when he gets injured.... or punches the mirror while drunk.
And the cone actually becomes his detriment because it blocked 74% of his vision.
what about Neko in my March 2022 College Thesis film CATTITUDE?
My views are muddled about this due to the fact that Neko is actually an existing MAYA Rig called KAJU.
But existing rig or not, Neko.... I mean.... KAJU is a Furry. He has a proper cat body, cat tail, cat fangs, and paws with claws sticking out.
Speaking of which, If you Maya Animators want this rig, he's free on Gumroad.
I will provide the link to said Maya Rig:
and thus ends my post on the 3 design categories for anthropomorphic animals.
I realized during the making of this post that it’s Goofy’s 92nd birthday but I forgot to mention that.
Oh well, I should wish everybody’s favourite Cartoon Dog his 92nd Birthday.
