#but when youre not shown or told anything but Ferdinand and Babe you lose some flight instinct lol

[despazito]

Idk I think if you're depicting any animal semi-seriously in media the least you can do for it is to try searching for some references in a natural setting. Especially in a medium like animation, referencing behavior is just as important as physiology. Sometimes the clearest photos of a species are in a very distressing context for the animal. Some people only know certain animals for how they look/behave under extreme stress. This is why I love camera trap footage so much as reference.

What I'm saying is if you're tasked with designing and animating an otter or a fox and your only videos referencing them in motion where captive pet videos I'm gonna be disappointed

You can tell when someone's put thought and effort into their depiction of a species, no amount of rigging or polygons can create believable animal behaviour*. Like to me the aristocats is a really cute movie because despite being anthropomorphized the kittens still behave like cute kittens!!

It's hard to find modern animation with great animal acting similar to Kahl's. It's either fully anthro movement or behaves like a dog, and I do think this oversaturation has some negative effects on our relationship with animals. Our society has become so based in narratives and stories and so many of our stories have misleading or fabricated beliefs about animals and how they behave

*except for that guy who made a program in C++ to simulate starling murmurations

#im not saying Ferdinand the bull is directly contributing to buffalo harassment in Yellowstone #but when youre not shown or told anything but Ferdinand and Babe you lose some flight instinct lol #when Ferdinand was created many Americans still lived on farms around animals #the joke is that bulls are aggressive and he isn't!!!! #a child born today could seriously grow up watching Ferdinand not knowing a real bull can fucking kill the shit out of you into adulthood #perhaps even parenthood